TL;TR : More and more services such as Google are being used, people deposit personal and professional information on these platforms without being really aware of the risk that trusting companies of this type may entail. There are various means by which Google collects information about us. If you want to see how it does it, ways to prevent it from violating our privacy and also see alternatives to Google services (i.e. Internxt), read the full article.
Nowadays there is no person who has not heard of Google, the large multinational company dedicated to Internet services. This company stands out for being the main search engine for Internet content, in addition to the numerous products and services it also offers such as Gmail, Google Drive or Google Photos.
As we all know, Google has had quite a few problems (not to say too many) in relation to the privacy of its users, since there have been many news reports denouncing this scandal. It manages to violate the privacy of our data in various ways, such as, for example:
- 🔐: through backups, since they store users’ passwords on their servers and unencrypted.
- 🍪: cookies allow them to track the tastes of users and thus be able to offer them advertising that is in line with their preferences. With them, they encourage people to use cookies to buy the advertised product and thus enter more money for the ads of the companies.
- 🎙: With the voice of users, Google saves the history of voice messages to know the topics that concern people and be able to offer them products and services that suit them.
- 📩: through the Gmail account when the mail session is left open, Google can access the messages received or videos/channels visited on YouTube.
All of the above can be considered routine actions that people do every day and that, without being aware of it, Google takes advantage of people’s conversations and their internet searches in order to have more information with which to control them.
This company has faced multiple lawsuits from different entities such as the European Consumer Organization (BEUC), or Daily Mail and also by various US states and continue to commit the same crime, so we can conclude that privacy has never been a priority for them and never will be.
At this point, is when people should start to rethink if it is worth continuing being a user of a company that does not care about its users. Years ago it might have been a little scary to make this change, but now with the number of alternatives to Google’s services, it shouldn’t be so hard for people to start degooglelizing their lives.
There are companies, for example, such as Internxt that has a great commitment to the privacy of all its users and offers an alternative service to Google Drive with Internxt Drive, which allows you to have all your documents encrypted and in the cloud. Internxt also offers a photo storage service, Internxt Photos, which serves as an alternative to Dropbox or Google Photos, and many other projects that are yet to be released. If you are looking for an alternative for sending emails, Mailfence is a secure and private email software; if you are looking for an alternative to Google Search, Ecosia is a green search engine concerned about the environment or DuckDuckGo, which does not track user information, does not store personal information or search history.
Finally, it is important to emphasize that we do not need Google to live and that there are a thousand alternatives that can allow us to improve the quality of our privacy. It is up to us, the users, to make a change in our lifestyles and bet on companies that really care about people, their security and privacy.
