In light of behemoth Google’s new privacy policies, which go into effect March 1, I have some decisions to make. Most of the info about what’s happening is available here if you don’t want to read through the Google-ese.
My colleague Ted Major is going to delete his account, which I completely understand. What should I do?
The YouTube connection I’ve seen coming for some time. It is already impossible to sign in to YouTube without a Google account connected. This can lead to multiple Google accounts. Really, anything can. Which means that to prevent every-Google-thing you have from hooking up with every-other-Google-thing you have, multiple accounts would seem to be the way to go. But would it work?
One could seem to have a professional account that you only use for work, one for fun, one for something else. However, I wonder whether this is really possible. I have several different Google accounts. I’ve noticed that Gmail, mysteriously, seems to know about all of them. I’m not sure why, and that makes me suspect multiple accounts may not be a long term solution.
So I’m thinking: what do I use right now that’s Google?
YouTube. With multiple accounts, I can use Favorites and/or Channels to connect anything I actually want together. Eventually I assume, however, that you won’t be able to sustain any account that has a non-Gmail email address as the contact. This will likely be a problem with anything Google has eaten. If Gmail somehow knows about other Gmail accounts, the only solution will be to use YouTube only for professional stuff, and save my personal Favorites as lists of links in a text file on my hard drive.
Docs. I could separate the kind of Docs with different accounts, but don’t think this will work given the above. Most are professional anyway. For this one, I think I just need to clean up and delete things.
Hangouts, Calendar, Reader. Professional anyway, so no problem.
Picasa. I can take down whatever I don’t want there.
Android. No phone, no problem.
Looking through everything, I realize that all of it I’m using for professional or teaching only anyway, except that other accounts I have feed into Gmail with POP or IMAP. So that’s the security gap for me. I will remove those accounts, and use a different mail reader.
Then there’s Chrome. No one is talking about Chrome. Search is Google’s main service; it defines the company. Chrome is already not possible to use anonymously. I am quite sure that will be the case here – it will be a hub connecting everything you do. In all the stories about the privacy change, “search” is in lower case, like it isn’t as important as the other programs. But it’s the heart of the matter, and Chrome is its henchman. It’s too bad, since Chrome works well. But I’ll be heading back to Firefox.
I guess I’m good then till they Engulf and Devour the other services I use, like Diigo, Vimeo, Livestream and Slideshare. I have always lived by the premise that nothing you put on the web is truly private anyway, so I’ve used it mostly for teaching and professional use, and relying primarily on my hard drive for anything personal. I am now very, very glad I’ve done that.
I recommend that everyone using Google (and who isn’t?) engage in this kind of analysis and decide what you want to do.
At this point, I’m still trying to figure out whether it is even possible for me to not have a Google account. I’ve also considered setting up new “clean” accounts for various Google services, but I know myself well enough to know that I don’t have enough OpSec discipline to keep the streams separate–as you’ve noticed, one chink in the dam, and all the data flows together.
I do have an Android phone, and I’m struggling to figure out a way to use it without logging in to Google. I also depend heavily on Google’s calendar, and I really like the Hangouts. I wish it were as easy as “I quit Google”; like you, I’m still trying to figure out what to do. At least Google gave us a month’s notice, right?
Yes, a month is helpful!
I am also going through everywhere I use my Gmail address to sign in. Being a belt, suspenders and safety pin kind of person, I’m looking for the tentacles. I plan to connect those webapps instead to the email account I control myself.
In doing this, I discovered how Gmail knows my work email – it’s my backup email on Blogger.
At the same time, I have no intention of giving up Hangouts, or Reader, two of the best technologies out there. And I use the Calendar so my students can subscribe by SMS, so that stays too.
I’ve largely removed myself from tech happenings lately, but this caught my eye in a bad way. I am very tempted to delete my Google account as well, but there are a few services that are so heavily enmeshed in my work habits it would make it a really complicated process.
The most significant of these is YouTube. All the video tutorials I have for work, which are a cornerstone of the support model I use, are tied to my Google account. To make matters worse, some of the videos now exist only on YouTube
There are a slew of other services I rely on quite heavily – Gmail, Google Docs, and to a lesser degree Google Calendar – however I could, with some effort, migrate things elsewhere.
It’s the issue with YouTube that I need to sort out. Perhaps there’s a way to delete data from certain aspects of Google but not others. I’m not quite sure but need to have a closer look.
I am unhappy too, especially since you can’t export playlists to at least save all the links.
I know
As much as it saddens me, I’ve just deleted the Google Account that had all my guitar videos and stuff on it.
I’m not quite to the point where I’m ready to delete my other one, but I’m not beyond the idea. Just need to locate some adequate substitutes first.
Looking into this further, when you are in the Delete account page you have the option to delete specific services from your account (thereby retaining others). For instance, I’ve deleted Web History, Orkut, and Google Video, but so far retained Gmail (I note deleting YouTube is not currently an option).
The more I dig, the more frightening clear it becomes how much Google has its claws in my web presence. It’s a useful exercise in some ways because it’s a reminder to be vigilant in what we share and what we use, because what is corporate policy now is not necessarily the way it will be in 2 or 3 years time.
Oh, that’s helpful – it’s the Web History and search stuff that concerns me most. Funny you have to go to Delete Account to get to some actual options.
Indeed
I think in some ways the fact the services aren’t completely integrated is what causes the confusion. For instance to delete just your YouTube account you have to go to YouTube to do it. Yet in other cases I can’t find a delete option – either in the main account area or on the site preferences.
it’s quite a rabbit warren!
I just remembered my maps are in the rabbit warren too. Gotta save or print…
Here’s something timely: http://lifehacker.com/5876794/going-google+free-the-best-alternatives-to-google-services-on-the-web
Regarding YouTube, I just discovered we have the option of changing the Google Account YouTube is linked to.
The option is available in the settings area (http://www.youtube.com/account_manage) and listed under “Change which Google Account is linked to this account.”
It’s not the same as having a YouTube account on its own granted, but it does allow for a complete separation from our data in the other account.
That lifehacker article is handy, Lisa. I’ve been using NewsBlur to replace Reader, and I think it might work. Calendar is the real sticking point for me–Android phones don’t seem to have the capability to link to anything other than Google’s calendar. Back to paper?
Dataliberation.org isn’t much help with youtube–you can download your own videos, but only 2 per hour!
I’m trying to figure out a way to host my own videos, since I’ve already got a hosting account. Videopress looks interesting, but it costs money, has limited storage, and requires linking to a wordpress.com account. There seem to be a couple of other plugins for WordPress but I haven’t been able to figure which might best serve my needs.