Google

Never has my personal life been so tangled with a company. In the beginning Google shined bright. Don’t be evil was the mantra.

They kept bringing out new services and apps I could use. They provided competition in the mobile markets and lowered the cost of computing and made it easy for everyone in the form of Chromebooks.
 
My Gmail account was my main personal email account.

Chrome was my only browser. I would only use Google Maps and Google Drive.

I was a fan boy and I didn’t even know it.

The convenience Google has given over the years has been great.

There are a few concerning aspects to Google that have been weighing on me though.

The topic of privacy and security is unnerving.

It doesn’t help when I’m at home talking to my wife about something and two hours later we are being handed adverts on our devices relating to that topic. My Pixel must have been listening. It has happened too many times.
 
Several things had been annoying me.
 
When I get an advert masked as an email on my Gmail account that I can’t delete and the way it sorts through my mail without my help.
 
Google Maps showing me everywhere I have been, not just the places I visited but the routes I took. I could track back months and see it all. It was like having a digital stalker.
 
I can turn a load of features off in my account, location related stuff, but do they really stop tracking me, or do they just not show me, so now they have more information about me than I do!
 
Synchronising all my passwords, contacts, photos.

Offering to store all my photos for me and making it difficult to delete all of them. Is it a safe backup of all those precious memories? I am not convinced.
 
YouTube’s algorithm knows the videos I watch, it understands me and provides new content. I don’t even have to try, I could just sit and watch video after video on topics I’m interested in and throw away countless hours days and weeks. Self-control is long gone.
 
With all my daily habits Google could build a profile about me better than any human I know. I even think it could predict my future actions. There is no getting away from The Google.
 
I ask myself should I care?

Am I really that important that a company is actively gathering my information?

I’m not doing anything wrong so I have nothing to hide.
 
In short, yes I should care. No I’m not important but yes Google is gathering my information and surely it is my right to decide if I am being tracked constantly regardless of my intentions.
 
The biggest issue I have is that Google along with other likeminded companies is that they are not upfront and honest about data gathering and how it benefits them.

I have a good idea about how it benefits them, but it is a murky world and a seedy way to make money, the revenue is so good and I would imagine it is actually in their interest to keep it all quiet, because the truth may scare us.
 
Over the years I feel like Google has been like a drug dealer, offering me up all their handy services for free, being super nice to my face, while behind my back knowing that I’m hooked on their services they take advantage of me.

Even the logo looks patronising to me these days, all innocent with primary colours and childlike.
 
Last week I finally ended it all with Google. I deleted my account.

I had been preparing for that moment for around three months, my biggest concerns were all my on-line accounts. The majority used my Gmail account to sign in.

I had the tedious task of changing every account.

Google had all my on-line accounts and passwords saved and synced in Chrome, super convenient and terrifying at the same time. I exported all my data from Google and it is only when you see it in a spreadsheet do you actually realise just how much data they get us.
 
Google Drive got emptied and YouTube was cleaned out, I then went through my overall account deleting everything I could. I was finding snippets of my digital past along the way. I had forgotten about a lot of what I had been doing over the years. Google Analytics's had information on past websites that were long gone. Google contacts had archived information from people I did not talk to any more.
 
Removing myself was not a quick task, and while I was shocked at how much information I had left lying around on my account, I was also impressed. Google are masters of data collection. I can only go so far to blame them for collecting my information. With hindsight  everything was given to them without them having to covertly get it. I felt responsible and should have been more careful.
 
With the platform now cleared out as much as possible and my Gmail account no longer receiving meaningful emails when the time came to close and delete my account it was more difficult than I thought it would be. I hesitated before deleting. My Gmail account had been with me a long time and it is still burned into my memory it was my go to email address for literally everything. It was all going.
 
I got an email on my recovery account saying it was gone. I had the chance to get it back if it was a mistake. I nearly took that offer but resisted.
 
It has been a week since we separated and although I know I’m aware Google place trackers on websites everywhere, I feel I have broken free from something I didn’t realise was such a large part of my life.
 
I’m in the honeymoon phase of not having Google services, only time will tell if the inconvenience of not being able to use their super handy wares will impact my life and make me come crawling back.