this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2026
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Privacy
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Anyone who uses anything that has ever been touched by Google is a fucking moron and deserves what they get.
i had to learn this the hard way when i got suckered in by their "dont be evil" motto.
They became obviously evil in 2004 when they introduced Gmail, and flat out said in their ToC that they are reading your email and selling your data.
yeah, but in my defense: i was a liberal at the time and we were/are notorious for not reading beyond the headline. lol
No one reads the article. Especially the hive
Iirc Google doesn't sell data in the traditional sense, they package profiles for advertisers and their own ad network, but they don't outright sell individual data. I could be wrong though.
They read every word of your email. Not a human, but a computer. Putting together a profile that is far larger than “advertising.” It’s literally every single thing you do everything you buy and get a receipt for, every service that you are Using. Every single thing that comes through your Gmail
I understand all that, but point is that they don't necessarily sell you profile or data points to a third party, they use all of that for their own targeted advertising
There would be a lot of money in selling your data to third parties, right?
I'm sure there is, but Google's core business is advertising. It would almost be counterintuitive for them to sell that data when they make more money utilizing it in their own systems.
We all got suckered. The good thing is that older data becomes less valuable. It's never too late for others to start either.
I'm using it to finish deleting every single email. It takes forever and ever and ever. It's awful. I'm almost done y'all. I'll be completely off google, FB, Amazon, etc., but then need to figure out how to deal with family devices (smart TV with YouTube, etc). It's been a long road for the google email.
Don’t bother deleting the emails one by one. They don’t actually “delete” as in the data is gone from Google. Just stop using it in the future.
I exported most of my emails and am just changing my accounts over to a spam email and deleting a ton of accounts. It's a good exercise to recall tye million accounts you have so you can request data deletion and get rid of them.
It's pretty impossible to exist in society without a few concessions. Like doing official or work stuff requires you to use Google products.
If your work forces you to use Google, use Google for work on your work machine. Do only work on your work machine. If they want their data stolen, that’s on them.
Me: No Google at all. No Google account. Not having a problem at all. I’ve been a software developer for 23 years.
Also, you wouldn’t be using LinkedIn on a work machine. Unless you want to get fired.
I do it all the time. All my coworkers are in it. Nobody cares.
Set your profile to “looking for work” and lmk how that goes.
Well, the only time I did that, I was at risk with funding and it wasn't a secret. Nobody was pissed.
Okay but not everyone is as tech savvy. I wouldn't call everyone a moron just because they don't have the same skillset as you.
Stop using Google. Now you have the same skill set.
They've spent an ungodly amount of money to make sure they have a us in a monopoly with manufactured consent at that point its no longer a personal responsibility problem.
Excuses. I don’t use them and I don’t have trouble. Stop using them.