I de-Googled my life. If you are looking to do this, and are as entrenched in Google as I was, this will take hours of your time, because Google makes it deliberately difficult to get out. Californians may remember trying to change service from AT&T or Comcast in the 90s? Like that.
Initially, as I looked over the contents of my 7 different Google accounts, I felt overwhelmed. I had to remind myself that the amount of stuff I had saved was finite, and that it would not go on forever. So to break this activity into manageable pieces I felt I could actually complete, I determined that I had to tackle each of the Google applications for all the accounts before moving on to the next application. I worked through the apps in this order:
- Gmail
- Drive
- Everything else
The first task was to systematically delete the archived, sent, and deleted mail sitting on my computer, in Gmail, and on servers. I set up two new encrypted email accounts to which I activated email forwarding for the two remaining Gmails. I now use Protonmail for all active exchanges and Tutanota for all newsletters and online accounts. My Mac mail addresses are used for communication with close friends and family.
Next, I downloaded each set of Drive content to my computer, which were easily converted into Microsoft Office products. I moved this load of documents over to the most private, free cloud service I could find, Sync, until I had the time to sort through it all. Then I deleted everything from my Drives and the “Shared with me” tab, and then deleted it all again from the “Recents” tab. After chatting with Google help, I found there is no quick way to do this, so I spent an hour or so deleting and then re-deleting lists and lists of “Recents” all the back to 2009.
Finally, I explored the deepest details of the Google privacy settings. Either Google doesn’t care about user experience in this section, or they are being deliberately convoluted its organization. I deleted old blogs and removed errant images that somehow ended up in Photos. Learning to remove the profile pictures required a web search because (surprise!) they are not stored with the other photos. I deleted all comments and likes on YouTube, along with my activity. I disconnected my accounts from 3rd parties that had made it easy to sign up using Google, along with all the other services I had allowed Google to access. The final step was Maps, which gets its own paragraph.
Google Maps is rad. Having recently relocated, Maps has gotten me to work on time, helped me find an apartment, and has led me to all the museums – on foot, by public transport, or by bike. I’m keeping it until something else comes along. I’ve redownloaded and redeleted Apple maps several times because I really want it to work, but it fails, especially when it comes to public transport, where Google excels. Here I deleted my location history and cranky ratings, and pared down the stored locations.
And then I was done.
What did I learn from this? Well, a few things:
1) Google makes good products. I love the ease in which all their products work together, especially Drive when it comes to collaboration.
2) Google products are stable and reliable. The interfaces can be clunky and disorganised, but I could look past that when it came to convenience.
3) Google has infiltrated every.single.area. of my life.
4) Google has a nice picture of pre-2020 me. All my connected accounts gave their AI deep access and knowledge into the different aspects of my life, public, private and professional, more than I would share with a close friend. This was my own fault. Like the lobster in the slowly boiling pot, I gradually allowed my data privacy to be undermined, every time I clicked on that “sign up with google” button or tried out a shiny and new free service.
Now that I’ve done it, I am grateful that not-so-old adage, “If the product is free, you’re the product” was a good motivator throughout this backing-out process, when frustration and irritation would have had me just leave everything for the vultures. Try it.
MmePrice 