We've had a lot of new DeGooglers come over lately, so the mod team would like to say, Welcome to /r/DeGoogle! Glad to see new users here!

If you're on the new reddit, check out our rules in the sidebar or use this link https://old.reddit.com/r/degoogle/about/rules/

So you're here, you've heard about /r/DeGoogle, interested, or would like some more information on what we are and what we do. Here's a quick run through of some basics along with a few helpful links:

Why you should care.

How to get started.

Why should I care?

Do you act the same in public vs in private?

Once your data is out there, you no longer have control over it. It was said best during this Ted Talk by Glenn Greenwald - Why Privacy Matters

From Glenn Greenwald's Ted Talk, "You're giving up your rights. Your saying hey, 'I don't think I'm going to need them so I'm just going to trust that, Let's get rid of them it doesn't matter. These guys are going to do the right thing'. Your rights matter because you never know when your going to need them.

"People should be able to pick up the phone and call their family. People should be able to send a text message to their loved one. People should be able to buy a book online, they should be able to travel by train, they should be able to buy an airline ticket without wondering how these events are going to look.. To an agent of the government, possibly not even your government. Years in the future, how they're going to be misinterpreted and what they're going to think your intentions. We have a right to privacy."

Ted Talk - Edward Snowden, Here's how we take back the internet

To start, google is one of the digital advertising companies. PDF Link to a study done on: Google Data Collection by Professor Douglas C. Schmidt

Here are Richard Stallman's reasons not to use Google  

A few highlights are

Nonfree Software Required, Closed Source. What's going on behind the scenes? Where do they send our data, what else do they use it for?

Surveillance. Google is everywhere on the web. Ever get annoyed by clicking on pictures of buses, signs, crosswalks, etc in those ReCaptchas? That's helping Google's AI learn. They track mouse movements, typing, response time, and ping your captcha box to determine your location.

Source1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, Source 5

Google also records any voice data given by users from Google Voice to text, nest, Google Home and many others. It was discovered that Google's nest listens. If you were logged in, you can find all recordings from voice to text here

Just take a look at the following links to see what type of data Google may have and store about you;

Note: in Google Takeout you will notice they still saved any long supposedly deleted emails from your account.

https://google.com/takeout

https://myaccount.google.com/purchases

https://myaccount.google.com/activitycontrols

https://www.google.com/maps/timeline

https://security.google.com/settings/security/permissions

http://www.google.com/settings/ads/

Google is not the only one doing such things. Amazon, Facebook, Verizon, PayPal, Microsoft and many other corporations do very similar.

Article - My phone is spying on me, so I decided to spy on it  

Ted Talks - Finn Myrstad, How Tech Companies Deceive you into giving up your data and privacy

Just a few of previous incidents:

In 2019 by October, there were over 104 data breaches

Google and Mastercard Cut a Secret Ad Deal to Track Retail Sales Alt: Source

MasterCard is mining Facebook users' data to get consumer behaviour information it can sell to banks

Wikileaks dump shows CIA could turn smart TVs into listening devices

Samsungs warning our smart tvs record your living room chatter

Lawsuit against 4 Major wireless carriers on selling location data

Smart TV Data Collection

Amazon Alexa - Conversations shared

Verizon Pays $1.4M for selling storing and selling customers' info

6 Million Verizon Customers' Info ''Leaked''

Facebook: Your Personal Info for Sale

Facebook - Some of the data they collect and sell

Smartphone apps Requesting unneeded permissions for data collection

Amazon accused of secretly recording kids with Echo Dot speakers

An Amazon employee might have listened to your Alexa recording

Google admits its new smart speaker was eavesdropping on users

PayPal reveals it shares customers' data with more than 600 companies

How PayPal Shares your data

How CloudFlare and ReCaptcha are ruining the net, and what to do

Facebook Quizzes: Sharing Your Private Data

Amazon Ring stores your doorbell and home video feeds unencrypted and grants broad "unfettered" access to them

Vizio admins modern tv sets are cheaper because they're spying on you

Thanks to Facebook, Your Cellphone Company Is Watching You More Closely Than Ever

Jeremy was fired for refusing fingerprinting at work. His case led to an 'extraordinary' unfair dismissal ruling

Millions of Instagram influencers had their contact data scraped and exposed

Windows 10 is possibly the worst spyware ever made

You still can’t turn off Windows 10’s built-in spyware

Windows is spyware

Microsoft's Software is Malware

Tech Crunch - Stop saying, ‘We take your privacy and security seriously’  

You may still be skeptical. You say, "Okay, I see the articles you posted.. But why should I care? Why do I need to do anything? I'm happy with X company. I don't care if they release my data."

Have a look at these links if your still on the edge;

Why you should care about and defend your privacy

Article - Read this if you have nothing to hide

Compared to the days before the internet, everything is readily available. Such as your email addresses, phone numbers, addresses, and more. How far is far enough?

After seeing what these some of the companies can and do store on their users, it's up to you to decide on moving further. Majority of these large corporations do not care about users' privacy. Since they don't, there is only one person that can begin to make the change.

Check out our wiki for replacements. Don't see it listed? Post a new thread asking the community.

Additional helpful resources:

The Complete Privacy and Security Podcast

https://youtube.tracking.exposed/ & https://facebook.tracking.exposed/

https://theytrackyou.com/

https://myshadow.org/

/r/pihole & https://pi-hole.net - useful for blocking Google and other conglomerate/unwanted domains

What was your last straw? Anything you may have found out recently about your own privacy that has you concerned?