As a result of recent developments in Australia involving Google and Facebook, a couple of friends have asked me about what services I use.
First up there is a lot of truth in the saying – “If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.”
On the other hand, a lot of people don’t have an issue with their information being sold particularly when they are getting something in return.
As far as browsers are concerned, I generally leave the defaults in place.
- iPhone – Default Safari / Google (but not signed into my Google Account);
- Ubuntu Linux PC – Default Firefox / Google (not signed in);
- iPad – Default Safari BUT I changed the search engine to Bing;
- Mac Book Pro – Default Safari / Google (not signed in);
- Windows PCs – Default Edge / Bing (signed into my Microsoft Account by default).
My most used Windows PC is a Windows HTPC (NUC) and in this case I have 3 browsers set up as follows:
1. Default – Edge / Bing (signed in);
2. Most frequently used for day-to-day searches – Firefox / DuckDuckGo with Firefox set up to clear all search history, cookies etc when I close the browser;
3. And I use Chrome / Google Search mainly for use with Google products like YouTube & Gmail etc (and signed in with my Google Account).
My two most frequently used devices are the iPad and the HTPC (NUC) and both have a default non Google browser and search engine.
I never have had nor ever will have Facebook (including Instagram) as the price you pay is just not worth what is given back in return. This is, by no means, a recent decision. I decided about 15/16 years ago when it first became “a thing”.
Google does provide value and has made no secret of how it funds its operations. Nevertheless, I consciously limit my use of Google products. Once again, this is not because of the recent action taken by Google, but for a number of reasons, the main one being that it is almost a monopoly with search in Australia at above 94% market share. Monopolies are never good. Also, I just want to have my eggs in as many baskets as possible.
Google has many good and useful services including Gmail, Google Drive, YouTube, Maps and Google Docs to name a few. Don’t forget you get 15GB of storage with Google Drive before you have to pay, as opposed to One Drive and iCloud at 5gb each and DropBox at 2gb.
Another reason not to overly rely on one product or company is – Picasa. Remember Picasa – the excellent photo program from Google that was discontinued. This is not the only time that a “free” app has been discontinued. And not to pick on Google – remember Windows Live Essentials with the excellent Windows Live Movie Maker. I even wrote a Blog about it.
So, the moral of the story is – Your information is valuable – Look at how rich Google and Facebook are. Therefore, don’t sell yourself cheaply – spread yourself around. MOST IMPORTANTLY, don’t encourage monopolies.
P.S. Nothing and I mean nothing annoys me more than when I search for information from a Government Department and it returns a Facebook page. It also annoys me when the same thing happens with a private organisation but in these cases I understand why they do it.