Weaning myself off Google


I think that I’ve finally decided to part ways with Google’s grasp on my most personal information. I’ve been a loyal Google user for many years now and use just about every free service that they provide, but this weekend I’ve decided to start the process of moving away from some of their core services.

For privacy reasons, I’ve taken my email and calendar hosting elsewhere. To replace the awesome support and syncing that Google offered for the iPhone, I’ve gone back to using MobileMe. Sure, it costs money but it’s nice to not have absolutely everything relating to my online existence be with one company. Not only is one point of failure a concern, but so is a single point of court ordered privacy violations. Having all of your eggs in one basket makes it that much easier for hackers or law enforcement to find out everything about me, who I’m talking to and what I’m doing for the forseeable future. Finally I’ve realized that that may not be right for me. That’s a concern with anyone, sure, but having information and services spread between multiple places can’t be a bad idea.

I used MobileMe regularly back when the service first launched in 2008 and I remember liking it quite a bit. While I’m not sure how things will compare to Google’s free syncing services for the iPhone that are available these days, I’ll at least give it a shot for a week and see where things stand next Saturday.

It’s definitely hard to start the move away from Google and not only because I have just so much stuff there. Ever since my Mom got me to switch to using Google’s search engine back in AltaVista’s hay day I’ve come to at least enjoy and sometimes rely on the services that they offer. Learning to trust them over the years has been a chore, for sure, but after getting to that point it’s definitely hard to finally let go.

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