Google has the reputation for being the big evil tech giant that everyone should avoid. It was well earned decades ago, but there are much bigger evils now like Microsoft and Amazon who get disproportionately less attention.
When Google employees protest and petition Google taking a contract from some evil activity like ICE, weapons production, or fossil fuels, Google reacts and often renounces such contracts. The rationale is sometimes Google’s AI principles – principles that don’t even exist at other tech giants.
When Amazon and Microsoft employees petition and protest, they’re told to piss off and get threatened with sacking. And Microsoft also has the lion’s share of the more evil gov contracts. This article is ram-packed with dense information about these companies and Google is clearly a lesser of evils.
I still boycott Google, but so many fools leave Google for DuckDuckGo thinking that’s an ethical improvement. DDG is a bigger evil than Google because DDG feeds Amazon & Microsoft. There are plenty of decent search engines that don’t rely on either (e.g. Metager, Mojeek and Ekoru).
The problem is this “deGoogle” movement. There is a deGoogle movement and not a deAmazon or deMicrosoft movement. It’s all relative and “deGoogle” sends the wrong message. It actually helps Google’s more harmful competitors.
Speaking as someone who has participated (and is participating) in this ‘DeGoogle’ movement (see https://reverseeagle.org/), I know that Microsoft and Amazon are evil. I know that we should do everything we can do de-amazon, de-microsoft, de-apple, &c.
I think if we tell people to do it all at once, they’re gonna say ‘fuck you’, and move on. If we tell people that we need to de-google, and tell them why, the logical conclusion is that they should de-microsoft, de-amazon. They can do that if they feel comfortable, but we’re saying ‘at least degoogle’. DeGoogling alone is better than saying ‘fuck you I’m not gonna do anything’ because we forced it on them all at once.
That being said, we do have plans, once we’ve got everything set up, to start focusing on Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, &c.
It is easier to focus on one problem at a time. I can definitely see how overwhelming it would be to tell everyone to leave everything all at once.
deleted by creator
One devil at a time. Google owns the internet and biggest part of the mobile ecosystem, so if you care about your privacy it needs to go first. Microsoft was easy to avoid compared to Google - not so much since they are buying out the dev ecosystem (GitHub, npm) now. Amazon even easier for personal use but if you start caring who they host… at least companies have alternatives on this market if they are not yet locked-in. When it comes to search there are only handful of indexes of the internet: Google, Microsoft, Yandex and Mojek. If you don’t use Google’s index you need to use one of the other three and Microsoft has probably the best of them. I agree that “deGoogle” is quite successful campaign, we need more. But ultimately you are fighting with capitalism, greed, governments eager to regulate the internet (through this companies) and also the way web works (try indexing it! or make your own browser, or regulate it without big corpo).
For me, I don’t hate google. I do have a problem with how reliant I am on one company though, and I think this would be better suited as a de-monopolize community so that you can have as little eggs in one basket as possible, but that’s just my opinion.
I strongly agree, I think we focus on degoogling because it is the most difficult company to move away from. But it is incredibly important to remove Microsoft, Amazon, and other tech giants from our lives. For the same reason I avoid unil3ver products, choose my cloths carefully, and (until recently) pay in cash.
We must engage in continuous improvement and not get tunnel vision on one product / company / idiology.
deleted by creator
I feel like it is a re-branding of the freedom software movement. You can de big tech yourself easily.
Hey this is a good “Unpopular Opinion” post! Err anyways, I do see your point. I guess it is easier to focus on one enemy at a time. I didn’t even think DDG was an evil, but I’m starting to think that no company can be trusted… -sigh-
