Firstly, why do you say you have to use real name and G+ account on youtube? I don't have any problem with commenting or uploading without one. Yes, Google asked me about my name on YT once or twice, but there was an option to leave things as they were. And no, I don't have a G+ account/public profile or whatever it's called now.

Secondly, Google isn't the only one gathering data about users/customers, so I don't understand an anger towards Google and not towards anybody else.

I think its more of a general anger with everywhere you turn now trying to force you to sign up for an account.

Also to the OP, if you can find legit APKs for the programs you want to run, just turn on installation from untrusted sources and install the programs directly off your device's storage. That would help minimize any Google Play interaction.

Google can get to your real phone number because your Android account (if you are using Android) and the Google Play account (the Android app market account) are linked to your phone (obviously.)

And, to purchase Android apps on Google Play, you'd have to use/store a credit card with Google. Your credit card. With your REAL name. That's how Google get to your real name.

And once Google gets all those information, it's up to Google to decide to "share" your name and personal information on Google+, YouTube, Google Wallet, and across the entire Google universe.

At least with Facebook, I don't have to give them my credit account information and any shit.

At least with Apple, its ecosystem is restricted to just apps; unlike Google, Apple doesn't run a social website, a video site, a payment service, a gym, a cash checking center, a supercenter, a corner mom-and-pop grocery, an organic farm, etc. etc. Apple can't exactly share your user information with all sorts of services over the Internet because Apple does not own all sorts of services like Google.

That's why I think iPhone/iPad is really better than Android in this respect.

That is the best part about his whole rant=) Fuck google....going to Apple...*doh*

And yet you want to move to Apple *facepalm*

You must'n have heard about iTunes then :)

Apple Ads? Heard of them? On all iOS devices?

Also, I'd be more weary of a service that sells that info to 3rd parties (which is what Apple is doing) rather than one who's using it all in-house.

But hey, keep on going strong with your uninformed opinion.

1) I applaud you if you want to move away from Google, if you need a search alternative, I've had a lot of luck with DuckDuckGo, though I still have to do an occasional Google search from time to time.

2) If you think the Google+ real names policy was the only thing keeping them from building a profile on you... yeah... it wasn't, they already had one and probably knew your real name too. Real names was entirely about getting you to disclose the information to their partners and the world as it may have been legally messy for them to have done so.

3) Signing into Youtube was always dumb if you didn't have your own video to post, I've never done it once (okay, I did do it once to get a Steam holiday badge). Youtube comments have always been a cesspool and any video behind their stupid log in/age gate crap I could either find elsewhere or simply ignore. Good riddance if Youtube goes down the shitter.

4) Android is extremely fucking useful and all the other phone providers and most of your apps spy on you, whatever the platform. There is no getting away from it, even if you carry a dumb phone. Either ditch the cell phone and use cash for everything but online orders to accept you can do nothing about being tracked, you will be tracked regardless, you might as well get the free benefits from it since it's gonna happen anyway (yeah, I agree, it shouldn't be that way, I hate it, but there's literally fuck all I can do about it). With that said, Google is especially annoying so fuck em and avoid them, I'm all for it.
There's free services that don't sink to Google's level of bullshit, don't give me that malarkey.
Plus Ghostery, Ad Block Plus (with no ads allowed, no longer the default setting so change it!), and Flash Block, that should squash most of the shit, the web looks better too. Every once in awhile I see someone else's browser and I almost puke.
They're asking for more than most, that's the point and it's where the anger comes in. They also make nice and intentionally let people be misled into thinking the level of profiling Google does on them is much, much less than it actually is.
C) None of the above.

Funny story, my friend just bought an HDTV, while searching reviews on one he got profiled a fuckton, He bought his chosen HDTV over a week ago. Guess what the only ads he's been seeing for a week are for.
Check the TOS, I'm pretty sure Google's "sharing your info with their partners". That's code for selling your info, same thing dressed up in order to fool people.

On the smartphone side, I've not seen how Android is about customization, but Windows Phone allows you to turn off or on (almost everything is turned off by default) that includes Microsoft gathering information from your device (about pretty much everything, experience improvement, automated feedback, advertising, gaming services, IE related stuff, searching related stuff, speech recognition stuff, and so on...).

I'm guessing there should be something similar on Android devices?

I can understand this to an extent, but the problem is they are pushing their other services on their users. I can understand them monetizing me to a certain extent, but I don't like how they are trying to force google+ on me. I don't like how they are getting in my way and becoming extremely pushy.

No google I don't want to use your social networking site. No google I don't want to use my real name when posting online. No google your changes are not neat they are annoying. Pick a layout and stick with it.

Oooh! Where is it?

I feel like I'd be committing some sort of a crime if I didn't post this xkcd comic: https://xkcd.com/1118/

The lobbying is paying off.
So true... also, Windows Media Player! Some European versions of Windows don't have that either.

They should really do their job better, I mean come on, we're almost 2013 and they are still allowing Microsoft to bundle the Explorer.exe GUI with the Windows NT kernel... are the EU out of their mind!? This should be forbidden immediately.

Fixed that for when the lawsuit happened :P

I look at this as what happens when a company grows to the point of a monopoly in any business. You start to see them stagnate and push their will on people.

Intel is starting to make lines of processors soldered into motherboards now that AMD is in bad shape.

Microsoft is pushing Metro for Windows 8 to try and wedge themselves into the tablet market knowing most businesses can't move off Windows.

Google feels they can collect whatever data they can as people are too used to using Google for searching and Youtube for videos.

In most places, you only have a choice of one wireless carrier with good service in the area, so you have to pay whatever they want or go with even worse service.


It's the nature of the game when one company gets too much power.

Two sides of the coin - I for one reluctantly moved over to SanDisk from iPod because I found Apple's commercial policies on this particular product group so very arrogant. I shall not want to be at their mercy going forward.

I would much welcome if someone commercialized in a simple way an anti-spy software for private individuals. Either this does not exist, or it is not efficiently promoted. If it is the latter, pray anyone post a link to acquire. :-)

It quite bothers me that google search or most program installations defaults in German just because I happen to live in a Swiss German spot. Yet this proves that any "spied" commercial interests in the web are crude to say the least.

In case you have any of those US super market fidelity cards (Fry's etc) or your credit card company sells your consumption data, I suspect they are on to you quite much more specific than Google.

Google screwed up on Google+, I was going to use it, but there's the whole real name thing and they basically managed to screw the launch up so bad that I just won't use any social network thing.

It's really a shame because prior to launch it looked like it was going to be worth having, then they managed to include most of the things that I despised about FB into their service. That speaks more to how incestuous the business has become. In such a situation, you're only real options are to put up with the crap, put up with the crap from somebody else or opt out completely.

None of the options are very appealing, but at least switching companies gives them some incentive to be slightly less unappealing than the competition. Which at least theoretically encourages them to not slide down the slippery slope.

In general though, I tend to agree with you that it's rather a moot point as I've seen no evidence to support the idea that this slide is going to stop any time soon. And for the most part people bend over.