
Google just lost it - vilda
http://www.liblfds.org/habari/google-just-lost-it
======
asadotzler
Support alternatives like Firefox OS where you're in control of your
experience, where you're the user, not the data product being sold.

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fdroid_fan
An alternative to Google App Store is F-Droid [1]. It hosts open source
applications and vets them for privacy issues. It also indicates if apps
promote closed services.

I use a few apps from F-Droid including:

AdAway for blocking ads using host files

RedReader for browsing Reddit

MuPDF for reading PDFs

OSMand for offline OpenStreetMap maps and navigation

AFWall for blocking data hungry apps

[1] [https://f-droid.org/](https://f-droid.org/)

~~~
cyphax
I use f-droid as well but I also have Aptoide installed which has a huge offer
of apps as well.

I still don't have or care for Google's apps on my phone (it runs on
CyanogenMod as well) so it's quite doable as far as I'm concerned.

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sgtpepper
Rant all you want, when you change phones and it all just syncs, it's fucking
wonderful. If you don't like it, don't use a Google phone.

~~~
marssaxman
What's the alternative? iOS seems just as bad.

I use an Android phone, but I've never entered any Google credentials into it.
Can't use the Play Store, but I don't really care about apps that much. At
least there's F-droid.

~~~
bbzealot
Talking about security, you can't forget about BlackBerry 10. I love it,it's
nice to use and can't see a reason to come back to android (since bb provides
an android app compatibility layer too)

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phazmatis
This is why I loved comodo firewall back in the day. You could block all
outgoing connections, including some system processes. You would get a nice
little dialog detailing what process was trying to reach the internet and what
it was trying to connect to, on what port, and you could on-the-spot set up a
policy for that app.

Phones need this even more than PCs ever did. CyanogenMod people should look
into this kind of functionality. Sure, google will try to make it impossible,
but that won't stop a determined reverse engineer from making basic personal
privacy available to anyone who wants it + can install a custom ROM.

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spindritf
There are services that will allow you to download .apk files from Google Play
without an account. Like this one [http://apps.evozi.com/apk-
downloader/](http://apps.evozi.com/apk-downloader/) Although I don't know how
trustworthy they are.

If you want to avoid Google, you should install a build without Google
services.

EDIT: OP's server went down so here's a copy of the rant:

I've just lost it with Google.

I install the latest Cyanogen Mod. What I've found is basically no android
apps let you download the package to install yourself - you HAVE to use the
App Store - and that means you HAVE to have a Google account.

So I make a fake account and download the apps I need. I'm not sure if I might
want some more, so I've not logged out.

I went down to a museum today, took some photos.

What I've just found is they have all been fucking uploaded without my fucking
permission to the fucking Google cloud. Including a set of private photos, one
of which was sent to me on the understanding it was for no one else to see.
Way to fucking go, Google. I CANNOT TRUST YOU.

So much for privacy. So much for ASKING PERMISSION. So much for MAKING IT
CLEAR and so much for keeping my identity private - my IP and my phone are now
associated with these photos, which contain my location info and probably
shots of me in reflection. (I later found out - also my personal archived
photos were uploaded - of my friends, me, personal photos for my eyes only).

Uploading to Google is irrevocable. You can delete all you want - Google will
be keeping everything. Delete just means _you no longer see it_.

Oh, one other thing. If I'm logged into Google and I go to add someone to my
address book, I can ONLY do so if I accept it being copied into the Google
cloud - which is why my address book is currently still empty.

Fuck you Google, fuck you. Gone too far.

I hate this so much. I'm now wasting my fucking time trying to find out WHAT
Google has done so I can try to undo it. I'm now searching on-line to try to
find out how the fuck to delete a Google account.

Addendum. Yup. Logging into a Google account SILENTLY activates FULL UPLOAD OF
EVERYTHING ON YOUR PHONE TO GOOGLE. Contacts, photos, emails, everything.
EVERYTHING.

I think it's fair to say I cannot express in words how much I hate Google.

So, now, the only way I can see to at least superficially remove my photos
from Google is to make copies to my PC, then delete them on my phone, with
sync enabled, so they're removed from public visibility by Google.

All this trouble, frustrating, anger, annoyance, from Google, to me.

I am never going to log in to Google again.

~~~
drdaeman
> Logging into a Google account SILENTLY activates FULL UPLOAD OF EVERYTHING
> ON YOUR PHONE TO GOOGLE.

Is this true?

On SGS4mini I've seen option to back up data to Google servers, but I believe
(not certain though - that was quite long time ago) that was opt-in, with some
dialog asking me for agreement. Or maybe I'm mistaking anything, but at least
I haven't seen any files that I didn't explicitly upload.

I've also seen option to enable automatic photo backup to Google+, which was
certainly opt-in, as a feature suggestion. It was quite persistent, suggesting
that I enable it, though.

~~~
exacube
It's not true. I'm pretty sure OP just overlooked the dialogue that pops up
and asks you if you want to backup pictures when you add a new account.

~~~
nawitus
In practise that dialog can be overlooked very easily. It's practically
impossible to not overlook any dialogs like that.

~~~
VikingCoder
If you care about privacy, don't use apps that are DESIGNED FOR SHARING.

If you do care about privacy, and you do use apps that are designed for
sharing, then read the permissions very very carefully.

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gregbarbosa
So the author seems angry to say the least. But he brings up a great point.
What would the best alternative be in this situation? Apple? Firefox OS?
Blackberry?

~~~
aeturnum
What's wrong with CyanogenMod w/o google services? CM works fine without them.
[1]

[1]
[http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps](http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Google_Apps)

~~~
gregbarbosa
This is where I was really confused. Why didn't the author take this approach?
It's definitely the route I would try.

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freeslugs
didn't work for me. check out
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:htnWfH7...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:htnWfH71ZJEJ:www.liblfds.org/habari/google-
just-lost-it+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us)

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ibstudios
Web for the win! Everything else is a walled garden.

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yror10
I think this web server just lost it.

