After reading a
Cracked article "exposing" Google (taken with the appropriate grain or shaker of salt that Cracked articles deserve), I got to thinking...
...if I did want to opt out of the Google empire, where would I go? People use their products because they are useful, functional, elegant, and make life easier. But the thought of consolidating my entire life (calendar, email, searches, RSS feeds) into a cluster of apps controlled by a single entity does make me a wee bit nervous. The only assurance we have that they will not misuse the data we know (suspect?) they are collecting on us is their word, and the threat of revolt and exodus if people got upset about it.
But really, what would I do instead? Go back to Thunderbird? Use "Bing"? Are there any other alternatives that aren't just as suspect? If a moderately paranoid chick was interested in uncoupling from the Google Hive, what products/services would you recommend? Are there practices I don't know about that can shield my personal information from being collected and stored and subjected to subpoenas or sold to the highest bidder?