Trying To Break Free Of Google

photo credit: http://www.nexgenmarketing.ca/

 

I should have just gone outside to play in the snow. Instead, I spent a good part of the day attempting to unplug myself from Google. Way, way back when I signed up for that first e-mail account, it was wonderful. I used it to e-mail friends and family, to order on Amazon, to get dentist reminders, and a million other things. And several years ago, it just seemed natural to try out a Google Fi project phone. The price was right, and if I was somewhere with no connection to a cell phone tower, wifi calling would take over. Yes, it was wonderful.

It was wonderful until a week ago, when it abruptly developed so much background noise during every call that I could hardly hear the person I was talking with. So a family member with an identical phone switched the sim card from my phone to his. Presto – it worked perfectly – for one day. We tried putting the sim card back in my phone, but it now didn’t work at all. So I decided to get a different phone that worked on the Simple Mobile network, with a $25 monthly prepaid card, and transfer the Google phone number. Google dug in their heels, first pausing my service, then reactivating my useless Google phone. So then I had two phones, neither able to make a phone call, and an account stuck in limbo, with no way to close. After close to a week of hassling with them, we asked Simple Mobile to just give us a new number. I now have a phone that actually works.

But that didn’t solve the problem with my non-working Google phone still being active, and being billed for something that no longer worked. After correspondence back and forth with Google and a visit to the bank, I was finally able to get the account closed. Thank goodness!

By this time, I really didn’t want so many things associated with Google. So I began to switch over various accounts to a different e-mail. That set off alarms all over the place, and warnings to change my passwords. It was like dominoes. Every account I tried to change then had to send a message to another account, and I had to prove over and over that it really was me changing the e-mail or password on file. Google was the spider, and I was the bug caught in its web. Every time I untangled myself in one spot, I noticed some other place I was tied to them. What a frustrating day! But I will keep whittling away at those sticky strings until I am totally free of Google.

 

When Your Phone Is Too Helpful

photo credit: techspot.com

It started a few days ago. Every so often, I would hear the notification “plink” sound on my cell phone. Instead of it being someone I knew sending a text/message, it was some random notification about the weather or the news or some other thing I didn’t need to know. Why am I getting these messages? I wondered.

The question was answered when I read my e-mail. “Congratulations on having your phone updated with Google Assistant”, the e-mail read. It went on to tell me now much it could help me, based on what it thought I was interested in after reading my e-mails and looking over my internet history.

Well, I don’t want their “gift”. So I tried to uninstall the app, only to find that there is no way to remove it. I was, however, able to turn off the notifications. Here’s how you do it:

Go to the app section of your phone. Tap on the Google app (the multi-colored G).
Touch the three lines in the upper left corner. That will bring up a page with your name, e-mail address and some options.  Touch “settings”. Near the bottom of the settings page, touch “your feed”.

 

Some phones will have one switch to turn off the feed entirely, but mine had a list of categories that they wanted to send me notifications about, and I had to switch each one to off.

 

So my phone should be quieter now. But that really doesn’t do anything about the issue of Google constantly snooping around in my e-mail and internet browsing. That seems to be a losing battle.