@melbaboutown@YarraByte in the process of DeGoogling and it’s similar. Though so far I’m only partway through Photos. It was always the intention to bait and switch and capture financially once the difficulty of leaving became extreme. I was always aware of Facebook which seemed blatant to me: Google and M$ actually more subtle.
Agreed… We are the product. But Meta are now doing things I never could have imagined when I signed up. They scraped all of the user data and pictures for AI and Australian users didn’t get to opt out.
Agreed about Microsoft being more subtle. It kind of crept up on me.
Oh man… I want to de google but I’m absolutely drowning at the moment and barely managing life admin let alone a mammoth task like that.
I still have to go through my Facebook to make sure I get everything before I deactivate or delete with the under 16 ban (because I’m not giving Meta or other platforms my id). And because the download doesn’t work I have to do it manually.
My respect goes out to people who are able to stay on top of all this
@melbaboutown I am glad I don’t have to think about FB as have never given them my data. I need to anonymise on several services to at least try and thwart the AI feeding frenzy, though I’m rarely active anywhere except on Fedi these days. But I need to move Gmail as well. It’s more than many people are even equipped to try, sadly.
@melbaboutown yeah when you realise “the cloud” is just other people’s computers and “free” SM & other lockin has always been designed from the outset to bait & switch and basically enslave you it makes you realise the real costs of not being free and open. I remember when I genuinely believed Google was a force for good.
Yeah. I wish there had been an alternative way back then. I wasn’t in circles to find out about the fediverse.
I quite liked the self hosted forums but people you knew/mainstream moved to other social media and you had to be there to stay in touch or have opportunities to attend community events. And when you leave they don’t. Massive social trap.
@melbaboutown @YarraByte in the process of DeGoogling and it’s similar. Though so far I’m only partway through Photos. It was always the intention to bait and switch and capture financially once the difficulty of leaving became extreme. I was always aware of Facebook which seemed blatant to me: Google and M$ actually more subtle.
Agreed… We are the product. But Meta are now doing things I never could have imagined when I signed up. They scraped all of the user data and pictures for AI and Australian users didn’t get to opt out.
Agreed about Microsoft being more subtle. It kind of crept up on me.
Oh man… I want to de google but I’m absolutely drowning at the moment and barely managing life admin let alone a mammoth task like that.
I still have to go through my Facebook to make sure I get everything before I deactivate or delete with the under 16 ban (because I’m not giving Meta or other platforms my id). And because the download doesn’t work I have to do it manually.
My respect goes out to people who are able to stay on top of all this
@melbaboutown I am glad I don’t have to think about FB as have never given them my data. I need to anonymise on several services to at least try and thwart the AI feeding frenzy, though I’m rarely active anywhere except on Fedi these days. But I need to move Gmail as well. It’s more than many people are even equipped to try, sadly.
Yeah I regret. And it’s probably more than I’ll ever be able to attempt.
Right now I just need to get my stuff backed up to physical media in time and make sure I can continue to use my main email.
@melbaboutown yeah when you realise “the cloud” is just other people’s computers and “free” SM & other lockin has always been designed from the outset to bait & switch and basically enslave you it makes you realise the real costs of not being free and open. I remember when I genuinely believed Google was a force for good.
Yeah. I wish there had been an alternative way back then. I wasn’t in circles to find out about the fediverse.
I quite liked the self hosted forums but people you knew/mainstream moved to other social media and you had to be there to stay in touch or have opportunities to attend community events. And when you leave they don’t. Massive social trap.