I'm an Android User Who Doesn't Like Google Apps: Yes, We Exist
Quoting: I'm an Android User Who Doesn't Like Google Apps: Yes, We Exist —
I used to be rather fond of Google. The company was exciting and had a motto of "Do No Evil." As someone who didn't have a bunch of cash at the time, I liked that Google's services were available for free. Unlike Apple products, being able to use Google stuff was not a marker of how much money your parents had.
I especially valued that, in those days, Google was enthusiastically creating open source software. Google made Chromium and shared it with the world. Google may not have created Android, but it would serve as the platform's primary developer. I couldn't wait to get my hands on this open-source phone operating system.
That made it all the more painful when I got a better understanding of Google's business model. All of these services could be free because the company wanted to learn as much about its "users" (rather than customers) as possible in order to sell them ever more personal ads. You didn't need money to use Google's services—instead, you needed money to afford alternatives that wouldn't mine your personal data. Privacy had become a luxury good.