if I never sign into it!

For my gmail I just use Firefox.

There are lots of browsers, and all have their adherents. Use whatever works best for you. Me, I use Thunderbird for all my email, I like having it all in one place.

No Chrome here and as little g-stuff as possible.

I know that Google knows everything there is to know about me, but, darnit, I'm not going to help them out.

Over the last year or so I feel like I've had my arm twisted into using Chrome. Firefox seems back on track letting me get proprietary videos and such working again but some things like accepting a hospital's internet policy I've just not got to work anywhere but in Chrome.

I've never got into email applications other than a browser, seems fine for me.

Gmail has been my main forever, I recently started forwarding it to my Protonmail (and switching family to useing that address.)

I would think they'll eventually shut down my (first ever email account) Yahoo? Since useing Gmail I've only used Yahoo for spam and every few years I go there to delete the 1000's. Maybe if I make Gmail my new spam account.

I've been using gmail accounts for spam control for a long time, ever since gmail came out of beta and invitations were no longer necessary. I have a half-dozen or so gmail accounts, a couple of them with the username spamtrap##, with different numbers. That way I can remember which accounts are spamtraps. But really, Google does a very good job of spam control, and I see very few spam emails anywhere other than the spam folder where Google puts the spam. Maybe once a month something gets by, but not often. I do get a lot of emails from places I've registered, but they go to the spamcontrol account, so I don't get much of it in my main account. Plus, the main gmail account is really only for Google stuff anyway - my phone, Google+, calendar, contacts, etc. My real email is elsewhere, beyond the legal reach of the US government. I use startmail, based in Europe. It's not free, but I'm willing to pay the pittance they charge. It also does encryption well, and easily, using gnupg. I would never trust any free service with my security.

I'm taking my Chromebook on my motorcycle run.

Because it has the best battery life of all my crappy gear. Interfaces with my Iphone so I can get online inside a tent in the middle of nowhere. Google can know where I am at and what I am doing. But who GAF what this scooter tramp is doing in the middle of nowhere?

Yep. Not so bad.

Chromium has been my main browser for long time, it has up to date flash and I like watching motorsports from Europe over the net. Not logged into Google and sitting behind privoxy. I just wish there was a browser as Chromium - plain browser without all the bells and whistles. I hear Vivaldi went open source, maybe that's my next browser.

I agree Gmail is great at not letting spam in, though I don't give that address to any that would spam me. Yet.

The apps I still use on my computers from time to time. They do work well but I like that they stay in the browser and again if I don't login to Chrome it's not as intrusive (like how Frank put gave me a chuckle, kinda (hi Google. )

On a Kindle Fire from a rummage I installed Cyanogenmod. The first time checking it out I also installed "Google services" that include the "Apps Store" but like some devices I did not have to have it installed so I got rid of it. Then I found F-Droid thanks to someone on the Cyanogenmod forums. I like it more than Google and there logging in takes over most of the device...


Rokytnji; If I found a Chromebook at a thrift store or rummage I wouldn't hesitate to buy it for the right price. My $20 Android phone runs the Google services and you can shut some of those setting down.

I read somewhere, a suggestion that when someone couldn't get things working in Chrome to use Chromium (think it was on Stackoverflow) been keeping that in mind. Thanks Emerson. Vivaldi I may have to check out, I love the musical composer—Antonio Vivaldi!

If you have a cell phone, your location is known all the time. Or at least the phone's location. The chromebook isn't necessary at all, and the location is less precise than the phone's.

As for chrome, it's about all I use now. I have Iceweasel and Firefox installed, but rarely open them. I like the Chrome apps that are available, and I use Hangouts almost daily for video chats with the grandkids. I don't want to give that up. I also use Keep for notes, and run the desktop version of Signal Messenger which integrates into Chrome very well. Signal is the most secure SMS app available, AFAIK.

And there you have it. My phone is part of the required toolkit in case I break down in the middle of nowhere.

That's mostly only for emergencies or the FCC and NSA though, not like setting it to tell all your family and friends where you're at all the times.

Yes, but the paranoid crowd believes the NSA and Google are tracking them at all times, for nefarious reasons. For those people, there are no solutions other than getting rid of all electronic devices. Personally, I don't believe that the NSA cares about what I do or where I do, unless I get on their radar for some reason. They don't have the time to track every phone/computer/whatever in the country. But it's really easy for almost any agency to tell where your cellphone is, if they need to. If you make a 911 call from the middle of nowhere, it's essential that the sheriff's office can triangulate your position, although it might be only to a couple miles or so. But the sheriff doesn't have the time or resources to track every cellphone in the county fulltime. Nor does the NSA, FBI, or anyone else. If they target you, they certainly can track you, but in normal circumstances nobody cares where you are, other than family & friends.

True and I have no problems with more transparency in the right places but as far as capitalism goes, whatever they can they will, whether under the table or other... plus, then the lines blur between "government" and money.

Compromises with modernity must needs be made, but, as for me, I keep my cell phone's GPS turned off (at least it says it's turned off) unless I'm actively using it, which is about three or four times a week when I ride my bicycle. Google doesn't need to know which grocery store I use.

I will give Google this. When they release a bit of software, it usually works and works quite well. I think that's why so many geeks unquestionably use Google stuff without considering the implications of running naked through the Googleverse.

Google also does tend to write its TOS in understandable terms (not in googlebygook, as it were), so, if you read them, you know what you are getting into, which causes them to stand out in contrast to other TOS. And, compared to the Zuckerborg, Google is a paragon of virtue and clean living.

I'm getting to be like the old Mainer who turned 100 and was interviewed by his local newspaper. "I bet you've seen a lot of changes in your time," said the cub reporter (remember reporters?) sent to talk with him.

The old boy turned his head, spat, and replied, "Yep.

"Been agin every one of them."