Posted December 27, 2018
Reddit, Facebook, Quora, and Google.
Reddit. Every time I post there, I get hassled for the extended Google ReCAPTCHA craptcha that rick rolls the user through an unending set of pictures "please click all the images that contain street signs/bicycles/cars/traffic signals", and when you click on them it pops up more in the user's face. I looked for any instructions on how to get the simpler "I'm not a robot" button and none of them worked.
Facebook. Never used it, never will - and the last year of unending privacy scandals and Facebook stock plunges has been one giant see-I-told-you-so. Plus I've been hearing a steady stream of reports that they demand a verified picture of every user and lock your account if you refuse. Creepy. A lot of mobile and browser games use Facebook login as an "account", and there are many people who get locked out of Facebook and as a result they lose a bunch of mobile/browser game progress.
Quora. Registered for this as a tentative alternative for asking questions on Stack Exchange. Quora has an obtuse real-name rule where everyone is "required" to use their real names to register an account. I set up my account with no name specified and it was locked on sight. Turns out refusing to specify a name or personal details was a great idea, as later on in the year Quora got hacked and up to 100 million users' data (including real names) was compromised (see https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/04/quora-says-hackers-stole-information-on-as-many-as-100-million-users.html ).
Google. I used to like their products, then the last few years have been a steady downhill as they repeatedly demonstrate they don't give a crap about the end-user. The "new" Google Mail UI is bloated, loads too slowly, and was forced on users who opted out as long as possible. A straight downgrade from the previous UI with no redeeming upgrades AFAIK.
Then there's Android (mobile operating system). My first smartphone was a Google Nexus 4 phone. A few years after purchase, news came out that it wouldn't receive regular OS updates via the normal update process and future versions of Android would have to be manually loaded onto the phone. Google has a nasty history of ignoring or failing to recognize malware and security problems, then cleaning up when the uproar gets too noisy. Critical vulnerabilities all-too-often don't receive a prompt patch. The Google Play store has a history of failing to detect malicious or fraudulent apps, only booting the offending apps out after the fact once they cause significant damage.
Sometime this year, Google added some annoying garbage to some links on its platform (affects both Google Chat and search) where it packages the link into a redirect off Google, presumably to allow tracking and data-mining. This makes it an obnoxious pain to copypaste links as you either get a crappy Google redirect or have to manually extract the URL from the redirect link.
YouTube has gone from being the original video-streaming service to an incoherent, inconsistent mess of politically-motivated censorship where the rules aren't applied evenly.
Topping it all off, Google largely spent the year in the regulatory hot-seat right next to Facebook, often grilled over user-data/privacy and monopolistic practices.
I've made a specific effort over the last 2 years to minimize the use of Google, though unfortunately it's been the hardest thing to get rid of considering I've used their products well over a decade. I've been using Bing as a search engine alternative and increasing use of security-conscious mail alternatives like Apple Mail and Proton Mail. Additionally, I stopped using Google Mail/Drive to store/backup my hobby projects such as video game mods and music projects. Last year, I dumped Android in favor of iOS, picking up an iPhone 6S while the last batch of them were on sale.
Reddit. Every time I post there, I get hassled for the extended Google ReCAPTCHA craptcha that rick rolls the user through an unending set of pictures "please click all the images that contain street signs/bicycles/cars/traffic signals", and when you click on them it pops up more in the user's face. I looked for any instructions on how to get the simpler "I'm not a robot" button and none of them worked.
Facebook. Never used it, never will - and the last year of unending privacy scandals and Facebook stock plunges has been one giant see-I-told-you-so. Plus I've been hearing a steady stream of reports that they demand a verified picture of every user and lock your account if you refuse. Creepy. A lot of mobile and browser games use Facebook login as an "account", and there are many people who get locked out of Facebook and as a result they lose a bunch of mobile/browser game progress.
Quora. Registered for this as a tentative alternative for asking questions on Stack Exchange. Quora has an obtuse real-name rule where everyone is "required" to use their real names to register an account. I set up my account with no name specified and it was locked on sight. Turns out refusing to specify a name or personal details was a great idea, as later on in the year Quora got hacked and up to 100 million users' data (including real names) was compromised (see https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/04/quora-says-hackers-stole-information-on-as-many-as-100-million-users.html ).
Google. I used to like their products, then the last few years have been a steady downhill as they repeatedly demonstrate they don't give a crap about the end-user. The "new" Google Mail UI is bloated, loads too slowly, and was forced on users who opted out as long as possible. A straight downgrade from the previous UI with no redeeming upgrades AFAIK.
Then there's Android (mobile operating system). My first smartphone was a Google Nexus 4 phone. A few years after purchase, news came out that it wouldn't receive regular OS updates via the normal update process and future versions of Android would have to be manually loaded onto the phone. Google has a nasty history of ignoring or failing to recognize malware and security problems, then cleaning up when the uproar gets too noisy. Critical vulnerabilities all-too-often don't receive a prompt patch. The Google Play store has a history of failing to detect malicious or fraudulent apps, only booting the offending apps out after the fact once they cause significant damage.
Sometime this year, Google added some annoying garbage to some links on its platform (affects both Google Chat and search) where it packages the link into a redirect off Google, presumably to allow tracking and data-mining. This makes it an obnoxious pain to copypaste links as you either get a crappy Google redirect or have to manually extract the URL from the redirect link.
YouTube has gone from being the original video-streaming service to an incoherent, inconsistent mess of politically-motivated censorship where the rules aren't applied evenly.
Topping it all off, Google largely spent the year in the regulatory hot-seat right next to Facebook, often grilled over user-data/privacy and monopolistic practices.
I've made a specific effort over the last 2 years to minimize the use of Google, though unfortunately it's been the hardest thing to get rid of considering I've used their products well over a decade. I've been using Bing as a search engine alternative and increasing use of security-conscious mail alternatives like Apple Mail and Proton Mail. Additionally, I stopped using Google Mail/Drive to store/backup my hobby projects such as video game mods and music projects. Last year, I dumped Android in favor of iOS, picking up an iPhone 6S while the last batch of them were on sale.
