I also wished she had discussed more what alternatives she now uses for all the services that Google provided- she briefly talked about finding new search engines but I would be interested in a "how-to" manual of sorts in structuring our lives without the harmful technologies we have been discussing. It is encouraging to read that someone has deleted Google from their lives but it is still overwhelming imagining how to do it for oneself.

-- ElviraKras - 08 Oct 2012

I've run into the latter problem lately myself in trying to migrate from Chrome/gmail/Google search: Firefox is slower; Thunderbird takes some amount of tech know-how to set up, doesn't offer remote access, and even if I knew how to set up my own email address still lacks the chat and docs features; I don't trust Microsoft much more than Google (and certainly not enough more to use Bing's terrible search).

So what am I doing? I'm learning how to use Firefox and Thunderbird and spending time looking for search alternatives. A big takeaway for me so far from this course is to engage more closely with the machines we rely on and the way they communicate with one another. Google and Apple and Microsoft may offer shiny, easy-to-learn services but it comes at great cost both in terms of privacy and quality of that very service (especially as that relates to the potential for that service to cater exactly to its user).

But it's not easy for me to learn how to do this well or to fit the learning and work in my schedule. Is it something we can reasonably expect most people to learn? Are there ways to get this information out to people? Are there ways to take full advantage of network technology's potential without requiring a deep understanding of its working?

-- MatthewCollins - 09 Oct 2012

I have always had a vague feeling of "oh this would be something interesting to learn how to do", kind of like I feel about Bikram Yoga or learning French, but I have never actually sat down to do it. With what we are learning in class, I don't think we have much of an excuse anymore and I want to make a concerted effort to get over my (mostly self-imposed) technological ineptitude and educate myself. If we can pool resources and share ideas, that would be great.

-- ElviraKras - 11 Oct 2012

To update on how my trial run has gone. Firefox is a fine alternative to Chrome; it runs a bit slower but not much, and I'm happy to trade a half-step for fewer privacy concerns. Thunderbird has been difficult to get the hang of, and I'm only forwarding my emails from gmail to there so it adds limited value. I'm uncertain how to send my columbia emails directly to Thunderbird. I've also made DuckDuckGo? my default search. It's not very comprehensive and so I frequently will end up going to Google anyway, but for perhaps half of my searches -- where I absentmindedly search rather than enter a URL, though I know what I'm looking for -- I don't have to use Google. And: I'm still running Windows 7.

On the whole, only incremental progress and nowhere terribly difficult to change (still using gchat, still have a facebook presence even if I don't use it). But it does show that a few simple changes with no real effect on your life can improve privacy. Taking a couple of hours to step further -- getting IRC, figuring out how to forward Columbia mail directly -- only offers further upside.

-- MatthewCollins - 18 Nov 2012

<--/commentPlugin-->