Should You Be Worried About Google Services?
How Google’s aggressive personal data acquisition strategy affects the end-user.
Google services play a big role in our lives and contribute greatly to our daily activities. I’m a freelance web developer and my computer is essential to my work. Like most professionals, I use google apps(Gapps) on my phone as my android device can’t function properly without it. They developed android so it makes perfect sense.
Whenever I’m working on a project, there are quite a number of resources that are mandatory like email services, auto-login as I can’t memorize all of my login credentials, just to mention a few. Google is the only viable solution for me and they also charge me $0 for these services.
As a happy client, everything I do online involves google as they have created a perfect ecosystem for professionals with everything you need at no cost.
For the past two years working on my freelancing career, I’ve built a network of essential resources that are key to not only my professional endeavor but also my personal life. From my online paid memberships, online shopping accounts, social accounts, and e-wallets to my freelancing accounts, they’re all linked to Google in one way or another.
Frustration.
All has been well until recently. I got locked out of my Google account by Google themselves on claims of suspicious activities. The move would be necessary if I happened to have changed my geographical location or maybe forgot my login credentials but that wasn’t the case. They demanded that I use my phone to get to restore my access to my own account.
I managed to get my phone and add my phone number to their system and got to access my accounts one again. The point that I’m trying to drive at isn’t just the methods they use to retrieve personal information from unwilling users but how my life came to a standstill the moment I couldn’t access my google account.
I couldn’t check my emails, access my Upwork account for work, or even manage my contracts, couldn’t access my medium account, and even my browser wasn’t working properly. I have basically built my whole life around Google and they have the power to shut my life down whenever they pleased.
At this point, I couldn’t help it but think about what my future looks like on the hands-on Google. What if Google decides to monetize everything? What if they end up being the bad guys they always pretend to be protecting us from? I now understand why most of the services are offered for free.
Their business model is still unclear and they want us to get attached enough. Like little crackheads, when we can’t stop, they take out their ‘guns’. It’s gonna be similar to how an innocent man is robbed at gunpoint, only different because we chose to give the power to them.
As it is right now, I can’t stop using their services. Only a few years in and I can’t get out. I wonder how it’s gonna be in the future when we can’t even access our old family photos unless we are on a paid program or worse.
Like caged animals, we’ll move but only within the cage.
But what do I know, I’m just the writer next door.
