1/ A friend gave me a bit of shit about my recent bitchfest regarding Facebook by reminding me I use a lot of Google services. "How is Google any better?"
Well, I think they are, but I'm not taking any chances regardless. My Google usage is very particular. Peculiar, even.
Well, I think they are, but I'm not taking any chances regardless. My Google usage is very particular. Peculiar, even.
2/ I pay for a G Suite account. It's the full Enterprise version, $10/user/mo. This comes with some benefits (see screenshot). None of my G Suite data is used for ads. It's not sold to a third party. I have very clear legalese saying that. 
3/ My Google searches, even when I'm logged in, have ads. They are specific and relevant to my search query. When I see ads based on my search queries on other sites, I can see that they are ads by Google. There's a clearly established provenance to them.
4/ This is all acceptable to me. Google is also doing a better job of surfacing some of the logic behind what I see and letting me delete that history.
5/ Most importantly, none of my data in Google Drive or GMail is being used for ads or sold to 3rd parties. This is worth the $$$ I pay for multiple accounts (I have various members of my family on G Suite). Google has a viable alternative business model around its services.
6/6 To sum up, with G Suite, I am not the product. I have some assurance of privacy and data protection. Facebook, if you want $10/mo for an ad-free, privacy-focused experience across your properties, my credit card is warmed up and waiting.
