<<< NEWS FROM THE LAB - Wednesday, August 21, 2013 >>> ARCHIVES | SEARCH We Need To Talk, Google Posted by Sean @ 11:42 GMT Dear Google — please don't take this the wrong way, but, well… I think you suck.



This hasn't always been the case. Once upon a time, I actually enjoyed using Google services.







But today — well, today I simply wanted to upload an old video to our Labs YouTube channel. Sadly, just after signing in, and before I could upload anything, I was accosted by a "request" to link the YouTube channel to a Google+ profile. And before I knew it — one Mr. "fslabs" had created a Google+ profile. Not great!



Here's a thought: perhaps you should first ask if the YouTube account is an "individual" BEFORE you try linking it to a G+ profile?



Because you didn't ask, "I" ended up with a new profile(s) for which "I" have no use. And undoing (deleting) the linkage from the "individual" profile to the "group" channel ended up disabling the channel. Then I needed to spend some time re-enabling and restoring it. And then I needed to reset the privacy settings for all of the existing videos.



Felt like extortion. (Evil.)



Now, I'm sure you have good reasons for all of this G+ "promotion" crap. And probably some bad ones, too.



I'm certain I made mistakes. I'm sure I missed some small cancel button during the process. And I think I located the "unlink" option in the YouTube settings somewhere after I had already disabled the channel by killing the G+ profile.



But you know what?



I really don't care anymore. I've had it with Google et al. I'll be looking into alternatives. (Vimeo, Dailymotion, et cetera.)



And my personal Google account? It's underused, but I've kept it around because it's "free".



No more. I'm done.



It's no longer worth the hassle.



And to be clear, it has nothing to do with recent allegations that a person has no legitimate expectation of privacy when using Gmail.



And it has nothing to do with any sort of concerns that Google provides the NSA direct access to its servers.



(Google's security engineers can be trusted, I think.)



My decision to delete my Google account is purely a matter of me being fed up of Google attempting to drive me into yet another unwanted "social" network, just for the sake of its bloody search engine rankings and associated advertising machinery.



It's not me.



It's you.



—————



Be seeing you,

Sean



Security Advisor, F-Secure Labs

twitter.com/5ean5ullivan









