Blogging: Google is getting even more evil

I’ve been using Google Reader for the simple reason that it’s, well, a simple and easy way to keep track of the sites I need to keep track of. I tend to use multiple computers at multiple locations, so a Web-based RSS aggregator is very handy indeed.

But I’ll be abandoning Google Reader as soon as possible:

It all started on Friday, December 14. Towards the end of the day Google announced a new feature of their feed reader product: They were going to show all your “shared” items to all your Gmail contacts, starting now. No need to opt-in, no way to opt-out. If you didn’t react fast all the info you previously shared with your chosen parties could be viewable by everyone you had exchanged e-mails (using Gmail data).

When Google Reader’s team came back on Monday, they found more than 70 complaints in their public forum (you can check the whole thread). Given Google’s fine reputation dealing with their users privacy (they really need this reputation to make their platform possible) people were expecting a quick fix and some kind of apollogy, but the official response was appalling. As one user said “wow. this is a politician’s answer….i.e. answers that don’t address our specific questions/complaints”.

More than one week has passed, and there still is no acceptable stop to this private data leak caused by the new Google Reader “feature”.

This is a massive violation of trust. Under absolutely no circumstances do I want everyone in my GMail contact list to be able to see what sites I visit. It is none of their buiness. My mail account is an account I use for business and journalistic purposes. It’s not a MySpace page.

I’ve taken Google Adsense off my blog because of their evil business practices. Now, I’ll be ending all association with them. How sad. A few years ago, I was rooting for Google. These days, rooting for Google is like rooting for Exxon.

Needless to say, I’ll be needing a non-evil Webmail service to replace GMail. Any suggestions?