There is a concept in investment and insurance called "spreading risk". Most people know this more colloquially as "putting all your eggs in one basket." In short, the idea is that putting a great deal of your resources (or all of it!) in one place, no matter how attractive or safe it seems, puts you at great risk of losing everything if that one system fails. Insurance companies manage this risk by insuring a wide swath of risks in many geographic, economic and commercial areas. For investing, you invest in many different companies in many different industries so that if there is a failure in one, your loss is less.
I have a particular concentration of risk in my digital world, namely my dependence on the Google ecosystem. I mentioned this dependency about a year and a half ago in a blog post musing on ways that Canadians can disconnect themselves from the proverbial American teat. My opinion on Google has changed a little bit since then, but not drastically. I've been a happy paying customer for decades with Google. Their storage of my data has been dependable and their services are world-class. In fact that last part is why leaving Google is such a challenge - there is no one else that does it quite that well.
But as mentioned in the intro, it means the vast majority of my digital life is concentrated in my Google account. So if we were to lose access to Google, say from the fall of the American Empire or simply as a result of the current trade war with the US, I'd be out a lot. Like a LOT a lot. And that risk is being shared with the rest of Canada - our dependency on US data infrastructure puts us all at extremely high risk. And announcements from Prime Minister Carney today show that not only is this risk recognized, there is also some momentum to change that on a national level.
So how do I go about this?
I've admittedly made only a few minor steps in the right direction since my post last March. I've gone to the effort to back-up my Google data locally and just in the last month I've switched browsers from Chrome and changed my data sharing settings to try and hedge off my personal information a bit. Because there's more risk than loss here. If we're in an antagonistic relationship with an America that seems to be increasingly fascist, then my data is also at risk of being misused.
In fact, the challenge is much bigger than I'd initially thought. I've had this particular post on the backburner for about 6 weeks because I couldn't really wrap my head around how to proceed. Overall, I've decided that it took me about 25 years to get this intrenched in this system, so it's going to take a year or two to get myself out.
Let's define the problem
I've started by listing out all of the Google services that I use and will need to be replaced. Trying to list these out off the top of my head was overwhelming but if you click the grid of 9 squares in the top right corner of any Google service page, it will give you a dropdown of Google services that you can use to trigger your memory of what you use. If you're trying to do the same exercise for Apple or Microsoft, I don't have that info yet. Those challenges are for future me!
Here's what I've come up with. I'm listing both the Google service name and a more generic name for that service in an attempt to get my head around what replacement needs to look like.
- Email - Gmail
- Calendar
- Cloud storage/Google Drive
- Search
- Maps
- YouTube/Entertainment/Infotainment
- Photos
- News/News aggregation
- Translate
- Documents/Sheets/Presentation - Office suite
- Smartphone/Android/App store
- Chat
- Password vault
- Google Authenticator/2 factor authentication assistants
- Blogger/Blog
- Google Wallet/Tickets/cards
- Contacts
- Texting/SMS
- Keyboard (on mobile)
Oof. A lot, I know. I expect there are a few others that I'll discover on the way too. Stuff like the SMS app and Keyboard that aren't necessarily services but ways that Google can watch what I'm doing.
In addition to this, I'm also considering some other American-tech connections I have.
- DNS hosting - with GoDaddy - I should have left this company long ago
- Microsoft - Operating system, some Office Suite stuff and games
- Apple - iPad and a few photos and things with them
- Grammarly - sees everything I write and sends it to the US
- Social media - Meta especially
- AI - I'm not quite a luddite, but I'm pretty cautious about AI. At the same time, it seems to be the way of the future. This one will need less of changing over as it will necessitate care with how I proceed with AI.
And finally, I host my music website with a company called
Webador. I thought they were Canadian when I signed up, but they're based in the Netherlands. That doesn't actually bother me much (the
DUTCH), but the service hasn't been exemplary and as long as I'm rearranging my digital presence, I'm going to look at changing this as well.
Where to begin?
As mentioned previously, this is a big problem that I won't be fixing overnight. Simply updating my emails and passwords to new services is going to take months. But at the same time, I've done the work of updating all of my passwords in the past. It's difficult but it's responsible online presence maintenance.
The Beatles put it best, "I get by with a little help from my friends."
Just posting this article might be enough to illicit a few suggestions and ideas. Discussion will help illuminate some paths. I've also been following Canadian commentator and activist Tod Maffin. Tod posts videos about Canadian identity and history and comments on the current beef with the US. But more than just commenting, Tod and his wife, Jocelyn are doing something about it. They have a website called
Mainstreet Canada a database of Canadian companies you can buy Christmas gifts from to support them. Or rude
Canadian Snack Foods - so you can junk out like a real Canuck.
Most valuable to my undertaking is
Unplug America, a database of Canadian or non-American tech services to replace American tech. I both love and hate this site. Love it because it's such a volume of information in one place. Hate it because they've done their homework and this really highlights how hard this project is going to be. It's why this article has been sitting in my drafts for 6 weeks.
Order of Operations
Now is the time I need to divide this up a bit.
Quick wins - there are a few things here I can do right away. I've already replaced my browser and search with Duck Duck Go. I don't know if this is the perfect solution but a week in, it's going ok. I can also update my SMS app and keyboard apps on Android this week. My contacts lists might go with them. Contacts is hard because I use it across SMS, Phone, Email and a few other places.
Half steps - I'm not sure that replacing Google Maps outright will be possible based on what I've seen, but I can install
Open Street Map and use that instead of Google Maps occasionally. It will help wean me off at least until other services get better. My main concern is having good transit information and directions in strange places. Like Saskatoon.
Buy some service - I already pay a couple of hundred dollars a year on DNS, web hosting and Google Cloud. I'm currently on the hunt for a Saskatchewan based hosting service that can take over all of these services and also include email. If I get the right service, I might also be able to move this blog, my contacts, calendar, document services and photo storage over. Lots to be done here and it's going to be one of the more challenging steps in the project. Moving this blog is likely to be a disaster, it's probably coming last. I self-link in this thing so much, I don't know how I'll fix it.
I may need to subscribe to a new aggregation service, like Ground News, as an alternative to Google News. But again, need to find a non-American option. I think finding an alternative to Grammarly might fit here as well.
Moving accounts - Once I have my emails and contacts squared away, I'll look into my passwords and security and will go from account to account moving everything over. Changing my email, updating my passwords, getting new security setups in place. This step will be incredibly labour intensive, but it's not one I'm too worried about. I've done a project like this a couple of time before, I can do it again.
Problems without an answer - there are a few things I just don't know about yet. YouTube is kinda my jam. There are a myriad of other options, including Canadian ones, but they don't all have what I want. I will probably look to move my own content to a different site, but my consumption will take some work.
I don't know what the alternative to my Google Wallet will be yet. And security Authentication apps all seem to be American so I don't know where that path will take me.
Figure it out when I get there - Google Chat/Meet and Translate are services I use off the cuff a lot. There are obviously better choices, I just need to find them when I go to use those services. As mentioned previously, I'll approach my use of AI with this mentality too.
Just quit it - Social media and my Meta-life aren't really as essential as they used to seem. I've even started accounts with other services like Bluesky and I just don't use them. I don't need them that bad. I do use Instagram a lot for my music promotion, so I'll need to contemplate that. And Facebook Marketplace is my jam for used crap. But I can find other ways too.
My Apple account and probably fall in this category too.
Longer term things - I'll almost certainly want to switchmy operating systems in time. I've flip-flopped to and from Linux distros for years and they do get better every time. But music/audio work has always been a challenge.
On the subject of audio work, my current favourite is Reaper, a decidedly American product. But the company seems very cool and ethical. There are other options but I'm going to stick with this for the medium-term future.
I'm also a bit worried about my mobile operating system. There are Linux options but I worry about app availability and stability.
The unsolvable - As I move through this, I know there are a few things I simply won't be able to fix. My work ecosystem doesn't have a lot of wiggle room. I have to use an iPhone, my operating systems are set, our cloud service is Microsoft and that's just going to be the way it is. I just need to separate my personal from professional as much as possible.
It's kinda exciting
As overwhelming as this whole project seems, there's something exciting about it all. I daresay, it's almost been fun.
I was an early adopter and user of the internet. Those early years were not only exciting because the internet was new but because there were so many cool options and you could Lego them together in whatever way you wanted to. In fact,
Pilot's World started from that approach. I'm excited to try some new tools and rebuild my online presence in my own image a bit. Google is very useful, it's also very bland. And risky.
How about YOU?
Have you contemplated or even taken some steps to remove yourself from the American tech system? What do you think of my plan? Will I make it? Am I being overly paranoid? Is this worth the effort I'll put in? Have I missed anything that I should be considering in this?
