Ok, so people laugh at me when I say that 2008 will be the year I abandon google. “Why on earth would you want to do that?” I hear all the time. And my usual answer is that while I am too young to have been affected by the “red scare” I feel that google prominence in the web and as a data collection agency, puts us on the brink of a much worse time. I accept that perhaps I am being a bit eccentric and take the jabs and wear them well.

But its articles like this one today on slashdot that reaffirm my fears over googles position in the world market place. After being asked by the authorities for the identity of an Orkut user, google handed over the information. If we are to believe what the article says:

He was arrested and is reported to have been beaten by a lathi and asked to use the same bowl to eat and to use in the toilet.

Obviously the punishment was not handed down by google, but they certainly broke all barriers of trust by caving to authorities. I understand that this is in a foreign land, and their customs are not the same as ours. But this attitude about offering up information about users and their online habits is just one reason that we should all be weary of the power of google.

So the next time you grab a feed from feedburner (which i still use), look at a site displaying adsense (which I still use), or search for that hard to spell word in the foreign dish you are about to make. Google is watching and they are creating a profile about who they think you are. Who will google tell the government you are when the next terrorist attach happens?

And this is why I am working to abandon google services. I recognize that its not just a drop and run thing. I use too many of their services myself. But I am slowly replacing their services with the hopes that I can stop writing myself into their mischief log. In fact I found this article while reading posts in Rojo my new online rss reader which has now replaced google reader in my life. Thats one more google service I need not worry about.