Proton CEO explains DANGERS of giving Google your IDENTITY

Summary

The speaker argues that email is the most important element to protect in terms of online privacy because it serves as a person's core digital identity, connecting all their online activity into one profile. He explains how having a Gmail links all your information into a Google profile associated with your real identity, allowing them to track your activity across the internet. The speaker advocates using an alternative like ProtonMail to avoid having your identity and data tied to Google's system, giving up convenience for increased privacy and control over your information.

Takeaways

• 😀 Email is like a digital passport that links your online identity
• 😮 Losing your email can be more inconvenient than losing your physical passport
• 😡 Google controls most people's online identities via their email accounts
• 😠 This allows Google to connect online activity to real identities for profiling
• 🚫 Using an alternative to Gmail helps prevent Google from building a profile on you
• 😥 Google tracks nearly everything - searches, YouTube watches, calendar events, etc
• 😌 Logging out of Google services limits data collection but loses functionality
• 🤔 Convenience leads people to embrace ecosystems like Google despite privacy issues
• 😎 Watching YouTube without logging in prevents Google from connecting sessions to your identity
• 😇 Alternative identity providers like ProtonMail allow escaping Google's system while retaining email

Q & A

Why is protecting identity more important than communications or data privacy?

Your identity links together your entire online existence, like a digital passport. It's what Google uses to connect all your activity across their properties to build an advertising profile. So protecting your identity prevents this kind of tracking and profiling.

How does having a Google account allow them to collect more information about you?

By signing into Google services with your Gmail account, you allow Google to connect data across their properties and third-party sites using Google Analytics and ads. This links the activity back to your real identity in their database.

What is Proton's main mission?

Proton's mission is not just secure communications, but to provide an alternative identity online that you fully control. The goal is to avoid having your identity exploited for profit by companies like Google.

What does opting out of a Google account do?

Opting out means you don't have a Google account associated with your online activity. So Google cannot connect your browsing, searches, video watches etc. back to a real-life identity in their databases. You essentially don't exist in their system.

How can you still access some Google services like YouTube without being tracked?

You can simply access services like YouTube while logged out of your Google account. This prevents Google associating what you watch back to your real identity, although activity would still be tracked anonymously.

What alternative does ProtonMail provide related to identity?

ProtonMail gives you an email account not tied to Google, so you can opt out of using a Gmail address. This prevents Google from connecting your email-linked online activity back to a personal profile they own.

What types of Google tracking does having a Google account enable?

Having a Google account allows tracking of your searches on Google, videos watched on YouTube, events booked on Calendar, activity on Google Maps, etc. All connects back to build one advertising profile.

Why is losing access to your Gmail more inconvenient than losing your passport?

Your Gmail addresses links together your entire online presence and identity across services. Without access you could lose contact information, photos, documents, purchases, travel details, etc. making it very disruptive.

What specific Google properties does a Google account link together?

Signing into any Google property like Gmail, YouTube, Search, Maps, Calendar etc. with your Google account links all that activity to the same identity and profile Google builds about you.

How much of global website activity does Google potentially see?

Over 70% of websites globally use Google Analytics. And Google ads are present on most sites. So Google potentially sees analytics or ad tracking data on the large majority of internet activity.

Outlines

00:00

😊 Why Email is Important for Privacy

Paragraph 1 explains why email is critical for privacy. It states that the key thing to protect is identity, which links together your online existence like a digital passport. Email identifies you online, so if a company like Google controls your email identity, they can connect all your activity into a profile. By using an alternative like ProtonMail, you prevent companies from building an exploitative profile of your identity.

😮 How Google Tracks You

Paragraph 2 gives examples of how much Google tracks, including YouTube watch history, calendar events, etc. This data gets tied to your identity and tracked extensively. The speaker argues that it's very powerful to escape from this pervasive tracking.

Keywords

💡privacy

Privacy is a central theme in the video. The speaker argues that protecting identity and controlling your personal data is more important for privacy than securing communications or information. He uses examples like email and YouTube activity tracking to show how much of your identity and activity Google can monitor if you use their services while signed into your account.

💡identity

Your online identity, such as your email account, is described as linking together and enabling tracking of all your varied online activities, like search, video watching, calendar events etc. The speaker argues that controlling your core online identity is thus key to controlling use of your personal data.

💡profile

Your Google profile refers to the centralized database Google builds about you by connecting all your activities across Google products to your core Google Account identity. This profile can track far beyond just Google sites if Google ads/analytics are present.

💡control

A core argument made is that using alternative non Google-centric options for your online identity enables you to take back control of your personal data and online privacy.

💡alternative

The speaker promotes alternative identity providers like ProtonMail as better for user control of privacy. By not being logged into Google, the connection between your online activity and your real identity can be broken.

💡opt out

Opting out means removing your dependency on Google products/identity so its difficult for them to aggregate a profile of your activities. Examples given include using ProtonMail over Gmail and watching YouTube without being logged into your Google account.

💡convenience

The speaker acknowledges convenience as a factor promoted by companies like Google for driving account/identity centralization. But he argues other options like watching YouTube logged out Trade some convenience for privacy.

💡centralization

Centralizing onto common accounts and utilities like Google Identity makes tracking and correlating your varied online activities easier. The speaker advocates a less centralized approach with more user control.

💡exploiting

The speaker alleges that the level of tracking and profiling done by companies like Google off your core online identity is a form of exploitation of user data for commercial benefit.

💡logging out

As an example, the speaker explains how simply logging out of a Google account when doing an activity like watching YouTube prevents tight connections being made between that activity and your real profile. This enhances privacy.

Highlights

Email is the digital equivalent to a passport, linking together your online identity

If Google controls your identity through email, they can connect all your online activity

By having a Google account signed into Gmail, you allow Google to collect information about you into a profile

By using ProtonMail instead of Gmail, you don't exist in Google's system anymore

ProtonMail's mission is to provide an alternative online identity you actually control, not designed around exploiting you

Google tracks what you do across its properties like YouTube and Calendar all tied to your account

By not being logged into Google, your identity isn't associated with your YouTube viewing activity

Logging out of Google services extracts you from their system, but you lose access to Gmail

ProtonMail gives an alternative email without giving up privacy

Email links your whole online existence like a digital passport

Losing access to your Gmail is more inconvenient than losing your physical passport

Google Analytics runs on 70% of websites, so Google sees most internet activity

Your online identity should be under your control, not exploited by companies

Simple steps like logging out of Google limit data collection about you

Alternative secure email services prevent companies tracking your digital identity

Transcripts

The reason for email is because the key thing to protect from a privacy

standpoint is actually not communications and not even data.

What is most important is identity. And what do I mean by that?

Well, email as identity is maybe very easy to see.

It is the thing that links together your whole online existence.

It's the closest equivalent that you have today in the digital world to a

passport. In fact,

if I were to give you a choice between losing your passport versus losing your

email, probably losing your email is more inconvenient, right?

Your email is what identifies you online, but today,

your identity in most people's cases belongs to Google.

And what does that actually mean? Well, if Google controls your identity,

that's a way for them to connect all of your online activity in Google

Properties to a real life identity,

and that is what your profile is built around. But it's more than just Google

properties. Google ads run on most of the world's websites.

Google Analytics is used by some metrics on 70% websites

around the world. So actually Google through its other properties,

not even YouTube or Google search or even Maps, controls,

and sees the large majority of the world's internet.

And by having a Google account, which is your Gmail or be signing a Gmail,

you allow Google to collect all that information into a profile linked to a real

identity. So if you were to use proton mail, for example,

and opt out of the Google account,

actually what that means is Google doesn't have a profile anymore.

You don't exist in your system, and that's quite really powerful.

So that's why Proton's mission, we're not here to fix secure communications.

It's a side effect.

What we're really trying to do is provide an alternative way for you to have

identity online in the digital era and identity that you actually control.

It is not designed around exploiting you. So that's actually who you start

on, who you are, the essence of your being, which is your identity.

Yeah, and there's so much more to what Google tracks,

and I hate saying this because this is being shared even on YouTube,

but it's like what the things you watch on YouTube,

the stuff that you put on your calendar, all of that stuff,

it gets tracked religiously.

And you talked about that being very powerful to escape from that.

Yes. What would you say to somebody like my mom,

who quite honestly when I talk to her,

just says it's just more convenient, you know what I mean?

What's the argument there for the power of escaping that?

Well, we take YouTube, for example. I do watch YouTube,

and I've actually watched your channel, for instance, I watching it last night.

But you know what? I'm not logged in.

So Google doesn't associate my identity in real

life with a watch of your channel right now,

I wouldn't mind if I was publicly associated with watching their channel,

but there would be other channels where I wouldn't want that out there in the

world. So that's an example where just because I'm not logged in,

because Google is not my identity provider, I have opted out of that system.

I am not in Google's database,

at least as a person with a life identity because tied to an account.

And I think that's something that's very simple, very easy to do,

but also quite powerful, and anybody can log out.

The problem is that if you log out, you lose your email.

But proton melanoma alternatives, this gives you a way to work around that.

So I think it seems difficult,

but that's a very easy quick step that already extracts you out of that system.