I have been using more and more Steemit recently and I have been a little bit disappointed when I saw that the search functionality was powered by Google.
Steemit being an underdog on the social media scene with a decentralized system where writers and curators get remunerated for sharing interesting and helpful articles, I could not understand why they chose Google which is the exact opposite in terms of philosophy. Google tracks you through their numerous applications:
- their browser is tracking your searches
- gmail goes through your emails to display ads that will most likely interest you
- their android system enables their apps to do pretty much anything they want without warning you...
- their street view cars were stealing data from home wifi hubs
- module found in their browser to secretly eavesdrop on you
And these are examples among others. They use your data to make money out of it. We all are the product without getting any remuneration.
On top of it, after the different revelations from Edward Snowden and Wikileaks, we now know that our data are directly available to the different intelligence services of the USA (and the other countries part of the five eyes).
Finally, I strongly dislike any type of monopolies which is what Google is. I think it should be dismantled (just like Microsoft). Competition is good for the customer and having a single company controlling so much of the internet is really unhealthy, here are a few figures about Google’s market share:
- 80% of the online searches
- 88% of online search advertisement
- 60% of browser market share
- 90% of the mobile OS (...)
Since then I discovered DuckDuckGo which is a search engine that does not track you, does not give you personalized results, and respect your privacy. That sounds a lot more aligned with the values of Steemit.
Let me know what you think, I hope that with significant support, we might convince Steemit to replace Google Search with a search engine that means freedom not enslavement. If someone is close to the management and can pass the message, I (we?) would be grateful.