Leaving Google In Gagnet Nation Summary

Homework question #11 I relate very deeply to Julia Angwin’s chapter “Leaving Google” in Dragnet Nation. In an attempt to save personal information that can be questionably requested from the government, Angwin decided to stop using Google. She says “As soon as I switched, I realized how dependent on Google I had become” (Angwin, 117). I came to the same realization when Professor Ali began to teach us about other search engines like the one Angwin used called “DuckDuckGo”. While attempting to use this browser, I came across the same difficulties as her. I used Google for everything, much like Angwin, even to type in urls that I already knew. I remember I tried to ask DuckDuckGo to direct me to “class schedule”, because I was so accustomed

When Angwin did what we did in class, she shared this annoyance and “almost immediately, [she] hated them” (146). She mentions she used the Tor browser and found great difficulty with it. I, too, am terrible with literally all of the tools Asim taught us to use, especially Firefox, which I’ve hated since I started using the internet, because in my opinion, sucks so much compared to Google Chrome. But the difference between Angwin and me, is that she actually has some motivation behind why she is trying to find privacy on the web. She and her accomplice, Moxie Marlinspike acknowledge that “’All this stuff is unusable. All the tools we have are awful’” (147). That is the problem with digital security. The average stereotypical lazy American does not want to be inconvenienced, which is why the government can access almost anything we put online. Our online lives are like an elementary school girl’s diary that doesn’t have a key and is hidden under her pillow, which is not secretive at all. However, with advancements in technology moving at such a quick rate, I hope that developers find a more convenient way to protect user’s information, or else we’re all doomed to a life of