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Tech NewsWant to Really Block the Tech Giants? Here’s How
Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple move more money than many medium-sized nations. Their extraordinary profits are won through extraordinary reach—this is not a secret. That a few companies are afforded unprecedented and shamefully unregulated access into our homes is now an unremarkable fact of living with tiny computers everywhere. When Gizmodo reporter Kashmir Hill, … Continued
Dhruv Mehrotra -
Tech NewsI Cut the ‘Big Five’ Tech Giants From My Life. It Was Hell
Week 6: Blocking them all A couple of months ago, I set out to answer the question of whether it’s possible to avoid the tech giants. Over the course of five weeks, I blocked Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple one at a time, to find out how to live in the modern age without … Continued
By Kashmir Hill -
Tech NewsI Cut Apple Out of My Life. It Was Devastating
Week 5: Apple When I first conceived of this experiment—cutting the tech giants out of my life one-by-one—I hadn’t thought to include Microsoft (because I use very few of their products) or Apple (because I use so many of theirs). I have two MacBook Airs, one for personal use and one supplied by my work. … Continued
By Kashmir Hill -
Tech NewsI Cut Microsoft Out of My Life—or So I Thought
Week 4: Microsoft When I initially planned to block all the tech giants from my life, I hadn’t thought to include Microsoft, mostly because Microsoft is—these days, at least—rarely on the receiving end of criticism for destroying civilization as we know it. Microsoft’s days as a tech supervillain are a distant memory, dating back to … Continued
By Kashmir Hill -
Tech NewsI Cut Google Out Of My Life. It Screwed Up Everything
Week 3: Google Long ago, Google made the mistake of adopting the motto, “Don’t be evil,” in a jab at competitors who exploited their users. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has since demoted the phrase in its corporate code of conduct presumably because of how hard it is to live up to it. Google is no … Continued
By Kashmir Hill -
Tech NewsI Cut Facebook Out of My Life. Surprisingly, I Missed It
Week 2: Facebook After Facebook’s hell-year of scandal, and its unabating erosion of our privacy—a topic I’ve been covering for over 10 years—I never thought I’d miss the social network. But here I am, staring at my screen, feeling strangely alone. In the second stage of my epic quest to thwart the world’s most powerful … Continued
By Kashmir Hill -
Tech NewsLife Without the Tech Giants
Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple collectively make products that we love, products that we hate (but can’t stop using), and products that dictate how we communicate and how we are seen. Their devices and services make our lives easier than they’ve ever been before, yet more complicated in unforeseen ways. They are so ubiquitous … Continued
By Kashmir Hill -
Tech NewsI Tried to Block Amazon From My Life. It Was Impossible
Week 1: Amazon Apparently, I am a masochist. I am on a mission to live without the tech giants—to discover whether such a thing is even possible. Not just through sheer willpower but technologically, with the use of a custom-built tool that would literally prevent my devices from accessing these companies, and them from accessing … Continued
By Kashmir Hill