Dr. Mercola brands Google as a “surveillance agency” – and shares some tips on how to DE-GOOGLE

04/14/2024 / By Ava Grace

According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, Google is a “surveillance agency” – thus, he also shared how people can “de-Google” their lives.

The osteopathic physician argued that the “powers” of the Mountain View, California-based technology company “pose several threats to society.” He continued: “First of all, it’s a surveillance agency with significant yet hidden surveillance powers. It’s also a censoring agency with the ability to restrict or block access to websites across the internet, thus deciding what people can and cannot see in order to manipulate public opinion.”

According to Mercola, “Google also has the power to manipulate public opinion through search rankings and other means.” The resulting “shifts in thinking” produced by this manipulation are “both rapid and enormous.” To bolster his point, the natural medicine advocate cited two instances of how the search engine giant used its influence against him.

Back in September 2017, Mercola discussed Google’s partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). According to him, the depression assessment quiz by Google and NAMI was a drug promotion scam sponsored by drug manufacturer Eli Lilly. “No matter how you answered the questions, you were a candidate for antidepressants,” Mercola revealed.

In the summer of 2019, Google removed his website Mercola.com from coming up in any keyword search unless the doctor’s name was also typed into the query. This led to Mercola himself pushing back against the tech giant. (Related: Dr. Mercola reveals how Google and Wikipedia tag team to censor natural health websites while promoting Big Pharma and processed junk food.)

In 2020, Mercola.com became one of the first websites to purposely block Google from indexing its articles and breaking news blog posts. Prior to this, the website stopped using Google Analytics in 2018. Mercola also took the opportunity to urge other sites to follow suit.

“Nearly every non-major website is using Google’s ‘free’ analytics program as well as its advertising platforms. Alas, those services are not actually free. Ultimately, you pay for them with your personal data – as that is the product Google sells,” he said.

“Collectively, all of these sites are stealing an enormous amount of your private information. We can be successful without surveillance monopolies, and businesses and individuals need to unite to do everything we can to stop their dangerous privacy theft and data mining.”

Mercola shares ways on how to DE-GOOGLE

“Most of you are well aware that I’ve had concerns about the surveillance capitalists, spearheaded by Google, for a number of years,” said Mercola. “The influence of Google is so vast yet so hidden that most people simply have no idea just how controlled they actually are.”

Despite this pessimism, the natural health advocate said it is possible to break free from the clutches of evil Google. He shared several ways to do so:

Ditch your Android mobile phone – “I strongly encourage you to ditch all Android phones and use an iPhone that has better privacy policies,” Mercola explained.
Swap out your browser – Mercola suggested using the Brave or Opera browsers, instead of Google Chrome.
Switch your search engine – He exhorted the public to stop using Google Search, Bing or Yahoo Search (the latter two draw their results from Google). Instead, those that offer privacy – such as Presearch, Startpage, DuckDuckGo, Qwant and many others – are far better choices.
Use a secure email and document-sharing service – Americans should close their Gmail accounts in favor of a more secure email service like ProtonMail. Google Docs isn’t the only document-sharing service around, as better options are available like ZohoOffice, OnlyOffice or Nuclino.
Avoid websites that use Google Analytics – According to Mercola, websites are required to disclose if they use a third-party surveillance tool. If a site uses Google Analytics, the public should ask it to switch.
Delete all Google apps from your phone and purge Google hardware – the tech giant can access cameras and other functions on mobile phones without the need to ask users’ permission, Mercola revealed.
Don’t use Google Home and Fitbit devices – Using Google Home devices allows the Big Tech firm to access and take over your home. This prohibition also extends to Fitbit, which Google acquired in January 2021, as it allows the company to obtain important health data.