Emily Gertenbach

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How I'm De-Googling My Business

Emily Gertenbach

Last edited 52 days ago by Emily Gertenbach

I started my business in 2019 and at the time, I needed a quick and easy way to get my email, work phone, and file sharing system up and running. Google Workspace (then GSuite) delivered that to me for like six bucks a month.

But over the past five years, I started to move further away from Google services in my personal life. I de-Googled my personal email, stopped using Chrome, re-downloaded Word and Excel to my computer, and started storing all non-client files in my iCloud.

The reason? Data privacy. No, I’m not discussing state secrets over here—but Google collects a massive amount of data on its users. I was also sick of seeing ads in my email, frankly.

And the more I learned about data collection across the board, the more I started focusing on privacy in other areas, too.

I deleted my Facebook (even burned my Spotify down to do so—long story about login permissions)

I deleted Spotify and a lot of other tracker-laden apps from my phones

I started using Apple Maps voluntarily (it was a little rough, not gonna lie)

My husband and I bought a router with some great security features (the Nighthawk) and started using ProtonVPN

I turned to Firefox Focus and DuckDuckGo for all my non-work searches, even though that’s a bit amusing for an SEO person to do

Heck, we even got to the point a few months ago where I bought a refurbished iPod from 2004 because I wanted an ad- tracker- data- and screen-free portable way to listen to music ... and my own iPod had long shit the bed.

I didn’t see any way to de-Google my work environment, though. This still stumped me.

Gradually, I started to figure it out.

1. Replace Google Voice (late 2023)

Once Google Gemini rolled out, Google Meet got some AI features, and the company was clearly going all-in on AI, I decided to move away from Google Voice. This was pretty straightforward—it’s the same process as when you switch cell phone carriers.

Now that I had an iPhone 13, this was possible for me to do, as my phone could handle an eSIM along with my regular SIM.

I made sure that I could toggle the eSIM on and off, as I use local eSIMs when traveling outside of North America (yes)

I checked to see if adding a line to my existing phone plan would potentially void out my sweet, sweet grandfathered-in rate (it might, so that was a no)

I compared options for voice and SMS plans. It was fine if some data was included, too, but I wasn’t going to toggle networks every time I do an internet search on mobile—I’d just use my existing main number’s data plan for that

Ultimately, I settled on the cheapest Mint Mobile plan and ported my number out of Google Voice. The port and eSIM activation combined took just an hour or two to complete, and I was good to go.

2. Replace Google Meet (late 2023)

I learned that Google planned to integrate AI into Workspace Meet, and Zoom rolled out some questionable opt-out (or lack thereof) policies around its own AI. While I recognized that I’d still need to use Meet and Zoom sometimes for clients (and I do), I decided that any meetings I retained scheduling control over would be done using

Whereby⁠

Honestly, the experience has been great. Way better than Google Meet. Whereby works in all browsers, works well on mobile (my call participants have told me this) and people are generally pleased by / curious about it on our calls. I’ve had a number of people tell me they’re going to explore using it in their businesses, too.

Whereby just works. I don’t have to fight it constantly like I do Google Meet.

3. Replace Gmail (May 2024)

Whether I like it or not, many of my clients need me to send them completed files via Google Drive. It is easy to work this way, as we can collaborate in comments—much better than sending Word files back and forth used to be, though now OneDrive works basically the same way.

I’d set up my Google Workspace account with a custom domain email address managed through Google Domains and associated with my professional Google Drive. Whenever I looked at my MX records—these are the things you must change when migrating to a new email provider—they were always labeled simply as “Google Workspace.” Would I lose access to my entire workspace if I changed the MX records?

It was annoyingly hard to find the answer to this question. Google makes it very unclear, and even though it logically should work, I was worried I’d lose access to all my shared client files.

I let it go for a while, but then Google announced a whole slew of AI features at their 2024 I/O presentation. I watched the demos—which I know they fake sometimes—showing Gemini responding to emails for people and I thought I do not want that. At all.

Time to figure out how to switch.

Finally, after a lot of Googling (and yes, I brought out the big guns and used actual Google for this; DuckDuckGo wasn’t cutting it) I found two Reddit threads that were several years old. These commenters confirmed that they had pointed their MX records away from Google.

So in case anyone else out there is searching for the same thing:

Can I stop using Google Workspace for Gmail and still keep my Google Drive?

Yes. You are not required to use Google Workspace Gmail in order to have a Google Workspace account or use the paid version of Google drive. You’ll need to choose a new email provider and follow their instructions for pointing your domain away from Gmail and to them instead. As long as you continue to pay for Google Workspace you can access the rest of your Drive, Calendar, etc, at any time.

I waited until about 10pm, when I was sure nobody would email me. I downloaded the contents of my Drive just in case, ported all my emails to my new system (

Proton Mail⁠

), and...turned off my business email.

It practically gave me hives, it was so anxiety inducing.

But, after following Proton’s instructions for migrating my domain, and sweating bullets for about half an hour, it worked! My email was successfully de-Googled, and all of my Docs/Sheets/Comments/Drive/Calendar invites still lived on in Workspace.

I’ve never been so happy to wake up and find random mailing list messages waiting for me in my inbox.

⁠

I find the clean white and purple Proton interface to be a lot more pleasant than Gmail — and the big colored labels are great for my brain!

I find the clean white and purple Proton interface to be a lot more pleasant than Gmail — and the big colored labels are great for my brain!

⁠

I also made sure to test my ActiveCampaign connection. I use ActiveCampaign to send messages to my business’ email list. The email switcheroo shouldn’t have impacted this in any way, and it didn’t—but I just wanted to make sure.

4. Replace Google Calendar (May 2024)

While my Google Calendar still works—in that I can add events to it—email invites sent to my work address will now show up on my Proton calendar. To reduce confusion, I turned off my meeting scheduling system that was connected to my Google Calendar.

Instead, I set up Calendly, as it allowed me to create meeting links without a GCal connection. Yes, it’s slightly less convenient—when someone books a meeting with me, it’s not automatically added to my calendar and conflicts don’t automatically carry over.

I keep my meeting windows very limited, though, so I’m not too worried about conflicts. And, if there is one, I’ll simply explain and reschedule.

As for scheduling meetings, I set up an email filter. Every time I get a schedule alert from Calendly, it gets a big red “NEED TO SCHEDULE” label in my inbox; I can then add it to my calendar. Heck, I worked as a corporate recruiter for a global company before stuff like Calendly was a thing and I survived. I can manually add a couple meetings to my Proton calendar now.

I’m also able to share my Proton calendar link with my iCal app, so I can see all of my personal, work, and client calendars all in one spot.

⁠

5. Move away from Google Drive (June 2024)

This is an ongoing work in progress. It started a couple years ago when I purchased extra iCloud storage and began storing the contents of my MacBook in the cloud. There were still a few spreadsheets and other items that I referenced in my Google Drive, though, and it’s also where I store a lot of content shared with clients.

I can’t and won’t force everyone I work with to stop using Drive, however, I’m continuing to diminish how I use it for anything outside of sharing client work. I’ve moved key business documents onto my computer/iCloud.

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