So, I finally decided that I have to get a smartphone.
I need tethering when I'm at the country side;
I need Skype;
A Web browser;
A phone with a camera that has an acceptable quality;
E-mail capability (HTML based is enough);
Sat-nav capability;
I've decided that HTC Wildfire S is good enough.
The problem is that it's basically a Google phone. As far as I've heard, you have to enter Google ID the first time you boot it, and from that moment on, all your data are belong to Google.
From the random data on the internet it seems that:
All your contacts are synced to Google (GMail?)
All your calendar entries and schedules are synced to Google
Your GPS location is synced to Google in some ways
All your email goes through Google
All your browser history and searches go through Google
Google can update and uninstall any software on your phone they wish at any time, uninstall can happen without you knowing
All tagged photos are tagged to Google?
I'm not very paranoid or anything, I use Google search as a primary search engine, and I often use Google maps and that like. But there is a line where data leakage is simply too vast for my liking.
Since this is a tech forum, and many of you probably know everything about Android phones, maybe someone can tell me if it's possible to use Droid without that much data leakage?