Not too long ago, I thought like you:

"Let's host my own physical server. Virtualize different servers for different services: web, mail, owncloud storage, torrentbox, flac streaming service to mobile and web client. Let's run Cyanogenmod without Google services on my old 2012 Nexus 7! Surely K-9 can do the job just as well as Gmail! What else would I need a tablet for? OpenStreetMap wooo! My own Calendar instance! Stuff like that."

Spent days architecting the bloody server thing.. Looking into security, virtualization, database isolation, shit like that.

However, I am 30, making a career change, sick and tired of pushing someone else's agenda 8 hours a day. I want to build my own ideas and share it with people. Maybe make a living off of what I make. Build a farm. When not working or studying, I'd rather strike the earth and take care of my vegetable garden, play with the cat, hike with the wife. This helps me to have a more full experience.

Your time is precious. That is the only thing you will never get back. Read the book Walden instead. The only thing the writer truly treasured was his time. Throw in some taoist and buddhist literature as well, might help. Those will teach you not to care for other people's games (big data, small implication). Be more aware of the psychology of manipulation, triggers and getting you to sign up/pay/subscribe. Mastering your own mind is more important than keeping your mail from automated google scripts. Do you eat well? Do you sit all day? Do you know what's in your food, water, air? How are your bad habits, smoking, procrastination, drinking or onania problems going to be solved?

Not by not using Google service, I tell you. When you die, your privacy will be of no concern to you. How you live hold greater value.

My current proposal is as follows:

1. Care less. Not about security and privacy, but about Google following you. Pay more attention to what is keeping you from living A Better Life, however you define that. Do you have financial planning for retirement? Do you have a goal in life?

2. Have a trusted person or lawyer to follow set instructions on deleting all your online presence when you die. Have them burn your diaries if you keep any. Keep in mind, many literary people asked loved ones to do this, who then proceeded to publish their letters and unfinished work anyway. Maybe have two people for this, unknowing of each other's responsibilities.

3. Keep separate Google and Gmail accounts for your work life and your personal life. Employers should not be able to find you based on your work-related email address. Sometimes it's a hassle, but I manage them.

4. Disable what data tracking you can, and avoid using services for which there is a feasible alternative. For me, Drive, Maps and Keep are just way too comfy, and the alternatives are either poor, take time to set up properly or are another SaaS solution. Consider proper backups, not simply using external drives that fail or can be stolen along with your PC or laptop. Secure, off-site, automated, possibly offline solutions. Can you do that? Should you? What do you win? What is the return on investment here?

5. Also, if you wish, move to a country where data privacy laws are firm and governments to a large degree respect their citizens (Switzerland comes to mind).