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Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

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Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

#101

Post by blop »

detritus wrote: post #17
memorable wrote: post #8

Here are some of my additional recommendations: Analytics - GoatCounter, Counter.dev Keyboard - Unexpected Keyboard (A very cool keyboard) Search - Neeva Translate - Lingva Some notes on the post: - Protonmail as a company doesn’t have a very stellar reputation. I recommend hosting an e-mail server by yourself, or just use providers like Disroot Mail - K9 Mail is an email client, not an email provider

> I recommend hosting an e-mail server by yourself As someone who did this from about 2001 until three years ago, I strongly suggest most people don't bother with this route. GMail, Outlook, etc, all throw so many arbitrary and ever-changing security conditions to accept mail, it really isn't worth the hassle - or the lost clients from mails that don't reach their walled-garden end-points. I've used Fastmail for a fe…

I'm still self hosting after more than 15 years and I think what matters most is the reputation of your IP address, so it can be hit and miss depending on where you host your mail server...

Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

#102

Post by webmobdev »

FragrantRiver wrote: post #99

> you will appreciate not having ads targeted to you or your devices constantly connecting to transmit data to servers. Why would I appreciate seeing more generic ads?

Why would you want to appreciate any ads? More targeted ads based on your personal data means you can be better exploited. Whether you want to accept it or not, advertising works and does influence our shopping behaviour. Otherwise corporates wouldn't be spending billions of dollars on it. Targeted ads means corporates have to spend even less money to better manipulate us. In what world is that good for us consumers?

Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

#103

Post by Markoff »

I moved to China and had to do it, then after returning back I really didn't miss their services, only Google apps in my phone without gapps are Gtranslate, which I really don't use and have it only just in case, sadly DeepL didn't have comparable app, I use also Gboard (with no internet access in firewall) since it's currently best swipe keyboard and that's it, everything else I use from other companies and find apps from Google inferior, I also use Google search but through my preferred browser (Kiwi in mobile, Vivaldi on desktop).

Email - Aquamail

Calendar - Business calendar pro 1.*

IM - Whatsapp (network effect sadly, otherwise I would go with Element, used for years Signal but was sick of horrible UX)

Maps - Mapy.cz

SMS - Pulse

app store - Aurora store, I know I know it's cheating...

2FA - AndOTP

Gallery - Simple gallery pro

Btw Duckduckgo is horrible shady search engine, you are better off even with Google or Bing, though Kagi, Searx and Brave Search are better.

Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

#104

Post by blitzar »

webmobdev wrote: post #102
FragrantRiver wrote: post #99

> you will appreciate not having ads targeted to you or your devices constantly connecting to transmit data to servers. Why would I appreciate seeing more generic ads?

Why would you want to appreciate any ads? More targeted ads based on your personal data means you can be better exploited. Whether you want to accept it or not, advertising works and does influence our shopping behaviour. Otherwise corporates wouldn't be spending billions of dollars on it. Targeted ads means corporates have to spend even less money to better manipulate us. In what world is that good for us consumers?

Based on the results of the targetting that google does on me, I suspect it is these billion dollar corporates that are being manipulated, not me.

Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

#105

Post by aaaaaaaaata »

theandrewbailey wrote: post #59

I've been actively degoogling my life for about 10 years, mostly kicked off by Snowden's revelations. Off the top of my head, here's what's left: • Youtube Too much content there to stop using. I almost never use it while logged in. I never subscribe: I bookmark the channel. • Maps Too useful to stop using. Haven't tried alternatives, but open to recommendations. Business locations and open/close times are must haves…

Good list to chime in on.

Youtube channel subs etc can be handled with some privacy adds by using NewPipe on Android. Features are never ending.

People interested by LineageOS may also be interested in GrapheneOS, and their Play Store related handling.

Tangentially related: Aurora Store in place of "actual" Google Play app/Google Play Services.

Signal or meet.jit.si for video calling.

Chromium. Pain in the ass, but worth it. Change ALL relevant settings, Chrome or Chromium. Find a couple guides.

Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

#106

Post by Pr0ject217 »

GrapheneOS! It's an amazing OS. The transition was quick and seamless and I was surprised that had to make zero sacrifices, because it allows you to create separate profiles. I have one profile with a Google Play Services sandbox, which the OS provides as a one-click install. It's useful to run banking/ride-sharing apps, etc. It's very quick to transition between profiles.

Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

#107

Post by aaaaaaaaata »

timbit42 wrote: post #71
theandrewbailey wrote: post #59

I've been actively degoogling my life for about 10 years, mostly kicked off by Snowden's revelations. Off the top of my head, here's what's left: • Youtube Too much content there to stop using. I almost never use it while logged in. I never subscribe: I bookmark the channel. • Maps Too useful to stop using. Haven't tried alternatives, but open to recommendations. Business locations and open/close times are must haves…

A good way to keep track of new videos on your YouTube channels without being logged in is RSS.

Didn't know they still implemented this! Is this how NewPipe handles subs?

Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

#108

Post by caeril »

pmoriarty wrote: post #72

deGoogling is great, but I don't want any corporations to track me or have data about me, and unfortunately the alternatives to Google are usually not any better in this respect. They might, like DDG, promise not to track me and to respect my privacy, but as an ordinary user I have absolutely no way of verifying their claims. I don't trust Vimeo any more than YouTube. I don't trust Authy any more than Google Authenti…

Regarding your concerns:

  - SearX instead of DDG
  - PeerTube instead of Vimeo or YouTube
  - There are a TON of FOSS TOTP authentication apps that you can build the .apk yourself if you'd like. You don't need Authy or GA
  - You can self-host email with something like iredmail, or get a pre-made personal server like Helm
  - Browser situation is tough, but there are FF workarounds like arkenfox/user.js
There are always options.

Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

#109

Post by aaaaaaaaata »

N19PEDL2 wrote: post #87
ElectronBadger wrote: post #86

I don't use any of Google services or products. Fairphone 3+ with /e/OS Firefox + uBlock + uMatrix + NoScript Duckduckgo Tutanota (mail, calendar) and ecloud (mail, calendar, notes, tasks) Quad9 DNS SyncThing OpenStreetMap Magic Earth DeepL

/e/ intrigues me. How do you feel about using it?

/e/, aka, LineageOS, with even more time added for sec patches.

To me, feels like road to hell being paved with good intentions.

Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

#110

Post by aaaaaaaaata »

Markoff wrote: post #103

I moved to China and had to do it, then after returning back I really didn't miss their services, only Google apps in my phone without gapps are Gtranslate, which I really don't use and have it only just in case, sadly DeepL didn't have comparable app, I use also Gboard (with no internet access in firewall) since it's currently best swipe keyboard and that's it, everything else I use from other companies and find app…

It'll be interesting to find out later what other apps (Google or other) may be "assisting" Gboard in data exfiltration if it can't reach the servers it wants to.

Tons of non-Google Android users use Gboard, with varying levels of protection in place.

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