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…
Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?
71–80 of 168 posts
Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?
#72They 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 Authenticator. FastMail is great, but I don't want it to have my email any more than Gmail. I don't trust Firefox any more than Chromium.
Unfortunately the internet and computers in general were never designed to respect privacy and most corporations are happy to collect data on their users... and I'm pretty pessimistic on this changing much for the typical user... If anything it's only going to get worse as tracking technology becomes ever more sophisticated and omnipresent.
That's not to say we shouldn't deGoogle. But we should be under no illusion that that alone will somehow magically make our online lives private.
Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do like the idea of GrapheneOS, I just don't feel 100% comfortable running hardware made by Google.
Perhaps not perfect but in consideration of some of the barriers other OEMs may posses with a security device I think the situation reads as 'being better than the alternatives'. Pixels are also an reference device by Google for Google so that is another incentive for them to suck less.
Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?
#74Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?
#75There is Google services that you and me don't know that we are using.
What can be done is stop outgoing traffic to Google AS. You can physically cut off internet connection for google devices. Or set rules on firewall.
Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?
#76Also, Google Sheets & Docs are really really good too. I can live without Gmail.
Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?
#77I’ve moved away from Chrome and Google Search. But I’m struggling to move away from Gmail, especially since this email is linked to so many critical official accounts (bank, government agencies) Any solutions to make the transition easier outside of manually updating email everywhere? Also, what’s the best alternative to Gmail currently that will support using my own domain name?
There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time Visit each site in your password manager and knock over a couple a day. You'll never get anything that fully automates this because every site does the change differently. Even LastPass's automated password changer could only ever do a handful of sites fully automatically. I've seen everything from full self service, to manual approval, to begging their priva…
Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?
#78Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Changing contact records required confirmation sent to the e-mail address of the owner record. I just changed the email in the owner field in namecheap. I did not receive a confirmation email. (At the old one, I did to the new one) > Ultimately, in case of domain theft/dispute or similar, the domain's owner record has highest authority. I would highly suspect in a court of law that is not true. You see, you have a…
I mean no offense, but it looks like you're just providing guesswork and making up answers. > "I would highly suspect in a court of law that is not true." OK, but why, and in what court and in what legal system? > "You see, you have a contract with the registar for the domain." It's not the registrar that sells the domain. They are brokers between registrant and the entity owning the TLD, and registrars also have dom…
I mean, I literally went and changed the email on a domain to check if what you said was true. And validated that your claim was false.
Secondly, contracts are a thing. I am not sure why you think that you would have a contract with the registar is something that is guess work or made up. I'm also confused as to why contract law 101 isn't a thing you know.
> OK, but why, and in what court and in what legal system?
Why? Because contracts are a thing. And pretty much all of them. You know the first thing a judge will ask if it's being question who owns a domain? Who paid for it. The second thing will ask is what registar account it belongs to. The email address on the domain record would get ignored for the more important aspects that obtain to the fundamentals of law. It's like if you pay for a book but someone else writes their name on it. The judge isn't going to say "Oh but he wrote his name on it."
So many people think that judges care about small little details. They don't the case would be happened quickly and swiftly. It would be a minor case and the judge would literally ask basic information to obtain who owns it. Paying for it and having it in your domain regsitar account would statsify them that it belongs to you. If you honestly think a judge would listen to a claim of "But your honor my client came into possession of this email address and that email address is listed as a contact email for a domain so it belongs to my client" I don't really know what to tell you. It's not how the world works.
> It's not the registrar that sells the domain. They are brokers between registrant and the entity owning the TLD, and registrars also have domestic laws to abide to.
So here is how contracts work. You have a contract with the registar and they have a contract with the registery. There are obivously some clauses in there. But there will not be a clause that allows them to transfer that domain to another user/registar without your approval and that often comes from you going to their site and requesting the transfer code. And I don't remember when I did a transfer I had to confirm the email on the record.
> No you can't, not in European nations part of the EU. While not legally enforced, registrars based here are required to request and urge customers to put accurate and truthful information there.
That legally enforced part is a major thing. And request and urging is different from requiring. In fact, go do some whois and I'll be you find you can't find the information for any of domains you whois since they have whois privacy.
Quite simply, the idea that forgetting to update an email in a domain record means someone else owns your domain is ignorant of the law and how thing things work.
Re: Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?
#80>Apps No. Stop using smartphones. GNU/Linux and FOSS only.