I use Nextcloud (files, contacts, calendar, notes), Firefox on all the things and pay for email. My last "things" are the play store and Google maps, I can't seem to shake them (I love paying for good apps and gmaps is the best nav app imho).
Alternatives to Google Products
211–220 of 527 posts
Re: Alternatives to Google Products
#212Aside from the philosophical argument that is being had in the comment section, there are obvious services missing. Android, for one, because what good are all these alternatives if you run it on a Google OS and then there are the actual moneymakers, namely Adsense/Adwords. What's the alternative for those? Are there any?
Re: Alternatives to Google Products
#213Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have no more trust in the American government to not spy on its citizens than the Chinese government. If iCloud data is encrypted and only the user has the private key. It's just as secure as being on American servers.
The difference being that Tim Cook handed Beijing the iCloud private keys for Chinese users
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Re: Alternatives to Google Products
#214Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference being that Tim Cook handed Beijing the iCloud private keys for Chinese users
How did he do that without completely rearchitecting how iOS works? Do you have any citations?
I'm not saying that this is what happened and I don't know the background of this story, but it would have been easy (technically speaking) to just push an update to Chinese users that will extract their private key and send it back to Apple without any significant changes.
Re: Alternatives to Google Products
#215So I'm one of those who doesn't care if Google tracks me or sells me as a product. [ * ] Is there actually some real, tangible harm that can come to me from using Google products? Not theoretical stuff, not stuff that is less likely than dying in a plane crash. Something that is actually likely to happen, that will affect me in measurable, negative ways? I'm really trying to come up with something, and I'm really try…
You are right, all US-Companys are able to harm you, due to US-Laws.
Re: Alternatives to Google Products
#216Earlier quoted context omitted.
>When I tried out Posteo it was extremely annoying that it logged me out every few minutes I haven't encountered this with my personal email server nor heard of it from anyone else. I think this might just be an issue with Posteo. It's easier if you don't try to move all at once. Spend some time looking at different email options and move that. Do calendar later. Get rid of Google Apps on your Android later still. Gr…
Posteo is very aggressive on privacy, reducing exposure, and keeping information safer. So a shorter webmail session timeout may be related to this. Depending on the use case, if this were the only issue with Posteo, the GP could’ve used Firefox with one of the many tab reload or tab refresh extensions to keep the logged in session alive.
Posteo doesn't allow custom domains (a no go) and lies about why they don't.
Re: Alternatives to Google Products
#217Earlier quoted context omitted.
> as I think your own vanity URL looks a little tacky Free domains like gmail.com, hotmail.com, live.com, yahoo.com, etc emails are tacky, lazy, and unprofessional. A domain is less than $10/year. You don't even have to be technical to buy one and use it with G-Suite. There's no excuse to use a free email domain.
To me the value is in not having to spell it. When I say @gmail.com no one ever typos that half.
With your own domain, you can shorten the part before the '@'. You could call it "forename@lastname.com" instead of "forename.lastname@gmail.com".
Re: Alternatives to Google Products
#218[deleted]
Re: Alternatives to Google Products
#219I pay for Google Apps, $5/month and I'm quite certain the anti-privacy factor is drastically reduced vs when one just freeloads their apps where as the OP says, "you are the product."
Re: Alternatives to Google Products
#220So I'm one of those who doesn't care if Google tracks me or sells me as a product. [ * ] Is there actually some real, tangible harm that can come to me from using Google products? Not theoretical stuff, not stuff that is less likely than dying in a plane crash. Something that is actually likely to happen, that will affect me in measurable, negative ways? I'm really trying to come up with something, and I'm really try…
Has it become some sort of fashion statement to be ignorant about privacy?
Whenever I discuss this topic people seem to almost take pride in giving their information to Google, Facebook and the thousands of other companies they have no clue about.
I think it's cognitive dissonance rearing its ugly head again: those people have tied their identity at some level with the use of the products and an attack on e.g. Google becomes an attack on them.
The concept of fairness also plays a role. Most people feel that Google should get something for providing their services and they also feel that it's ok if they are shown some ads. Fair deal. What they have no idea about is how much data is extracted from them, who it's shared with and for what purposes it's used. But we can be almost certain the answers to those questions is more and more data, more and more parties and more and more purposes, because data is forever.
And yes, real harm can come to you if you are promiscuous with your information. Additional information should be accessible through your favourite search engine. Hint: home invasion.