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Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

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Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#21

Post by cycloptic »

jeena wrote: post #16

I almost successfully cut Google out with one exception, YouTube, I don't seem to be able to find what I get there anywhere else. Fun anecdote: Google is very smart, because I've been a paying customer of YouTube for a long time they gave me a Google Nest Mini for Christmas free of charge. And it fills another niche which I can't really find a meaningful alternative for: Speech to text hardware/software which can be…

I will only access youtube in ways that limit its tracking and anti-features. That means always using Tor and Youtube-dl/Invidious/Newpipe. Never use the official frontend or any of the official apps.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#22

Post by IAmGraydon »

cycloptic wrote: post #21
jeena wrote: post #16

I almost successfully cut Google out with one exception, YouTube, I don't seem to be able to find what I get there anywhere else. Fun anecdote: Google is very smart, because I've been a paying customer of YouTube for a long time they gave me a Google Nest Mini for Christmas free of charge. And it fills another niche which I can't really find a meaningful alternative for: Speech to text hardware/software which can be…

I will only access youtube in ways that limit its tracking and anti-features. That means always using Tor and Youtube-dl/Invidious/Newpipe. Never use the official frontend or any of the official apps.

Then you may have noticed that you can’t access Google through Tor. They intentionally send you to a captcha you can never solve.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#24

Post by cycloptic »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #22
cycloptic wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will only access youtube in ways that limit its tracking and anti-features. That means always using Tor and Youtube-dl/Invidious/Newpipe. Never use the official frontend or any of the official apps.

Then you may have noticed that you can’t access Google through Tor. They intentionally send you to a captcha you can never solve.

No, I've never noticed that. I don't try to access google or youtube directly through Tor. I just use those programs.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#25

Post by dehrmann »

burgerzzz wrote: post #6

I've stopped using every Google product but Google search, and unfortunately Google Captcha, which I absolutely abhor. I downloaded Google Photos a few days ago to try and export some old photos and it refuses to let you view your old photos until you have give access to your current photos. That really typifies my experience with Google.

> Google Captcha

This one's scary from an infrastructure perspective. Way too many websites depend on Recaptcha, and an outage would be somewhat painful. There aren't tons of competitors, so with Google's penchant for killing services, it puts things at risk.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#26

Post by jsjohnst »

jchw wrote: post #12
burgerzzz wrote: post #6

I've stopped using every Google product but Google search, and unfortunately Google Captcha, which I absolutely abhor. I downloaded Google Photos a few days ago to try and export some old photos and it refuses to let you view your old photos until you have give access to your current photos. That really typifies my experience with Google.

Have you tried using Google Takeout? I have not but it claims it can export all of your photos/videos/etc. and is probably the sanctioned way to do this. The iOS app needs photos access because it is less a Google Photos client and more an alternative Photos app with Google Photos syncing/integration. I think it would not be ideal to use it if all you want is to export data. (Disclaimer: I currently work for Google.)

> The iOS app needs photos access

Unfortunately that’s partly Apple to blame, as for the longest time it was an all or nothing permission, no option for write only access.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#27

Post by jlarocco »

gitgud wrote: post #23

This reminds me of people trying to cut out plastics from there life. This is hard because plastic is cheap, convinient, useful and it's embedded in every product in modern life.... Just like Google

I don't see the problem. There's still privacy benefits to be had by cutting Google out of your life 90% of the time, or even 75% or 50% of the time.

I've largely cut out Google, but still occassionally use YouTube, Maps (usually through a 3rd party), and very rarely search.

For me, StreetView and the huge library on YouTube are just too useful to completely give up, and, unfortunately, I don't know of any alternatives making headway in those areas.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#29

Post by dempedempe »

I'm surprised to see that Fastmail is not listed as a Gmail alternative. I've tried it, Protonmail, and Zoho as replacements. IMO, Fastmail has the simplest interface and best suite of tools. I had trouble setting up an alias with Protonmail. Fastmail provides very clear instructions for this right on the app. Zoho was cool in that it lets you use a custom alias for free, but it just felt too cluttered.

I also remember reading somewhere on HN that the creators of Protonmail have some dubious ties (and work in the same office) to a shady European data collection agency. Can't find the link atm.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#30

Post by jlarocco »

seiferteric wrote: post #28

I am going down this road atm. I just signed up for fastmail, but I don't see it on this list, does anyone have any comparisons with the others listed? My main concern was being able to use my own domain.

I've been using Fastmail for several years now and love it.

I can't directly answer your question about a comparison, though. I know I looked at several alternatives before signing up, but I don't remember exactly why I chose it over the others.

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