Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 324 posts

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#171

Post by kodt »

Jommi wrote: post #165
kodt wrote: post #129

When 90% of the people you email are on Gmail or GSuite does Proton mail really help? Yeah you get end to end encryption for other Proton mail users, but I don't know a single one. Google is going to have all of my emails anyway. As for Facebook it is best just to quit. I don't even use Facebook to keep in touch with friends anymore. The value in Facebook is some of the groups. Local neighborhood groups seem to be th…

You're living in a US bubble.

I admit that but switching to Signal does me no good if no-one I know uses it. I am not saying no-one should switch.

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#172

Post by everfree »

dnpp123 wrote: post #99
annadane wrote: post #36

It's not fair to the public that FB bought up Insta/Whatsapp. That is a true lack of choice. If it were just FB, fine, ignore it, don't use it, use Whatsapp. But no, they get to buy up competition whilst telling us how much our privacy and integrity is taken seriously

For messaging, I highly encourage people to use matrix.org. For tech savvy people it's really easy to self-host https://github.com/spantaleev/matrix-docker-ansible-deploy and the good part is that you can set up bridges to telegram, whatsapp, facebook, irc, discord, slack... So you can use those apps privately while waiting for people to switch to better alternatives (which may never happens sadly). Bonus: the deskto…

I tried Matrix/Riot, but I ran into some big UI issues trying to get a E2E channel going between me and a friend (I had to "create" the channel multiple times, or add keys multiple times, I can't remember). And we share screens a lot, which Riot didn't seem to support.

It was a while ago, but I also seem to remember delayed messages.

The audio quality was nice though.

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#173

Post by irrational »

I've never used Facebook (or Instagram or any other Facebook technology - as a web developer I've even eschewed React in favor of Vue), so I'd say you don't need anything instead of Facebook. Google on the other hand is a bit tougher for me. I use Firefox instead of Chrome. DuckDuckGo instead of Google Search. iPhone instead of Android. Apple Maps instead of Google Maps. I still use Google Docs, but only for working on files with coworkers - I don't have anything personal in Google Docs (I use a variety of other tools like Evernote and Excel for personal stuff). The one I'd like to move away from, but haven't found a good replacement, is Mail.

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#174

Post by 0ld »

lloydde wrote: post #80

I’m excited by the https://planetary.social/ announcement this week. “We’re building an open and humane alternative to Facebook” https://mobile.twitter.com/rabble/status/1220075601337315328

> If you want to get started with Planetary, the first thing you need to do is download the app from the Apple App Store. [0]

Seriously? And they call this "planetary"?

[0] https://planetarysupport.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/36003...

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#175

Post by shreyshrey »

fredley wrote: post #61
annadane wrote: post #36

It's not fair to the public that FB bought up Insta/Whatsapp. That is a true lack of choice. If it were just FB, fine, ignore it, don't use it, use Whatsapp. But no, they get to buy up competition whilst telling us how much our privacy and integrity is taken seriously

Facebook and Insta I can (and do!) live without. Whatsapp though, is the main method of communication, and particularly group communication for all of my friends. It's almost impossible to leave.

Try AirSend (https://www.airsend.io). We use it for group communication both for personal and professional use.

It is private. Create a channel and invite your friends. Thats it.

Disclaimer: I work for them.

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#176

Post by sp332 »

senthil_rajasek wrote: post #41
sp332 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ad network?

How? All the info about me is with Google and no 3rd party knows my private info.

First, I'd rather Google not have it. I consider Google having it to be a breach of my privacy.

But besides that, any time someone clicks an ad, Google gives information about that person to the advertiser.

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#178

Post by senthil_rajasek »

sp332 wrote: post #176
senthil_rajasek wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How? All the info about me is with Google and no 3rd party knows my private info.

First, I'd rather Google not have it. I consider Google having it to be a breach of my privacy. But besides that, any time someone clicks an ad, Google gives information about that person to the advertiser.

You can absolutely tell google not to store your information.

When you buy a shoe with your credit card at a store you are giving your personal information, isn't clicking on an ad similar?

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#179

Post by auiya »

Jommi wrote: post #165
kodt wrote: post #129

When 90% of the people you email are on Gmail or GSuite does Proton mail really help? Yeah you get end to end encryption for other Proton mail users, but I don't know a single one. Google is going to have all of my emails anyway. As for Facebook it is best just to quit. I don't even use Facebook to keep in touch with friends anymore. The value in Facebook is some of the groups. Local neighborhood groups seem to be th…

You're living in a US bubble.

Agree. I've heard WhatsApp usage worldwide is huge, but I'm in the US, and I don't know a single person who uses it.

Re: What can you use instead of Google and Facebook?

#180

Post by DavideNL »

scambier wrote: post #85
DavideNL wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it's own hosted, what's the difference? Whether i send queries to Google from my browser, or from my own hosted Searx instance, it's the same thing: a query from one of my static ip-addresses to Google (or other search engines.) It seems to only make sense if this Searx instance is public and your queries are mixed with others. And in that case you have to trust whoever runs this Searx instance won't sell your dat…

Install it on a VPN?

Then why use Searx, i might as well use a VPN + Firefox.
Post reply on HN