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Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

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Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#101

Post by epanchin »

mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #100
dempedempe wrote: post #29

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 rememb…

I am a very happy Fastmail customer. The one thing I wish for is more feature parity with Google Calendar, such as setting daily agenda emails. However, I’ve found Fastmail search, spam filtering and user interfaces to be great, on par or better than Google for all my needs. One aspect of poorer performance with Fastmail has been boot up time on mobile though. The iOS app doesn’t appear to cache anything offline, so…

Is the iOS app necessary/worthwhile? I’ve never thought to use it, just the standard mail app, which does cache.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#102

Post by cycloptic »

lucb1e wrote: post #68
cycloptic wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Wait, you can get around IP bans (Google certainly has a CAPTCHA on anyone trying to access Search from a Tor exit node IP address) by using a different client? Like, the check is client-side? That seems odd.

Please re-read my original post, it was about youtube, not search. But I don't think you can get around the Tor captcha on search, so at this time I would say avoid google search entirely if you care about not being tracked.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#103

Post by epanchin »

steelframe wrote: post #51
mikedilger wrote: post #40

ReCaptcha is about the only google product that I still have to use... some 15% of websites I use eventually make me reCaptcha. Everything else is blocked with pihole/uMatrix/pf. Been this way for about six months now. Occasionally I still youtube-dl from a server and scp the file locally.

You don't have to use ReCaptcha. You just elect to do your business in another way or with another company. For example, I was a lifelong member of a regional bicycling club until they started trying to force me to solve ReCaptchas whenever I'd need to log in to their web site, and they stopped accepting membership dues and event registration fees by a check in the mail. That was easy enough: I stopped giving them mo…

I imagine they saved more money stopping accepting checks, than they gained from you as a member.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#105

Post by Avamander »

tyingq wrote: post #72
elagost wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fastmail is great, but as this list is supposed to be "privacy focused", Fastmail (company from Australia) is not a good alternative. https://www.wired.com/story/australia-encryption-law-global-...

Yandex might be a niche choice, if your main worry is "5/9 Eyes". Free, even to bring your own domain.

Yandex is a nice escape from the western law enforcement if that's a threat to one.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#106

Post by sjy »

Spearchucker wrote: post #13

There are a whole lot of products and services in that list I haven't heard of so will be checking those out. Notable about the list is the absence of anything from Microsoft. I cannot (will not, truth be told) do without Office and Exchange. Are all the items in that list free? Finally, I hope to see affordable and credible, non - Apple alternatives to Android some time. Still on Windows Phone which to this day has…

I’d also recommend giving LibreOffice another try if it’s been a few years. I wasn’t at all interested in switching as of 2014, but Microsoft Office has become a lot more annoying with its slow new UI and constant advertising for cloud services, and in the meantime LibreOffice has enjoyed some incremental improvements. Plus, with so many people using G Suite and mobile OSes, it’s no longer much of a disadvantage to be unable to render an Office document with pixel-perfect accuracy.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#107

Post by im3w1l »

sjwright wrote: post #96
Kye wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of what I want to send and receive by email might be considered illegal in Russia, so that's a hard no. I don't trust Russia's legal system to interpret the law in my favor. Does, for example, this email receipt for a book about a bi football player figuring out his sexuality count as propaganda? I wouldn't risk it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_gay_propaganda_law

Do you fear the Russian legal system though? Are you really doing anything so controversial that you’d motivate Russian Intelligence to care about a foreigner?

I'd be more concerned about being blackmailed by Russian intelligence services.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#108

Post by dpcan »

Well, this long list is certainly a nice reminder that Google is going to be a permanent part of most peoples' lives for ... forever.

Seriously. Google can use this as marketing for why people love Google so much.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#109

Post by RandomBacon »

qrbLPHiKpiux wrote: post #79
elagost wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fastmail is great, but as this list is supposed to be "privacy focused", Fastmail (company from Australia) is not a good alternative. https://www.wired.com/story/australia-encryption-law-global-...

The "E" in email is for Evidence. It doesn't matter what service you use. No email is private, I don't care who they are. p.s. - I'm a paid fastmail user.

You're right. Even if the email contents are encrypted, there is still the metadata.

I wonder if the Monero Message System is still being developed. It would solve the metadata problem.

Re: Cutting Google out of your life (2019)

#110

Post by leejoramo »

epanchin wrote: post #101
mlthoughts2018 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a very happy Fastmail customer. The one thing I wish for is more feature parity with Google Calendar, such as setting daily agenda emails. However, I’ve found Fastmail search, spam filtering and user interfaces to be great, on par or better than Google for all my needs. One aspect of poorer performance with Fastmail has been boot up time on mobile though. The iOS app doesn’t appear to cache anything offline, so…

Is the iOS app necessary/worthwhile? I’ve never thought to use it, just the standard mail app, which does cache.

The Fastmail app is very nice, but not required

Using Apple’s iOS apps will give you better integration with the whole Apple ecosystem, Fastmail‘s app has better integration with a few of their specific features

The biggest advantage of using Fastmail’s app is that searching emails is MUCH faster and flexible

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