I was hoping this was suggestions for services you can host yourself. Switching from Google to Apple doesn't really change much.
Have you looked at https://github.com/al3x/sovereign/?
Disclosure: I'm a major contributor.
What I use instead of Google services
141–150 of 307 posts
Re: What I use instead of Google services
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ok, say someone has a complete database of my location sampled at 10 minute intervals over the past few years. What could they do with that information that would be harmful to me?
So you're saying you're ok with me knowing everywhere you've been for the past few years? I'm going to assume then that you don't visit strip clubs, bars, 'adult book' stores, the house of your drug dealer, the house of your secret lover, a proctologists office, an OBGYN, an abortion clinic, or a million other places. You may not visit these places, but many others do, and having that information publicly available c…
It suddenly occurred to me that I live an intensely boring life. I'm unblackmailable, yay!
Re: What I use instead of Google services
#143Until recently, I also was very concerned with privacy, partly not wanting my personal data available easily to many large corporations, and also wanting to keep resources for client work very secure.
What changed is that I have retired (except for some mentoring and writing). Now, I would like the tech side of my life to be as simple as possible in order to free up my time for other activities. So for right now I am massively using Google services but I am considering, depending on how much I like the iPhone 6, just living in Apple's little walled garden. I trust both Apple and Google to generally do the right things.
I still advise friends and family to run Adblock software, and to be generally prudent privacy and security wise. But for me personally privacy issues are not as important as they once were.
Re: What I use instead of Google services
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
And? Both of them track data, both of them do target ads. What is the real difference? One is better at doing it than the other?
I just told you the difference. What is it that you don't understand? Google's whole business revolves around showing you targeted ads. Apple's business is to sell you iDevices. Apple will not target you to the point where it's invasive and creepy (although I'd argue even the smallest amount of tracking is invasive, but I've been trying to look at this from Gabriel Weinberg's point of view) because Apple can not do a…
Also, I doubt Apple would do something like Google's word gymnastics with the everchanging and murky ad profiling policy for student emails in the "free" Google Apps for Education.
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/03/13/26google.h33.ht...
Re: What I use instead of Google services
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your line of thinking hinges on an optimistic view: "As long as X doesn't happen, we're fine". But what will you do when X does happen? You'll be completely unprepared for it. I prefer to take the "hope for the best, prepare for the worst" approach: if something bad were to happen, I would have a better chance of not being impacted.
No, my line of thinking is more like "If X happens, we're fucked regardless of whether we have privacy or not, so we need to focus on not letting X happen" If an insane genocidal dictatorship comes to power, you will be impacted, unless you're on the side of the dictators.
I'll bet you top dollar that's not what Jennifer Lawrence is thinking right now. She's not thinking "It was inevitable that someone will get my photos from iCloud". Instead, she's thinking "I should have never put my photos on iCloud in the first place".
Hence the point of this thread: don't expose more information than you need to.
Edit: just as I typed this, the top story details the perils of data theft, exactly the point I'm trying to get across here: https://www.nikcub.com/posts/notes-on-the-celebrity-data-the...
Re: What I use instead of Google services
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
You don't even have to have been there at all. Once an entity holds all your personal information like that, they can just say "Oh you were here, here, here and here at these times" even if it was not true. Who would doubt them? After all they have all the information right? RIGHT? Perfect way to set up someone you don't like.
If the government has devolved to the point that we have to worry about them framing people unjustly, we have FAR, FAR bigger problems than a database of location information. Hiding the information in that scenario is, at best, a temporary band aid. The appropriate fix is limiting the power of the government and requiring strict and transparent conditions on when and why someone can be arrested.
I'm sorry, I just don't follow this slippery slope argument. We have lots of examples of the government abusing their use of online information. For the haves, we have the still-minor indignities of the no-fly list and targeting certain political stripes for IRS audits. For the have-nots, it is terrorism fusion data centers, predatory civil forfeiture and, jeez, a lot of the criminal justice system. So that world does exist now.
Many of these excesses have been driven by "limiting the size of government" by defunding local governments and relying on private information brokers (license plate readers, etc), rather than passing better laws.
Re: What I use instead of Google services
#147Is there a good non-google alternative to Docs / Drive. I read the article hoping to find one, but didn't see any mention of one. Having a non-google version of a service which allows collaboration and modification of documents through a web browser, without additional software installed would be nice and I feel it must exist, but don't know where to look. Anyone got a recommendation.
Microsoft's web based Office is surprisingly good.
EtherPad and EtherCalc for open source.
Re: What I use instead of Google services
#148>Phone OS: iOS I guess there isn't much you can do with this, but is changing from Android to iOS really big enough difference?
Yes. Google+, by default, likes to grab all pictures taken with the device camera (and most stupidly will then say they're ready to be shared - because every photo is for sharing . . . )
The worst is Google Play Services though. It's basically a way for Google to get your location data, and to generate massive global maps of WiFi networks, rather like what got them in trouble with the streetmap cars. Anyone doubting how important this is to them needs to check their reaction when Motorola wanted to use Skyhook on a device instead: http://www.theverge.com/2011/05/12/google-android-skyhook-la...
Re: What I use instead of Google services
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
The difference between data privacy now, and data privacy 10 or 20 years ago has little to do with how many people have access to it, or how secure it is. It mostly has to do with who can analyze it. An example: where you walk in public is public information, but for most of human history, no one has had the capability to keep a database of that information and query it retroactively. Your location information is the…
Ok, say someone has a complete database of my location sampled at 10 minute intervals over the past few years. What could they do with that information that would be harmful to me?
Call me paranoid, but my biggest concern is that things I do that are acceptable today may become illegal or persecution-worthy in the future. I recently read a story about a mother who was executed for her religious beliefs. The attackers knew she had been visiting a country with a different majority faith and used that information to single her out.
That kind of thing could never happen in the West... right? I hate to bring in Nazi Germany, but imagine how much more effective they could have been at rounding up people if they had access to Google's tracking data.
Full Disclosure: I am not actively avoiding any tracking, but I think about possible abuses a lot.
Re: What I use instead of Google services
#150> "Like most people, I don't like to be tracked. I also am the founder of the search engine that doesn't track you, DuckDuckGo." It pains me to hear intelligent people talk about being "tracked" as something "bad" a priori. While there are certainly plenty of examples of abuse of knowledge, I tend to think of most "tracking" not as "stalking" but as "relationship building." Let me explain... Google is a service provi…
"It pains me to hear intelligent people talk about being "tracked" as something "bad" a priori." Tracking is bad when you know little to nothing about what is being is tracked about you and how that information is used. While you might get targeted or personalised results as a result of tracking, that is likely just a small outcome of the data collected about you. Who knows what else is being analysed or number-crunc…
A big example of the intentionally murky and everchanging privacy policy confusion was in how it applied to student emails in Google Apps for Education:
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2014/03/13/26google.h33.ht...