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Alternatives to Google Products

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Re: Alternatives to Google Products

#521

Post by TimJYoung »

cosmojg wrote: post #17
nemothekid wrote: post #2

I'm a little discouraged when I see articles like this that seem to be completely tuned for developers or look over completely decent pro-privacy alternatives like Apple. For example, the "best" calendar alternative is Etar which looks to a Github repo. Really? At the very least you could mention Apple Calendar. Is Maps.Me (which uses AdSense) really better than Apple Maps? I'm not a fan of hooktube either - it just…

It's not that "privacy-focused" tends to be conflated with FLOSS. Rather, it's nearly impossible to guarantee privacy in proprietary software. The transparency of FLOSS makes it trustless. Want to know what data of yours, if any, is being collected? Look at the code. This is why, when it comes to privacy, Apple isn't worth consideration. All we have is their word, and that simply isn't enough.

This isn't true. You can use disassembly tools to trace through code, and you can see what imports/exports there are, as well as what API calls are being made using static analysis tools.

You can also use all sorts of runtime tools to see what a binary is doing at runtime, so I imagine it would be pretty easy to see if an application is phoning home, and where home is located, although the data is probably encrypted.

In fact, it might actually be easier for an end user to audit a binary using such automated tools instead of looking at the source code itself. At least with the automated tools, the tools can flag suspicious constructs in the binary that may indicate that it's up to no good, and do so in a way that is more understandable to the end user.

Re: Alternatives to Google Products

#522

Post by beenBoutIT »

smadge wrote: post #453
Theodores wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The irony is that everyone knows a bit too much about RMS and exactly how he behaves online or in interviews. His efforts at privacy have backfired.

RMS’s efforts are not for not privacy as some absolutist doctrine: no one must know anything about me. Instead they are about freedom: people should know about me what I let them know about me; I am in control of my data and my online presence. We know lots about RMS’s internet habits specifically because he shares them with us using free and open services.

He's put his own special RMS twist on the classic 'vagrant in the library' model of internet use, taking it a step further by shunning browsers entirely and not using cellular devices. IIRC, he does explicitly mention privacy as being one of his motivations.

Re: Alternatives to Google Products

#523

Post by Charlie_26 »

tty89 wrote: post #175
trumped wrote: post #108

You probably should install something like LineageOS to replace stock Android and avoid installing any Google apps/services if you want to be Google-free... (use f-droid or Yalp to find apps). Because if you replace all Google products with alternatives but have a Google service running on your phone 24/7, what's the point?

One problem that I found with Lineage without GApps (using microG) was that GPS was done for. I couldn't use any map application for navigation, nor book a cab using Uber (their web interface kept denying my payment methods), etc. There were times when I was at a tough spot with friends and family -- trying to book a cab but couldn't. Again, using Uber is sending a tracking signal but it's either that or paying 2x th…

What about just getting Google Maps on Yalp? It's definitely there. Can Google still track your location if it's downloaded here?

Re: Alternatives to Google Products

#524

Post by 0xmaverick »

kerberos84 wrote: post #500
0xmaverick wrote: post #456

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How can you ever trust anyone like that ? Unless, you see the line of code that is deleting the data ?. It's kind of unfair when people on HN take Apple by their word and for Google "oh is it really deleted though" ?

Because google makes its revenue from user data.

Do you have a better solution ?. No one will use the products if it costs some non-trivial amount. And no this thread doesn't represent the billions of non-US non-rich people that use Google.

Re: Alternatives to Google Products

#525

Post by bitmapbrother »

izacus wrote: post #128
bitmapbrother wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unless you live in China. In that case the Chinese government has full unfettered access to your iCloud Drive data and iCloud email.

Even in US, Apple regularly gives data dumps to US government. iCloud DOES NOT have the same privacy guarantees than iMessage and similar. The iCloud Privacy Policy closely mirrors Googles. Here's the report - Apple gave data to US government in 80% of requests in 2017: https://www.macrumors.com/2018/05/25/apple-second-2017-trans...

In the words of Lisa Jackson, VP at Apple:

Please know that Apple will continue its work with law enforcement. We share law enforcement's concerns about the threat to citizens and we work closely with authorities to comply with legal requests for data that have helped solve complex crimes. Thousands of times every month, we give governments information about Apple customers and devices, in response to warrants and other forms of legal process. We have a team that responds to those requests 24 hours a day. Strong encryption does not eliminate Apple’s ability to give law enforcement meta-data or any of a number of other very useful categories of data.

https://wikileaks.org/podesta-emails/emailid/58380

Re: Alternatives to Google Products

#527

Post by komeijist »

nemothekid wrote: post #190
throwaway13456 wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>alternatives like Apple I would never trust Apple because they have consistently lied and cheated me - For instance, they throttled the speed on my iPhone, they hid the fact that my iPhone has more probability to bend and finally, as a cherry on top, they refused to honor warranty for a design flaw of theirs. When they realized they fault, instead of making a free replacement, they charged me $30 for it. Given all t…

>And you and I don't have access to the source code, so we have no idea what's going on on their servers Consider this: for 90% of the population, that is also true of any FOSS solution. I'm tired of the "you don't have access to the source code" argument. I don't inspect the microcode that runs on my CPU - why should I trust Intel and not Apple? And for a greater portion of the population, that source code may as we…

having the source code be open doesn't necessarily make it trustable, but it definitely has an added benefit. like op says, proprietary code is untrustable by design.

there is also the fact that I cannot take the code and compile it myself, proprietary solutions like the nvidia linux driver for example have given me headaches so many times, it would be nice if there was some form of entry to the code to at least get a vague idea of what the code is supposed to be doing. I basically have to pray for software to do what I want, when it doesn't the whole solution due to it's closedness/unadaptivity becomes useless to me.

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