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How much of your life have you degoogled? (beehaw.org)

submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by frogman@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

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We're reaching the end of an era wherein billions of dollars of investor money was shovelled into tech startups to build large user-bases, and now those companies (now monoliths) are beginning to constrict their user-bases and squeeze for every single penny they can possibly extract. Fair or not.

Now more than ever, it's important for us to step back and reconsider whether we want to be billboards for these companies anymore.

For anyone unfamiliar, some good resources to have when starting your degoogling journey are below:

Privacy Guides - A list of privacy-respecting services you can use.

Plexus - A crowdsourced information bank of service compatibility with degoogled devices.

This random PDF - A study from 2018 detailing data that Google tracks about its' users.

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[-] mitexleo@kbin.social 2 points 2 years ago

90% of my life is degoogled. I'm using Google Play services for some stuff (It doesn't have network access 😶) it my normal profile. My work profile is completely degoogled.

[-] Coeus@coeus.sbs 2 points 2 years ago

I'm still in the Google android stuff just because of convenience but I have ditched Chrome and Google search. Eventually I would like to do more.

[-] pandaontoast@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago

The only thing I still hold onto my account for is YouTube. I pay for mailbox.org which covers email, calendar and cloud stuff. Their website could be better but the service is quality and their privacy policy is tight. When I was on android I used a bunch of custom roms with microg. My favourite ended up being calyxos but they all had a little jank here or there. I dearly miss NewPipe for android as a replacement for the official youtube app.

[-] Diabolo96@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 2 years ago

I wasn't living in a third world sithole I'd had self hosted everything from searx to as search engine to alt front-ends and down to creatng my own Netflix with plex (jellyfin?) and the *arr family

[-] lengsel@latte.isnot.coffee 1 points 2 years ago

I do not have a Google account, so no Gmail address, I do not use Play Store, and I do not use YouTube website.

[-] tokadorium@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 years ago

Only apps by Google I use are gboard, gmail and translator. If someone knows well designed alternatives please share.

[-] thayer@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 years ago

FlorisBoard keyboard is the one to watch as the Gboard killer. v0.40 will finally bring word suggestions and inline autocorrect. In all other respects, it's more customizable than Gboard and can be configured to match the exact size/layout.

For email, K-9 Mail (soon to be Thunderbird Mobile) has made a lot of progress in modernizing its UI this year now that Mozilla has partnered up with the main dev, cketti.

[-] StandardIssueCalzone@lemmy.one 1 points 2 years ago

Nobody has mentioned a translator alternative so I would recommend DeepL, though what they collect for data I don't entirely know so go with caution

[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 2 years ago

You can use a privacy-respecting mail service and use any mail app you want with it. K9 Mail app is pretty well regarded, and there's no shortage of decent mail services, some suggestions:

https://european-alternatives.eu/category/email-providers

[-] anopen@mindshare.space 1 points 2 years ago

There's also FairEmail for an app: https://email.faircode.eu/ !

[-] blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk 1 points 2 years ago

Protonmail for email. Open board for keyboard.

[-] MasterCelebrator@feddit.de 1 points 2 years ago

For Mail i reccommend proton. They also offer cloud, calendar, VPN and recently a password Manager. You can also use their simplelogin Service which Provides alias Mails. These can be used so that you dont have to give your real mail Adress to online Services and so on.

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[-] zxo@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 years ago

I'm not that degoogled now, but I am slowly working towards it; removed my Google Account from my phone, uninstalled or disabled all the proprietary apps I can, and am going to install GrapheneOS in a couple weeks.

[-] Awwab@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Google still runs a good chunk of my life and some of it I know I could use some of the great alternatives that others have mentioned but some of it I'm not really sure about.

Namely:
Maps
Messenger (web browser access to my texts)
Contact sync and backup
Google voice
And all the various services that let my phone operate...

[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 2 points 2 years ago

For Maps there's an alternative on FDroid called GMaps WV which is actually just the Google Maps website wrapped in a tiny webview app. It can't spy on you if you run it that way.

Or you can install Hermit and add Google Maps as one of its sandboxed light apps.

If you're interested in things that aren't Google Maps you can look at OSMAnd, a great app with tons of features and my go-to app when traveling because you can download offline maps and info about local stores, restaurants, attractions etc.

On the lightweight side there's Map Marker which can use map tiles from a dozen different map services, and you can place markers on the map and group them in collections.

[-] digitalgadget@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

Right, I can't use my phone without it and I'm not buying into Apple. I also really like the user reviews on Maps, it's like Yelp and TripAdvisor before they both fell to enshttification. I've also got a Voice number that I pay nothing for and I give it out when businesses demand a phone number. I don't see myself switching to anything else for those.

[-] meldrik@lemmy.wtf 1 points 2 years ago

I degoogled by switching to an iPhone 😅 DuckDuckGo is my default search engine.

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[-] InterSynth@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago

I've degoogled my life as much as I can, but it's almost impossible to completely ditch Google Maps, YouTube, and Android. So I'm not even sure I've done anything significant, because I assume they get pretty much everything from my phone.

[-] blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk 1 points 2 years ago

Magic Earth for maps
NewPipe for Youtube
Android with no Google account & FDriod + Aurora Store

[-] coolin@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

I used to be on GrapheneOS, but the drama with the developer plus mainly not being able to put my university ID on the wallet, forced me back on stock Android.

Besides Android, I use Google Play Store, YouTube, and Maps. For YouTube I've technically degoogled, using Invidious and NewPipe, but that's obviously still using Google services.

I really wish that digital payment didn't rely on two proprietary services (Google Wallet and Apple Wallet). It would be so much easier for phone companies to ship privacy friendly versions of Android if there was a FOSS alternative directly integrated into AOSP. I also wish apps didn't have to use Google service framework just to function, it seems stupid af. I don't think this will ever improve, so I'll probably end up on a true Linux phone whenever those catch up (2030 YEAR OF THE LINUX PHONE???)

We also need open collaboration on mapping. There is the OpenStreetMaps and Overture maps from Linux foundation, but those aren't really there yet unfortunately.

[-] minnix@lemux.minnix.dev 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

so far i've done:

gmail - iredmail

youtube - peertube for my stuff, invidious to watch yt google search - searxng

google news - miniflux

drive and photos - nextcloud

chat - matrix

google play music/yt music - funkwhale

there's probably others just can't think of them. i still have an android phone and still use maps, google play store, and google voice.

[-] xray@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

I’d say I’ve like 70% degoogled.

For search, I mainly use DuckDuckGo, but will use Google if I can’t find what I’m looking for on DDG.
I do watch a lot of YouTube.
I use Apple Maps primarily, but I use Google Maps to check reviews and to see how busy a place is. I also use Waze occasionally which is owned by Google.
I use E2EE iCloud - Files, documents, spreadsheets, photos, notes. But I do have some Google Docs from years ago still in my Google Account.
I use a combination of iCloud Email and ProtonMail primarily for email, but I still have my Gmail for receiving random things that still have that email attached to it.
I use Safari and Firefox primarily as my browsers. Only use Chrome if I’m forced to, and I don’t login to it.

[-] SemioticStandard@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

Pretty well describes my usage also

[-] emmie@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years ago

Lemmy definietly got me into degoogle and foss. Or rather latest reddit situation interested me in these concepts :p

I always liked the idea of decentralized web a lot but it wasn't until the reddit fall that it stopped being abstraction and instead there is a real platform it seems with a future

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this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023

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