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

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year 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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[-] lengsel@latte.isnot.coffee 1 points 1 year 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 1 year ago

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

[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year 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 1 year ago

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

[-] MasterCelebrator@feddit.de 1 points 1 year 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.

[-] thayer@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year 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.

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[-] cnnrduncan@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Currently the only Google services I use are accessed through open-source third-party implementations - in particular, Aurora Store, NewPipe, and SmartTubeNext! That said, nowadays I only use YouTube regularly and sometimes access their play store's servers on the rare occasion that I actually need to install/update a proprietary application.

[-] Silviecat44@vlemmy.net 1 points 1 year ago

Not much honestly. Still use Gmail and Drive

[-] zxo@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year 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 1 year 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...

[-] digitalgadget@kbin.social 1 points 1 year 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.

[-] HidingCat@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

I was thinking about it; Google offers a number of useful services, and I realise the hardest to get out of will be Maps. I can sort of replace the others with workarounds (Photos will probably be the second hardest to move from), but Maps, there's nothing good enough to replace it for me as far as I can tell.

[-] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 1 year 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.

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

I'm almost entirely degoogled, apart from an email I share with the Mrs for family and joint purposes.

[-] InterSynth@kbin.social 1 points 1 year 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 1 year ago

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

[-] ArugulaZ@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago

(sigh) Probably not enough. I was enthusiastic about Google when I first started using it in 2002 (twenty years ago, it really was a cut above other search engines) and had intense loyalty to the brand, which hasn't entirely evaporated. I still use the search engine from time to time, still use Gmail, still use Android phones. There's a lot Google was doing right at the beginning, but eventually, they cast aside the façade of "don't be evil" and revealed themselves to be only slightly less sleazy than Microsoft.

I still use Microsoft products, too. Just could never get used to the taste of Linux in my mouth.

[-] coolin@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year 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.

[-] code_is_speech@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

LineageOS for microg: degoogled android. DuckDuckGo: search. Firefox: web browser. Ublock origin: ad blocker. Proton: email. OsmAnd+: maps.

Only google product I still use is youtube, but I have made some efforts here:

On desktop pc I use firefox with sponserblock and ublock origin to hide ads and automatically skip sponsered content. I also have an addon called unhook, which hides recommendations, 'people also watched' etc.

I also use and recommend Odysee as a youtube alternative.

On my TV I use SmartTubeNext, on my phone I use revanced.

I host my own music server with navidrome (and my own video media server with Jellyfin). But when I dont have access to that, I also use ViMusic as a youtube music replacement for (degoogled) android.

Can absolutely recommend any and all of the tools I listed.

[-] TeaEarlGrayHot@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I've been running my own Nextcloud instance since 2020, which, combined with ProtonMail, has replaced basically everything I was using Google/Microsoft for

[-] Sinfaen@beehaw.org 1 points 1 year ago

Didn't realize you could host your own, that's good to know

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this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023

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