Privacy Guides
In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.
This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.
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Additional Resources:
- EFF: Surveillance Self-Defense
- Consumer Reports Security Planner
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- r/Privacy
- Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List
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IMO switch away from services as fast as you're comfortable with - it's not all or nothing. Switch the easy ones now, and build escape plans for the rest. Small steppy is better than no steppy.
Totally agree with this. I started with Gmail and calendar and then gradually continued with Gdrive and Gphotos. My browser has always been Firefox, so no problem there. My next step is owning a Google-free phone (keeping an eye on https://tuxphones.com/). The only thing that I can not get rid of is Google Maps. It works so damn good!
I originally had ambitions for a Linux phone but after all my waiting and reasearch it seemed to be too much of a hassle and no gain. After all, you can also have a degooglefied experience with a forked android like LineageOS or GrapheneOS. That's what I went with.
True. I so much would like to have a pure Linux phone, but they are still not much ready. I do not understand why though. I think there is market for it and tons of Linux apps are already available.
replaced it years ago with Organic Maps. The few things googleMaps does better are not worth the huge hole it digs in your privacy
Awesome, thanks for the suggestion.
What do you use for a GDrive alternative?
And for a better GMaps alternative, try OpenStreetMap
I use a self-hosted Nextcloud server for Gdrive and Photos. Anyone who thinks going self-hosted is hard must watch 1 or 2 Docker videos and buy a minipc for a $150-$200. It is really not that hard. OpenStreetMap unfortunately is not even close what Maps can provide. I have not checked it for a long time though, maybe some drastic improvements have happened lately?
On the other hand OpenStreetMap seems to provide things that Google Maps doesn't like a lot of paths and trails, including inclination & difficulty info.
Yes, way more up to date for most thongs, and it doesn't clutter the map full of ads.
Google Maps has been good for street view, though. I only use it account free and in an isolated/VPN tab. 😂
Didn't know this, thank you.
Well it's not hard (I have Linux experience), but I'm worried about the time investment to maintain and secure it myself. I'd rather pay someone else to do that for me...
I'm surprised you don't like OSM, in terms of the actual map it's much better for me than GMaps. The only thing I still use GMaps for is to see reviews of restaurants etc.
Now you made me curious :) I will definitely take a look at it. Thanks.
No worries, if you also want to use it on your phone be sure to check out the OsmAnd or Organic Maps app.
Not who you were discussing with but i hope its ok to throw in my 2 centavos.
Traffic. Google has traffic.
On the other hand I was just at a place where Google maps was very wrong and OSM using organic maps, was accurate. The new roads went in 6 months ago, so it's not like it just happened.
I'm always amazed at how out of touch tech people are with how difficult this stuff is. People say shit like this all the time but when I try it, it most certainly is difficult, and continues to be difficult as time goes on and things stop working.
As mentioned self-hosted Nextcloud is an option but as my ability to keep things from breaking is really limited which is a big reason why I use the cloud, I am moving on Sync. Other cloud services people often recommend are NordLocker and Tresorit.
Nordlocker is neither open source nor has it been audited. Tresorit at least has audits.
NordLocker was part of Nord Security external ISO27001 audit in 2022. Of course, being closed-source software you can't really know security fully. The biggest concern seems however to be the encryption model they use in addition to being closed source. However, for example, hosting my own cloud service while most secure really isn't the option that would answer the reason I use cloud service.
I am not saying use it. I am saying it often gets recommended. I really do think people should do their own research on if things are best fit for them. I am having a huge issue finding actually secure solutions that are not self-hosted and FOSS or at least open source. Nextcloud which is fully hosted by service or on your own bought server space has some concerns as well.
I'd agree with Google EARTH being without alternative, but so far I haven't really found any gmaps feature that OrganicMaps/OSM doesn't provide. Maybe I've never gotten full use out of gmaps?
Hadn't heard of Tux Phones before. Any other resources like that?
Unfortunately I do not know any other sources like this one. Tuxphones does not update as they were doing last year either.
This 100%. It's also worth looking at https://www.privacyguides.org/en/basics/common-misconceptions/#complicated-is-better
Don't be obsessive about "degoogling" to the point where you pick worser alternatives that don't have the features you require. Always test something out before doing a mass migration of "all your email" for example.