this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2024
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It is essential to stop using Chrome. Under the pretense of saving users from third-party spyware, Google is creating an ecosystem in which Chrome itself is the spyware. (mastodon.world)
submitted 10 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (5 children)

What lessons have you learned so far? I've switched to FF and DDG with great results, but still use Gmail/android/photos.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I urge you to check out Kagi Browser[1]. I forgot how pain-free using a search engine could be. With Google, a relatively simple search had me typing:

sink tap gasket intitle:"replacement" OR intitle:"repair" filetype:pdf OR filetype:doc inurl:product OR inurl:details "made in" (site:.com OR site:.co.uk OR site:.de) -site:amazon.com -site:ebay.com

I am appreciative that I've gotten pretty good at finding obscure nuggets of info, and it makes Google Dork[2] searches even more fun, but when I simply need "where to by $x", Google shat out mindless SEO content.

I also highly recommend Fastmail[3] as an alternative email host. Far cheaper than Google Workspace for custom domains, and their masked email function is wonderful, even more so with 1Password[4].

Turning your back from the abusive Google can look intimidating to begin with, but it turns out it takes very little effort if you make a lil' plan of alternative services to use.

  1. https://kagi.com/
  2. https://www.exploit-db.com/google-hacking-database
  3. https://www.fastmail.com/
  4. https://1password.com/fastmail/
[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I saw this thread on mastodon the other day griping about Kagi not understanding how inherently political tech is which doesn't fill me with confidence in their ability to proceed ethically: https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/111707573907442638

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

That's a darn shame, I just paid for a month of Kagi to try them out.

Saying "Politics finding its way into tech is one of the reason we do not have innovation any more." instead of answering the question is a way to dodge a question you don't want to answer. Super duper red flag. Unfortunate. I don't think I can even trust that their search results aren't biased.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

What's your take on Kagi joining partnership with brave?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

1password rocks big time, AND it's Canadian!

It even has a Linux desktop application to integrate with system authentication and the CLI for SSH keys.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I can recommended proton to get away from gmail. They also offer a bigger suite with a few other services like cloud storage, VPN, password manager.

The transition is super easy, they also have a free tier if you want to try it out. Though if you like it I recommend sending some money there way, even with a basic subscription

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I also moved to the proton suite. It's a tad expensive but I use all their services so it pays off. All their services feel half baked tho, especially in user experience.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

I'm going to drop a recommendation for Skiff here. Paid but their free tier (which I'm using) has plenty of good stuff.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

The biggest thing is probably that you'll have to pay for things if you want something that's ethical and preserves your privacy, either a paid service or some initial investment into self-hosting (what I did). It's 100% worth it imo though, being mostly free from big tech feels really nice!

More specifically, I can highly recommend getting a Synology NAS and your own domain name. They have great replacements for many Google apps, and you can also try out open source alternatives with Docker.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

I'm barely feeding my family and paying bills at this point. Paying for privacy, email or storage isn't an option. I guess I need to up my hobby IT game.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Cannot recommend Immich enough as a self-hosted Photos alternative. Obviously not a drop in replacement, and if you don't want to self-host it's not really feasible. But it is just awesome.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Or Tuta(nota) https://tuta.com are good!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I've been using gmx which is a free EU email service with encryption paid for through ads but they don't harvest data and I just use IMAP into my nextcloud email app