In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.
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If you can afford it, make your next phone a Google Pixel and put GrapheneOS on it. Despite the phone being google, all the google crap will be removed by the OS.
Nextcloud self-hosted to replace Google Drive.
Install as many apps as possible from F-Droid and the rest via Aurora Store.
Nextcloud self-hosted to replace Google Drive.
I'm really reluctant to recommend Nextcloud. The software is buggy, it's not e2e encrypted, and you're liable to data less if your VPS goes down unless you're good at managing cloud resources.
For most people, a service is better.
For most people, Syncthing is better. You don't even need a server, just another device of similar capacity compatible with Syncthing.
Nextcloud has a few easy cheats to get it working smooth these days. Docker all in one images are a thing. The only additional step I had was a cache and cron and I haven't had one error.
Yeah, if all you want to do is keep your data synced across multiple devices, syncthing is great. I even have it running on my NAS so I have a solid source to go back to for all devices, even if all my other devices are off or sleeping.
Depends on the person. I keep my NC on a Raspberry Pi in my home with a few backups on various media stashed off-site, all encrypted. Some people do want to go this far, some people don't.
I don't find NC to be buggy, rather it has a learning curve if you've never installed server-type software before, but if you're the kind of person who likes to DIY it can be a rewarding experience.
The e2e part is true. This frustrates me because if I encrypt everything inside I can't access the contents via the web interface, which is my main way of accessing my content. The e2e plugin they have doesn't work on Raspberry Pis because it just causes the Pi to freeze constantly. My most sensitive files are kept in encrypted containers.
I would say if someone just wants a managed solution, go with Proton Drive.
This is the best advice. Your phone tracks you more than anything else and it has a ton of private data. Get that cleaned up and you've drastically reduced the amount of data being sent to Google and friends.
Even though you’re saying install GrapheneOS, it still seems a bit odd to suggest a Google Pixel 😆
It is somewhat ironic, though GrapheneOS only supports Pixel phones. Having messed around with custom Android ROMs before, I can understand why the dev team are choosing a narrow selection of devices to maintain builds for. Just take a look at how many different Samsung phones there are out there - it would be a nightmare to try and support all of them!
It's one of the closest devices to AOSP spec, so not a bad starting point for Android, regardless of flavor.
This is exactly what I have diine and also suggest.
I'm rocking an older pixel. I got it on swappa for cheap. I rather send my money to someone other than G.
CalyxOS and grapheneos are great options. The multiple user feature is useful if you want to keep work apps, bank apps, etc separate from other apps.
If you are already using proton mail, there is proton drive. For docs… maybe Libreoffice, or Cryptpad or any selfhostable options?
proton drive is what i ended up doing. turns out i had literally one important document in docs lol
Nextcloud. You can set up a self-hosted instance, put it in a cloud provider's environment, or use their Enterprise offering, depending on your level of expertise/budget.
Second this, especially if you are even remotely tech savy. You can use it for calendar, drive, contacts sync, notes, RSS feeds, and more. Also want to give a shutout to syncthing(FOSS peer to peer file sync).
I've got a couple next cloud instances running on Vultr. Highly recommended to host on a cheap service on SSD storage.
Now where do I start lol, I've been on this journey for a few years, and I'd say, take it one service at a time!! I'll try and list most of my apps/services etc.
Phone running grapheneos
Browser - vanadium (graphenes hardened browser)
Maps - organic maps
Mail - protonmai
Calender - protonmail
Notes - standard notes
YouTube - newpipe
App store -F-Droid
Messaging - signal and threema
File sync - syncthing
Password managing - bitwarden
Gallery - simple gallery
Camera - stock grapheneos camera
Ad blocking - 2 piholes setup
And one of the hardest was google photos..... Overcame that with self hosting photoprism..... I have syncthing sync my camera roll to a hard drive attached to one of my raspberry pi..... 3am it rsyncs to a permanent location, than rsync to another hard drive, than have a script that adds it to the photoprism library an hour later, sounds hectic but perfect once setup....
And if you want to go even deeper and not use google or any other provider as your DNS, if you have a pi or any other computer running 24/7 can run your own recursive DNS resolver with unbound..... Hope this helps some people, may have missed a few 😂
Why 2 piholes?
More for redundancy, even for the short times it takes to reboot a pi after an update, have 0 interruption of internet.... Also same when I want to backup one of the pi's. Keeps network uptime to 100% most of the time
Ah, that's smart
If you don’t have the time/interest in setting up NextCloud, CryptPad replicates a lot of the functionality of Google Docs/Drive, though to get more 1GB of storage you will have to subscribe.
The paid plans for Proton mail have Proton Drive which is pretty good so far.
Nextcloud self-hosted if you have the technical know-how is also pretty nice. You could also set up a NAS and then use a VPN to access it from your phone/remote location.
If you're on Android, that's probably the most important thing to consider first. Just using a phone with Google Play Services gives up a great deal of privacy, even if you think you've turned all that off.
So, consider either an iPhone or if you're really serious about this shit, GrapheneOS. The iPhone is easier for average people, but GrapheneOS is more private and you have more control. Both are better than Googled Android.
For a Google Drive alternative, that's simple. If you're already using Proton, get ProtonDrive.
For Google Docs alternative, that's a bit more challenging. There aren't any direct competitors with full end-to-end encryption that are any good and also cross-platform.
fuck iphones. paying more to get a worse device? no thanks
Worse device depends on the user. In my mid-30s, I loved all the tweaks and options my Android phone gave me. Now, as I push 50, I find I want my phone to just work. iOS does that for me. I have a dozen other devices I can hack around on.
i agree that iphones just work. i just value customization a ton more. custom apks (cant get youtube revanced on ios) and whatnot
Nextcloud + onlyoffice
Another vote for CryptPad. Very polished and nice to work with.
Do you still use Android? I don't feel like I can genuinely be off of Google until I find a way not to have them in my phone. Apple isn't much better, especially for the featureset sacrifice
GrapheneOS is the go torecommendations.
I'm using a pixel with graphineos rn and its the best mobile experience I've ever had without using google products.
I use android, but you can run android without google with LineageOS
i like my pixel features a bit too much lol. i have tried graphene os, an os build specifically for pixels, but there's just so much stuff that google has in the software. it's like the main reason i got a pixel
Moving to China is probably the easiest solution.
Technically true, but completely false in spirit.
I noticed this tumbling through the Fediverse yesterday: https://framasoft.org/en/
Scroll down and you'll see they have developed Google replacements.
Edit: they also developed a GitHub replacement.
Backblaze + rclone mount encrypted drive = e2e encrypted
On Android RCX available in F-droid works as the rclone client.
Collabora as the text editor on my phone. Libreoffice as my toolset on Linux.
I prefer this to Google drive for everything except sharing files. Sharing can be done over email, but Google docs was nicer.
@cryptpad for Docs.
Since you already use Proton Calendar and Mail. Why not Proton Drive as well?
For cloud storage, mega.nz is a privacy centred one
For the drive I use nextcloud, not selfhosted yet, and filen. The second is based in Germay and gives you 10GB free and was offering 100GB with a payment una tantum. I don't know if you can get this last option right now
My only reccommendation for a replacement for google drive would be to encrypt the files you save their using Veracrypt. No external server is safe to store data on.
I did the same thing recently. I went over to the iOS MacOS dark side. I paid for the proton product suite (awesome apps). The only google thing I haven't replaced is YouTube since there's no real alternative at the moment.