this post was submitted on 30 Jun 2023

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Technology

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101

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

submitted 2 years ago by frogman@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

108 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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 billboards for these companies anymore.

For anyone unfamiliar, some good resources to have when starting your degoogling 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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[–] tokadorium@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 years ago (8 children)

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

[–] StandardIssueCalzone@lemmy.one 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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

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

DeepL is a german Company where privacy laws are pretty strict, though i dont know what kind of data they collect. At least you dont need an Account to use it.

[–] lemmyvore@feddit.nl 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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/ !

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[–] cnnrduncan@beehaw.org 1 points 2 years 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.

[–] Rainhall@feddit.online 1 points 2 years ago

DuckDuckGo got a shoutout from Star Trek: Strange New Worlds this week. Much smoother than Hawaii Five-Oh's "Bing it."

[–] 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 (3 children)

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 2 years ago (1 children)

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 2 years 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.

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[–] InterSynth@kbin.social 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

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.

[–] code_is_speech@lemmy.fmhy.ml 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years 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.

[–] Silviecat44@vlemmy.net 0 points 2 years ago

Not much honestly. Still use Gmail and Drive

[–] Diabolo96@lemmy.fmhy.ml 0 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

If 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

[–] TeaEarlGrayHot@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 years ago

I have been selfhosting Jellyfin on and off for the last few years, amazing open source program! I fail to see the advantage of a one user searx instance over multi-user anonymized instances--still considering spinning one up eventually

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