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Has anyone de-googled (stopped using Google services)? What was your experience?
- Thread starter digitaldave
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Reports raise video privacy concerns for Amazon-owned Ring
Well, if you think Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have your own best of interest over the money in their pockets they can make off your data then you are free to make that choice.
I have degoogled my phone and degoogling is one of the reasons I can't go back to YouTube
YouTube Vanced is just perfect.
YouTube Vanced is just perfect.
Thats because Apple does not give away enough API access to do the complete block, why FireFox and Chromium based browsers do. That being said Google's Chrome and Microsoft Edge are soon to limit the capabilities of Adblockers.
Vanced is a good arguement against Apple's single App Store gatekeeping to apps. Its Ironic that you can have it on the Google platform but not on the competitor's.
I've switched to Apple Maps and it's going well. Dark mode helps!
Does anybody know of a way to reverse image search using DuckDuckGo in Safari? This is a feature in chrome that I miss. If I remember rightly you could right-click on the image and search google for it.
Does anybody know of a way to reverse image search using DuckDuckGo in Safari? This is a feature in chrome that I miss. If I remember rightly you could right-click on the image and search google for it.
Apple maps
frustrating it mangles or omits street names. Some names are up side down. Some streets are just not named on the screen. The applications seems cluttered not obvious. The bet is it worked well in the lab but real life its frustrating
i never thought of doing a DuckDuckGo image search
frustrating it mangles or omits street names. Some names are up side down. Some streets are just not named on the screen. The applications seems cluttered not obvious. The bet is it worked well in the lab but real life its frustrating
i never thought of doing a DuckDuckGo image search
Not possible I believe. I think that one is a little bit complex. You can use:
TinEye Reverse Image Search
or
Reverse Image Search by HostingChecker
Save time with our meta Reverse Image Search tool. One click and get results from Google, Bing, Yandex, Tineye, Baidu, Sogou and find similar images in 30 photo sites.
hostingchecker.com
I don't know whats their privacy policy but anything is better than Google, if only breaking their market monopoly.
Unfortunately Google Maps is the superior product. Some other stuff you can use are OpenStreetMaps, OsmAnd, Magic Earth. None are better than Google Maps, but these are the current options.
I've been able to get down to only using Gmail, and even that is my secondary address for unimportant stuff - Proton handles anything of value. Apple Maps and DuckDuckGo are both inferior but I've gotten used to them and use them exclusively. I do still view YouTube videos in the browser, but I can't find any real alternative to that unfortunately.
Removing Google was not half as easy as I thought it would be. I did this process years ago. I was a heavy Google fan back in the day but got burned too many times with their cancelling of services I relied on and didn't like where I saw the company going. That and, I started realizing that I didn't want to be the stuff being sold to advertisers.
First thing I did? Move my cloud data from Google Drive to OneDrive. This wasn't simple and it took 4-5 attempts because I kept coming back to Google Drive. And... years ago, Office 365 was nowhere near Google Documents online. Eventually, I did it and didn't look back. The motto here... try... try again - don't give up. Exporting out thousands of Google Documents - not all of them were cleanly or correctly exported resulting in some word documents not looking all that great. Last year I went from OneDrive to iCloud. I'd still recommend OneDrive to most people who want more features and a better web experience.
Next? Google Photos. This was not easy. I had 130+ GB of photos in Google Photos. Exporting them out was actually easy. Importing these into iCloud was a nightmare that took weeks. And when it was done, I found that the way Google Photos works is that it auto fixes the original so I had 3-4 copies of each photo that took me years to slowly clean out. iCloud importing all these photos was painful, slow, and not apparent to what it was doing (just let it go - it'll do it eventually) despite having FIOS 500/500. Been using iCloud photos for years now and I actually prefer it though sharing photos with my wife was easier with Google Photos.
Search engine... I went to Bing years ago and ... while the change wasn't easy, eventually it grew on me. Now I use Duck Duck Go with the occasional bing / google. This wasn't difficult and fairly easy to do. Just took determination.
Email! I had been using a google email address for years... so I did some looking around and fell in love with Fastmail. https://www.fastmail.com. Exporting everything out to Fastmail was easier than I expected. Setting up Fastmail to send/receive gmail was easy. I rarely use gmail and have moved 99% of my email to Fastmail over the last few years. It's AMAZING how fast it is... and it's nice not having my data sold. I use 2 domains and 13 emails with Fastmail. It's only had 2 outages in the years and years I've used it (and they were only a few hours).
AdGuard Pro for Adblock that specifically blocks Google Adsense and other advertisements. I pay for this and put it on my phones and laptops.
Apple Maps wasn't a big deal - but stopping the use of Waze was not easy. I enjoyed the police traps, real time accidents, etc. But I was resolute on getting rid of Google - so I stopped using it and went to Apple Maps. Haven't used Waze for years now and I use Apple Maps for almost everything. Now and then I'll catch myself doing a quick maps.google.com to find some stuff... like store hours...
Browser? That was easy. Safari. Microsoft Edge (chromium) for if I need Chrome. Apple Notes instead of Google Keep. Apple Music instead of Google Music. Apple Calendar instead of Google Calendar - all good.
I do use YouTube and pay for YouTube red because a Google employee told me they lose money on that.
I’ve been considering it. But it would be a hassle to get rid of gmail and Google maps.
Still, I’ve switched all the in-house Apple devices to Ecosia for search. It is a start.
Still, I’ve switched all the in-house Apple devices to Ecosia for search. It is a start.
another email providor could be thexyz.com
needs phone# at registration but not not verified?
$2.95/mo or $29.95/yr
based in Toronto CA, not the best location for privacy security but if all you want is get away from google / apple blatently reading your email
needs phone# at registration but not not verified?
$2.95/mo or $29.95/yr
based in Toronto CA, not the best location for privacy security but if all you want is get away from google / apple blatently reading your email
Good for you! The fact that you actually mentioned how difficult it was to leave Google highlights the real problem here, Google is holding people in a hard grip.
I feel like with Maps we need more options, there are about only 2 which are Apple and Google for the whole world.
For getting Google results, you can use StartPage.com they are like a middle man between you and Google giving an extra layer of protection.
idk, Tutanota, ProtonMail, Mailbox.org, StartMail.com and even Fastmail sounds better options.
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I kicked Facebook to the curb in 2007 or 2008, that was easy; don't use instagram, hate WhatsApp since acquired by FB, stick with iOS Messages, Signal and Telegram (because Russian oligarchs are more trustworthy than FB). I use Safari, block everything I can, but at the end of the day it's hard to get rid of g00gle and their surveillance capitalism model altogether, I use @Mac, @me, @icloud email accounts personally, but have roughly 25 email accounts, some of which are tied to consulting/jobs & are on white label gmail or exchange servers; I'm fine with Apple's maps, honestly Bing or DuckDuckGo are also fine in my opinion. Basically it's easy enough to remove Facebook from my life and miss nothing, but it's a bit harder to cut the cord with google entirely. they're evil and omnipresent <shrug>. Bummer.
I guess somewhere within all this there is a balance of some kind, but we already live in 1984 so it's a bit late ... short of moving off the grid, adopting a pseudonym, using only crypto or cash, and sticking with TinFoilHat Linux 4 paranoids connected to a hotspot on your burner phone you purchased for cash and only use on a laptop that you drive to random locations to connect to t3h intErNet.
Everybody is already tracked everywhere by volunteering to keep their iPhone on their person at all times anyway, the second you attach to Verizon or AT&T or whatever, you gave your life away -- your only option is not to connect to anything 🙃
I guess somewhere within all this there is a balance of some kind, but we already live in 1984 so it's a bit late ... short of moving off the grid, adopting a pseudonym, using only crypto or cash, and sticking with TinFoilHat Linux 4 paranoids connected to a hotspot on your burner phone you purchased for cash and only use on a laptop that you drive to random locations to connect to t3h intErNet.
Everybody is already tracked everywhere by volunteering to keep their iPhone on their person at all times anyway, the second you attach to Verizon or AT&T or whatever, you gave your life away -- your only option is not to connect to anything 🙃
This is the false logic that most people assume and that is either completely disappear from the internet or completely expose yourself. In real life we do not walk out of our homes with masks on so nobody know who we are, but we also do not install cameras inside our homes and broadcast publicly 24/7 for free.
The idea is to limit gathered information. So the less Google you use the better. Its one less thing they know about you. If you use YouTube they know what videos you watched but so what? Thats better than they have a record on everyplace you went on Google Maps, store your video and photo library (there was a horror movie about this called One Hour Photo!), your whole messaging history via e-mail and all your browsing history via Chrome...etc.
Guess what happens if someone hacks your Google account!
I tried to delete-Google awhile ago by using Duck Duck Go and Apple Maps. However especially Apple Maps needs work and a better reporting system on bad road names!
Indeed, Google maps is superior and if that is something important to you it will be very hard to stop using it. Even if Apple Maps was just as good, they may have a better privacy policy, but Apple is just another tech Goliath controlling our lives and its not completely private they do collect data.
How good are spam filters in Proton Mail ?
I'm trying to de-google too, but gmail is very good at filtering. My activity is blocked on gmail ..at least for myself to check and hopefully for them too but I doubt it.
I'm in the midst of moving all from G since a while, I kept few email accounts separated:
one for friends, one for shopping and naturally spam, sigh
and one for my bills that now is gone to a free Proton Mail account.
I can see the spam goes only to the shopping gmail, the others are spam free
The iCloud one gets some spam even if I'm not using it for shopping and that is interesting too
I read sometime ago that sending spam email received at your iCloud account to spam@me.com or abuse@icloud.com was a mistake because those accounts had been hacked: Nicely done Apple 😡
Using DDG since a longtime , no google maps, Youtube never signed for an account but watching time to time when I get links from someone.
I'm trying to de-google too, but gmail is very good at filtering. My activity is blocked on gmail ..at least for myself to check and hopefully for them too but I doubt it.
I'm in the midst of moving all from G since a while, I kept few email accounts separated:
one for friends, one for shopping and naturally spam, sigh
and one for my bills that now is gone to a free Proton Mail account.
I can see the spam goes only to the shopping gmail, the others are spam free
The iCloud one gets some spam even if I'm not using it for shopping and that is interesting too
I read sometime ago that sending spam email received at your iCloud account to spam@me.com or abuse@icloud.com was a mistake because those accounts had been hacked: Nicely done Apple 😡
Using DDG since a longtime , no google maps, Youtube never signed for an account but watching time to time when I get links from someone.
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Sadly DDG is not quite as good as it used to be since being acquired by MS Azure and its rumoured now uses Bing at the back end.
I have swapped to Startpage after years of using DDG but even that is a little suspect. Not subject to US surveillance though, uses EU security standards which are pretty good but there's so much money in personal data mining it's hard to know if anyone is above corruption.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about Startpage;
"Startpage is a Dutch search engine company that highlights privacy as its distinguishing feature.[1][2][3] The website advertises that it allows users to obtain Google Search results while protecting users' privacy by not storing personal information or search data and removing all trackers. Startpage.com also includes an Anonymous View browsing feature that allows users the option to open search results via proxy for increased anonymity. Because the company is based in the Netherlands, it is protected by Dutch and European Union privacy laws, and thus is not subject to United States surveillance programs, like PRISM.
I have swapped to Startpage after years of using DDG but even that is a little suspect. Not subject to US surveillance though, uses EU security standards which are pretty good but there's so much money in personal data mining it's hard to know if anyone is above corruption.
This is what Wikipedia has to say about Startpage;
"Startpage is a Dutch search engine company that highlights privacy as its distinguishing feature.[1][2][3] The website advertises that it allows users to obtain Google Search results while protecting users' privacy by not storing personal information or search data and removing all trackers. Startpage.com also includes an Anonymous View browsing feature that allows users the option to open search results via proxy for increased anonymity. Because the company is based in the Netherlands, it is protected by Dutch and European Union privacy laws, and thus is not subject to United States surveillance programs, like PRISM.
. Because I don't like being tracked, I switched over to DuckDuckGo when I first learned of its existence.
. Exception .. Package tracking does work better with Google.
. Google hates VPNs (harder to track you). Google will sometimes purposely slow you down if you use a VPN (They'll often stop you - make some lame security comment - then force you to use a CAPTCHA).
. It's often easier to search using DuckDuckGo because of lack of distraction factors. No being led toward a particular search item because it benefits Google or one of its sponsors.
. Exception .. Package tracking does work better with Google.
. Google hates VPNs (harder to track you). Google will sometimes purposely slow you down if you use a VPN (They'll often stop you - make some lame security comment - then force you to use a CAPTCHA).
. It's often easier to search using DuckDuckGo because of lack of distraction factors. No being led toward a particular search item because it benefits Google or one of its sponsors.
Sorry I just noticed "acquired". Thank you spell check. Not the word I intended to type but close enough. See this article; http://techrights.org/2021/03/15/duckduckgo-in-2021/