Giving Google the middle finger

B

backstreetboy

Honorary Master
Joined
Jun 15, 2011
Messages
49,395
Reaction score
56,416
Location
I'm so sorry—love, backstreetboy. God forgive me.
What tools are you guys using instead of Google's services? I've been a big follower of Google and what they're doing but slowly moving away to alternative encrypted (where can) services. Tips and tricks or other great recommendations welcome.

It started when I got Windscribe last year. They don't have cheap lifetime accounts anymore but $2 for build a plan with uncapped data is cheap as chips. I'm connected to it all the time where I can. I then changed from Lastpass to Myki and finally settled on Bitwarden. Myki is great altough it's not open source (they're planning to do it) and the fact that you need your phone to unlock the browser extension every time you open your browser can be a schlep. It's free though with IAP for cosmetic stuff. From there I looked at Tutanota/Mailbox.org.Protonmail. Protonmail is too expensive for me and Mailbox too bloated with no real black theme so went with Tutanota and my own domain. Retrospectively my domain should've been some weird one and not my own name but I'm just moving away from Google for now. $5 special for one at Porkbun.com with free whois privacy. Trying out Firefox again with Firefox Preview on Android. Cloud storage is a problem but might go with sync.com, pCloud crypt or set up a nextcloud server.

Will need to get a dev friendly phone (for lineage os) or try and unlock the bootloader of my Honor.

Sure one can go the Apple route but just overheard someone in the office that paid R10500 for an iPhone 7 128gb. I just chuckled.

What else is there?
 
If Apple's services on Windows were any good, or even just the web versions I would simply have switched to Apple when Google did the idiotic thing of killing off Inbox.

But until I'm back on a Mac their product still seems the best bet out there.
 
Tman* said:
I started the process by not using google.com anymore, instead https://duckduckgo.com/
Click to expand...
I tried to go to DuckDuckGo completly. I'm sorry to say it sucks. Try searching for a product thats locally available, or local businesses and it falls flat. I'm getting sick of google too, but they have a superior search engine. better to use Google in incognito.
 
Mars said:
I tried to go to DuckDuckGo completly. I'm sorry to say it sucks. Try searching for a product thats locally available, or local businesses and it falls flat. I'm getting sick of google too, but they have a superior search engine. better to use Google in incognito.
Click to expand...

Have used duckduckgo for about a year now....cant say I noticed a difference.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Google can still track most things you do in incognito mode.

https://www.ecosia.org/ is another one still to try out.
Ecosia is a web search engine based in Berlin, Germany, which donates 80% of its surplus income to non-profit conservationist organizations, with a focus on tree planting.
 
Mars said:
I tried to go to DuckDuckGo completly. I'm sorry to say it sucks. Try searching for a product thats locally available, or local businesses and it falls flat. I'm getting sick of google too, but they have a superior search engine. better to use Google in incognito.
Click to expand...
Google can still track you via fingerprinting and profiling so incognito doesnt help.

I agree. I use Duck Duck Go for general searches, and for the tough stuff still fall back to Google.
 
Daruk said:
BTW, what would you replace Youtube with?
Click to expand...
Using the FOSS app Newpipe for now. Pity something like Bitchute hasn't caught on yet.
Why not Apple and Facebook too?
Click to expand...
Don't use Apple since the entry is too expensive. Facebook is a bit harder to quit. Using the Facebook container extension for now.
What browser are you switching to?
Click to expand...
Firefox as stated in the OP...
 
Stokstert said:
Do you have a source for secondhand toilet paper by any chance? :sneaky:
Click to expand...

My friend Premsingh manufactures decent quality single ply virgin tissue for around R1.75 per roll. If you want to buy (100 rolls minimum), send me an inbox message.
 
Step 1: get custom domain for emails (this way you can switch back to google or whatever)
Step 2: map to office 365
Step 3: install Edge (Chromium)
Step 4: use Bing or other search provider

*
Step 5: realise that after all is said and done, Google Search still provides better location specific results and that it is impossible to move off Google entirely :(
 
Over the last 16 months, as I've debated this issue around the world, every single time somebody has said to me, "I don't really worry about invasions of privacy because I don't have anything to hide." I always say the same thing to them. I get out a pen, I write down my email address. I say, "Here's my email address. What I want you to do when you get home is email me the passwords to all of your email accounts, not just the nice, respectable work one in your name, but all of them, because I want to be able to just troll through what it is you're doing online, read what I want to read and publish whatever I find interesting. After all, if you're not a bad person, if you're doing nothing wrong, you should have nothing to hide." Not a single person has taken me up on that offer.
Glenn Greenwald in Why privacy matters - TED Talk

Google is a virus.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X