1y ago

Some questions about switching to more privacy friendly options

Hello lemmings lemmons and any other lemm out there. I’ve always wanted to try to switch to more privacy focused options but it’s always been difficult for me as I’m not really tech savvy and frankly for a very long time haven’t really cared about privacy.

Transitioning has also been hard since I feel like I’m pretty much the antithesis of this community: using an iPhone and 2 windows computers (one for home use and one for my college classes on campus) and use OneDrive to sync work between the 3 devices.

Pretty much every account I have is under my gmail account and a second back up email is also under gmail.

Frankly I’m sure this is the highest form of insult to this community but I use edge simply because I’ve given up trying to fight Microsoft

So it’s been a challenge to switch but for browsers and just copy paste all my bookmarks and saved passwords when I download Firefox on my phone and computers but as for email and online accounts switching off that gmail account seems daunting but not impossible and I have no idea what to do to replace OneDrive since it is useful and works in file explorer with no extra software

I figured if anyone was smart enough to tackle the abomination that is my privacy it’d be you guys

52 comments

Take a look at https://www.privacyguides.org/en/
and
https://ssd.eff.org/
to start your journey
- Alrighty I’ll take a look around thanks
- I haven’t really gone in-depth on those links but something I forgot to add: OneNote is a huge tool for me as I love to hand write or type my notes on my surface and then be able to get them on my desktop or phone. So any suggestions on that matter or are there stuff in those links
  
  Might want to try RNote, but it's only for desktop I think. You can export them to PNG, PDF, etc though.

Yep, proton.me is a great start. I would also suggest changing search engines to duckduckgo and blocking ads through a free DNS like controld.com. that will get you started at least.
- First off thanks
  Second: stupid question is proton.me like an email or an app/website for email or something else entirely and I’m just missing something
  
  Email, Calendar, Cloud storage, and VPN all Free* and Open Source.
  *Free as in Freedom. While they do have free priced tiers, you do have to pay for more storage, more VPN servers, etc. Free still worth it IMO.
  
  Email, Calendar, Cloud storage, and VPN all Free* and Open Source.
  *Free as in Freedom. While they do have free priced tiers, you do have to pay for more storage, more VPN servers, etc. Free still worth it IMO.
  
  It's a privacy respecting Google Suite alternative. (Email, Drive, Calender, VPN and now password manager). I don't use the VPN or password manager though. Been around for years now and very good. Web interface and apps for both Android and iOS.
  I've been with them since they were in beta, I'd still rank them the best, but Skiff is maturing very quickly as well, which I also use.

Lemming and lemmons made me laugh so hard
- I’ve been helped so much In this post I forgot about it but glad it served it’s purpose

https://www.privacytools.io/
another link to help you find some more privacy-focused alternatives. i think a great gmail, google calendar, and drive replacement is proton.me . I switched to them from google and haven't looked back
- Thanks for that
  Yeah I mainly use outlook just because my college email could only login to outlook both on desktop and my phone and eventually I kinda shifted from the gmail app/website but under the same gmail account. I only took a brief look but that looks like it’d be a good start
- Nowadays privacytools.io has some really questionable recommendations. Check out Privacy Guides instead.
  
  Yes, they are definitely sketchy now.

Take a look at privacy.sexy (you'll have to paste this is, could not get link to work) first and configure your PCs. That's the only step imma give and it might be the most important
- The link doesn’t work.
- Thanks for this. I’m only dipping toes in for now but definitely gonna use this when I’m more comfortable and stuff
  
  Seriously, it basically walks you through and automates basically everything you need to toggle to get to optimal config on your computers. I don't know what PC has but the Mac part literally does all the defaults writing for you so you just check the boxes, export the file, and run it in the command line or whatever to mass-apply it all

For taking action regarding your OS, Shut Up Win is good. It works on both 10 and 11. You don't even need to install it, just download it (it's free) and double click to run it. If you stick to the 'recommended' settings you'll have a more private OS without disabling anything you might actually want. As you get more knowledgeable or confident you can apply the stricter settings. And to revert changes just run the file again and turn off what you turned on.
Switching to Firefox was a good step but I'd take it one step further, export your passwords from FFox, download BitWarden for each of your devices and import all your passwords into BitWarden. You need to create an account with them (all this is free by the way) and it would be good if you had a non-GMail account to create your BitWarden account.
Tutanota are a well respected company and offer a free (but limited in terms of storage space) option, including a calendar. If you like their service you can pay (about $3 per month) to get much more storage space and other things.
When I left GMail, I made a list of all the 'official' stuff (banking etc) and family/friends that had my email. I then emailed them informing them I was changing my email (one email, BCC'd). I then changed my email on all the less vital stuff I could remember and lastly set an auto responder on my old GMail saying the gmail account was no longer in use. This bit takes some time there's no getting around it.
Lots of people have recommended Proton, so I won't. But there are quite a few good, easy to use privacy respecting options to replace your OneDrive. I personally really like Filen. They have a free 'starter' option (10gb space) to see if you like the service. You just create an account and install the apps on all your devices.
Going back to FFox, install the extensions uBO which will kill trackers for you, MultiAccount Containers which allows you to use (and create your own) Containers so (for example) you could set a Container for Facebook and know that if you access facebook in that contained tab all the crap Meta put on your machine can't access any other part of your browser.
Search engines you can use that are privacy respecting include DuckDuckGo and StartPage.
You might also want to consider a VPN. They don't make you anonymous but because they encrypt your data before it leaves your device(s), your ISP won't know what site's you're viewing. Most of the good ones use their own privacy respecting DNS too. Good ones include, IVPN and Mullvad.
- Just wanted to add a bit about Proton since you mentioned it and I use it quite heavily.
  Pros:
  All-in-one platform for storage, mail, VPN, password manager and calendar. Usually works out cheaper than multiple providers.
  E-mail aliases built-in to the password manager makes it a breeze to manage. (Tutanota also supports aliases.)
  Personally, I think the UI is more polished. Not important for privacy but it's a plus for the non tech-savvy.
  Cons:
  All-in-one platform. I'm acutely aware that I'm going to have a headache if Proton is enshittified.
  If you're not looking for all of the products they offer, it's just expensive. Tutanota is cheaper for e-mail alone.
  The Drive app needs improvement. Migrating my files was painful and I want automatic Camera uploads. You might be okay with the Windows desktop app.
  The Calendar app has issues when not connected to the internet.
  The password manager doesn't have a desktop application and managing it through the browser extension or app isn't great.
  No subject-line encryption support (and other PGP interoperability issues on the free version) but... unfortunately, I don't get many PGP encrypted e-mails anyway.
  Otherwise these two are largely like-for-like for e-mail. There's no benefit to Proton being hosted in Switzerland and I didn't move to be warrant-proof or anything silly. The idea is really just moving emails away from an advertising company and paying for a quality service.
- Thanks for reply
  As for Bitwarden and Tutanota (which someone else recommended) is there any reason to use those over proton
  And I said In another reply that proton drive can’t edit files which isn’t a total deal breaker for me just somewhat inconvenient, does Filen allow me to edit files without having to download, edit, then reupload
  As for browsers even on edge before this transformation I used UBO and now I’m using it with Firefox and duck duck go but I’ll check out startpage as an alternative browser
  As for vpn proton has one but I never really knew what they did other than allowing me to open any site on my middle/high schools and Wi-Fi. I mean is that what they do? Like hide websites from (excuse the lack of my technical knowledge) router but not the router sending the data where ever it needs to go.
  But anyways thanks for the super detailed response super helpful :)
  
  As for Bitwarden and Tutanota (which someone else recommended) is there any reason to use those over proton
  It's largely preference. Bitwarden and Tuta (they renamed themselves today lol) do one job each and do it really, really well. Proton do lots of different things and I've heard mutterings that their products are slightly lacking. There's also the 'eggs in one basket' thing too. If you use proton for your VPN, email, Drive etc etc then if they're down for a few hours or the company folds, you're screwed. That's not likely to happen of course but even so.
  does Filen allow me to edit files without having to download, edit, then reupload
  No, it doesn't. What Filen (and Proton I think) do is monitor directories and files on your devices for changes. So if I'm working in Word for example, I save the document to a directory that I know Filen is monitoring. Every time I save the file, Filen detects that and uploads an encrypted copy to my cloud account. So, unlike OneDrive or GDrive which allow you to edit files in the cloud, with Filen/Proton etc you make all your changes locally and just let it do its thing.
  I mean is that what they do?
  So imagine all your devices (PC, lappy, mobile etc) connected to your router at home. Lets pretend instead of wifi or cable, they're connected via a transparent garden hose. Your ISP can see everything that passes through these hoses because they're transparent.
  A VPN is like an opaque, protected hose within that hose. It's technically known as a tunnel. Instead of data passing through the outer hose, it now passes through the inner, encrypted hose, meaning your ISP can't see anything inside it. Your data is now invisible to them. All they can see is that your using a VPN.
  Your ISP also does all your DNS resolution. DNS is the thing that when you go to somewebsite.com it turns it into the IP address of the server that the website at somewebsite.com lives on. Most good VPN's also takeover DNS resolution too meaning that not only can your ISP not see your data they also can't see what sites you're visiting.
  Lastly, when you visit any website, they now can't see your ISP provided IP address, they only see the IP address of the VPN server you're connected to. Some people use this to pretend they're in the USA when they're actually in, say, the UK so they can access things like the US version of Netflix.

You already have a plethora of great suggestions for improvements to make, so I won't leave any more, but rather offer some advice. It can be daunting to go all in and sacrifice the conveniences you currently enjoy. This is why I recommend you change your behaviour and software in a piecemeal fashion. Change only a few (or even one) things at a time and get used to it. Once you are comfortable with where you are at, then introduce more improvements. This approach will help prevent you from getting overloaded or burnt out, resulting in you going back and compromising your privacy. Good luck!
- Yeah that’s why I’m using proton and slowly switching accounts. Proton drive is pretty much OneDrive minus auto save (oh no however shall I manage) so that’s not too big of a leap
  The email and calander haven’t seen much use and with transferring accounts to be with my proton email will be slow
  Once that’s done and I’m all settled with proton or if I find another solution I’m going to take a look back here and see what a next step could be for me

One alternative to OneDrive is a local server or just having bigger long term drives on your system.
Also what you can do is encrypt files with gpg for example and upload them to any free cloud service, like for example Google drive.
- Like i said I’m not very tech savvy so a local server is something I’d like to try to avoid maybe unless it can run out of the box.
  As for encryption wdym by gpg im assuming that’s an encryption service
  
  It's not black or white, so don't worry about trying to do everything on your own at once. Just taking steps to enhancing your privacy like you're doing now asking questions is already a step in the right direction. If you're not confident in hosting locally for now, you can try one of the providers NextCloud recommends. Sure it's not as good has hosting your own, but it's a big step away from using OneDrive or Google Drive.

I’m not really tech savvy
That's how they get you ;) There is a trade-off between privacy and security on one end, and convenience and ease of use on the other. Microsoft, Google and all the others profiting off of your data know this and offer you convenience and ease of use in exchange for you giving them all your data. So be prepared to give up a little of that convenience and getting a little more tech savvy.
I recommend you take a look at https://nextcloud.com/ - it's a self-hosted cloud service solution that offers file storage, calendar, notes, and a lot more. If you don't feel comfortable hosting your own just yet, there are providers out there that will host one for you for a few $ a month.
- Oh yeah I’m very well of privacy vs convenience which is why it’s sorta a goal of mine it eventually learn server and self hosted when I’m all settled with current privacy options
  appreciate the link tho definitely gonna try to use that when I’m more techy

I suggest mega.io as replacement for OneDrive. I use it myself, and it has a desktop app like OneDrive's.

Well thank so much for everyone who chimed in I appreciate it a ton. For now I’m going to to test the waters with proton family like the drive and calander and mail and see how I like that and if it’s a viable alternative for OneDrive and outlook for my case. I think it’ll work but I’m still very open to suggestions

I prefer skiff.com for email and drive rather proton the days.

A great resource that I'd recommend to anyone is Privacy Guides

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