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1y ago

How much of your life have you degoogled?

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 be billboards for these companies anymore.

For anyone unfamiliar, some good resources to have when starting your degoogling journey 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.

97 comments

It's been a long time in the making, but I've finally degoogled and largely removed all proprietary software from my personal life. I know this topic is pretty well covered here and elsewhere so just to add to the list of others, here's where I'm at these days:
OS: Fedora Linux (w/ AMD Radeon GPU)
Email: Thunderbird w/ hosted email over IMAP
Calendar/Contacts: Radicale instance w/ DAVx⁵ on Android
Storage: Syncthing
Web: Firefox
IM: Signal
Desktop productivity: LibreOffice when I need it (Collabora Office on Android)
Notes: Vim, VS Code (Markor on Android); most of my "docs" are just plain text files written in markdown
Passwords: KeepassXC/DX
Code editor: Vim, VS Code
GrapheneOS on mobile, with almost entirely FOSS apps
Kindle e-book reader with management via Calibre
Media managed by Kodi with a raspberry pi
Proxmox hypervisor for Windows/Linux VMs and containers
Gaming under Linux has improved unbelievably these past few years, now that Steam is contributing with their Steam Deck platform. I used to have to dual-boot Windows to keep up with the latest titles, but I wiped it about a year ago and things have been great.
I still rely on Microsoft Excel and Adobe Photoshop for some tasks, but less so now than ever before. Unfortunately, my work will always be a Windows-dominated environment.
- How has a self hosted imap been treating you?
  I heard some pretty brutal stories, like big email providers just refusing emails from self hosted servers
  
  I self-host my own mail server. I don't send many emails, but they seem to be arriving correctly whenever I do at the moment, but it wasn't always like this. I've properly setup SPF, DKIM and DMARC, which helps a lot, but my IP address was blacklisted on some servers from a previous owner I guess. I have a VPS from OVH. I had to manually fill out some forms to get Microsoft Outlook to accept emails from my server. Despite that, it has been working flawlessly. I have my own domain since 2017, and I'd say the age of the domain is also important.
  
  Not OP, but I used to self host email. I gave up because both google and microsoft, the two big players in email, refused to deliver my mail to anywhere but spam/junk. I had DKIM, SPF and DMARC set up, with reverse DNS set up correctly. So I gave up. Now I use a privacy friendly email provider (paid)
- I have to just be sure that you at least know about demicrosofted VS Code, VS Codium
- How do you use syncthing for storage? Kinda confused.
  
  Hah, that's a fair question! We use syncthing in place of cloud storage.
  We have several 1-way and 2-way shares configured across about 10 devices. Our camera rolls are synced to the home file server while we're on the road, thus eliminating the need for Google Photos. It also keeps our shared KeePass database in sync between all clients, syncs wallpapers across desktops, etc. It's excellent software and I really can't say enough good things about the project.
  It's no replacement for actual backups, which I do perform monthly with copies stored off-site, but it can be a great solution for those wanting to move away from Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.

So um…how do I show the lemmyverse that this is a really important post without the shiny meaningless gold coin?

idk. Try writing a poem?

I can write poetry, so I asked a new friend:

 undefined

    
In the realm of tech's changing tide,
Where billions flowed like an endless ride,
Investor money, a torrent's stream,
Built startups bright with a lofty dream.

But now, the era draws to a close,
As monoliths emerge, the story goes.
They tighten their grip, a vice-like hold,
Squeezing pennies from users, bold and cold.

Fair or not, the question arises,
Do we still want to wear their disguises?
Are we mere billboards, a canvas for their name,
Or can we reclaim our autonomy, break free from the game?

In this pivotal moment, we must pause,
Reconsider, question, and find our cause.
To degoogling, a path unfolds,
Where privacy and freedom firmly hold.

Privacy Guides, a beacon of light,
Leading us to services that respect our right.
No longer pawns in their data-collecting scheme,
We seek alternatives that make our souls gleam.

Plexus, a treasure trove of shared knowledge,
Mapping compatibility beyond the edge.
A community united, hand in hand,
Building a future where we take a stand.

And in that random PDF, a study's gaze,
Unveiling the truth in Google's data maze.
Awareness dawns, eyes open wide,
As we uncover the layers they've tried to hide.

So let us step back, reassess our role,
As users, as consumers, with a collective goal.
To break free from the clutches that bind,
Embrace a future where our privacy we find.

For the era of user exploitation wanes,
And in its place, a new dawn remains.
Where we reclaim our voices, make choices anew,
And shape a world where fairness rings true.

Upvote i guess ❤️🍓
Interact, share. Be positive.

I used to rely almost exclusively on Google for almost anything online. Fortunately, I'm much less dependent on Google and their services now. I'm even self-hosting some of my own services nowadays!
Search engine: Ecosia and DuckDuckGo
E-mail: Protonmail
File storage: Nextcloud (selfhosted)
Online Office Suite: Nextcloud Office (selfhosted)
Maps: OpenStreetMaps
2FA App: Aegis
Translator: DeepL
Notes and Tasks: Obsidian.md
Calendar: An actual wall calendar :)
Every single one of these apps/services used to be provided by google, so I think it's safe to say I've come a long way!
Of course, things could be better. I still use Google Contacts for synchronizing my, hum, contacts. I also use YouTube quite a bit, but as a paying customer my experience with it is just fine. I also use gboard on my phone — for bilingual speakers there's just no good alternative, imho. And, finally, I download/update most of my phone apps through Google Play.
- How do you host nextcloud? At home or on a vps?
  Did you have any self hosting experience before doing that?
  Do you know Logseq? It's an OpenSource/FOSS alternative to obsidian
  
  How do you host nextcloud? At home or on a vps?
  On a VPS. Later down the road I intend to build my own home server, but that will take some time and money. A VPS is not ideal, but that's leagues above trusting Google and the likes, and so far it has been working well enough for me.
  Did you have any self hosting experience before doing that?
  None at all.
  Do you know Logseq? It’s an OpenSource/FOSS alternative to obsidian
  I did try it, and it's a cool project, but not as good as Obsidian, imho.

I moved off a while ago at this point... I still have to use some of it because of work being on G-Suites but otherwise my personal stuff has moved.
Email: Hey & ProtonMail
Storage: Dropbox
Notes: SimpleNotes & Obsidian.md
Chat: Telegram & Matrix/Element
2FA: ProtonPass (as of yesterday, Authy before that)
Passwords: 1Password
Other: Apple stuff mostly
- How is the proton pass 2FA? I saw they have that it haven't gotten around to switching from Authy yet.
- Any particular reason for switching away from authy?
  
  i'm not a cybersecurity expert so i can't say anything about how well they secure your data. however, authy is closed source and a walled garden. you can't easily export your data. if authy pulls a reddit tomorrow and decides to start charging, you're screwed.
  building your 2fa life in a different service like aegis will save you so much headache in the future, and you can feel good about supporting open source.

Basically degoogled except YouTube because content creators are on that platform. Also occasionally needs to use Google search because DDG sometimes doesn't work.

100% degoogled. Everything is selfhosted, except for Telegram. Even at job :)

Outside of work I’ve degoogled with the exception of google calendar (shared family google calendar so that would need to bring everyone along with me!) and unfortunately the google Wi-Fi/nests.
I would like to swap out the google Wi-Fi but it just seems like such a lot of money to waste and they are working at the moment for the mesh Wi-Fi. I’ve just made sure to disable and opt out to as many of the google analytic tracking as possible.
- I use nextcloud for calendar (among other things). I made an account for my wife on the nextcloud and we share a "Family" calendar on there. It's also possible to share publicly with anybody, but they can't create or edit without an account. Of course, it's more work to set up. There are also alternatives like zoho, etc which might be easier to get started with, but I haven't really tried any of them in years. I don't know how many people you share with, but if it's not too many, there might be options. I don't have to host my own nextcloud. I have mail service with my personal domain through mxroute.com and it includes Nextcloud.

pretty effectively!
I use a Searx instance for searching (with the engine it uses set to DDG), Tutanota for email and Piped/Invidious and Libretube for videos. meanwhile on both my phone and tablet I've used ADB to purge all of Google's malware, and Play Services is outright disabled on my tablet lmao (and contrary to what one might think, the only thing it impacts is I don't get app notifications)
and then I use Aurora Store to update Twitch and Discord, and I use alternatives from F-Droid for stuff like the calendar

I have slowly but surely moved everything important off google. My main email is a proton mail now, and I changed my pixel for a oneplus :).
- I’ve wanted to do this too for about a year but I see no benefit since most addresses I correspond with are unencrypted. One-way encryption is negligibly any better - unless I’m seriously misunderstanding Proton.
  I’d switch to @iCloud.com but that just feels goofy.
  
  It's more about the ethics of the company hosting than any encryption benefits for me personally. Self-hosting would be ideal but email is a bit too important for me to do that personally, so I use proton as a compromise.
- Changing from a Pixel to another Android phone is hardly degoogling, if anything it's just inviting in another pair of eyes! Ironically the best way to degoogle on Android is with a Pixel running GrapheneOS!

Just switched from Google photos to photoprism. It's pretty awesome! It only took 8 hours to index and label my 17500 photos (not including the week and a half Google Takeout took). That was the big one for me. Not I am slowly working through all my other google/centralized services and seeing if there are self hosted or decentralized alternatives.
- Ooh, I'll have to look into photoprism. Thank you!
- I've been wanting to switch to PhotoPrism for a while. Is face/object detection any good, compared to Google Photos? Do you need powerful specs, or can a low-spec machine handle it?

As far as my PCs, I use a subscription service for email (fastmail.com). I'm still using the Chrome browser, but at some point I may have to go to Firefox for the sake of my uBlock Origin extension which I rely on heavily. Functionality of that extension on Chrome may be reduced at some point by the forced migration to Google's new extension platform (Manifest V3).
I have to have a Google account for my Android phone. I don't think I'll ever be able to get away from that. I mean you have two choices with phones, Android or iOS. I'm not going anywhere near Apple so Android is it. I've audited all my privacy settings in my Google account to minimize personal data, whether they actually honor those settings or not, who knows.
- You dont need a google account to run an android phone. Look in to Fdroid and Aurora store. You can disable, although not remove, a lot of the google services too. It's not perfect de googleing as they still track you through hidden built in services like the one that the phone uses to check it's online.
- Graphene os is a privacy based android operating system. They run containerized google instances, and severely restrict their view.
  
  If you buy/finance your phone through your carrier, you're almost guaranteed to have a locked down bootloader. Also, and I'm unable to find the article at the moment, but apparently larger banks are forcing google to inhibit users' ability to root their phones in the name of security.

I have started to degoogle bits and pieces. I self-host the majority of the services I need and really enjoyed the journey so far since I learned so much. I am approaching the stage in my life where I have less time to spend on personal hobbies so I fear this path may not be sustainable. In my opinions here are the pros and cons.
Pros:
Full control of my data
Pick the ideal tool from the open source community
Learning experience
Engagement with community
Cons:
Technical knowledge needed to setup and maintain self-hosted tools
Self-hosted tools have security risks (best to put everything behind VPN)
Disparate tools don't connect together (requires additional automation configuration)
Additional costs for services including and not limited to: domain name, email, backup storage, self-host server hardware, VPN, and donations to devs
Higher personal downtime due to lacking features, server and service maintenance
Time sink to learn, research, general devops of tools, maintenance of server
Key services to name a few:
File storage - Nextcloud
File sync - Syncthing
Office- Nextcloud + Collabora
Email - Mailfence
Photos - Photoprism
So far there are more negatives than positives, but the positives still outweigh negatives. I do have to say degoogling is getting easier than before.

I degoogled by switching to an iPhone 😅 DuckDuckGo is my default search engine.
- That is a sacrifice I'm not willing to make. Yikes!
  
  I'd argue that Apple is the lesser evil when it comes to privacy 😁

Working on it
Had to give them some money for a Pixel 7, at least it was half off plus a trade-in on the old phone Installed GrapheneOS a couple of days ago

The only thing I still hold onto my account for is YouTube. I pay for mailbox.org which covers email, calendar and cloud stuff. Their website could be better but the service is quality and their privacy policy is tight. When I was on android I used a bunch of custom roms with microg. My favourite ended up being calyxos but they all had a little jank here or there. I dearly miss NewPipe for android as a replacement for the official youtube app.

I want to fully cut Google out of my life. Unfortunately, my company still depends on Google workspaces.

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

I do not have a Google account, so no Gmail address, I do not use Play Store, and I do not use YouTube website.

I've been running my own Nextcloud instance since 2020, which, combined with ProtonMail, has replaced basically everything I was using Google/Microsoft for
- Didn't realize you could host your own, that's good to know

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.

The biggest thing I de-Googled was gmail. I had my own domain already so it wasn't tough to move (to my web hosting provider's included email service).
I switched to Firefox+uBO from Chrome.
They de-Googled RSS for me (now on Newsblur).
Things I still use:
Drive for backups (but have a local backup in case their AI bans me)
YouTube Premium (I hate ads)
Contacts (Cardbook addon for Thunderbird works well with this)
Calendar (Thunderbird supports natively)
Keep (Shared shopping list)
Pixel phone (I don't really care for Apple, either)

Tried DDG a few times over the years. Sorry, but it just doesn't do it for me. Results were terrible. Google had lots of results and it was just too much effort to keep switching from DDG if it doesn't provide an answer. Because I know Google will.
- I have been using DDG as default for probably two years now. I love how I get so few ads and a cleaner experience as well. I absolutely agree Google has better results sometimes and I just use !g at the start of my search to get purely Google results. The search operators are amazing and there are so many!
  
  When using !g, be aware that Google can track that. It's the same as just going to Google. If that matters to you.

Proton's services, Cryptomator, Invideous, GrapheneOS, a handful of apps from f-droid.
Also, quick plug - !privacyguides@lemmy.one is the official Privacy Guides community on Lemmy!

I deleted my google drive content so they can't arbitrarily decide something I wrote is worth banning my account over or use it to train their AIs, I made a backup, obviously.
Even though my content is safe, deleting it off of Google's servers felt like drowning my own children in a bathtub

Lemmy definietly got me into degoogle and foss. Or rather latest reddit situation interested me in these concepts :p
I always liked the idea of decentralized web a lot but it wasn't until the reddit fall that it stopped being abstraction and instead there is a real platform it seems with a future

Only apps by Google I use are gboard, gmail and translator. If someone knows well designed alternatives please share.
- Fastmail is fantastic from a user experience perspective, though depending on your privacy demands it may not pass the test.
  
  Long time Fastmail user here. Where is it failing with respect to privacy?
- For Mail i reccommend proton. They also offer cloud, calendar, VPN and recently a password Manager. You can also use their simplelogin Service which Provides alias Mails. These can be used so that you dont have to give your real mail Adress to online Services and so on.
- 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
- 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
  
  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.
- FlorisBoard keyboard is the one to watch as the Gboard killer. v0.40 will finally bring word suggestions and inline autocorrect. In all other respects, it's more customizable than Gboard and can be configured to match the exact size/layout.
  For email, K-9 Mail (soon to be Thunderbird Mobile) has made a lot of progress in modernizing its UI this year now that Mozilla has partnered up with the main dev, cketti.

I try not to use anything google with exception of a few YouTube videos, but I don’t have an account, I also have most of their tracking/ad sites blocked on my network (Apple too), if that blocks a site / video from working then I don’t use that site.

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...
- For Maps there's an alternative on FDroid called GMaps WV which is actually just the Google Maps website wrapped in a tiny webview app. It can't spy on you if you run it that way.
  Or you can install Hermit and add Google Maps as one of its sandboxed light apps.
  If you're interested in things that aren't Google Maps you can look at OSMAnd, a great app with tons of features and my go-to app when traveling because you can download offline maps and info about local stores, restaurants, attractions etc.
  On the lightweight side there's Map Marker which can use map tiles from a dozen different map services, and you can place markers on the map and group them in collections.

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.
- Magic Earth for maps
  NewPipe for Youtube
  Android with no Google account & FDriod + Aurora Store

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.

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.

Basically outside of Youtube I don’t use any Google service. Started by migrating to Kagi search, and while it requires a subscription, its a price I am willing to pay for a search engine that actually work good.
Everything else I use a mix of FOSS and subscription services.

I'm still in the Google android stuff just because of convenience but I have ditched Chrome and Google search. Eventually I would like to do more.

Not much honestly. Still use Gmail and Drive

That Plexus list os fantastic! Its one thing that’s always held me off of going from iOS to AOSP.
Hopefully someone can answer my main concern for years - Plexus show’s certain banking apps not requiring any Google services, but how do you get up to date versions of them installed. Relying on a 3rd party store seems quite the risk for a sensitive app like that?
- if you're okay with owning a google account, then you can sign into that google account using the Aurora Store and download it there. the aurora store pulls the files from Google's repo. bearing in mind this is against google ToS so use a throwaway account; it's just for downloading apps anyway. this is the safest way i know of, it carries as much risk as using the play store.
  aurora used to allow anonymous sign-ins, but that's not working at the moment. if you do want a 100% no google route, as an alternative, you could download from APKPure. it has a good reputation but the apks are uploaded by users, so there's no guarantee of safety on that front. if you go this route, you're doing so at your own risk.
  on a side note, you could use the web versions of banking apps. but the website for my bank sucks. maybe yours does too lol. aurora store + signed in account is the way to go until there's a solution for anonymous logins again

97 comments