How to Live Without Google: Alternatives That Protect Your Privacy

https://spreadprivacy.com/how-to-remove-google/

by tempodox • 3 years ago

40 31 3 years ago

spreadprivacy.com

upinsmoke1980• 3 years ago

I use Fastmail and recommend them. I'm never going back to Gmail.

ajyey• 3 years ago

+1 for fastmail

helph67• 3 years ago

Have used Fastmail for many years and recommend it!

mdaniel2• 3 years ago

In case folks were not aware, Fastmail is a Calendar, Contacts, Drive, and Keep replacement too, all built on open standards so you can use your favorite tools to interact with them

Since you're a paying customer, there's no front page posts ever saying "I got locked out of my account and there's no one to call" as with some other free mail provider I can think of

lazyeye2• 3 years ago

A really nice feature of Fastmail is "virtual domains" where you can receive emails on multiple domains in the one inbox. It's a 5 min job to setup email capability (including wildcard addressing) on any new domain you get. They've made it very simple and easy to configure.

mdaniel2• 3 years ago

Another fun trick is their partnership with 1Password to make "masked emails"; all the fun of mailinator but with much less hassle: https://support.1password.com/fastmail/

LastNevadan2• 3 years ago

I recently upgraded my iPhone and I'm trying hard to live without Google. Google is evil.

The only two Google apps I can't seem to get away from are Authenticator and Maps. I travel a lot, and I find the reviews are helpful for deciding where to go. Even if I don't read the reviews, the number of reviews are helpful to find a useful store of any time.

Apple maps' reviews aren't as helpful.

unethical_ban• 3 years ago

There are a ton of alternatives to Authenticator. AFAIK Authenticator is a generic TOTP app, easily replaced by open source tools or Authy, which is what I use. Authy has an encrypted backup service to cloud, and there are others which allow local backup. Authenticator isn't just bad because it is google, it's bad because it is an inferior app.

LastNevadan2• 3 years ago

Thanks, I didn't realize that. I thought Authy worked differently. I'll try Authy.

tzs2• 3 years ago

Authenticator can be backed up locally by using the same mechanism they use for migrating to a new device.

That mechanism gives you a QR code containing the account information for one or more accounts, which you scan on the new device in Authenticator to import those accounts. Repeat until all accounts are migrated. I'm not sure how many accounts they can put in one QR code (I've only used Authenticator briefly to help someone else figure something out, and only put in 4 codes), but I'd expect at least 20.

To make a local backup just use the migration mechanism but instead of scanning the QR codes on a new device save them somewhere. On Apple devices you should be able to simply screenshot the migration QR codes. I've heard that on Android Authenticator blocks screenshots.

The contents of the QR codes are base64 encoded Google protocol buffers. If you extract the contents of the QR code, you can use the command line tool otpauth [1] to extract the TOTP setup URLs for each of the sites in the Google migration code.

You can have otpauth turn those individual site setup URLs into QR code images. This will do the trick:

  otpauth -qr --link <text_from_google_QR_code>

That will leave one PNG file per account, named after the account, in the current directory. You can use those PNG files to setup those accounts on any other TOTP app that can scan QR codes.

[1] https://github.com/dim13/otpauth

evgen• 3 years ago

If you are just looking for shopping/restaurant reviews that are local to your location it is pretty easy to use google maps via an incognito/private browser tab. Depending on the country you are travelling to Apple's maps app is almost at parity with Google maps for general mapping and route planning, so you can just pop to the maps.google.com web site when you need location-specific info.

SakiWatanabe• 3 years ago

Google Authenticator is just one of the OTP implementation. Apple actually has built in authenticator available in iCloud keychain. https://www.igeeksblog.com/how-to-use-built-in-password-auth...

randomluck0405• 3 years ago

It’s a hassle to get codes from within the menu though. There’s other Authenticator apps though and Tofu is FOSS.

randomluck0405• 3 years ago

Can’t leave Maps as well. I usually keep both on my phone but Maps is taking the cake. Apple Maps is far from usable in some scenarios where I am unfortunately. Also I’m not sure if I want to put everything in apples basket either. I usually feel overwhelmed honestly, no idea how to keep everything as private and not miss out at the same time.

derwiki• 3 years ago

I know it’s polarizing, but I still use Yelp for deciding where to go—mostly because they are “small” big tech and I trust that the information they get from me won’t make it as far as with Google or Apple.

barbazoo• 3 years ago

I was hoping for an alternative to Photos, the only Google service I still use.

randomluck0405• 3 years ago

How do you use it? I don’t use any kind of cloud for my photos, they’re either on my pc or on my phone. How do you utilise the cloud?

Zizizizz3• 3 years ago

Automatic backups, decent editing, magic eraser, great search either by face, context, etc.. I can search for dogs, waterfalls, trees, clouds, whatever and it usually gives me exactly what I want.

temende• 3 years ago

The main one that's pretty much impossible to find an alternative to is YouTube (if you're into watching videos on the Internet). Tons of creators/channels only upload their content on YouTube and nowhere else.

Nextgrid• 3 years ago

Invidious is a solution: https://github.com/iv-org/invidious

hilbert422• 3 years ago

Use NewPipe or another independent viewer for goodness sake.

I never watch YouTube in normal mode. Why watch ads when you don't have to? Also, NewPipe and like allow downloads.

It's a no-brainer.

classified• 3 years ago

Recommending an Android tool for de-googling has its own irony.

x86x87• 3 years ago

I found this the other day and it aligns to how I've been going about it: https://epsilonmachine.com/nogoogle/

How to Live Without Google: Alternatives That Protect Your Privacy

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