A community for those that would like to get away from Google.
Here you may post anything related to DeGoogling, why we should do it or good software alternatives!
Be respectful even in disagreement
No advertising unless it is very relevent and justified. Do not do this excessively.
No low value posts / memes. We or you need to learn, or discuss something.
!privacyguides@lemmy.one !privacy@lemmy.ml !privatelife@lemmy.ml !linuxphones@lemmy.ml !fossdroid@social.fossware.space !fdroid@lemmy.ml
If you don't want to DeGoogle, that's fine. It's a personal decision. If you have all the facts and determine you'd rather stay doing what you're doing, that's fine.
I'd add to that great list also the problem of the steady enshittification of Google products. Just today, I was driving with Google Maps and suddenly it asked if I wanted to stop at a McDonald's. I haven't been to McD's in twelve years, so you know how terribly useful that suggestion was.
I find that Maps is one of the most difficult ones to get rid of. There are replacements of course, but they don't change directions based on current traffic patterns. I also find that for these replacements the routing isn't very good over medium/long distances.
Cause fuck ‘em, that’s why.
i don't like the fact that fbi, nsa, cia, etc. could have access to my data. especially now
There's the privacy and constant tracking part of it, but it is also about not being hostage of the company. What if Drive is suddenly a payed-only service OR they lock me out of my account? I can recover faster and cheaper from a failing HDD in my NAS than I ever could from a locked (or deleted) Google account.
I've seen / was burned too many times by free software and services that suddenly disappeared of became overpriced and I don't want to be on that position again. Google is well known for killing stuff as well.
Yeah they might lose your account out of sheer incompetence, or because they can't be bothered to fix a mistake –why care when they are not accountable to anyone except shareholders.
There was that fun story of the guy who had the misfortune to take a picture of his son to send the doctor, which was flagged as cp and lost all his accounts, the police got involved, and even after the police cleared him Google refused to give him back his account...
Well… that was a not so funny story😅
I'm trying to generally distance myself from all the VC sprouted billionaire former 'startups'. They're a disease. Those smug faces as they turn what they promised to be 'good' into a company that develops autonomous killing machines. All those smug bastards at the inauguration, happily paying the deposit to cash in on fascism. Unfortunately Google out of all of them has the deepest claws in me I think, android phone (Apple is in the same club/cartel imo so not much help), gmail, etc.
Tracking people across the internet ought to be forbidden by law.
Nothing is free. If you don't pay for the product, you are the product.
Privacy (different from anonymity) has become more and more important to me, and Google had access to nearly every part of my life in one way or another. I've cut out Musk, Zuck and Bezos, and I'm now nearly completely Google free as well.
I've often heard "why do I care if Google reads my emails? I've got nothing to hide". 2 great answers:
Unlock your phone and give it to me for an hour. Just because you have nothing to hide doesn't mean you don't want privacy. Google does exactly that.
Speaking of privacy, why bother closing the stall door in a public washroom? You're not doing anything wrong in there.
Im a private person. I dont feel comfortable people knowing what i did, where i went etc. That applies to big tech as well. I dont have social media and never will.
Plus, i hate ads.
privacy and political reasons: google has been firing employees that support palestine for fucks sake
source: The Verge
In addition to the privacy aspect, i wanted to reduce my dependency on outside/external factors as much as possible. I try to self-host and use FOSS where possible. Where not feasible, I try to diversify companies so I'm not overly reliant on one. That way, I can pivot much quicker if a company goes to shit.
Companies like google collects, stores and shares data on you.
I don't want someone looking over my shoulder analyzing, interpreting and announcing to the world what I do all the time. I also don't want a permanent record of that to exist. It hurts me when done to me. It hurts society when done to everyone. An example where it hurts you is when you go the insurance company and they deny you or make it expensive cause they have data on you, your behaviour, health and opinions.
It will also be used against you when your government decides they are no longer going to respect human rights or cracking down on the citizenry. They migh feed a big pool of data to an ai and the ai gives you a shitty social score. Nothing is forgotten and it will be missused and missinterpreted. Never for your benefit.
Remember that time when israel needed bad people to bomb? They asked an ai fed on this type of data.
@CheeseToastie Spending my money in autocratic countries is like buying them the weapons they will point at me to take away my freedom.
Giving my data to them is pretty much the same as they monetize it.
I've put together lists of alternatives on this site: https://www.rebeltechalliance.org/
Moving away from US based/owned/managed services. But it takes times. Email and photos are the Hardest for me. Email because of all the account integrations and many accounts where you just can't change your email address and photos as it requires all people involved in shared albums to migrate with me.