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Switched off Gmail finally. Yay!
Converted another 4 close friends over to using Signal. I am this 🤏 close to finally getting rod of WhatsApp which is the one of the last thorns in my privacy life. Next after that is replacing Android TV bound to a dummy google account to using Linux instead.
After years fully Microsoft free, I’m now fully Google free too
Moving more and more of my activities offline, back to analog even.
Almost completed my migration from windows 10 to linux in my desktop (only missing the storage disks to be transferred to an external drive so I can format them in ext4. I’ll do it this weekend and my house will be officially free of Microsoft’s grip.
Congrats! I did the same, just moving away from macOS instead of Windows, a few years ago and never regretted it.
Starting to use my mailbox.org more and more. It will take a while to get off the other one, but one step at a time
Got myself NAS and a miniPC to replace Google Photos, could storage, netflix, TV internet connectivity and other small things.
Immich, Jellyfin, Nexcloud and Vaultwarden are my favorites.
Started the move away from Strava so that my sport data is not saved somewhere in an american cloud. I have been playing around with Geoactivity Playground, which runs on my computer, takes normal GPX files that are already generated by my bicycle computer and it looks good so far. Haven’t made the final switch, but it does look good so far. Software is awesome, the dev is active and it has all features that I’m using Strava for.
I’m deep in Microsoft (used to work there). I just kicked Office off my system and installed LibreOffice.
Next step is OneDrive, but it’s going to be hard to walk away from due to the amount of storage I have grandfathered in for free.
Moving most of my online acconts from gmail to a dedicated Tuta mailbox, it’s a lot to track but I’ll be at ease once it’s done
switching to linux! (an upgrade in general usability too)
self-hosting nextcloud, immich, radicale, and vikunja to replace google drive/pcloud, google photos, not having a synced calendar at all (never used gcal), and todoist. Only downside with Vikunja is there’s no mobile app (only a work-in-progress one that doesn’t seem to have been updated in years) so I have a shortcut to the website instead. Works fine for me :D
Using local mp3s instead of Spotify (offline listening is awesome!)
RSS feeds to catch up on news
using foss alternatives: inkscape instead of illustrator, OSM instead of GMaps, joplin for notes, etc.
not using gmail
OSM instead of GMaps
I couldn’t tolerate how it works at all, especially with American addresses. How do you do it?
not using gmail
What did you move to?
In my area, most of the streets, public transit, etc. are all labelled. I usually don’t type out the full addresses, just the names of the building/street/place. I personally use CoMaps (a fork of Organic Maps created to be more community-led) and it all works fine. I downloaded the maps in my area and, before travelling anywhere, download the maps for where I’m going. Offline maps are great!
I have a really weird thing where I actually like switching between different email providers every couple years or so. Maybe it’s because I don’t receive too many emails, but I find changing the email all my important accounts and forgetting about all the ones I don’t use anymore refreshing.
First I tried Proton Mail, then moved to Tutamail, but I didn’t like both as they did not support IMAP out of the box so I couldn’t use things like Thunderbird. I then moved to “Disroot”, which was decent and supported IMAP, but now I use one called “Autistici”. Another good one I would recommend is mailfence, which I set up for a family member once.
Huh, thanks for the warning as I’ve been wanting to try Betterbird as of late. I take it that the other providers you mentioned all support IMAP, right? Also never heard of CoMaps, thanks.
Proton and Tutamail don’t support IMAP as they use their own system for encryption and whatnot, which means emails are more secure (as long as everyone uses Proton and Tutamail, which the majority of people don’t). I also find their built-in clients to be quite slow. Disroot, Autistici, and mailfence all support IMAP. There’s a bunch more good ones (both free and paid) that support IMAP. Lots of people uses mailbox.org, which is based in Germany, and some people use Fastmail, which is based in Australia.
Signed up and started using tutamail awhile ago. I used to have my actual name as my email user but decided against it now.
I also started “digital privacy detox” a year ago and have made significant progress:
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I decided to figure out all the accounts I made before I started using password manager and added them to my password manager
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I went through them, logged in / sent an email and terminated my accounts. This has taken me a year not because I had so many accounts everywhere, but because certain platforms are so fucking difficult with this (the only one I have not been able to get deleted although I’ve said this is a GDPR violation is Roblox. The account is almost 20 years old and has had no activity but they refuse. I currently am trying to figure out how to tip them off to an organization like NOYB)
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change info on accounts that I do plan to keep by removing personal info and switching to my new email. This is also not as easy always as I had hoped: e.g. Twitch (which I use super rarely but I do use it sometimes) for some reason doesn’t allow a tutamail email…
Extra: I bumped into a shady “professionals for recruiters” website that had scraped all of my data from linkedin. This info is public and I never put much personal info on my linkedin, but I got creeped out by seeing my picture on this website I never put it on. I removed my real profile pic from every platform where it was after that.
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Replaced my ISP provided router that only allows the provider DNS or Google DNS with a router that works with any dot/doh and I can set my own DNS.
Started using NextDNS to block ads and other internet cancer on all mobile devices in my household. Best 20 € deal ever.
Have you considered AdGuard Public DNS? What made you choose NextDNS over it?
Gotta admit, I didn’t do a thorough comparison. I have no idea if the other serves are better. However, this one was recommended by a bunch of videos I watched…
However, I did test it on two devices for a few months, and realized I need more capacity. I was happy with the filters, logging and other features, so I figured it’s fair to charge for all of this.
It’s basically like having a pihole, but someone else takes care of hosting, admin work, updates, hardware maintenance, software troubleshooting, mobile client development and all that. Sure, admin stuff can be fun when it’s a hobby, but I felt like I get plenty enough admin work. That itch gets sufficiently scratched as it is, so paying for someone else to take care of it is fine.
U did yourself a good favour there. I’ve tried all the different DNS options out there and I always come back to NextDNS for its convince! You also have a lot more control with nextdns than Adguards public DNS.
I got a pob that gives you a street address and migrated most of my online addresses to it. The car insurance and a couple other entities needed my home address but now leaks or doxxing should mostly be ineffective.
Out of curiosity, how much are you paying for it? I’m looking to get one in my country and I’m curious to know how cheap/expensive they are compared to other countries.
P.s: please feel free to not answer if you don’t want to disclose it.
$20/month billed in 3 month increments for the smallest 3"x5.5" box. I don’t intend to get mail there and I would just use a made up address except every once in a while these services like the bank send a legal letter or there’s a recall notice. They will scan your mail and email you when you have something to pick up and it’s only half a mile away so not too bad.
Being trans and seeing the country grow increasingly hostile makes the cost worth it to me; my only lament is that the government still knows where I live.
