This is network-specific. It’s been going on for a few months at least. yt-dlp itself still works without sign-in, if your network is not “suspicious”.
Always worth making sure you’re updated to the latest version of yt-dlp, but this is probably a network thing.
A paper-only journal would defend against the state, but not against people you live with. A digital journal can be encrypted, but an intelligence agency could potentially gain access
A digital journal doesn’t need to be any more government-accessible than a paper journal.
Depending on your threat model, this could require special hardware, special software, or both. In order of ease of setup, I would suggest:
Keep all your data on your own physical media. No cloud services, period.
Keep it encrypted.
Disable network connectivity at every level that you possibly can, such as:
OS level: disable wi-fi, disable blutooth, and disable networking entirely.
Firmware/BIOS level: If you BIOS has options to disable networking components (especially wireless ones), do that.
Hardware level: If your laptop has a switch to disable wi-fi, use it. If ethernet, unplug the cable. Etc.
Physical level: Remove any removable wireless cards or antennas.
Wallet level: buy a computer than never had wi-fi or bluetooth in the first place. This could mean a retro computer, or could mean using a micro-pc like some models of Raspberry Pi.
Link to Mastodon thread: https://mastodon.social/@protonprivacy/113833073219145503
Tuta.com is similar to Proton Mail + Calendar.
Location: Germany
Governance: Private GmbH (German corporation, similar to an American LLC)
Integrity/trustworthiness/transparency: Better than Proton IMHO. All their apps are open source and available on F-Droid. They encrypt email headers (unlike Proton, who are weaselly about this in their marketing materials).
User Experience: Ehhhh…6? I’m not in the best position to compare because I do not have a premium plan, so I am not able to examine features like inbox rules/filters. Much like Proton, it doesn’t support full-text email search unless you have it cache your entire mailbox locally (either via the web site or app). They do not support POP or IMAP, but do offer their own desktop and mobile apps.
Pricing: €3/month for 20GB, €8/month for 500GB. https://tuta.com/pricing
I don’t think you can expect any VPN to work without sign-in for very long. Google’s playing whack-a-mole with VPNs.
I’ve never actually tried signing in with yt-dlp. How easy is it to make a throwaway google account nowadays? Do they require phone verification or something similarly onerous?