Privacy/ethics: Are you doing anything to get the big five out of your life?

pythonmegapixel · November 21

...by which I mean Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. They have some very questionable business practices.

Personally, I have a complete boycott of Amazon and Facebook, with the exception of WhatsApp which I have to use because I need to keep in touch with some friends who are very reluctant to switch platforms. I only use Microsoft products when I'm forced to - e.g. to join a Teams meeting - and I don't use a personal "account" with them (if I have to log in, it's with an organisation license). I have replaced Windows on my personal machine with Linux. As for Google, I do still use some of their services, but I have turned off all of the tracking and personalised advertisment options, and I try to avoid giving them more of my sensitive information than I have to.

I just also want to say, please don't use this thread as an excuse to judge people on their opinions, that's not what I created it for.

Fasauceome · November 21

google and amazon are the last two that I really need to come up with a plan for, but as a linux dabbling android using facebook hater, I don't feel like I'm doing so bad

Mnky313 · November 21

59 minutes ago, pythonmegapixel said:

-snip-

I've never actually used facebook and left Apple several years ago but still use Google and Amazon services regularly as well as using Windows 10 (though I've disabled as much microsoft bullshit and telemetry as I can). Switching to linux isn't completely out of the question for me in fact, I might try it pretty soon. As for Google I don't really have a plan, I use XPrivacyLua on my phone to try and give as little as possible but obviously I also use google docs/youtube a lot so.... Amazon isn't a huge deal to me as all I order is random adapters, pc parts, etc. I don't use any of Amazon's other services like Prime Video or Music.

WereCatf · November 22

4 hours ago, pythonmegapixel said:

...by which I mean Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon. They have some very questionable business practices.

I don't own anything made by Apple and I just have no use for Facebook or Amazon. It's not even about privacy, I just don't have any use for those three.

I do use plenty of Microsoft's stuff and, given that I have an Android-phone, I couldn't get rid of Google even if I wanted to. Microsoft's Game Pass For PC is great, I love VSCode, I use Github, I use Windows and so on, so can't get rid of Microsoft, either. Not that I'd even want to.