De-Google Your Life - Part 1

[Emily Young]

Google owns or has access to almost everything - search, email, even your web browser! Unless you like being the product, how can you opt out and still live a connected life?
 

 

Browsers
Firefox https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/
Tor Browser https://www.torproject.org/download/
Mullvad https://mullvad.net/en/browser
Brave https://brave.com/
Arc https://arc.net/
Ungoogled Chromium: https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium
- Chromium Web Store: https://github.com/NeverDecaf/chromium-web-store
DuckDuckGo https://duckduckgo.com/app
Floorp https://floorp.app/
LibreWolf https://librewolf.net/
Opera https://www.opera.com/
Vivaldi https://vivaldi.com/

 

Search:
Startpage https://www.startpage.com/
Ecosia https://www.ecosia.org/
DuckDuckGo https://start.duckduckgo.com/
Brave Search https://search.brave.com/
Kagi https://kagi.com/
Mojeek https://www.mojeek.com/
Qwant https://www.qwant.com/
SearXNG https://github.com/searxng/searxng

 

Email:
Proton Mail: https://proton.me/mail
Tuta: https://tuta.com/
Fastmail: https://www.fastmail.com/
Hey: https://www.hey.com/
Hushmail: https://www.hushmail.com/

 

Other Proton Services: https://proton.me/

 

Photos:
ente: https://ente.io/
Stingle: https://stingle.org/
PhotoSync: https://www.photosync-app.com/
Immich: https://immich.app/

Tailscale: https://tailscale.com/

 

DNS:
NextDNS https://nextdns.io/
Quad9: https://quad9.net/
Cloudflare: https://one.one.one.one/
AdGuard: https://adguard-dns.io/
Control D: https://controld.com/
Mullvad DNS: https://mullvad.net/en/help/dns-over-https-and-dns-over-tls
OpenDNS: https://www.opendns.com/

[GoStormPlays]

“This video is sponsored by Microsoft Edge!”

 

missed opertunity

[BoomerDutch]

25 minutes ago, GoStormPlays said:

“This video is sponsored by Microsoft Edge!”

 

missed opportunity.

Here ya go fixed it for ya, it is indeed missed opportunity.

 

Would be 10/10 joke but also unexpected if is it's actually true at all.

 

Also where's thorium it's fastest browser of all!

[DisplaiopName]

Sorry for asking a dumb question, but what do the stars mean in this table? More stars = less telemetry or is less stars less telemetry? 

[ProbablyWrong]

Is it just me or is the picture at 4:15 about browser compare a little confusing. Specifically the telemetry row. Unless I'm misunderstanding, that row requires less stars to be better, which is why default Firefox has more stars than Librewolf.

 

I would think it should follow the other rows below it, and be more stars is better not the other way around.. Just made me a little confused at first.

[norgaladir]

I would like to see a more in depth comparison of all the photo alternatives, personally that's the data I am (and I'm sure many others) are the least comfortable giving to Google.

 

Last time I checked PhotoPrism was the best option, the AI categorization and facial recognition worked the best (very heavily use these, as it's the only way I can find anything anymore, over 50k photos over my lifetime, zero organization, never delete), and the level of polish for day to day use was closest to Google, only deal breaker was the lack of separate user accounts with per photo/album sharing.

 

Also don't forget that plex has some ok photo capabilities too, unfortunately it looks like they're pulling resources away from this feature rather than growing it.

[Emily Young]

4 minutes ago, DisplaiopName said:

Sorry for asking a dumb question, but what do the stars mean in this table? More stars = less telemetry or is less stars less telemetry?

4 minutes ago, ProbablyWrong said:

Is it just me or is the picture at 4:15 about browser compare a little confusing. Specifically the telemetry row. Unless I'm misunderstanding, that row requires less stars to be better, which is why default Firefox has more stars than Librewolf.

 

I would think it should follow the other rows below it, and be more stars is better not the other way around.. Just made me a little confused at first.

I agree, this probably could have been conveyed a bit more clearly; it was already a bit of a squeeze to get in all the info I wanted, so by the time I was done, I ended up with "how much" rather than "how good" when creating the graphic. It's worth noting that those are with defaults; Firefox for example can be configured for very little telemetry, and supports userchrome/userscripts that can bring it to Librewolf's level.

[ToboRobot]

4 minutes ago, DisplaiopName said:

Sorry for asking a dumb question, but what do the stars mean in this table? More stars = less telemetry or is less stars less telemetry? 

5 stars is the best, 1 stars is the worst.

[DisplaiopName]

2 minutes ago, ProbablyWrong said:

Is it just me or is the picture at 4:15 about browser compare a little confusing. Specifically the telemetry row. Unless I'm misunderstanding, that row requires less stars to be better, which is why default Firefox has more stars than Librewolf.

 

I would think it should follow the other rows below it, and be more stars is better not the other way around.. Just made me a little confused at first.

I'm confused here as well. Why is less telemetry less stars (I think) and ease of use/tweakable more stars? Isn't less telemetry better thus it should have more stars?

[BrandySlime]

I presume iCloud is being left out of the discussion because it’s not cross-platform? Can’t think of a good reason otherwise, since except for email, contacts, and calendars, it has full end to end encryption support for all user data including photos. I was surprised to see a large suite of third party photo storage services with varying levels of privacy (Amazon?!) included but iCloud excluded. It’s one of the most private options apart from self-hosting.

 

I don’t think platform exclusivity is a good excuse to just ignore a good option, especially since it supports Windows and the web (only Android is excluded — and web access is incompatible with end to end encryption, unless you have an Apple device to temporarily grant access on a case by case basis to web clients). So it isn’t amazing for cross compatibility, but if your phone is an iPhone you can still use iCloud across your other devices pretty seamlessly, whether you’re a Windows or Mac person.

[ProbablyWrong]

As Emily mentioned for the telemetry row, more stars means more telemetry, so for that row specifically less stars is better.

 

The tweakable/easeofuse rows follow "how good" = more stars = better

Telemetry row follow "how much telemetry" = more stars = worse.

 

Unfortunately, at least from a visual standpoint, it appears some of the better browsers are worse than they actually are. Sucks because most people probably wont catch this and draw a misinterpreted conclusion based on the picture alone.

[Nima Fanniasl]

Hi! I'm nima, 13, from Iran

I have made a Magisk module named Systemless DeGoogler, and with your phone rooted, you can remove all Google services from your Android phone with one click! Because on Android, there aren't just google apps to remove, there is Google Play services (GMS) that has been a hard thing to remove and people had to install custom ROMs to get rid of it, but with this module, you can DeGoogle your phone completely even on stock ROMs!

Again, on Android phones, it isn't just a matter of removing Google apps, you need to remove GMS too, which with my module you can easily do ;D

 

XDA Thread:

https://xdaforums.com/t/module-systemless-degoogler.4668638/

[jonathanreed]

Wondering if we used one of those email services that allowed you to use custom domains, would the emails come through as being from an unknown domain and flagged? I remember watching a video about the complicated handshakes and just wanted to make sure if I were interested in using such a product the appropriate handshakes would be conducted

[Emily Young]

1 minute ago, jonathanreed said:

Wondering if we used one of those email services that allowed you to use custom domains, would the emails come through as being from an unknown domain and flagged? I remember watching a video about the complicated handshakes and just wanted to make sure if I were interested in using such a product the appropriate handshakes would be conducted

I can personally confirm that in Proton's case, you're able to add DMARC, DKIM, and SPF entries to your domain's DNS records, which should provide all the authentication you need. I know Tuta also provides that, and presumably so would the others in the table. IIRC Google requires you to set at least some of those up in order to use Google Workspace mail.

 

The reason why they're important is that (over-simplified) without them, anyone can send mail from any domain from any network. The reason why that's the case is... Well, email predates the internet itself, and security for those systems meant a guy who checks your ID before letting you in. These protections are why you don't get fake email from eg. Microsoft anymore and now scammers use random or typosquatted email addresses.

[SavageCore]

Seen as docker-compose was mentioned in the video, I will drop mailcow here for self-hosting email.

https://github.com/mailcow/mailcow-dockerized

Have fun!

[eggbladder]

Noticed an issue:
at 16:28, the link is correct, and links to Apple's website.
at 16:30, the link is incorrect, and links to Apple's website, despite the website being shown being the Arch Wiki.
Is this a mistake, or intentional?

[Niek de Wilde]

Hey there! Nice video, its nice to see that privacy gets the spotlight this time!

 

I am Niek de wilde and I am part of a Non profit educational project called PrivacyGuides, if anyone needs any assistance in setting anything up for the first time then I would be glad to help.

 

(Also if anyone at LMG is still searching for some google alternatives, I would gladly help :).

[Niek de Wilde]

32 minutes ago, Emily Young said:

I can personally confirm that in Proton's case, you're able to add DMARC, DKIM, and SPF entries to your domain's DNS records, which should provide all the authentication you need. I know Tuta also provides that, and presumably so would the others in the table. IIRC Google requires you to set at least some of those up in order to use Google Workspace mail.

 

The reason why they're important is that (over-simplified) without them, anyone can send mail from any domain from any network. The reason why that's the case is... Well, email predates the internet itself, and security for those systems meant a guy who checks your ID before letting you in. These protections are why you don't get fake email from eg. Microsoft anymore and now scammers use random or typosquatted email addresses.

For testing services btw, I can highly recommend https://www.hardenize.com/ for testing what a provider actually supports or not. It gives a great overview in stuff that misses and possible configuration issues. We often uses its reports as an initial screening for Email providers.

[wasab]

it is impossible to escape google when all my bank accounts, social medias, logins, etc are associated with my google email now. 

[Niek de Wilde]

3 minutes ago, wasab said:

it is impossible to escape google when all my bank accounts, social medias, logins, etc are associated with my google email now. 

You can consider your data like your groceries. Some groceries can get spoiled in a day, some a few weeks, some only after months or years, but as time goes on data becomes more useless.

 

People move to different address, switch jobs, form new relationships. Just because your current data is out there now does not mean it cannot be a good idea to protect it in the future

[wasab]

7 minutes ago, Niek de Wilde said:

You can consider your data like your groceries. Some groceries can get spoiled in a day, some a few weeks, some only after months or years, but as time goes on data becomes more useless.

 

People move to different address, switch jobs, form new relationships. Just because your current data is out there now does not mean it cannot be a good idea to protect it in the future

nonononono. you dont understand. i have many financial, investments, retirements, and bank accounts tie to google. i am not gonna change recovery emails and logins on all of them and even if I do, I am just swapping out google with something else. 

[Tideroo]

Nice video ! Wouldn't be surprised at all if this thread slowly gets filled with good (and sometimes bad) advices to get rid of Gafams/Increase privacy & anonymity, it's definitely one of the trending topics.

 

--

I personally use GrapheneOS on my Pixel (with fully open-source apps/stores, aside from Google Camera that I use because it has great options - I disabled all of its authorizations, even the access to the gallery), and Firefox (on the strictest settings)+Ublock on my W10 LTSC desktop. I'm used to break most Linux distros within a week so I can't use it as my main, besides games are more stable on Windows too.

 

I also got rid of Google entirely except for the YT account (made with a proton mail adress), and privacy-wise it's more than good enough for me. Anonymity wise, for mostly everything a simple alias + MullvadVPN is my daily go-to solution.

 

And finally, I got an optiplex (8070 or 8060 forgot) laying around at home but I haven't configured it yet (will be a dockered VPN/Jellyfin/Seedbox for legal stuff), I will do that once I get access to the fake optic fiber (actual optic fiber connected to phone cables of my house by my ISP, should be done this year). Then I'll buy a NAS and shut off myself from the internet even more than before lol.

--

 

Feel free to share your setup everyone, it's interesting to read and it can definitely help beginners too ! At least IMO more than just saying "use this, ditch that etc.."

 

 

(Also Linus, don't you dare recommend anything else than ublock for the part 2 )

 

[Tideroo]

7 minutes ago, wasab said:

nonononono. you dont understand. i have many financial, investments, retirements, and bank accounts tie to google. i am not gonna change recovery emails and logins on all of them and even if I do, I am just swapping out google with something else. 

No need to do everything at once, it'll always take some time to change from Google to something better. Personally I made two proton accounts (one for important emails, the other for my daily internet usage) and whenever I see I missed something IRL because I never check my old emails, I then ask the guy in question to change my email

 

Still happens even a year later but it's because I'm lazy, if you're motivated enough within weeks you'll be good to go for litteraly 90% of your stuff

[Niek de Wilde]

2 minutes ago, Tideroo said:

No need to do everything at once, it'll always take some time to change from Google to something better. Personally I made two proton accounts (one for important emails, the other for my daily internet usage) and whenever I see I missed something IRL because I never check my old emails, I then ask the guy in question to change my email

 

Still happens even a year later but it's because I'm lazy, if you're motivated enough within weeks you'll be good to go for litteraly 90% of your stuff.

100% exactly this. Small steps are the way to go. Turning 180 degrees into the next Edward Snowden just tends to burn people out!

[Emily Young]

Sorry to mass-ping all of you guys at once, but we're going to fix these issues, plus one or two others that have been pointed out elsewhere.

 

3 hours ago, ProbablyWrong said:

Is it just me or is the picture at 4:15 about browser compare a little confusing. Specifically the telemetry row. Unless I'm misunderstanding, that row requires less stars to be better, which is why default Firefox has more stars than Librewolf.

 

I would think it should follow the other rows below it, and be more stars is better not the other way around.. Just made me a little confused at first.

3 hours ago, norgaladir said:

I would like to see a more in depth comparison of all the photo alternatives, personally that's the data I am (and I'm sure many others) are the least comfortable giving to Google.

 

Last time I checked PhotoPrism was the best option, the AI categorization and facial recognition worked the best (very heavily use these, as it's the only way I can find anything anymore, over 50k photos over my lifetime, zero organization, never delete), and the level of polish for day to day use was closest to Google, only deal breaker was the lack of separate user accounts with per photo/album sharing.

 

Also don't forget that plex has some ok photo capabilities too, unfortunately it looks like they're pulling resources away from this feature rather than growing it.

3 hours ago, ToboRobot said:

5 stars is the best, 1 stars is the worst.

3 hours ago, DisplaiopName said:

I'm confused here as well. Why is less telemetry less stars (I think) and ease of use/tweakable more stars? Isn't less telemetry better thus it should have more stars?

2 hours ago, ProbablyWrong said:

As Emily mentioned for the telemetry row, more stars means more telemetry, so for that row specifically less stars is better.

 

The tweakable/easeofuse rows follow "how good" = more stars = better

Telemetry row follow "how much telemetry" = more stars = worse.

 

Unfortunately, at least from a visual standpoint, it appears some of the better browsers are worse than they actually are. Sucks because most people probably wont catch this and draw a misinterpreted conclusion based on the picture alone.

2 hours ago, eggbladder said:

Noticed an issue:
at 16:28, the link is correct, and links to Apple's website.
at 16:30, the link is incorrect, and links to Apple's website, despite the website being shown being the Arch Wiki.
Is this a mistake, or intentional?