im using icloud for now cuz proton is blocked by my isp and tutamail is broken af sometime i wanna login it fails and takes 10+ mins to login
SOLVED

I'm a student in college who's in the process of divesting from big tech. I've been thinking recently that many people might want to divest but not possess the expertise or time to move away, especially in the US. My question is this: would a white glove transfer from google to nextcloud(on a managed provider) be appealing? I know this isn't everything needed to degoogle but it could be a start. My main hope is to genuinely help people move away from big tech, not to make a lot of money, so if you think the service wouldn't help with that goal, please let me know.

Hello people, lately this sub and its posts are appearing a lot lately in my feed and I wanna know how can I make it so posts from here don't show up? I don't plan on degoogling any time soon. Thanks in advance

Every client i tried didn't let me comment

1st GCAM @ 30x / 2nd Google Camera @ 30x

I understand that GCAM has a lot less of the processing that Google's camera does, but I seriously can't take a single photo that isn't grainy and noisy. Both of these were taken around 3pm on a very sunny day. The GCAM is more detailed, but unusable. The Google is softer and blurry, but usable.

Am I missing something or do I need to try a different camera? I sourced it from here.

Hey is there a way to test drive graphene/ check app compatibility without shelling out $200 for a pixel? I'd like to test my bank app, and my bank in the browser, and I want to try the taxi apps-the alternatives to uber and lyft, and a hipaa compliant phone app for work.

I'm assuming nexcloud and proton will be fine, but i don't drive and don't currently live in a place with public transport.

Google lens won't work if there is no Google App installed on our device which ofc i don't want to. Is there any alternatives for Google Lens

I'm using this for studies/research purposes and to lookup problems. what do you guys suggest?

with how much focus is put onto privacy in this subreddit im seeing a surprising lot of support for/usage of vibecoded projects. isnt the point to have an actual hold on your device? why would you make something like that when you yourself dont even know whats in the code? just seems strange, ai arguments aside

title

I see the UK is pushing to make it law to require phone manufacturers to scan users' phones for images of children etc to stop exploitation. That sets a dangerous precedent for invading privacy, especially if it were to spread to the USA.

What would be the best way to stop that on one's hardware? Return to flip phones? Brax phone? Graphene OS?

Like most everybody, I don't have any images of children on my phone, but it creeps me out to think that without my permission my phone might scan its contents and report to the government. That feels like a step closer to a totalitarian government that could stop any dissent among the people, snatch anybody it feels is a threat if they don't like certain content on one's phone.

Hi all,

I have been enthousiastically lurking in this sub for the last few months, while degoogling.

Today, I can finally say that I deleted my Google account. I have been gradually changing to alternatives for each Google, several of them self-hosted.

Honorable mentions I have been particularly impressed with:

- Comaps for Google Maps

- Immich for Google Photos

- FreeTube for Youtube

Furthermore, I use Proton now for e-mail and so on.

If I had to give one tip:

Take it slow. For me, this involved going through all my logins in password manager, and changing from Google login to e-mail login, as well as monitoring my Gmail inbox for important messages for a few months.

Thanks for all the tips, tricks and motivation!

What do you guys recommend?

- New: you can choose to let Search or Gemini access data from Gmail, Drive and Google Photos. Search may then use that data to personalize content, including ads.
- "We don't show you personalized ads based on your content from Drive, Gmail, or Photos" now goes on: "unless you choose to make data from these services available to other Google services that support personalized ads."
- A new definition, "personalize content", names a feature called Personal Intelligence.

Full diff and both recorded versions: https://keepword.net/changes/google-privacy-2026-10-16/

It's opt-in, and Google announced it with a new effective date, so this isn't a secret edit. Google's own archive has the old version too. I'm posting it because almost nobody reads the new version of a policy.

Disclosure: the recording comes from Keepword, an open-source project I run that records what web pages say, so anyone can check it later. This one was recorded by a single witness, which is mine. The linked page says what that does and doesn't prove.

I said before that we were working hard to make Keephaven even simpler. We did just that!

I'm proud to announce the Keephaven Photos SSD Edition for Windows. You heard me right — the exact same Keephaven I open sourced last month, now for Windows. It's much simpler for the average person to use, and it's a fraction of what the Keephaven Home edition cost to build and what we were originally charging. Write the drive once, then plug it in and go.

What you're replacing, one for one

Google backs your phone up automatically. This does too — the app uploads in the background to your drive instead of to Google.

Google's People tab groups faces. So does this.

Google lets you search "beach" or "dog" and find the picture. So does this, on the photo itself.

Google does albums and shared links to family. Same here.

Google charges you monthly once you pass 15 GB. This doesn't charge you anything. You buy a USB SSD once and it's yours.

Photos are served by Immich. It runs on your drive, on your PC, on your home network. No account, no subscription, nothing leaving the house.

What you need

A 64-bit Windows PC with 8 GB of RAM and a free USB 3 port, plus a USB SSD of 64 GB or more. The drive isn't included — you buy it and you own it. Not Thunderbolt or USB4 enclosures; Windows reports those as internal drives and the writer won't offer them.

The PC is the server, so it needs to be running for your phone to upload. Your Keephaven is at http://localhost on that PC, and on your phone at the address the window shows you, on your home network.

Getting it running

One file, about 6 MB. Run it and it fetches the rest, around 5.4 GB, checks every piece against its published checksum, and refuses anything it can't check.

Then the writer shows you the one drive it's about to erase and what's on it now, and makes you type that drive's make and size. Nothing is touched until you do. It writes about 36 GB, reads all 36 GB back off the drive and compares it against the published checksum, and prints PASS or FAIL in those words. On a laptop with a Core i3 over USB 3, the write took 2 minutes 5 seconds and the read-back a little over one.

Open the drive, double-click Keephaven.exe. Nothing gets installed.

What it talks to

Your drive asks for a new version once a day. That request carries an update code and the version it's running — no account, no address book, no file list. It sets its clock from a public time server. That's the lot.

Updates are signed images, checked on the drive against a key baked into the read-only part of the system before anything installs. It won't downgrade itself.

Windows SmartScreen will say the publisher is unknown, once for the writer and once for Keephaven — they aren't signed with a code-signing certificate yet.

AGPL-3.0-only, same licence as the boxes. Early release. Free while it's early. If you grab it now it stays free for you. Later versions will cost money.

Download: https://updates.keephaven.co/get/ssd

Source: https://github.com/dafarusd/keephaven

Details: https://keephaven.co/ssd

Google heeft mijn oom zijn account geblokkeerd: "Het lijkt erop dat dit account is gemaakt of gebruikt met meerdere accounts." Deze melding kreeg hij vlak nadat hij een melding van Fsecure kreeg dat zijn emailadres gelekt was (afgelopen zaterdag).

We hebben direct bezwaar ingediend en die dag wel nog zijn wachtwoord kunnen wijzigen, en een herstel-emailadres kunnen toevoegen. Op zondag werd het bezwaar goedgekeurd en heb ik geprobeerd in te loggen, echter kwam ik toen al niet verder met de 2-stapsverificatie. Hij kreeg toen een SMS om te versturen naar een onbekend nummer (dat nummer veranderde bij iedere poging tot inloggen (+31 635210007 en +31 97001002003)

Er stond bij de QR code namelijk een andere einde van het telefoonnummer dan dat van mijn oom is. We hebben om een accountherstel gevraagd, en vandaag kregen we de volgende mail:

Goed nieuws: je hoeft nog maar enkele stappen uit te voeren om weer toegang te krijgen tot *****@me.com. Omdat je problemen ondervindt met tweestapsverificatie, verwijderen we deze optie uit je account. Als je nu wilt inloggen, klik je hieronder. InloggenAls extra beveiligingsmaatregel raden we je echter aan tweestapsverificatie weer aan te zetten in je account zodra je bent ingelogd.

Echter bij inloggen van account krijgen we weer een QR code met het verkeerde nummer. Het is niet mogelijk om op een andere manier in te loggen. Het staat er wel, maar we krijgen dan gewoon een nieuwe QR code.

Wat vreemd is omdat google in zijn "goed nieuws mail" aangeeft de 2-staps verificatie uitgezet te hebben.

Nu is het account weer uitgezet door google met dezelfde reden als zaterdag (meerdere andere accounts).

Wie kan me helpen om dit nog ooit goed te krijgen. En met name om dat verkeerde telefoonnummer eruit te krijgen (ik vermoed dat dit door de hack is aangepast al).

Wat kan ik doen? En moet ik nog andere voorzorgsmaatregelen nemen.

Graag had ik met iemand van google dit besproken, en hem/haar/het het account laten wijzigen om het opgelost te krijgen. Maar dat is me niet gelukt.

Graag jullie hulp.

Alvast heel erg bedankt.

I make MyWay, an Android/iOS app that reveals the streets you've walked on a "fog of war" map of your city. It's basically a personal location history, so I've tried to keep Google out of it. I'm posting here because I know where it still falls short, and I'd like this sub's opinion on fixing it properly.

What Google doesn't get - Your walks. History is stored in a local SQLite database. No account is needed, and the app has no server that stores routes. - An advertising ID. The AD_ID and ad-services permissions are stripped from the manifest. No ads. - Analytics by default. The Firebase Analytics SDK ships in the app, but collection is disabled in the manifest until you opt in. Even then it gets no routes, coordinates or steps. - Launch pings (from 1.9.1, in review). Until now the app used Firebase Remote Config for update checks, which sent an installation ID to Google on every launch. 1.9.1 replaces it with a static JSON file on my own server: no identifiers, no cookies. - Your steps. Health Connect counts stay on the device. They are not in backups and not uploaded. - Map tiles. Tiles come from OpenStreetMap, not Google Maps. Nearby sights come from my own Overpass instance with access logging off.

Where Google is still involved - Play Services for recording. Location uses the Fused Location Provider, and walk/ride detection uses Activity Recognition, both from Play Services. Without GMS, recording probably won't work. I haven't tested microG. - Google Play only. There is no direct APK yet. - Opt-in features use Firebase: cloud backup (Google or Apple sign-in, EU region), the leaderboard and analytics. All are off unless you turn them on. - It's closed source, so F-Droid isn't an option. I know that's a dealbreaker for some of you.

What I'm considering, and want your take on 1. Fall back to plain Android LocationManager (GPS provider) when Play Services aren't present. Walk/ride detection would then use speed only, with manual correction. 2. Publish a signed APK on the website for people without a Play Store. Would Obtainium or Accrescent be better? 3. Is a microG compatibility test worth reporting on, or does everyone here want no-GMS anyway?

Privacy summary: https://myway.p4.lv/en/#privacy · Full policy: https://myway.p4.lv/en/privacy.html

I have a very old MIBOX. I use it for streaming and other bits.

It’s running ‘version 9’ and was last patched in July 2021. I presume that’s Android TV v9

The kernel version is 4.9.113

I have turned off any kind of auto updating I can find.

Is this device at risk of having the apps installed on it suddenly failing to work?

If so does anyone know of any countermeasures I can take?

I've started my degoogling adventure by getting Proton main and drive, and I'm currently looking at Ente for photos. However, I have a lot of family and friends internally who all use Google services. We share photos, videos, email etc via Google's services.

My question is, even if I degoogle, won't the fact I'm still communicating with and appearing in photos/videos/emails people who continue to use Google defeat the purpose of switching?

For example, if I receive an email from a family member in Proto it's ok. But if I reply and it goes to their Google account won't it still pull out info on the sender (me) anyway?

This is something I'm finding rather confusing so any help in understanding would be much appreciated.

What are all you EV drivers doing about Android Auto/Carplay?

About to buy my first EV, and my first car with a shitty computer in the dash. Hoping to find a device for Navigation+Music+Camera, that isn't phoning home.

Its a Honda Prologue.

I'm curious what you guys are using.

I am struggling to find an option that will truly replace Google Maps like I need it to. I have basically replaced my Google use in many ways, although I still watch YouTube and use Google Maps. Otherwise, I have stopped using Google Drive, stopped setting up accounts with Google, stopped using gmail, etc. I want to stop using Google Maps but I can't seem to find an alternative that will allow me to export my huge maps lists.

These lists aren't just trip plans from previous years, if they were I wouldn't care so much. These are huge collections of things to do across multiple states. For Minnesota, I have over 1000 places saved. For Colorado, I have over 800. For Wyoming, I have over 400... And I could go on for the myriad of states I have lists for. This has been years worth of work and collecting of information into a mass compendium and I refuse to leave it because it would take me months if not over a year to rebuild it all from scratch on a new platform.

So is there a platform that allows for me to upload or export these lists? I also would like the platform to have the functionality of a GPS like maps, the ability to add to the lists, create new lists, etc. That's really about it. Any advice is appreciated!

Nice article on DEGoogled and Europeans smartphones: https://tuta.com/blog/degoogled-phones I've opted for a Fairphone and also just got the Fairbuds 2!