It is essential to stop using Chrome.
Under the pretense of saving users from third-party spyware, Google is creating an ecosystem in which Chrome itself is the spyware.
Given Google's overwhelming presence in the browser market, this is unconscionable.
We should all despise the ad-tech business, and have no sympathy for the companies getting whacked by Google's actions. But we should not permit one monopolist to replace them all.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/12/year-review-googles-corporate-paternalism-browser
While I agree on this, I think Ungoogled Chromium could be a soft way to degoogle yourself while maybe looking for complete replacements. It took me almost 2 weeks to degoogle me almost totally, at the beginning having a minimum of compatibility is nice
The only Google thing holding me back from full degoogling is YouTube, but with how garbage the platform is becoming, especially with the algorithm just going berserk and it probably not being long until I start being affected by the adblock-block, I think moving away from it is only going to be easier than ever before.
serious question: what do for email if you’ve been a gmail user for … (checks notes) … almost 20 years? self hosted?
honest question. I’m interested, but really have no idea what my options are when I’ve had the same email address for half my life / all of my adult life.
Proton Mail as others have suggested is the easy and privacy friendly solution, and probably set an auto forwarding rule from your gmail account to your new Proton Mail.
Otherwise I haven’t self hosted my own email but from my previous attempts it seemed like it’s quite involved
Protonmail does have a problem with often being classified as a temporary email provider. Some websites refuse to allow registrations using protonmail emails. Solution is to not use those websites.
Fastmail with a custom domain. It’s great, and has a nice migration tool for moving everything over from Gmail. Also integrates nicely with 1Password for personalized email addresses for each service I sign up for, which I can nuke as needed if needed.
Self hosting email is pretty much impossible nowadays. You have to use your hosting service servers at a minimum. But a dedicated email service will probably have better spam handling (although that’s possibly not as bad as it once was).
While I agree on this, I think Ungoogled Chromium could be a soft way to degoogle yourself while maybe looking for complete replacements. It took me almost 2 weeks to degoogle me almost totally, at the beginning having a minimum of compatibility is nice
The only Google thing holding me back from full degoogling is YouTube, but with how garbage the platform is becoming, especially with the algorithm just going berserk and it probably not being long until I start being affected by the adblock-block, I think moving away from it is only going to be easier than ever before.
serious question: what do for email if you’ve been a gmail user for … (checks notes) … almost 20 years? self hosted?
honest question. I’m interested, but really have no idea what my options are when I’ve had the same email address for half my life / all of my adult life.
Proton Mail as others have suggested is the easy and privacy friendly solution, and probably set an auto forwarding rule from your gmail account to your new Proton Mail.
Otherwise I haven’t self hosted my own email but from my previous attempts it seemed like it’s quite involved
Protonmail does have a problem with often being classified as a temporary email provider. Some websites refuse to allow registrations using protonmail emails. Solution is to not use those websites.
I’m yet to run into that myself (2+ year user of it) but I would believe that
Fastmail with a custom domain. It’s great, and has a nice migration tool for moving everything over from Gmail. Also integrates nicely with 1Password for personalized email addresses for each service I sign up for, which I can nuke as needed if needed.
awesome, thanks for that! I’ll look into it.
I’m not saying that is the only good option, but you should look into proton mail.
Self hosting email is pretty much impossible nowadays. You have to use your hosting service servers at a minimum. But a dedicated email service will probably have better spam handling (although that’s possibly not as bad as it once was).
Countermail.com if you manage to get an invite
Very cool. Thanks
Since I feel you, and since I have a lot of nice subs on youtube, I feel like suggesting something like Piped as a privacy focus frontend or, if you are more of a standalone app person, FreeTube as a privacy focus client.
Technically we are still using YouTube, but at least there is less food for the algo.
Or just use Firefox…?