this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
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Right now a lot of us are trying to divest and diversify from having our entire lives on Google both because of the way Google spends its money and the long-standing privacy concerns seeming a bit more scary now.

What services have you switched to and what has your experience been? What do you like, what don't you like, would you recommend them?

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Firefox.

Immich for photos

Radicale for calendar and contacts

My own mail domain and server, for mail

Lineages on android

The only thing I cannot do without, is google maps.

[โ€“] Flubo@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago

Mail: Posteo Maps: osmand for walking, hiking, cycling, skiing and magic earth for car navigation (because of real live traffic) Drive: nextcloud Phone: second Hand Google pixel with graphene OS installed (degiogled Android)

There are like 10 communities called something like privacy and a couple with degoogle in their name specifically. If you need more alternatives check them out. ;)

[โ€“] kaerypheur@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

I tried to minimize my dependency on Google by signing up for various email services like Petal Mail by Huawei, Proton Mail, and Yandex Mail. I also tried to find smartphones that don't have Google by default, such as Murena smartphones and Huawei smartphones. But it seems like it's too late to look for those gems without Google because I have so many apps that I bought on Google, amounting to around five digits in Malaysian Ringgit, which is not cheap. So I think I'll stay with Google for now, sadly.

[โ€“] The_Caretaker@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I use F-Droid and Aurora Store on my phone and replaced the Google apps, that came preloaded on the phone, with FOSS apps. NewPipe on my phone and FreeTube on my PC to replace YouTube. I don't use Gmail. My Google account is on a Proton account. After I am sure I have all my desired apps switched over to email sign in, I will delete the Google account. I am also switching my Proton mail for Tuta mail. Proton is on the wrong side. I also dumped Microsoft over a year ago. I have been on Linux since then. I have avoided FaceBook for over a decade and never maintained a Twitter account.

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[โ€“] tfm@europe.pub 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Chrome โžก๏ธ Brave - Open source and privacy focused

Search โžก๏ธ Qwant - Good search results and privacy focusing

Photos โžก๏ธ Immich - Pretty much Google Photos but self hosted

Drive โžก๏ธ Nextcloud - Use it with Hetzner Storage Share, pretty cheap and easy to use

Gmail โžก๏ธ mailbox.org - European email hosting focusing on privacy

Meet โžก๏ธ Nextcloud

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[โ€“] POTOOOOOOOO@reddthat.com 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I use Ad Nauseum. Why degoogle when you can actively cost them money?

[โ€“] pleasestopasking@reddthat.com 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What's Ad Nauseum? What does it do and why do you like it?

[โ€“] JustARegularNerd@lemmy.world 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

As per their website:

As online advertising becomes ever more ubiquitous and unsanctioned, AdNauseam works to complete the cycle by automating ad clicks universally and blindly on behalf of its users. Built atop uBlock Origin, AdNauseam quietly clicks on every blocked ad, registering a visit on ad networks' databases. As the collected data gathered shows an omnivorous click-stream, user tracking, targeting and surveillance become futile

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[โ€“] vodkasolution@feddit.it 3 points 1 day ago

It seems interesting

[โ€“] HoneyMustardGas@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Other than Fediverse apps/websites, and F-droid for FOSS, I have switched to ProtonVPN and their encrypted emails.

[โ€“] pleasestopasking@reddthat.com 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Yes, I switched to Proton as well and so far it's been really painless. Proton pass in particular is amazing.

It was a little hard to pay the real value for something I've gotten used to being so heavily subsidized, but I just am reminding myself that it's because they're not making money off of my data.

[โ€“] baronvonj@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

I just wish Proton Mail had a "send as" feature for mailboxes where you don't own the domain.

[โ€“] Matriks404@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

The problem with Google services is that they will be probably one of the last ones (from big tech companies) I will stop using. I wanted to switch to Proton this year, but there has been some controversy of its CEO supporting Trump...

Edit: Removed unrelated paragraph.

Was out of the loop on that so I just did the most cursory search. What do you think of this take on it?

Here's my list:

  • Proton Mail: super painless to migrate over and a very similar user experience. Feels good knowing that Google can't read my emails and that they can't be subpoenaed by our insane government. Highly recommend. There's a free plan that offers 1GB of storage but I went straight to a paid account so I can't speak to that.
  • Proton Pass: LOVE this. It was easy to import my passwords from LastPass and Google. The best feature is the "hide my email alias" which on my plan I can make unlimited ones. It's basically making an anonymous throwaway email that automatically forwards to your inbox. If you start getting junk mail you can see who sold your address, but also with one click you can delete it if it gets compromised. It's basically the equivalent of making a bunch of different Google accounts but way easier.
  • Proton Drive: It came with my subscription but I haven't gotten that deep into it yet. It has a Docs alternative but not Sheets which I use a lot, so I'm hoping they develop something like that. Otherwise like a lot like drive. It's technically a photo backup too but the interface is trash (see next item). My goal is to get enough transferred that I can cancel my Google One subscription and maybe just use that for Sheets as needed.
  • Ente Photos: Cloud-based photo backup. I'm slowly getting my photos transferred over but it seems to be pretty user friendly. It has some but not all of the features of Google Photos, like organizing by faces.
  • Brave Search: They have a browser too but I'm just using the search in Firefox at the moment. I like that it's not based on Google's index but it sometimes means the results are not quite as good. Honestly for the payoff of not being algorithmed to death I'm fine with that.
[โ€“] orcrist@lemm.ee 0 points 1 day ago

Tried? That is boring. Stick with what we kept using.

[โ€“] jlow@beehaw.org 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

https://cartes.app/ is a new kid on the block to replaces Gmaps, looks very cool bit is also very alpha atm. But I'll keep checking it, it has some very cool features already (French only atm which I don't speak at all but it's still super usable.)

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