In the last week:
I started using Syncthing. I was using cloud storage as a way of copying files from one device to another. Syncthing is so much better.
I signed up with Mullvad VPN yesterday.
Deleted my Surfshark account today which I signed up with over two years ago when I didn’t care about privacy.
Finally convinced my sister to start using Signal.
Degoogling as much as possible and switching to Apple services, and from there switching to better third party alternatives where available
Stopped using gmail, switched to icloud mail, and now switching important accounts (financial, banking) to proton mail
Using Apple’s system keychain and cloud sync for password management and 2FA; haven’t found a reason to use anything else
Stopped using Safari and started using Orion with ublock origin
Stopped using Google for search (the quality is terrible now in any case) and started using DDG (also trying out Kagi)
Trying to get used to the Freetube desktop app for youtube instead of using the website
Stopped using reddit and deleted my account; now here on lemmy
Deactivated facebook and will eventually delete it; I don’t have any other social media accounts
On the hardware side I have been using iphone and I don’t plan on switching. But I hardened the privacy/telemetry settings as much as possible and turned on advanced data protection
Why do you expect Apple to increase your privacy over Google? It’s just moving from one megacorporation to another. You have no reason to expect better privacy.
At least apple uses the data to sell you their stuff to my knowledge. On the other hand, google bombards you with ads from tons of different firms and sells you out to these companies.
How can you even know how Apple uses your data?
They don’t have an adsense banner on almost every single website or mobile app that tries to sell me something based on the data they have collected from me. This is already an indicator. They even made zuckerberg mad by making it possible to opt out of sharing certain data with them. I am not saying apple is privacy example, but I would definitely put them higher on a list compared to google.
@ritchie @lauha https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/14/apple-faces-new-lawsuit-over-its-data-collection-practices-in-first-party-apps-like-the-app-store/ as long as there are share holders, data is collected to present to the share holders. I think all big tech companies collect and use data, for their benefit.
True. And there seems to be nothing in between big corporations that want to squeeze out every last cent profit and un-/underpaid open source developers trying to figure out how to maintain something requiring more and more resources over time as the user base gets bigger. I am fortunate to have a Samsung S9 passed down to me, on which I can run e/ os, but comes with compromises (e.g. can’t rent e-scooters from a company), plus they did something with the last update that messed up the colours of the screen. When it’s time to replace it, I am seriously considering a used iPhone.
