This is probably gonna be very long, so, if you dont have time and patience, skip it. I gonna tell you my journey on degoogle my life and share my thoughts. Btw, my english not that good, so, the warning is given :p
So, lets begin.
> Fake step 1: Uninstalled windows, went to Linux and unfortunately return to windows
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While I read more and more about privacy concerns and google/meta spyware, I just go through to Linux. I dont thinked about this step and just go forward. After some weeks of using Linux Mint, I realised Linux dont have some programms I need it and find windows more stable to edit videos. After these weeks, I return because of these reasons. After returned to windows, I did this:
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Debloat all stupid programms that Windows10 have. Deleted Cortana, Edge and others things I dont need/use.
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Disabled all telemetry possible and Im using OOShutUp10.
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Replaced Edge for Librewolf and Firefox. Replaced Office for LibreOffice.
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Used Capcut and DaVinci Resolve to edit videos. Tho, I will search more about video editors to know which are more user and privacy friendly.
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The only spyware-programms I have are Discord (I use the openasar extension and really need Discord to talk with my friends) and spotify (dont find yet a better replacement).
I want to return in the future to Linux, but this time I will lost more time to search which distro is better for me using a Virtual Box.
> Step 2: Be more conscious about apps and programms I use. Discovering email-aliases. Changing to Proton/Tutanota
spoiler
Ok, so…… Now, I just use apps or programms from google, meta or other spyware-stuff IF I REALLY NEED. Dont like Whatsapp but I need to talk with my family and friends. This is the same reason why Im still using Discord. Deleted some site accounts where have some (very) shady privacy rules.
Discovered email-alias and now im using for everything where request an e-mail. Evertyhing. My spotify and discord accounts are emails-alias. My e-mail here is an alias. Its help me to know where I have an account and give me more control about that. Maybe this looks paranoid, but this is the way I find to protect my privacy and get a better control on my things. To not look ultra-paranoid, I give you something about me: Im portuguese.
Replaced gmail for proton and tutanota. I dont deleted my gmail account yet because in this email unfortunately have some services associated, like my bank. This year, one of my main goals are to solve this problems and delete permanently my gmail account.
> Step 2.5 (Maybe fake step): Deleted my social media accounts (Instagram and twitter)
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I call this “maybe fake step” because I deleted my social media for these reasons: I was fed up about them, they bothering me a lot and dont help my mental health. Privacy policies was not the main thing to deleted them, so this is the reason I call a fake step. I also deleted them to prove myself I could do a social media detox. Bellow, I will explain more detail my reasons. If you dont want to read them, you can skip this step.
Dont have facebook since 2018 and deleted my reddit account on 2021. Facebook looked very dead for me and nobody (my friends and family) uses it (they have an account but rarely use it). Reddit account I dont need it and deleted because I dont like about their privacy rules and others sh** stuff they did. I barely used my reddit account and if I had do 10 posts on total, was too much. And I can see the only one subreddit I want without account. Im only using Whatsapp, if you consider this a social media.
~~ Instagram. Why I deleted? This is problably the most schocked step I made for my friends. The reasons why I deleted my instagram account:
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I felt like a boomer using instagram. I only went to my ig account 5 times per month, no more than that. Imagine a 90-year-old-mand using Linux for the first time. Yes, its me using ig.
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I saw my friends loses a bunch of time scrolling on ig and watching random videos, and Im was afraid of that. Because is a really time consumer and seems a little danger to view the beautifull lies of people buying cars and eating on the best resaturants. I guess this not help nobody.
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Mostly, my followers were friends of my chillhood, and lets be honest: I and they dont care about each other. They dont need to know nothing about my life and I dont have interest to know about them. So, to clear this people from my life, I deleted my account.
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Privacy concerns maybe it weigh about 20%-10%.
~~ Twitter. Why I deleted?
I think twitter is a great tool if you filter A LOT which you want to view. I learn a lot about football there and follow some people who have a good content. This is was my main reason to continue on twitter. However, some months after Elon buy twitter, I see a lot of racism and homophobic tweets and this is really annoying me. A lot. I saw this not help me and make me really frustrated and decided give up. Twitter gave me some opportunities to write about football for one blog (yes, I really like write) and gave me some helpfull contacts to share some opinions. Is very probably return to twitter on the future, just because I want to express my opinions about football (if you are american, im talk about soccer) and if really exists anyone who like my thoughts and my work (I worked an half-season on one youth football team).
> Step 3: Android
spoiler
In October, I started to understand how can I make my android more private and secure. During this time, I lost one week searching about if my oneplus have an custom ROM. Unfortunately, dont have. Some time after, in November, discovered is it possible to do one thing. Debloat and ride off all google stuff. During this month, I put all my effort on this and try debloat as possible as I can my phone , degoogle it and improve battery life.
And now, Im feeling in love again for my phone. Its a good phone, but this make my phone looking more shinning, for me. This is what I feel. But, lets talk about what I did.
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Discovered Universal Android Debloat. This help me a lot to find which apps I can remove and give me tools to search some apps which my android can live without.
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Removed Gmail, Google Maps, Google Play Store, etc etc etc. The only apps was stayed, was clock and camera. My replacements:
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- Google Play Store – Aurora store and use Obtaiunium to update apps
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Google dialer – Tried right dialer and Koler. Im using Simple dialer (from Simple Mobile Tools) for now, but I will replace in the future.
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Contacts – Tried Right Contacts and im using Simple Contacts Pro SE
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Youtube - Newpipe
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SMS – QKSMS
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Files manager – Material Files and PlainApp
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Gmail – Im not using e-mail on my phone after debloat
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Gallery / Google Photos – Tried Gallery from greensoft infotech and now im using Vsmart gallery
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Chrome – Tried Mull and Fennec and im using Cromite and PrivacyBrowser
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Calendar – Shitfcal
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Calculator – Opencalc
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Google Maps - OsMand~
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Spotify and whatsapp is the only spyware Im using.
This gave me a lot of work but as I said, im enjoying more than ever my phone. You probably may find some issues with debloating, and the reason to spend much time with this was when I removed Google Framework and Google Services. For many androids, this is probably a redflag and causes a bootloop, but with many tries I discovered how can uninstalling them. In my phone, Whatsapp and Spotify still works, but some apps requires GSF and cant install it. The main issue is the updates of my smartphone. Simply the updates dont work but I guess i can live without them. When I will return to twitter i need to install them again, but this is one problem for the future.
> Step 4: Discovering and searching for alternatives
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As have you seen, I found some reliable alternatives for the things i want to change, despite some excepetions. I saw Lemmy and Kbin as alternatives to reddit, but at the beggining, I dont bothered with that. After some time, my need to express myself was growing, and decide create an account here. So far, im liking a lot. Mainly because it is open-source, have good privacy policies and I can see people thoughts and share mines. And I hope can contribute with good stuff.
> Final thoughts
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After one moth, I see a funny thing. My gmail account stop receiving too much spam as in the past. I went to my gmail account one time per week, and now its very rare to see spam. Funny, isn’t it?
Probably this is a placebo effect, but nowadays im feeling less spyed. Obviously, this is impossible for anyone who uses internet , and the only way to make this possible is dont use internet, dont have an email and use a Nokia 3310. But Im feeling good with this changes and this is which matters, on the final day.
See you around here, fellas . Have a nice day
Thank you for sharing your journey! It’s very interesting and informative to see how others have brought more privacy into their lives. I noticed that you were using something from Simple Mobile Tools. I know you said you were going to replace it eventually, but you should soon, especially if you got it from the Playstore, rather than from F-Droid, because they were acquired.
Ty for your kind words and ty for your tip. After read you, I will search more about alternatives to replace my dialer. My contacts app is from a fork of Simple Mobile Tools: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.ritscher.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro/
For now i guess its ok, but in the future I need to replace it, for sure.
there is a fork of simple mobile tools by one of the biggest contributors. they’re still working on releases etc, but keep an eye out for Fossify
Fossify Gallery and Fossify Calendar are already on fdroid, more of the Simple mobile tools are still to follow
I know SMT was bought 😛
I didnt like too much about Fossify Gallery. This is the reason I choosed Vsmart Gallery. About calendar, didnt know about that. Ty very much for the suggestions
Truly switching is a slow process. There are alternatives in most software. A lot of the software I thought I had to have, turned out to be manipulating me to depend on it. Once I started to learn more on my own I discovered new alternatives. There is no marketing department for most open source software. You just need to be open to trying new stuff, and looking for influencers that can help you discover new options.
With a phone, I only buy a phone based on the ROM I want to run. I never buy a phone and then look for what will work on it. I like GrapheneOS, but I don’t need the stuff many others do.
With Linux, it is good to remember the scope of Linux is very different than windows. You have everything from embedded devices, to data centers that are based on Linux. Android is designed to work for someone with absolutely no idea about Linux or networking, while at the same time the Linux community is the playground for all Computer Science students learning about how a kernel really works. Then there is all the networking and system administration (IT). There are hundreds of careers in these niches of the source code, not to mention applications and software built on top. Very few people know everything. Most of us are intimidated by some aspects of Linux. The real trick is to learn how to ask the right questions and where to ask them.
With stuff like discord and friends, try suggesting alternatives and take the lead. If you look at the network traffic generated by discord, it will make no sense why anyone uses it. They do not use human readable addresses. You are connecting to random raw IP addresses over weird ports with no accountability. There are layers upon layers of this nonsense going on in the background. There is no documentation about what they are doing. It is a security nightmare IMO. I keep popcorn ready on standby for the day that discord implodes from some compromise. There is no way to explain how discord is financially viable at scale.
I agree with you. The truly switch take time and more deep searches.
Im not an expert about Linux, but as I said, with time, i guess I will find the best distro for my purposes. I need to learn more about it.
About Discord, some years ago I suggested to make a change, but 50%-70% of my friends didnt like the idea. The only way to stop using discord, is when Discord implode it. And im not worry about it tbh.
Try organicmaps. Much better than OSMand, in my opinion.
Ty for the tip!
of course!
For discord, you might try armcord or betterdiscord
I tried armcord and didnt liked. Seems little buggy. I will try betteediscord. Ty!
The best you can do is stop using Gmail, calendar, and contacts. I’ve always run my own mail servers. A few years ago I finally divorced from Google contacts and calendar with radicale.
I stop using gmail and dont use Google calendar or Google contacts. I replaced/debloat all google-stuff from my phone. I reseted my phone to factory options and dont put any email. After reset, the first thing I did was debloat it. I guess you didnt read all things I put on main post.
What do you do about phone contacts? Since android phones seem to link them automatically, I haven’t tried too hard to get away from contacts. The other two I’ve managed to do away with.
You can configure the contacts app to disable automatic sync with gmail. On a fresh install of android it is disabled.
Radicale.
Hey man, great to hear you’re looking more into privacy, and making good progress in doing so!
Gives me hope in humanity somehow! :)I’ve got a few suggestions.
On the Android part:
- IceRaven is an awesome privacy minded FireFox fork.
- MicroG is an open source minimal implementation of the GApps (GMS/GFS), however, it does connect you to Google in a minimal way.
On the Linux part:
- Manjaro with KDE is what I’ve been happily using for years now.
- NixOS is what a co-worker started using and looks quite promising.
- Mint or PopOS would be my recommendations if you’re looking for something as easy as Linux can be.
Ty for your words, mate. I tried iceraven, i forgot to say. And iceraven is also slow on my android :(
About microG, i read about that, loss a few days reading about instalation , but looks very complicated to me to install it, and dont know if my oneplus has all tools to install microg, since is an Android with less tools compare to others. And im scared to do something wrong
About linux, i will try your suggestions ;)
Yw! :)
For MicroG,
there’s LineageOSforMicroG available,
however that would mean re-flashing your OS.
So maybe keep it in mind for next time ;)That works for any Android?
Not for all, but it does for many devices.
You can check if yours is supported by:
- Checking on the LineageOS site if your device is supported
https://wiki.lineageos.org/devices/ - Checking on the LineageOSforMicroG site if your device is supported,
use the device code found in 1.
https://download.lineage.microg.org/
E.g. My phone is a OnePlus 9 Pro, with device code “lemonadep”, which is supported.
Ty, but my oneplus dont appear on that, unfortunately :(
In the future I recommend to first choose your Android OS,
and afterwards pick a phone,
which is compatible with the OS you’d like :)Yes, I will do that in the future , for sure. Ty once again
- Checking on the LineageOS site if your device is supported
capcut is terrible for privacy
Ty for the advice. I will try another video editor, for sure
find windows more stable to edit videos
Shotcut is very stable for me in EndeavourOS.
ty for the tip. I will try