Today was huge. I’ve separated myself enough from Google with Proton applications/services combined with other more privacy focused software and hardware to be able to completely delete my Google account.
It feels great to FINALLY be free of them. I’ve had an account there for decades.
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What do you do for email? Photo storage?
Those are the two biggest reasons for me to stay with Google but I’d like to start clawing my data back.
Runbox and Proton for email, Nextcloud and Immich for photos.
Regarding photo storage, Immich is pretty close to a perfect clone/replacement for Google Fotos in my opinion.
It looks like ente.io for photo management will probably be listed on the privacy guides website soon: https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/ente-photo-management/11763
For email/calendar/drive Proton is the easy choice. I know photo upload is on their radar too but like everything with proton it will probably be a while before that’s ready to roll out.
Skiff (https://skiff.com/) with custom domain for e-mail. Alternatives: Tutanota (https://tutanota.com/) or Proton Mail (https://proton.me/)
Ente Photos (https://ente.io/) for photo storage. Alternatives: Stingle Photos (https://stingle.org/) or Cryptee (https://crypt.ee/)
if photo syncing to desktop is an option, try syncthing. I’ve got it set up to work only on my LAN, so when I get home it gets synced automagically. also nextcloud.
Luckycloud is working on integrating FolderSync into their mobile app so you’ll be able to do two-way photo and file sync (ie. Delete from your computer deletes it on the phone if you want.)
I wish I could but… youtube.
(yes ik about alternate frontends but I’m subscribed to so many people that importing the subscriptions would take forever)
You can Google takeout your subscriptions to a json file you can then import to alternate front ends like newpipe.
You can follow your favorite youtubers using RSS. The format for it is https://www.youtube.com/feeds/videos.xml?channel_id=<channel-id>
you should check out freetube
You can go to your Google settings, do a Google takeout with Youtube and YouTube Music, which lets you export a file with all your subscriptions. This file gets sent to your Gmail inbox. Invidious, Newpipe, Piped, etc., they all support this file format. Import and enjoy. Hope that frees you from Youtube.
I moved to my own instance of Piped and haven’t looked back. Interestingly, I find that the whole platform have become less addicting as a result.
Yep I did the same thing, but running a private Invidious instance (frontend for YouTube) with only subscribed to the channels I really want to watch. Result is no more infinite rabbit hole of recommended videos, just the ones I really want to watch.
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