So I have been slowly moving away from Google.

Currently using Brave, DuckduckGo and recently signed up for ProtonMail.

Are there any other good search engines? DuckduckGo is okay, but wondering if something better.

Also wondering if there are good suggestions (& easy to use) for platforms to move Contacts, Calendar, Photos and Documents ?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Why are you moving away from google? Google, Amazon and Microsoft power just about everything.

Because Google already knows too much about me.

They all do.

Are you done with Twitter, Facebook and Instagram too?

Eventually, but I'm slowly moving away.

Why do you care. If you can't provide an actual answer go find another thread that you can troll on.

I am not trolling.

You are going to be hard pressed to find any type of provider that isn't linked to those three companies. Not only do they have their search engines but the provide all of the hosting services as well.

Following because it will be interesting to see if there are email providers that aren't using google, Amazon or Microsoft. Heck even TexAgs is hosted by Microsoft

I'm currently trying out ProtonMail. It was developed by researchers at CERN and is run by a company in Switzerland where the servers are based. The bare bones version is free but it's $4 a month for the plus version. It offers end to end encryption which Google and Microsoft do not.

There are other services out there you just have to seek them out.

You go to the big glass white place and pledge allegiance the the aluminum slab.

... oh yea, don't use Edge Browser. I think it runs on Chromium or will.

I would use Firefox and follow one of the the many setup guides on privacytools.io or r/privacy to maximize tracking protection.

I still have an old Gmail account I am weening myself off of, but other than that I have eliminated my reliance on many of the big tech companies. Some minor trade offs here and there, but more than anything I have simplified my online presence and eliminated a lot of time wasters.

Charpie-

Your comments are not unfounded, but overstated with regards to Amazon. Their big reach in hosting is with AWS, where they don't really have access to the data. The biggest difference is that for Google and Facebook, their business model is based around data collection and advertising. Amazon's is not. Google and Facebook don't hide the fact that they collect and sell everything they get their hands on, Amazon's collection is really limited to use of their own site. It's not even a fine line, it's completely different. The store that keeps track of what you view in their store is one thing, the store that stalks every aspect of your life and sells the info to other stores is completely different.

That said, I'm also weening off google, slowly. The hardest services are youtube, calendars, and android. Youtube is the only real option, their calendar service has become the de facto standard, and iphone is the only other viable option, and iphones are awful.

This has become an interesting topic for me. I tried to quit Google cold turkey about a month ago and it hasn't gone as well as I expected. I'm a self employed accountant with a significant client base in QuickBooks Online and I log in to client bank websites daily. A month ago I was 100% on Chrome both on my tablet and on my iPhone. I have an old gmail I use but mainly it's a spam catcher at this point. My business email runs through Office 365.

When I made the switch it was motivated by politics. The fact is that Google is a political giant that thinks it's their job to sway American politics and American elections. That's not up for debate and even if it is we can discuss that on Forum 16. Suffice it to say I don't trust Google and don't care to do business with them. I'm not the kind to lead a boycott and I won't quit using sites that are hosted by Google. I just don't care to be tracked and monitored by them constantly.

So I uninstalled Chrome from my tablet and phone and switched to Brave and Duck Duck Go. What I figured out pretty quickly is that some of the privacy features in Brave don't play nice with cloud based sites like QuickBooks Online and with some of the banking sites and how those sites present statements, for example. I had no luck at all running reports in Brave on the QB site. QB will tell you it's built for Chrome so I wasn't really surprised by that outcome, just disappointed.

So where I've landed is that I reinstalled Chrome on my tablet but not my phone and I use Duck Duck Go for all searches other both devices. I still use Brave on my phone and I use it for all personal web activity. At this point Chrome is only a business app for me where their tracking has no bearing on anything but it's only used on sites that don't present ads. It runs QB and the banking sites and that's it. Everything else is on Brave.

The Google sites I've found it hardest to stop using are YouTube that has no competition and Maps. There are other map products but I'll admit that Google is way ahead of the world here. Still I'm confident I can find a good map product and will get off of that eventually I just haven't really tried yet. It won't be Apple Maps and that's just an awful product.

I'm interested to hear other experiences with leaving Google.

Charpie said:

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I am not trolling.

You are going to be hard pressed to find any type of provider that isn't linked to those three companies. Not only do they have their search engines but the provide all of the hosting services as well.

Following because it will be interesting to see if there are email providers that aren't using google, Amazon or Microsoft. Heck even TexAgs is hosted by Microsoft

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As already pointed out there's a huge difference between Google and Amazon and their ability to monetize what they know about you. That's also true for Google vs Microsoft. Microsoft is first and foremost a business solutions provider. I use Office 365 for my business. They power my email and I use the traditional Office products like Excel and Word. They don't feed me ads and aren't tracking everything I do with the ability to monetize what they know about me.

Conversely Google is first and foremost an advertising platform. They have a really, really good suite of personal use products that integrate extremely well so that their universe is very well done. Their ability to collect data about you is second to none and because Chrome has become pervasive they have an enormous capacity to monetize the data they collect. They give away things like Chrome and Gmail because it facilitates their ability to monetize what they know about you and they are obviously extremely good at it. That what I'm focused on, ending their ability to monetize me.

I am also trying to get away from Google.

Email is no longer a big deal and I only use Gmail for resetting password 90% of the time and receiving documents 10% of the time.
Google Play is an inferior product, no problem dropping it
Web-based calendar is highly useful but I am sure I can get by on using O365 which I subscribe to for Office and OneNote
Maps is still the best out there but Apple Maps is not too far behind.
YouTube can't be replaced yet but I can manage a disconnected account.
Google Voice is handy at times but I could live without it.
I've stopped using Chrome in favor of Brave. Google made it really easy to dump Chrome by rolling out a terrible iOS Chrome app awhile back.

Google Photos is the most important service to me at this point that I have not totally been able to divest. Apple Photos/iCloud is so inferior it is pathetic but it is highly useful for the Apple-only ecosystem. Unfortunately I have family members that are Android users so I still have be able to share photos with them easily.

I am about to move my photos and videos to a web host that is uncoupled from my Google account. Sure the web host could be using Google Cloud Platform but the first step is to get my stuff out of Google's main environment first.

Keep in mind that if you are using the Associate of Former Students email, it's hosted by Google.

There are still trackers embedded into most websites - Facebook and Twitter are still tracking you, even if you don't have a facebook acct.

At this point in life - if you don't want to be tracked or have them know about you, you pretty much just have to stay off the internet.,

MisterShipWreck said:

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There are still trackers embedded into most websites - Facebook and Twitter are still tracking you, even if you don't have a facebook acct.

At this point in life - if you don't want to be tracked or have them know about you, you pretty much just have to stay off the internet.,

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This is a good point. My response has been less about being tracked than about minimizing their ability to make money off of what they know. They can know all they way but if they can't present me ads then what good is that data? I'm rarely on FB and not on Twitter at all so neither of those sites make much if anything off of me. That's really my goal with Google as well.

So, essentially, have a dumb phone, and don't get on the internet.

I think I could do that. Except, I'd still have to have a tablet or something for Texags.

What do you think about Amazon Photos and Amazon's cloud storage? Do you think they are going to use the files like Google does?

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Their big reach in hosting is with AWS, where they don't really have access to the data.

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You really think this is true, huh?

What will you do about your driver's license photo and other government/work identification pictures and their storage?

MisterShipWreck said:

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There are still trackers embedded into most websites - Facebook and Twitter are still tracking you, even if you don't have a facebook acct.

At this point in life - if you don't want to be tracked or have them know about you, you pretty much just have to stay off the internet.,

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This is very true, and unfortunately there is no way around them on many sites as most business functions require tracking cookies to handle your sessions. The other issue is security solutions that protect businesses rely on these types of interactions because the threat to companies has become so complex that transitional methods won't protect them against some of the more sophisticated attackers out there (a lot of the breaches and account compromises aren't because of negligence and/or unqualified professionals running the companies).

So pick and choose your battles, like taking a stance against google products, but understand that most of those sites will still be able to make money off of you because of T&Cs with their current user information.

startpage is my usual search engine.

I sympathize. Try making a phonecall to a client which "has" to be privileged...

Damn near impossible, as far as I know.

The issue becomes ensuring the device has been audited, then all the software, etc.

The blackphone was an attempt at this, as far as I know, and it failed.

Frankly, given how far the ChiComs have penetrated encryption research, etc, I don't know of a product which will work.

Perhaps, an automated single-write "pad" with SD cards full of random data, but that will take a new device, and would require, regularly, distributing new supplies of data to every contact. Could be done, but would be tricky, and the "nodes" in such a system would still be vulnerable, but not insurmountably so.

I just block all the ads. With both uBlock origin and Pi-hole I rarely see an ad.

I recently loaded the DuckDuckGo app to y phone and have been surprised with how seamless that has been. I'm trying to slowly move in this direction, but know nothing will totally be private. Which I guess is the price for all the free services we get on the Internet.

More like the price of non-enforcement of anti-trust laws, and over-regulation of the capital markets.

I think it is, mostly, a "tragedy of the commons" type of issue. As "no one" owned your digital identity, it was there for taking by everyone. (AKA, how the Big East/other early oil fields were damaged by over-exploitation.)

And, its the kind of abuse which can destroy freedom... HK is, probably, acting at the last possible moment to try to be free.

I'm actually amazed it hasn't just resulted in a slow gleaning of their society by ChiCom secret police. (I know most of y'all are too young to have heard of it/ to have been in a Soviet nation, but only Satan himself deserves more ire than Communists...)

It really doesn't matter who you go with. Our information is already out there. Changing platforms isn't going to undo that. Go with other mail services, but once you start using it, they are going to know it.

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As already pointed out there's a huge difference between Google and Amazon and their ability to monetize what they know about you.

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While true, I think you could actually argue that Amazon's primary business model is monetizing what they know about you (just in a different way).

So...I came to this board looking for suggestions, but most have blown off my question.

I guess technology questions don't deserve an answer if you don't agree with the question.

Very disappointing.

Zemira said:

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So...I came to this board looking for suggestions, but most have blown off my question.

I guess technology questions don't deserve an answer if you don't agree with the question.

Very disappointing.

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If it were me (and I've been thinking about this a lot) -

1. Use something like DuckDuckgo for a search engine.
2. Use (or create) your own server to have your personal email address, or go through Comcast, etc. for an email address.
3. Use a dumb phone. I'm sure they can still use GPS - not so sure about Geocacheing or the like.
4. Get off of all social media.
5. Use a secure browser (i.e. Firefox, perhaps) where you can tailor it to your specifications.

Of course, you'll never not have everything tracked unless you don't have a phone, use no email, etc.

But, I'd think it would limit a lot of it. That's what I'm going for. And, I'm admittedly not a super tech guru.

Zemira said:

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So...I came to this board looking for suggestions, but most have blown off my question.

I guess technology questions don't deserve an answer if you don't agree with the question.

Very disappointing.

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If you are willing to host it yourself locally or in the cloud, I would take a look at Nextcloud

It took me awhile but I finally found this article and I think it's something to keep in mind:

Google Has Most of My Email Because It Has All of Yours

Zemira said:

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So...I came to this board looking for suggestions, but most have blown off my question.

I guess technology questions don't deserve an answer if you don't agree with the question.

Very disappointing.

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Maybe because to a certain degree your question is an exercise in futility (I dont say that to be mean). If you are going to be online, there isnt a whole lot you can do to get away from the companies you listed.


But for what its worth, you should check out mailfence. Its an encrypted email suite. Email, contacts, calendar, task manager, etc. The problem is who are you emailing? Even if you use mailfence,when you email someone with a gmail account, they pretty much have your info/communications.

LOYAL AG said:

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That's also true for Google vs Microsoft. Microsoft is first and foremost a business solutions provider. I use Office 365 for my business. They power my email and I use the traditional Office products like Excel and Word. They don't feed me ads and aren't tracking everything I do with the ability to monetize what they know about me.

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You're kidding yourself if you don't think microsoft is just as interested in collecting and selling information about as google is...

The idea that they have revenue streams from business, so they're not interested in maximizing their revenue from advertising information is wrong. You may not notice Microsoft selling your information to advertisers, but you should know that they are doing that as much as they possibly can. The pursuits aren't mutually exclusive.

They don't make all their money doing any one thing and ignore other potential revenue streams, they're going to try to make as much money as they can. Why do you think they're moving away from selling new versions of Windows after 10? Its because they're monetizing the installed base for advertising, so getting more users is worth more than selling everyone a new windows version.

I was about to paste that link.

Also, https://gizmodo.com/i-cut-the-big-five-tech-giants-from-my-life-it-was-hel-1831304194

the google specific link: https://gizmodo.com/i-cut-google-out-of-my-life-it-screwed-up-everything-1830565500#_ga=2.109788613.1339556351.1549309045-1494158073.1547676718

Yup. Some of you need to read your agreements with microsoft. They own your data and are absolutely monetizing it!