It took a few months preparation but I deleted all my google accounts today, and it feels good.
Now, send a gpdr deletion request because Google still has your data.
It’s going to be difficult after deleting the account though
Difficult but legally required by them, including establishing your bona fides.
Do you have any guides or tips?
A guide? Sure! Go to the account settings and click “Delete my account”
So helpful
Welcome to the club.
Would you be able to let us know the services you used, the replacements, and how did the migration process work?
Here are the things I replaced my Google/Microsoft/Meta services with:
- Tuta(nota): Email
- Nextcloud: Cloud
- Typst: LaTeX/Docs alternative
- LineageOS: Degoogled Android rom
- Aurora Store: Google Play Store alternative
- NewPipe, Odysee, Peertube: YouTube alternatives
- Firefox: Chrome/Chromium alternative
- SearXNG: Meta search engine
- Linux/BSD: Windows alternatives
- Bitwarden: Password manager & 2FA client
- OpenStreetMaps (OsmAnd): Google maps replacement
- LibreTranslate, Deepl: Google translate alternative
- Signal, SimpleX, Briar, Matrix: chat and group organization
DO NOT FORGET TO MIGRATE ACCOUNTS BEFORE DELETING
Proton for email and cloud storage. Graphenos on a pixel 7a for phone. Phone spps from aurora and fdroid. Kagi.com paid search engine too.
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Protonmail is a free service with an optional subscription for extra features you almost certainly won’t need
Does skiff work?
Seconded.
Without a single word on replacements for email, calendar, phone, etc… this post is pretty much useless to everyone else than the OP.
See above. Plus I use Thunderbird for calendar.
Great, thanks!
How does Thunderbird work for you wrt to sharing calendars with others (eg. family) and syncing with eg. an Outlook calendar?
I only use Thunderbird calendar for myself so I don’t know. Proton includes a calendar offering in their package but I have not tried it yet.
I replaced most of that with proton mail and grapheme is which ironically requires a pixel
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You can actually use windows without an account. When installing windows, they will force you to log in. But If you simply use an account that has been blocked it will create a local user instead of an online user. People use no@thankyou.com and it works well
Thanks for the tip!
Or, when it looks like you no longer have a choice, click Back and you will then be given that choice.
Or just don’t connect the PC to the internet during the installation.
I feel like Amazon would be easier than MS and Google, wouldn’t it?
If you don’t buy stuff online, from a personal perspective, yes. Avoiding servers it uses? Far less so.
Yeah. Deleting accounts, easy enough. Boycotting, much less-so.
Microsoft is already done same with google I have like one niche product that I have not found a place outside of lime a singular stellar on Amazon to buy from
Welcome to the real world.
You think that’s air you’re breathing?
Let’s not go all the way down the rabbit hole in one pill. Steps of one less person so inured (Definition: Made tough by habitual exposure), so hopelessly dependent on Google.
What are you trying to tell me? That I can dodge bullets?
This is a daunting proposition, I’m admittedly massively invested in Google’s ecosystem. Gmail and Google calendar, I have a pixel phone, watch and buds and have YouTube premium. I feel like the time I switch is when I have a homelab and am able to find open source alternatives to everything heavily use and be able to do so with all devices I use.
Some are easier than others. Especially if you don’t mind paying. Protonmail, calendar, drive solve some big ones right away. Maps is tough though, I’ve tried to find a better solution and haven’t been able to so far.
I’ve been mapping my city with streetcomplete and using osmand live to download my edits, organic maps has a better address search though, so I use that too. I don’t use the live traffic stuff, but osmand is capable of it.
Use newpipe anad install grapheneos on your pixel. I wish i had a pixel to install grapheneos.
I have one and do so. It’s pretty great. I will admit I still have some google services on it, but I’m working on not needing those.
I wanted to but my pixel bootloader is carrier locked. Supposedly you can call and ask them to unlock it if you own the device but not sure if that’s true.
I think it is true. At least it was last time I checked. Give it a try.
Yeah same. It sucks. I got into Google stuff back when Gmail was in beta and invite only. Admittedly I really only use Gmail, drive and the calendar. But the sso aspects is the part that is the hangup I think. I have so many accounts utilizing their identity provider solution.
Any suggestions on starting this process? I have a Raspberry Pi and was looking into self-hosted Google Drive/Photos/Gmail replacement. Best FOSS replacements?
Look up Syncthing and then never stop trying to replace closed source and paid software/services. Like any time you launch something ask yourself “does this hit the same way as when I swapped to Syncthing?” If the answer is no you then put “[name of thing you want to replace] foss alternative” into your search engine of choice. You’ll end up down so many rabbit holes, but you’ll come out the other side a whole lot better at making your technology work for you, not the company that made it, and with a suite of free open sourced tools you are in complete control of.
Here are some tools I use that are super easy to get going.
- Syncthing (cloud storage replacement)
- KeepassXC or Pass if you’re a command line person (locally stored password manager, coupled with Syncthing you have your own private cloud password manager
- Tailscale/wireguard (private VPN that allows you to easily connect all your devices without exposing any of the traffic to The Internet)
- PiHole (a DNS sinkhole that blocks a lot of ads and tracking on your entire network, bonus points if you set it as you Tailscale DNS provider to give all your devices ad block no matter where you are as long as the device was a connected to Tailscale)
Those are the ones that got me going and I personally believe act as a solid core. Most people will find all of those useful. Other services are more user specific, but that’s a lightweight bundle of software that your RPi will handle well. Much more and you might want to look at beefier hardware.
It’s a bit newer, but Immich is a very promising Google Photos replacement.
I recommend setting up a NextCloud server.
Welcome to the degoogled fold 🤗
Serious question; what do you use for OAuth?
OAuth? Do you mean 2FA? OAuth just requires you to be able to open a URL so all you need a browser. (see the OAuth flow)
No I mean all those web services that only allow you to use OAuth to sign in and don’t give you the option of creating a username/password combo.
I haven’t encountered such a service that I cannot live without --> I don’t use it. To be honest, I can’t even remember such a service.
I’m building up to doing the same. Already using Protonmail and Kagi. Looking for a less Google-dependent phone to switch over to and then I might pull the plug myself.
Well done!
I ended up keeping mine for occasional things like leaving YT comments or subscribing to Firebase-distributed apps.
Who dis?
I’m considering it. Youtube just removed a comment of mine calling an elon simp a cracker for “harassment”
Really it’s just about the last straw, they passively protect billionaires but will let outright hate speech stay up. They also advertise nazis.
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Would you prefer I call you a gringo, then?
Jokes aside, Youtube doesn’t consider cracker to be a slur (because it’s not) I didn’t break the rule for Hate Speech I broke the rule for Harassment because I was mean to a billionaire. This is a repeated behavior on the site, where they’ll peckerwood for rich people.
No, cracker, you are not the victim of racism.
Anyone have any alternatives to Voice?
I moved my number to VoIP.ms and while it’s not nearly the same service wise, SMS do come to my email and I can call and receive calls via any VoIP app I want.
I can’t wait to graduate college so I can stop using my Google account. I still have to use mine for the online office suite. I use LibreOffice if it’s just me but I have to collaborate and do group assignments on Google Docs and Slides too.
