Do any of you ever feel the desire to go back to your “Google’d” existence? For some background, I have used Google for most of my life and have recently started following some privacy-oriented creators on YouTube. I created a Proton account and have started moving my stuff there but am still using a locked Pixel (will unlock when paid off).
It feels great to go with alternatives to Google (Proton, OpenStreetMap, OpenWeather) but there are definitely times when it feels burdensome. I am often tempted to sacrifice privacy for convenience and feel like there is no way to TRULY escape Google in my life.
Wasn’t sure if anyone felt the same way, or had any tips on following this privacy-focused lifecycle.
(I almost look at this like eating healthier–it feels great to do it, but seeing others in happy ignorance adds a challenge…)
It’s definitely a lengthy marathon and not a sprint. Google’s embedded itself into modern life intricately, but there was still a learning curve to get the most out of their services at first. Same goes for privacy focused alternatives, taking it slow and adjusting to one alt at a time should make the process easier to stay on course. For me, realizing how much Google makes selling data but never asks what user data is ok to sell or offering a small part of the profit to the user keeps me improving my online anonymity daily!
don’t underestimate the power of “convenience factor” – when it’s just easier to do it one way or another, when all your friends are already doing it one way, then it takes something relatively major (trust threshold breach) to get you to shift your focus – it’s why iTunes won out over MP3 downloading, but also why piracy is winning out over
cable companiesstreaming servicesThere’s always some resistence when breaking habits. I don’t miss Google now, about a year after breaking free. You’ll learn new ways to do what you need.
At first i felt that way too. Now its natural and having to update stock ROMs before wiping to LineageOS is a PITA. All those popups, notifications, prompts, notifications telling you to do this and that makes me want to pull hair out.
For myself no. I did find it with PinePhone. It just wasn’t there yet and the pain to convenience factor was too great.
GrapheneOS was a real game changer. I had a lot of stress and anxiety knowing how much my privacy was being infringed and every day I felt that tension. When I got a phone with GrapheneOS, and got the few needed Android apps I used, I felt nothing but liberated. Yes, there are inconveniences, but that pure feeling of it being my hardware (rather than Google’s), and that feeling of control over it is exhilarating to me. I feel free, and I cannot put a price on that.
This is a process though, and it takes months, or years to get to where you want to be. I knew what exposures I had, and I had to find a solution to each one.
At the beginning when I made my first steps to transition to a privacy focused digital life, I definitely had that temptation. But after rocking Lineage/Graphene for a while, whenever I had to come across stock OEM ROMs (new device or helping someone out). The amount of privacy banners/T&C’s and preinstalled suites they force onto you feel almost like losing control of a system you own and know inside out.
Maybe when you move to Graphene OS or find a complete set of alternative apps that are both functional and beautiful, you won’t miss going back.
Privacy isn’t the only reason to have alternatives app alternatives have the advantage that they might have different abilities then Google and thus could achieve more diversity of features though Google is pretty high quality different algorithms might produce different stuff.
I’m just beginning my de-googling journey. However when I think about the potential loss of convenience this is what I tell myself: in exchange for convenience, particularly since the dawn of the smartphone era, we have lost a deeper understanding of how things work under the hood. And how much convenience have we really gained? I think it is more likely we have been led to believe our convenience has been increased when really the only convenience that matters is how convenient it is to advertise to us.
Not anymore.
I have found alternatives that suits my needs. Maybe that’s what’s missing in your experience.
Here’s my setup (sometimes I change providers, here are the current ones):
E-mail: Skiff Mail with two custom domains. One for health, gov, banking, … and other with a catch-all for my online and non important accounts. E-mail forwarding: DuckDuckGo E-mail Protection. As of right now, I deprecated this one. I have everything on my domains. Drive: MEGA | Filen | Skiff Drive | Proton Drive. I use the latter two as cold storage. Encryption software: Cryptomator Photo backup: Ente.io Password manager: Bitwarden MFA: 2FAS VPN: Proton VPN Browser: Brave Search Engine: StartPage | Brave Search | SearXNG depending on what I’m searching. YouTube: Invidious instance.
