Hello lemmings lemmons and any other lemm out there. I’ve always wanted to try to switch to more privacy focused options but it’s always been difficult for me as I’m not really tech savvy and frankly for a very long time haven’t really cared about privacy.
Transitioning has also been hard since I feel like I’m pretty much the antithesis of this community: using an iPhone and 2 windows computers (one for home use and one for my college classes on campus) and use OneDrive to sync work between the 3 devices.
Pretty much every account I have is under my gmail account and a second back up email is also under gmail.
Frankly I’m sure this is the highest form of insult to this community but I use edge simply because I’ve given up trying to fight Microsoft
So it’s been a challenge to switch but for browsers and just copy paste all my bookmarks and saved passwords when I download Firefox on my phone and computers but as for email and online accounts switching off that gmail account seems daunting but not impossible and I have no idea what to do to replace OneDrive since it is useful and works in file explorer with no extra software
I figured if anyone was smart enough to tackle the abomination that is my privacy it’d be you guys
I haven’t really gone in-depth on those links but something I forgot to add: OneNote is a huge tool for me as I love to hand write or type my notes on my surface and then be able to get them on my desktop or phone. So any suggestions on that matter or are there stuff in those links
Might want to try RNote, but it’s only for desktop I think. You can export them to PNG, PDF, etc though.
Yep, proton.me is a great start. I would also suggest changing search engines to duckduckgo and blocking ads through a free DNS like controld.com. that will get you started at least.
First off thanks
Second: stupid question is proton.me like an email or an app/website for email or something else entirely and I’m just missing something
Email, Calendar, Cloud storage, and VPN all Free* and Open Source.
*Free as in Freedom. While they do have free priced tiers, you do have to pay for more storage, more VPN servers, etc. Free still worth it IMO.
So proton.me is essentially everything and I can use without paying as long I delete old stuff
It’s a privacy respecting Google Suite alternative. (Email, Drive, Calender, VPN and now password manager). I don’t use the VPN or password manager though. Been around for years now and very good. Web interface and apps for both Android and iOS.
I’ve been with them since they were in beta, I’d still rank them the best, but Skiff is maturing very quickly as well, which I also use.
Yeah I’ve been looking at them and I think I’ll go with them at the very least for now in the short run while I’m still getting settled and seeing options but I think I’ll run with proton so I can have everything under mostly one umbrella, maybe not drive just cus I can’t edit files directly but that’s not a super big deal for me considering the trade off from OneDrive
Lemming and lemmons made me laugh so hard
Take a look at privacy.sexy (you’ll have to paste this is, could not get link to work) first and configure your PCs. That’s the only step imma give and it might be the most important
Thanks for this. I’m only dipping toes in for now but definitely gonna use this when I’m more comfortable and stuff
Seriously, it basically walks you through and automates basically everything you need to toggle to get to optimal config on your computers. I don’t know what PC has but the Mac part literally does all the defaults writing for you so you just check the boxes, export the file, and run it in the command line or whatever to mass-apply it all
another link to help you find some more privacy-focused alternatives. i think a great gmail, google calendar, and drive replacement is proton.me . I switched to them from google and haven’t looked back
Thanks for that
Yeah I mainly use outlook just because my college email could only login to outlook both on desktop and my phone and eventually I kinda shifted from the gmail app/website but under the same gmail account. I only took a brief look but that looks like it’d be a good start
Nowadays privacytools.io has some really questionable recommendations. Check out Privacy Guides instead.
