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
One alternative to OneDrive is a local server or just having bigger long term drives on your system.
Also what you can do is encrypt files with gpg for example and upload them to any free cloud service, like for example Google drive.
Like i said I’m not very tech savvy so a local server is something I’d like to try to avoid maybe unless it can run out of the box.
As for encryption wdym by gpg im assuming that’s an encryption service
It’s not black or white, so don’t worry about trying to do everything on your own at once. Just taking steps to enhancing your privacy like you’re doing now asking questions is already a step in the right direction. If you’re not confident in hosting locally for now, you can try one of the providers NextCloud recommends. Sure it’s not as good as hosting your own, but it’s a big step away from using OneDrive or Google Drive.
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.
I’m not really tech savvy
That’s how they get you ;) There is a trade-off between privacy and security on one end, and convenience and ease of use on the other. Microsoft, Google and all the others profiting off of your data know this and offer you convenience and ease of use in exchange for you giving them all your data. So be prepared to give up a little of that convenience and getting a little more tech savvy.
I recommend you take a look at https://nextcloud.com/ - it’s a self-hosted cloud service solution that offers file storage, calendar, notes, and a lot more. If you don’t feel comfortable hosting your own just yet, there are providers out there that will host one for you for a few $ a month.
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
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
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
