Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

I'm currently on with this.

Got my own domain, starting to change over accounts to new email. My webservers are at home, my NAS is being built.

I'm getting GrapheneOS because I love my PinePhones but can't quite use one exclusively yet.

>Apps

No. Stop using smartphones. GNU/Linux and FOSS only.

Totally agree. Anything Google is off limits. The only exception is open source Android that has been thoroughly scrubbed. I currently use e/OS.

Isn't Brave based on Chromium (i.e. still some Google behind)?

Youtube: Odysee (with an extension that auto redirects youtube to odysee if it exists for the video) I only use google for youtube (if the content isn't on odysee) and gmail.

How are the gmail alternatives? Can I use my custom domain for free on any? Have self-hosting solutions come close to gmail with spam filters?

Here are some of my additional recommendations:

Analytics - GoatCounter, Counter.dev

Keyboard - Unexpected Keyboard (A very cool keyboard)

Search - Neeva

Translate - Lingva

Some notes on the post:

- Protonmail as a company doesn’t have a very stellar reputation. I recommend hosting an e-mail server by yourself, or just use providers like Disroot Mail

- K9 Mail is an email client, not an email provider

Heretic take on this: Block first, figure out later. This is how we approach most technical issues anyways.

So take /etc/hosts or little snitch or whatever and hard block .google., googletagmanager etc. - all sorts of domains that you come across from google.

Then, when you run into something that doesn't work, figure it out at that moment.

I’ve moved away from Chrome and Google Search. But I’m struggling to move away from Gmail, especially since this email is linked to so many critical official accounts (bank, government agencies)

Any solutions to make the transition easier outside of manually updating email everywhere?

Also, what’s the best alternative to Gmail currently that will support using my own domain name?

For my WordPress site, I replace Google Analytics with Koko Analytics. It provides list visitor information. But, I really just care to see which pages are most popular.

When I started "deGoogling" myself a year ago, the first step was to stop using Gmail. When changing my registered e-mail address everywhere on the Internet there was one crucial bit that I completely overlooked: the owner/tech/billing/etc. contact records of a domain that I own. Many registrars send all regular communications to the e-mail address of the user account, not to those in the domain contact records, so I happily went on thinking I was entirely "deGmailed" once my Gmail inbox had dried up as planned. If I had somehow lost access to that old Gmail address before I realized my mistake, that domain would effectively no longer be mine.

I've got a legacy free gsuite account with two domains, one is personal the other business. I never got the option to keep it free for personal use, but also since it's still in the 3rd week of transitioning from free, I have no support. Without human support I can't split out the business domain into its own paid workspaces account, the tools I have access to don't have the option.

I have no motivation to de-Google except how horrible Google has been about this transition, so far making it impossible through circular logic.

I guess I'd have to do a takeout of the business domain, then delete that domain. Then open a new workspaces account and import the takout. Then handwave magic, I somehow get Google's attention to get the personal workspaces free instead of just automatically shutoff as their support docs claim will happen. Since I might have to migrate this one domain to some other service anyway, I might as well move the other domain too because it's easier to manage the two domains with a single interface even if they are separate accounts. So yeah, Google themselves are the how I will deGoogle, seems like.

I use ungoogled-chromium and I'm pretty happy with it https://github.com/ungoogled-software/ungoogled-chromium

I should move away from Gmail too but that's the hardest part imo. I mostly have trust issues if that make sense. Not that I trust Google that much but I just don't know if any other email service will be around in 20 years or so. Probably Microsoft and Apple? iCloud Mail sounds good just don't have any experience with it (and it only works with custom domains afaik)

  [home_ungoogled_chromium_Arch]
  SigLevel = Required TrustAll
  Server = https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/ungoogled_chromium/Arch/$arch

I never really "googled" it in the first place.

Since I started using a smartphone/Android, I've been on CyanogenMod/LineageOS without Play services installed. I use FOSS apps from f-droid (Firefox, K-9 Mail, osmand~, DAVx5, Gadgetbridge, Signal) exclusively, and self-host the server-side of all my email (postfix/dovecot/amavis/opendkim) and CalDAV/CardDAV (radicale) stuff. I even set up my own public-ish DNS recursor that all networks I take care of use.

Never regretted any of it, but I'm aware few will find it enjoyable taking care of some of this infrastructure. I am lucky that I do :)

A few weeks ago there was a post about Kagi[0] which is a paid search engine, I tried the trial and used all my searches, then immediately became a customer and have no regrets.

[0] https://kagi.com/

Personally, I created a chrome extension for myself where I track my own behavior locally and recommend myself content from sites i like (youtube/twitter/quora/etc) in a feed. Would rather have control over my own algorithm and own the data. Also it gives me flexibility. Turns out I do like these feeds just not when I don't own it haha.

The only trace left from Google in my life is search. No, DDG is unfortunately nowhere near Google Search.

The day I could replace that too, I'll try my best not to touch a Google product ever again.

Glad to see de-googling picking up steam. Personally, I created a Google Keep clone PWA[1] to address what I was missing after cutting the google tumor out of my life. I hope to see more and more passion projects which respect privacy and are of equal utility to what google provides.

[1] https://tinylist.app

I went with a pretty straightforward approach at the time. I mostly de-Googled myself 3-4 years ago.

I use Fastmail for email and calendar, DuckDuckGo & StartPage for searching, Firefox as a web browser, and a Synology NAS for storage over Google Drive.

I use Google Drive / Docs / Sheets occasionally for collaborating. Most people aren't de-Googled so it's more of a hassle to ask them to use a different service. Additionally, I don't use Google services for anything particularly important so I don't mind if Google knows about it.

Fastmail isn't the most private service out there, but it is an amazing service to use for email, calendar, contacts, file storage, and notes. It works with 1Password with masked emails [0].

You can also use sieve [1] to fine tune your filter rules. I'm not aware of other email services that provide this (unless of course you are hosting your own).

I've played with it a bit. You don't really need to do it because the interface they have can generate sieve code for you, but it's nice that it is an option.

[0]: https://www.fastmail.com/1password/ [1]: http://sieve.info/

i think those who go through all this hassle must value their data more than their time.

most of these services are inferior to the google service imo. and many of these alternatives may leak or sell your data too.

if you're paranoid then DTA. it's far better to hide in the crowd then to use some browser developed by 4 people with anime emojis on github.

also, I trust google won't get hacked far more than the others.

better solution would be to obfuscate your data as much as possible.

Partly, Google even helped me with the deprecation of the free gsuite. I never really found out what their solution was for private use, so I migrated the two domains I had.

I still have a gmail account, which is kinda needed for YouTube Premium, which is a service I do enjoy.

Phone:

Pixel 4a with Graphene OS, only GCam Services Provider (https://github.com/lukaspieper/Gcam-Services-Provider) to be able to use Google Camera. Implementation is super simple and it shouldn't take long to see that it actually does nothing.

Browser:

Firefox - followed https://blackgnu.net/firefox-hardening-guide.html; Fennec on Android

Search - https://searx.space/ (plan on self hosting one)

Youtube - https://docs.invidious.io/instances/ (plan on self hosting one)

Passwords:

Bitwarden - backups done regularly to encrypted external storage and encrypted rclone mount

Email:

Tutanota/Protonmail + custom domain

2FA:

Aegis

Messaging:

Signal - easiest way to setup for non-technical friends and family. Used to use a few different apps, but only use this right now. I also use https://meet.jit.si/ occasionally for calls on the laptop/desktop.

VPN:

Mullvad - currently working on setting up my own.

Maps:

Organic Maps on Android/Open Street Maps on desktop/laptop.

Sync:

Syncthing - syncing desktop, laptop, a few phones to my home server on LAN only.

Notes:

Markdown files kept on devices, synced through syncthing.

Media:

Emby - had issues with Jellyfin, but might revisit in a few months as I have some plans there. Airsonic - music

Adblocker:

Mullvad + ublockorigin

Calendar:

Tutanota

Analytics for website:

C# console app that parses caddy logs and clears logs after parsing.

Cloud:

Create encrypted mount with rclone and dump backups there when needed.

It was a slow process to get here and I am lucky to have friends who followed me on this journey to be honest. The first step came while working for my final project at university and building something around my heavy dislike for Facebook. Once I had to research the subject more in depth I started to realize how wrong I was all these years entrusting troves of data to the highest bidder... I had a friend who had asked me about these things and I am sorry for not listening to him sooner, but I felt that he never went past "bro, you shouldn't trust google!". Which is I think what most of us do.

I am trying to have conversations about this with everyone and try to adjust my language to their level. It's good because it highlights how little I know and it works both ways as I have to learn myself a bit more about any given topic. It's quite nice. It's even better to have people who have followed me on this path, moving to devices with no google services at all on them, moving away operating systems and so on.

If you think you're stuck, try to get rid of an app or two and see how it goes. Most of them add little to NO value to your life and your tech stack so trust yourself and delete them. It took me about a year to fully get rid of any google related stuff (and I include micro G here to allow me to run stuff like WhatsApp/YT/Gmail/Maps). And I knew it's bad, so I imagine it's a lot harder if you don't think there are risks.

Some things are more difficult, but my phone is now a tool that quietly sits on a desk somewhere in the house and I use it to do something specific. It's also reassuring to know it's not constantly feeding off me to send info to whoever is interested in my particular demographic.

As an afterword, please, all of you who suggest open source alternatives, also keep in mind that most of these projects have very little financial support. A few dollars, euros, pounds might not mean much to you, but it could ma...

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Many of these services are SaaS solutions that require a separate ToS and SPoF. The idea behind de-googling should be focused on self-hosted alternatives, not just other service providers.

I've been actively degoogling my life for about 10 years, mostly kicked off by Snowden's revelations. Off the top of my head, here's what's left:

• Youtube

Too much content there to stop using. I almost never use it while logged in. I never subscribe: I bookmark the channel.

• Maps

Too useful to stop using. Haven't tried alternatives, but open to recommendations. Business locations and open/close times are must haves for me.

• Duo

It's a videophone that mostly works.

• Chrome

I never stopped using Firefox as my main browser since ~2005, but I'll use Chrome from time to time, mostly for website development and watching Youtube.

• GMail

I've almost completely moved off it about a year ago for Fastmail, but I keep checking my existing GMail. Probably should get around to moving over completely.

• Android

I'm a recent LineageOS convert, but still use it with the Play Store.

For me, talk about "de-googling" and other such processes comes down to really thinking about what your goals are. It's easy to get into a binary all-or-nothing frame of reference, which I don't think is constructive as for most use cases "some" is still significantly different from "none."

My own goals/use cases:

- I'm unhappy with the current economics of the online world, that are based on advertising. I accept that developing products requires money, and getting money requires a business model, so if I don't like the incentives ad-based business creates, I should actively support alternative models

- I'm unhappy with the intrusiveness of tracking. I think consent is important -- not as a legal concept, but as a regular human being understands it. When I interact with a person or organization, I can meaningfully give consent for their actions. I can't meaningfully give consent to what some third party who isn't part of that interaction does, regardless of the legal fine print that says.

- I'm happy that the internet has become mainstream and people who aren't "tech people" use it.

- I'm not concerned with targeted attacks, but am concerned with opportunistic attacks against my online accounts and identities.

- Yes, "identities" -- I believe people should be able to have multiple identities online.

With those criteria, my current set up:

- password manager -- no reusued passwords. Whole family uses this.

- Fastmail. Because I use email so much, it's clearly a valuable service for me. So it' worth paying for -- I'm many years out from being a broke college student.

- A domain I purchased just for emails, and make use of subdomain addressing. I tend to use a different subdomain email per service. Goes to the goal of multiple identities, reducing tracking and reducing opportunistic attacks

- I've kept my gmail address and forward it to my fastmail, because I don't want to make my personal contacts use a different email address than they have for years. Maybe I'll change that some day, but I'm ok with _reducing_ rather than _eliminating_ google in my life

- FireFox. Also Mozilla VPN, to give Mozilla some money, though in practice I don't really have a frequent use for VPN.

- Duck Duck Go

- Ublock Origin

- Subscriptions to a handful of news outlets I read frequently. Print subscription for one of them!

- Separate computer for work vs personal

Biggest gap I'm still uncomfortable with: Shopping on Amazon.