Hi all,

I have been enthousiastically lurking in this sub for the last few months, while degoogling.

Today, I can finally say that I deleted my Google account. I have been gradually changing to alternatives for each Google, several of them self-hosted.

Honorable mentions I have been particularly impressed with:

- Comaps for Google Maps

- Immich for Google Photos

- FreeTube for Youtube

Furthermore, I use Proton now for e-mail and so on.

If I had to give one tip:

Take it slow. For me, this involved going through all my logins in password manager, and changing from Google login to e-mail login, as well as monitoring my Gmail inbox for important messages for a few months.

Thanks for all the tips, tricks and motivation!

I tried to log in to a website I use for my studies a little while ago, and I was surprised to find it asking for additional verification steps like a Security Code and Google Authenticator, which I no longer have access to. I tried logging in with the Security Code, but it rejected it, saying it was wrong, even though it was correct and I had just copied it from my phone and compared it. I tried logging in from my laptop, but it also rejected it and asked for additional steps, and there was no way to recover it, like using my phone or email. I also disabled all the additional security options in my account, like two-step verification and backup codes, just to avoid a repeat of something that happened to me a while ago. I had a Google account with all my data, photos, social media accounts, and even games that I had lost money on, all because of one mistake that cost me the account. I tried every recovery method, but Google's flawed security system keeps rejecting me. It asks for my phone number and an OTP code, which is sent to my number, and everything seems to work fine until it asks for another OTP code, which is sent to the same email address I lost, or simply the same email address I'm trying to recover. I contacted YouTube support and tried to explain the situation, but they keep refusing and telling me to recover it from the official recovery link. But it's no use; the same steps, the same stupidity. Of course, I think it's my fault because I enabled two-step verification, but it shouldn't have to send an OTP code to the same email I'm trying to recover. I watched every YouTube video, tried every method, but nothing worked. I even created a second email address, and this is what happened! I'm really annoyed by this, and I'm starting to hate Google even more because of it. Besides, their support, especially YouTube support, is so slow and they barely respond or reply. I suffered even more when I contacted them, and in the end, they rejected me. My frustration with this company has increased, especially since it's such a large, global company. Also, how is it possible that there isn't a human support representative for Google? It's unbelievable that a global company like Google doesn't have a human support representative, especially in these situations. In the end, I see them as a failing company, especially when it comes to security, and I'm starting to hate them.

Looks like another country is going the degoogle train

I used to use brave but with brave I can't use my self hosted search engine. I heard firefox on mobile had extension support does the forks do to?

There's way too many people left and right saying and getting comments on how they talk on phone then they get ad on browser about that topic.

Tested this, used VPN, Signal call, no other mics in the room, no other apps enabled. Just Signal end to end encrypted with another signal user.

Shortly after, got on reddit. Sure enough, the specific account was receiving ads from the conversation.

This is basically like the UFO people. For the longest time these people out there getting called crazy for saying they seen UFO. Then government starts uploading UFO videos left and right.

Nah man, iPhone is bypassing laws through some technicality, and still collecting data regardless of what apps run on it. No matter how private at the software level, it's the phone itself that's bugged, for all.

Peace, stay safe friends.

I just found out about this subreddit and it's very interesting. Though I have a few question before venturing around here:

1. Why do people 'deGoogle'?

2. What's the recommended phone brand that align with this community principle? (Except Samsung and Apple)

3. What's the best step for beginners?

Thanks! Looking forward to venture here :)

I did search this but am a bit confused~ Everyone recommends graphene on a pixel, but isnt pixel a google device... on a degoogle sub??

is there anyone else that manufactures a secure device? is a dumb phone still transmitting my data?? Thanks for any leads

I am starting to look into email replacements on my deGoogling journey, and one feature that I would dearly miss after switching away from gmail would be the Simplify Gmail extension. It changes the UI on normal gmail to something close to Google Inbox, something more streamlined and efficient. It is made by one of the former Google Inbox leads, and is a paid subscription. There are alternatives to it out there as well (such as Shortwave and Inbox Reborn), but they all share a common problem -- they work exclusively with gmail.

I have not been able to find a similar project that works with the suggested privacy-friendly alternatives like Proton and Tuta. A regular webmail interface now feels incredibly clunky and unfriendly and I really don't want to use it.

I am hoping that someone might know of a similar project (or mail client) that I can look into, that will work alongside my other deGoogling efforts (e.g. doesn't require a non-privacy-friendly browser or OS). I run android on my phone (probably eventually Graphene or Lineage or similar) and linux (CachyOS) + Vivaldi on my desktop.

All suggestions are welcome. Thanks!

I keep a couple of small dev side projects running on weekends and most of them end up needing a shared spreadsheet for budgets or timelines. The clients already live in Google Sheets so I get sent edit links without thinking about it. I started trying alternatives like OnlyOffice and CryptPad because the day job already has me buried in Excel all week. The problem is no one else on the project wants to learn a new interface just to tick off a task list. I tried exporting to CSV and sending files back and forth but that always ends up with version mismatches by the end of the week. Right now the least painful option seems to be hosting my own instance of something but the setup time keeps getting pushed to the bottom of the list. Curious what other people have settled on when the other party refuses to switch.

Hi everyone, I found your group and I want to start a weekly meetup in my community where we bring our devices and begin to DeGoogle/DeApple/DeMSN/DeTech as a group. Does anybody have a roadmap so I dont have to reinvent the wheel?

a few months ago, i posted that google was starting to implement the need for a mobile phone to verify RECAPTCHA (the post). it seems like google has finally started the roll out. i was on my phone so i got this screen rather than a QR code and as you can see in the second slide, it redirects me to Google Play Services on my phone.

It is the most urgent need to nuke RECAPTCHA from our websites and switch to alternatives like cloudflare turnstiles and ALTCHA. we should not be using RECAPTCHA that forces google play services on us.

also an interesting point to mention, even the audio CAPTCHA option has been removed along with visual CAPTCHA.

Not sure if this fits the sub, but some of the traffic is by Google and it's an Andorid phone, but if you have suggestions for other subs please let me know.

I used Netguard to block every single app on my samsung phone with lockdown mode.

0 apps should have internet access and that includes system apps, but according to my routers software my phone is still uploading and downloading something almost every hour. Hour by hour it can be less than 1 KB and as high as a few hundred KB.

Is this expected behavior? Faulty readings by the router?

I can just turn off wifi if I don't want any traffic, but I wanted to test the lockdown mode and maybe later allow some apps internet.

So i recently got the fairphone gen 6 but all the basic apps on there are from google. No basic notes app, just "google workspace", the messanger app is from google... i wanted to set up a proton mail adress, but in order to do that id need to ho into the google playstore to download it and make another gmail first???

Im probably gonna factory reset and try again, but how do i even get rid of them in the first place?

Im using both ente auth and ente photos and i wanted to ask if its better to use a different photos app, also would it be better to use an aliases for an email account than a real name?

with how much focus is put onto privacy in this subreddit im seeing a surprising lot of support for/usage of vibecoded projects. isnt the point to have an actual hold on your device? why would you make something like that when you yourself dont even know whats in the code? just seems strange, ai arguments aside

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