Ask HN: How have you deGoogled your life?

[internxt]

A deGoogled device is excellent for the privacy and security of a user. Your data is worth a lot, and the hidden tactics used by big corporations are pretty shady.

By limiting the data you send to Google and other big companies, you ensure your Right to Privacy is in place. It takes time to embrace this life, but once you do, you will appreciate not having ads targeted to you or your devices constantly connecting to transmit data to servers.

*Benefits of deGoogling your devices*

1. Privacy for your devices.

2. De-Googled Operating Systems usually are open-source and can be actively checked for bugs and vulnerabilities.

3. De-Googled OS’ is based on stock Android.

4. There aren’t a bunch of trackers running in the background, and you can expect a much better battery life on your phone.

*The best alternative to Google Apps*

• Google Chrome

— Firefox - Safari

• Google Search

— Duckduckgo - Startpage - Neeva

• Google Chrome Passwords

— BitWarden - 1Password - KeePass

• Google Analytics

— Matomo - Fathom - Simple Analytics - GoatCounter - Counter.dev

• Google Mail

— ProtonMail - Fastmail - Zoho Mail

• Google Docs

— Beat Writer - Workflowy - Open Document Reader - Collabora

• Google sheets

— Airtable - Zoho - Coda

• YouTube

— Vimeo - PeerTube - Dailymotion - Newpipe

• Google Maps for Websites

— Leaflet - Mapbox - Nextzen

• Google Adwords

— BuySellAds

• Google Authenticator

— Authy - 1Password - AndOTP - Aegis

• Google Blogger

— WordPress - Medium - Squarespace

• Google DNS

— OpenDNS - NextDNS - Quad9

• Google Drive

— Internxt - Nextcloud - SyncThing

• Google Hangouts

— Telegram - Slack

• Google Images

— Unsplash - Pexels - Simple Gallery Pro

• Google Maps

— OpenStreetMap - Magic Earth

• Google Translate

— Deepl - WordReference - Lingva

• Google Maps

— Dark Sky - Weather Underground - OsmAnd

• Google Calendar

— Proton Calendar - Simple Calendar Pro - OpenTasks - DAVx5

• Google Keyboard

— OpenBoard - AnySoftKeyboard - Florisboard

• Google Keep

— Standard Notes - Joplin - Obsidian - Simple Notes Pro

• Google Podcast

— AntennaPod

• Ad-blocker

— Pi-hole

• Media

— Plex - Plexamp

• Netflix

— Sonar - Jellyfin

• Cloud

— NAS

• WeTransfer

— Internxt Send

These are the best alternatives that you can use if you would like to deGoogle your devices. Using Google on your device stores your location every time you turn it on. It stores your search history across all your devices in a separate database, meaning even if you were to delete said history on all your devices, Google would still have a record of it.

That’s the same for anything you’ve watched on YouTube, every app and extension you’ve used. How often you’ve used them. Where you were and who you interacted with. We would like you to understand that we want to give you back the power of protecting and controlling your data. Detaching from Google would be challenging, but to protect your data privacy, you have to be careful in using the internet and the apps that you use.

Update: We will continue to update the list with every comment and suggestions!

[andyjohnson0]

1. Bought a couple of personal domains and signed-up with Fastmail. Configured Fastmail to periodically pull emails from my legacy gmail account. I use the Fastmail webapp on desktop and their android app on phone/tablet.

2. Removed google analytics from my personal website/blog.

3. Uninstall Chrome on desktops and disable it on Android phone/tablet.

4. Use Firefox with Multi Account Containers add-on so that I am by default signed-out of google unless I need to do specific things, which are sandboxed in specific tabs.

5. Paid for Kagi search and set it as the default search provider on my desktops and devices.

6. Migrated a few legacy accounts from Google oauth sign-in to email/password.

Still to do:

a. Migrate my calendars from Google to Fastmail. For various reasons I need to be able to share calendars on Google and I haven't had time to sort this out.

b. Migrate off Google Photos. I take a lot of pics with my phone and google photos is just so convenient. I try to only keep six months of pictures on google and archive the rest to a machine that I own.

c. Google Movies/TV. I have a fair amount of bought content, mainly because its convenient to stream on a tablet. Not sure what the solution is there.

d. I still find google maps useful for a few things - particularly as a way to discover opening hours for businesses. My car has a built-in, non-android, GPS so I don't use google maps for driving.

e. I still have an android phone and tablet, and I'm sure they're still phoning home about me.

[f1refly]

> b. Migrate off Google Photos. I take a lot of pics with my phone and google photos is just so convenient. I try to only keep six months of pictures on google and archive the rest to a machine that I own.

Not knowing why it's so convenient for you, have your tried syncthing for your images? You could write a cronjob on your machine that automatically removes old files from the synced folder as well.

> c. Google Movies/TV. I have a fair amount of bought content, mainly because its convenient to stream on a tablet. Not sure what the solution is there.

Just wait until your licensed content becomes inaccessible because google stops paying the copyright mobsters. You can then repurchase all that stuff without feeling bad about it.

> e. I still have an android phone and tablet, and I'm sure they're still phoning home about me.

We still haven't reached the day of fuchsia, so there's other distributions that will separate google from your life:

https://lineageos.org

https://calyxos.org

https://grapheneos.org

[gaws]

> Use Firefox with Multi Account Containers add-on so that I am by default signed-out of google unless I need to do specific things, which are sandboxed in specific tabs

That is a great idea.

[jmmv]

I went through the process of de-Googling my life a few months ago after the announcement that the free tier of GAFYD was finally going away. I had been wanting to do the change for years but postponing it out of laziness, and that was the trigger that finally did it. (I know they backtracked on their decision, but I'm glad I ripped off the band-aid.)

Here is the excruciating process I had to follow in more detail, in case it may help anyone else: https://jmmv.dev/2022/03/abandoning-gafyd.html

[juice_bus]

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/

[Youden]

I know they can't do much about it but I really wish the default iOS search engine could be switched to Kagi. I could use another browser but the others I've tried are either compromised (Chrome) or buggy (Firefox, Kagi's own Orion browser).

[t0bia_s]

I used beta over month. It was great experience. But not that great for 10USD/month.

Subsribtion business model annoys me quite a lot. I want be charged for actuall use.

[dtx1]

10$/month for a search engine that is basically a nice google/bing Proxz is ludicrous. For that price you can just run your own searx instance

[daneel_w]

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.

[cube00]

If you could still login to the Registrars user account that owned the domain and that email address had been changed I suspect you should still be able to change the domain contact information via the self service console.

Worst case you'd raise a ticket (how good is actual support!) and they would be able to change the domain contact information for you because you can already authenticate with the user account that owns the domain.

If this wasn't possible all those domains that have self referencing contact information (eg. [email protected]) could never be verified.

[that_guy_iain]

I‘m not sure what you think would have happened. The domain is still registered via the register to your account and they literally know those contact emails become out of date. Those fields are pretty much just for informational purposes otherwise Whois privacy would own all the domains.

[yieldcrv]

Still need a google account to accept a google meet invitation or some interactions with other people’s google calendar invites

Using google accounts with a non gmail non gsuite email suuucks

[memorable]

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

[detritus]

> I recommend hosting an e-mail server by yourself

As someone who did this from about 2001 until three years ago, I strongly suggest most people don't bother with this route.

GMail, Outlook, etc, all throw so many arbitrary and ever-changing security conditions to accept mail, it really isn't worth the hassle - or the lost clients from mails that don't reach their walled-garden end-points.

I've used Fastmail for a few years now, and I'm 99% sure that when I respond to an email sent from GMail, they'll actually receive it (So, I'm not talking about cold-emails, which I could just about begin to understand).

[smartbit]

Few more additions:

• Google Chrome

— Firefox - Safari - Vivaldi

• Google Chrome Passwords

— BitWarden - 1Password - KeePass - Enpass

• Google Authenticator

— Authy - 1Password - AndOTP - Aegis - Enpass

• Google Translate

— Deepl - WordReference - Lingva - bab.la

• Google Maps

— Dark Sky - Weather Underground - OsmAnd - Guru Maps

• WeTransfer

— Internxt Send - filetransfer.kpn.com

[gaws]

> Unexpected Keyboard (A very cool keyboard)

For Android, to be specific. I'd love for an alternative to SwiftKey after Microsoft acquired them.

[voisin]

Google forced my hand with their decision to punish Apps for your Domain users. I was so angry at the decision that I moved to iCloud+ Custom Domain and made DuckDuckGo my default search engine and switched to safari. I will never, ever use another Google product. My Apps account was essentially just a custom domain on a Gmail interface and Cost them no more resources than Gmail, and presumably they got all the same benefits via ad tracking, so it felt particularly unnecessary to cancel.

[cyrialize]

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/

[teknopaul]

++fastmail they have actual real humans doing support.

Quant for search makes sense in Europe.

Trying hard but I still find stuff where my auth is gmail. Some sites won't let you change email. The ones of those that I can, I have left for other services.

What is most frustrating is that I have a Google phone so they snoop even bank auth.

I could not live without WhatsApp in Spain and, weirdly, that requirement forces me to have a gPhone or iPhone.

[Pr0ject217]

GrapheneOS! It's an amazing OS. The transition was quick and seamless and I was surprised that had to make zero sacrifices, because it allows you to create separate profiles. I have one profile with a Google Play Services sandbox, which the OS provides as a one-click install. It's useful to run banking/ride-sharing apps, etc. It's very quick to transition between profiles.

[pmoriarty]

deGoogling is great, but I don't want any corporations to track me or have data about me, and unfortunately the alternatives to Google are usually not any better in this respect.

They might, like DDG, promise not to track me and to respect my privacy, but as an ordinary user I have absolutely no way of verifying their claims.

I don't trust Vimeo any more than YouTube. I don't trust Authy any more than Google Authenticator. FastMail is great, but I don't want it to have my email any more than Gmail. I don't trust Firefox any more than Chromium.

Unfortunately the internet and computers in general were never designed to respect privacy and most corporations are happy to collect data on their users... and I'm pretty pessimistic on this changing much for the typical user... If anything it's only going to get worse as tracking technology becomes ever more sophisticated and omnipresent.

That's not to say we shouldn't deGoogle. But we should be under no illusion that that alone will somehow magically make our online lives private.

[caeril]

Regarding your concerns:

  - SearX instead of DDG
  - PeerTube instead of Vimeo or YouTube
  - There are a TON of FOSS TOTP authentication apps that you can build the .apk yourself if you'd like. You don't need Authy or GA
  - You can self-host email with something like iredmail, or get a pre-made personal server like Helm
  - Browser situation is tough, but there are FF workarounds like arkenfox/user.js

There are always options.

[lin83]

> unfortunately the alternatives to Google are usually not any better in this respect.

I don't that's necessary true. Google (and maybe Facebook) are unique in the size of personal data they hold and they types of data they have access to. If you move email or docs or search to something else, at least that's one less data source for them about you. (Assuming they are not selling it to data brokers Google has access to.)

[gaws]

> I don't want any corporations to track me or have data about me

In that case, stop using the Internet, your smartphone (and smart devices), credit/debit cards, streaming services, etc.

[uniqueuid]

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.

[duncan-donuts]

Wait why is Netflix on your list? How are Netflix and Alphabet/Google related?

[theandrewbailey]

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.

[lin83]

I also have Youtube left on my list. I also find it a little too addictive. Instead of using a browser, I use RSS to subscribe to the channels I'm interested in. From my RSS reader (newsbeat) I can even directly play the video (via mpv + yt-dlp).

[aaaaaaaaata]

Good list to chime in on.

Youtube channel subs etc can be handled with some privacy adds by using NewPipe on Android. Features are never ending.

People interested by LineageOS may also be interested in GrapheneOS, and their Play Store related handling.

Tangentially related: Aurora Store in place of "actual" Google Play app/Google Play Services.

Signal or meet.jit.si for video calling.

Chromium. Pain in the ass, but worth it. Change ALL relevant settings, Chrome or Chromium. Find a couple guides.

[timbit42]

A good way to keep track of new videos on your YouTube channels without being logged in is RSS.

[c0l0]

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 :)

[encryptluks2]

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.

[PufPufPuf]

Some of these make very little sense. For example:

• Google Images

— Unsplash - Pexels - Simple Gallery Pro

First two are stock photo sites, last one is an Android app for browsing local pictures. Google Images is a search engine for images, which is covered by the "Google Search" section anyways. Perhaps you confused Google Images with Google Photos (which is missing from the list), but even then the alternatives don't make sense.

[Youden]

Yes, with the following exceptions:

- YouTube has content that I enjoy and isn't available elsewhere. I know that it stores my history but I find its recommendations and multi-device support good enough that I consider it worth it. (Also, FWIW, you can disable the history using [0], it also has an autodelete, though I don't use it)

- I drive and in my region, nothing is good enough for driving directions aside from Google Maps. I've tried all the other major apps on iOS like TomTom, Sygic etc. but they just don't work well enough.

- Again, while driving, I use Android Auto on a device dedicated to that purpose. It's also the only situation where I use Google's voice recognition. I do so because I speak English in my daily life (e.g. song titles) but my region is German-speaking (e.g. places/street names/business names/addresses) and I need to be able to use both while driving. Only Google Assistant/Android Auto can be configured to recognise two languages.

[0]: https://myactivity.google.com/activitycontrols?settings=yout...

[jqpabc123]

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

[helloworld11]

The advice and practical suggestions of this post are great, but for those who claim to have a hard time leaving google behind regardless (without a major business or work obligation that makes it difficult), the drama is overblown. It's not only possible, it's also relatively easy. I use google for exactly four things: Two gmail addresses for random crap emails and obligatory sign-ups if I want some document (serious email goes to a protonmail address); a phone with Android built into it (invasive but meh, I keep my smartphone engagement to enough of a minimum that it isn't a huge invasion of privacy); Google maps for random addresses and youtube for music I seek (and later download anyway), which in any case can be used without signing in.

That's it. The rest is easily superfluous for most personal uses and I suspect that claiming otherwise is pure self absorbed convenience-hunting.

[ehzy]

> Using Google on your device stores your location every time you turn it on. It stores your search history across all your devices in a separate database, meaning even if you were to delete said history on all your devices, Google would still have a record of it.

All of this can easily be disabled on the setting page for your Google account? And, location history is off by default.

[pilgrimfff]

In order to actually disable location tracking, you have to disable Web & App Activity. The settings are highly misleading.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-location-tracking-lawsui...

> Google has systematically deceived consumers about how their locations are tracked and used and has misled consumers to believe that they can control what information Google collects about them

[spaceman_2020]

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?

[cube00]

There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time

Visit each site in your password manager and knock over a couple a day.

You'll never get anything that fully automates this because every site does the change differently. Even LastPass's automated password changer could only ever do a handful of sites fully automatically.

I've seen everything from full self service, to manual approval, to begging their privacy/legal department, to sites claiming allowing me to change my email address would represent an unacceptable security risk. I ask those sites that make up reasons like that to delete my personal information and move to someone who understands why email addresses are bad primary keys.

If you use your own domain, you'll never have to do this ever again, no matter how many times you change your email provider.

You need to start today, if you wait it's only a matter of time before Google does it for you by locking you out of your account for reasons they won't explain. Browse the GMail subreddit and observe the sea of hundreds of people locked out each week.

[St_Alfonzo]

Moving away from Gmail was easy for me. Get a new address at a reliable provider or self host. And then you can use Gmail's own Mail-forwarding functionality to forward everything to your new mail address, and theres also an option to delete the copy at gmail. Whenever you have time, set the new address at your accounts. And after a year or two you have changed all accounts and can delete your gmail address. A slow change is better than no change.

[krallja]

Fastmail will support your domain name and has a very good importer from Gmail. You don’t have to transition everything all at once. One thing that helps is to use different apps to access Gmail (like the official app) and Fastmail (your phone’s built-in Mail app), and if anything arrives @gmail.com, either unsubscribe or update the address.

[cruano]

I think you kinda have to update it manually everywhere, but that's why you get your own domain, so you only do it once. Personally, I discovered just how much spam/marketing email I was getting when I only migrated the "important" things to my own so I'm currently running with two emails.

As for alternatives, I have iCloud+ with my Apple One subscription I already pay for. That lets you setup five custom domains, with up to three emails each[1].

I think even if you don't switch yet, it's a good idea to change your domain name while you still can because most services ask for confirmation on the old email and we've all heard the horror stories with Gmail locking you out of nowhere

[1] https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212514

[theandrewbailey]

Another vote for Fastmail. I set up my own domain on there about a year ago, and have been happy. Fastmail has wildcard inboxes, so I canary trap[0] the email addresses I give to people and websites.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canary_trap

[DoctorDabadedoo]

I like Zoho for mail handling, the free tier covers up to 5 user with a custom domain, the small letters is that they don't provide IMAP/POP under the free tier, but it's pretty easy to set up.

If you're concerned about privacy I would evaluate fastmail.com