Discussion Ethically Online

[Le Pertti]

So as we all can see with every big tech company and their services bowing to fascism I thought it would be a good idea so have a thread where we can go over different ways we can untangle ourselves from the worst of them.

Personally I have already deleted everything Meta and haven't really found good replacements for them. I am now looking to get rid of Google stuff, thankfully I dont use android so it is mostly just the emails I need to replace. While there are many good alternatives, it does need to have IMAP support and being able to create several accounts for free. I know Parsnip has undergoing this project too and maybe could share a bit?

Anyone else started replacing stuff, what and where did you go?

 

[Le Pertti]

lashman posted, holy shit did my thread suddenly become urgent!

Yogthos (@yogthos@social.marxist.network)

Google’s new policy tracks all your devices with no opt-out using fingerprinting to create a unique profile for targeted ads. 🤮 https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/googles-new-policy-tracks-all-your-devices-with-no-opt-out/ #google #privacy

social.marxist.network

 

[lashman]

@lashman posted, holy shit did my thread suddenly become urgent!

yes, as always with google - it's all bad news

 

[Li Kao]

I will follow this thread evolution religiously.

 

[Le Pertti]

Speaking of Google, it sucks so much about Youtube, it still the only real place to post videos. As much as I want peer tube to be a thing, it really isnt

 

[Li Kao]

I'm still trying to understand how Amazon recent change (no ebook download via usb) will fuck me up, personally.
Glad I systematically DeDRMed every purchase I ever made with them, but as for the future...

 

[Kal1m3r0]

but as for the future...

I'd get a Kobo

 

[Parsnip]

it does need to have IMAP support and being able to create several accounts for free. I know Parsnip has undergoing this project too and maybe could share a bit?

Free as in actually free, because as the saying goes, if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product.
Or do you mean free aliases?

I've been using mailbox.org for a while now, their cheapest plan is 1€/month with 2GB of mail storage and has 3 extra aliases. It's what I started with and while 2GB might not sound like much, it was plenty for me.
I did ultimately end up switching to the 3€/month plan late last year, mainly for the 25 aliases.
So now I have a set up of basically bunch of tiers, my login email which is completely private and not actually in use anywhere, my main "professional" email, a gaming related email and a forum email.
And since I upgraded my plan and have aliases to spare, I also use a few specialized emails like for example microsoft, google, cdkeys and aliexpress all have their own addresses.
And also since subaddressing/plusaddressing is a thing I use that in addition to all the aliases.

I still have 5 gmail addresses in various states of dissolution, 2 of the accounts have been fully migrated and empty since summer 2024, and I'm just keeping them around for a bit in case I forgot some account somewhere that still use them. I haven't set a solid timelimit on it, but I supposed if the account doesn't get new emails in like a year or so, it's probably safe to delete.

My eventual goal is to just have one google account that I would use for whatever android stuff I need it for, the aim is to also remove the email service from that account. But it's going to take a while before I'm there.

The big issue obviously with all of this is that it's a huge pain in the ass to change the addresses in all the accounts you have accumulated over the years, but I just do them here and there with no rush.
It's especially annoying when you have to contact support or whatever to change it, and there are some accounts I have ran into where it's just not possible.

 

[Li Kao]

I'd get a Kobo

In my case, obviously. Plain and simple. Since the news dropped I already bought and DeDRMed two Kobo books. I don't read often enough and never on an ereader or I would have already ordered one of those sexy Kobo color, whatever the name. Still very tempted.
But some of my mother's fave authors are Amazon exclusive.

Apparently you can still get the file from the kindle app on pc, but I'm this instant trying to make sense of what voodoo I did to crack a KFX months ago. It's not pretty.

 

[KingKrouch]

lashman posted, holy shit did my thread suddenly become urgent!

Yogthos (@yogthos@social.marxist.network)

Google’s new policy tracks all your devices with no opt-out using fingerprinting to create a unique profile for targeted ads. 🤮 https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/googles-new-policy-tracks-all-your-devices-with-no-opt-out/ #google #privacy

social.marxist.network

I guess if you buy an Android device, if you care about privacy, the first thing you should do is look into installing a custom ROM, and use an open source alternative to the Google Play Services like MicroG. For YouTube, stuff like ReVanced Manager exists, and that can use MicroG and add additional privacy settings. Shame that Linux compatibility on phones is still hit or miss, because from what I've tried of Plasma Mobile on a cheap touchscreen laptop, it's not the worst thing.

 

[Le Pertti]

So far from what Ive seen in regards to mail, Infomaniak seems like a good option, each account gets two email addresses and has imap support. Haven't tried to do several accounts yet, since it uses phone to verify it might be that one can one create one account.

 

[lashman]

So far from what Ive seen in regards to mail, Infomaniak seems like a good option, each account gets two email addresses and has imap support. Haven't tried to do several accounts yet, since it uses phone to verify it might be that one can one create one account.

what about tutanota?

 

[Le Pertti]

what about tutanota?

No idea, but will check it out!

 

[lashman]

No idea, but will check it out!

good luck

 

[Le Pertti]

Created a peer tube account today just to have a backup for YouTube. nice that one can make it auto import everything from YouTube!

 

[lashman]

Created a peer tube account today just to have a backup for YouTube. nice that one can make it auto import everything from YouTube!

yup, it's cool like that pixelefed has instagram import as well

 

[Le Pertti]

yup, it's cool like that pixelefed has instagram import as well

yeah but I dont fully trust pixel fed either, also I deleted my insta so aaaaall gone!XD

 

[lashman]

yeah but I dont fully trust pixel fed either, also I deleted my insta so aaaaall gone!XD

RIP in pepperoni

 

[Nebulys]

I'm looking to untangle myself from WhatsApp and Facebook, but so many of my friends use it.

Sometimes though, you just have to rip the bandaid off. If I do it, others might follow.

Or they won't and I'll be forever alone.

 

[Le Pertti]

I'm looking to untangle myself from WhatsApp and Facebook, but so many of my friends use it.

Sometimes though, you just have to rip the bandaid off. If I do it, others might follow.

Or they won't and I'll be forever alone.

Getting rid of everything meta has definitely been very isolating. Lost touch with so many! But at least it prepares me on how to move forward, that I won’t take connections for granted and actually make an effort to save phone numbers and such.

 

[Parsnip]

It would be impossible for me to get rid of whatsapp, I'm just hoping that at some point some regulator somewhere forces a company split or something.

 

[Le Pertti]

On reddit I've seen there has been a big push to switch from American owned to European. Not to say European automatically is better. But still nice to see that people are quitting shitty places.

One switch I forgot to mention before, is that I finally quit Wordpress after using it for almost, what 20 years lol. I instead built my own blog engine! Since I embed lots of videos on it, I noticed my site was littered with trackers from google. Solution is that I reuploaded everything to peer tube and going to later edit all posts and re=embed with the latter, should finally remove all trackers. Except for trailers that are still on YouTube. Thinking about making a trailer channel on peer tube just to upload those, but not sure about the legality of that...

 

[Nebulys]

I think shifting from US to Europe is a good move in general.

But in my view, try to run things locally where you can and anything you need to backup offsite should be encrypted on your end before uploading.

I haven’t looked into it too much but I’m definitely looking to boycott America in general where I can. I know the mango Nazi isn’t all of America’s fault, but I have to vote with my wallet.

It’s so hard though, because US tech is rammed so far up our asses that it’s almost unavoidable in some way.

I’m dreading having to replace my iPhone once it’s too out of date to use, because it will involve giving some US tech company a large chunk of my cash, or that plus all my data if I go Android. I know there’s options to strip Google out, but it doesn’t seem feasible at the moment.

The whole thing is very depressing at how much they’ve taken over our lives in so many ways.

 

[lashman]

Thinking about making a trailer channel on peer tube just to upload those

you should definitely do that!

 

[Le Pertti]

I think shifting from US to Europe is a good move in general.

But in my view, try to run things locally where you can and anything you need to backup offsite should be encrypted on your end before uploading.

I haven’t looked into it too much but I’m definitely looking to boycott America in general where I can. I know the mango Nazi isn’t all of America’s fault, but I have to vote with my wallet.

It’s so hard though, because US tech is rammed so far up our asses that it’s almost unavoidable in some way.

I’m dreading having to replace my iPhone once it’s too out of date to use, because it will involve giving some US tech company a large chunk of my cash, or that plus all my data if I go Android. I know there’s options to strip Google out, but it doesn’t seem feasible at the moment.

The whole thing is very depressing at how much they’ve taken over our lives in so many ways.

For me I will still use Apple for pretty much all my daily use tech, and then Steam and Xbox for gaming. For me the switch will be mostly in areas where it's personal, like social media, mail and stuff like that.

In general I do think there will be a huge push for European tech the next decade, just hope that the tech that rises up to the challenge aren't broligarch wannabes.

you should definitely do that!

Won't that be a problem legally? Can I just rip trailers from official YouTube and repost them?

 

[lashman]

Won't that be a problem legally? Can I just rip trailers from official YouTube and repost them?

sure you can! doubt anyone will even care tbh, so go right ahead - what are they gonna do about it?

 

[Le Pertti]

sure you can! doubt anyone will even care tbh, so go right ahead - what are they gonna do about it?

I guess, at worst probably the peer tube instance will boot me.

 

[lashman]

I guess, at worst probably the peer tube instance will boot me.

yeah, i very much doubt that would happen so yeah - go right ahead

 

[Deepo]

Hey guys, I'm trying to get away from using my Google account as much as possible, and I'm wondering if there is any way to change my registered email address here on MetaCouncil?

 

[Le Pertti]

Hey guys, I'm trying to get away from using my Google account as much as possible, and I'm wondering if there is any way to change my registered email address here on MetaCouncil?

That is a good question! That could be kind of essential now that many are changing their emails. I tried to look in settings but I cant find anything that would suggest being able to do that, not sure why.

 

[NarohDethan]

It took years for my parents to learn whatsapp i’m not doing it again

Hey guys, I'm trying to get away from using my Google account as much as possible, and I'm wondering if there is any way to change my registered email address here on MetaCouncil?

Yes you can, gotta ask lashman I think

 

[Parsnip]

Someone should enable email changing from the xenforo options. I'm really not sure what benefit it serves to keep it locked down.

 

[LEANIJA]

I've not reviewed these personally but just saw this posted in an article dealing with this topic

switching.software

Ethical, easy-to-use and privacy-conscious alternatives to well-known software

switching.software

European alternatives for popular services | European Alternatives

We help you find European alternatives for digital service and products, like cloud services and SaaS products.

european-alternatives.eu

 

[low-G]

I'd get a Kobo

I got a Kobo Clara, my first and only ebook reader so far, because of the 1984 thing. I love it so much.


When using AI, as much as possible, I use free open models running on my own hardware for a multitude of reasons. If they're going to scrape public contents, the culmination of those works should be in public hands free to use. It's a big ask.

For llms, koboldcpp is a one-step download that utilizes llamacpp and will run modern llms. The more vram the better but you can use system ram too.
There are excellent text to image (flux), text to audio (llasa for now), and text / image to video (wan) that you can run on your PC rather than paying for a closed, for profit service.

 

[Le Pertti]

I kind of like Informaniak mail, was going to create all my accounts there, but of course one can only create one lol, since it's tied to phone number. Haven't found others that are both free and has imap support.