How have others gotten friends/family to make the switch? I’ve been doing a cleanup of my digital life over the last year or so and am trying to move to using more privacy friendly alternatives where possible.
example: I’d love to switch to Signal only but everyone I know only uses WhatsApp. I’ve mentioned switching to people in the past but it’s always the same response (I don’t have anything to hide)
There’s a balance between principles and practicality and for a lot of people it just hasn’t tipped yet. I’m kind of in that boat myself.
On principle, I’d like to eliminate Google from my life entirely.
In practice, there is no good alternative to Google Maps. I’ve tried a bunch of OSM-based apps and they’re just not there yet. So I use Google Maps. Not happy about it, but I still use it.
I use osmand in conjunction with gps-coordinates.net so I can get the GPS coordinates of addresses to put into osmand since it has a serious lack of addresses
Open street map data is created by volunteers. Where I live, you can practically put in any address into OsmAnd and it’ll know it. Maybe you live too far out. Or there aren’t enough people contributing in your area.
Putting in the house numbers is a tedious task.
Ah, okay. Different continent, ~500k people here. More if you count the neighboring cities. I’ve programmed in a few house numbers like 10 years ago. But generally speaking, OSM knows most hiking routes and illegal mountainbike trails in the woods. And it rarely does silly mistakes while routing me in the car. Something it used to do regularly when I started using it. Guess the experience heavily depends on where you live, then.
Ironically I found the best way to watch YouTube on the TV was to pay Google for a “Chromecast with Android TV” (or whatever it’s called) and install SmartTube on it. I could have spent a while tinkering around with my Raspberry Pi to create some custom solution and given Google no money, but this cost less than 2 months of YouTube premium and now I’ve got a device I can do whatever with.
I’m paying for the convenience of a tv-optimised android device. It’s relatively versatile in that you can install most android apps, but much more robust than trying to build something myself. And all I use it for is watching video so there’s not really much it can data-mine compared to something serious like my phone.
You are not logged in. However you can subscribe from another Fediverse account, for example Lemmy or Mastodon. To do this, paste the following into the search field of your instance: !privacyguides@lemmy.one
In the digital age, protecting your personal information might seem like an impossible task. We’re here to help.
This is a community for sharing news about privacy, posting information about cool privacy tools and services, and getting advice about your privacy journey.
You can subscribe to this community from any Kbin or Lemmy instance:
Check out our website at privacyguides.org before asking your questions here. We’ve tried answering the common questions and recommendations there!
Want to get involved? The website is open-source on GitHub, and your help would be appreciated!
This community is the “official” Privacy Guides community on Lemmy, which can be verified here. Other “Privacy Guides” communities on other Lemmy servers are not moderated by this team or associated with the website.
Moderation Rules:
We prefer posting about open-source software whenever possible.
No soliciting engagement: Don’t ask for upvotes, follows, etc.
Surveys, Fundraising, and Petitions must be pre-approved by the mod team.
Be civil, no violence, hate speech. Assume people here are posting in good faith.
Don’t repost topics which have already been covered here.
News posts must be related to privacy and security, and your post title must match the article headline exactly. Do not editorialize titles, you can post your opinions in the post body or a comment.
Memes/images/video posts that could be summarized as text explanations should not be posted. Infographics and conference talks from reputable sources are acceptable.
No help vampires: This is not a tech support subreddit, don’t abuse our community’s willingness to help. Questions related to privacy, security or privacy/security related software and their configurations are acceptable.
No misinformation: Extraordinary claims must be matched with evidence.
Do not post about VPNs or cryptocurrencies which are not listed on privacyguides.org. See Rule 2 for info on adding new recommendations to the website.
General guides or software lists are not permitted. Original sources and research about specific topics are allowed as long as they are high quality and factual. We are not providing a platform for poorly-vetted, out-of-date or conflicting recommendations.
The unfortunate fact is that most people don’t care about their privacy until it’s violated. It’s weird.
@hperrin @governorkeagan Until they *realise* how much and for how long it’s been violated.
I’ve seen people complain about companies like Meta and Google but then not make any effort to try and change…people can be weird sometimes.
I suppose there are a lot of factors at play, but still 🤷🏻♂️
Well, at least you know how to approach the people who complain about Meta and Google.
There’s a balance between principles and practicality and for a lot of people it just hasn’t tipped yet. I’m kind of in that boat myself.
On principle, I’d like to eliminate Google from my life entirely.
In practice, there is no good alternative to Google Maps. I’ve tried a bunch of OSM-based apps and they’re just not there yet. So I use Google Maps. Not happy about it, but I still use it.
I use osmand in conjunction with gps-coordinates.net so I can get the GPS coordinates of addresses to put into osmand since it has a serious lack of addresses
Open street map data is created by volunteers. Where I live, you can practically put in any address into OsmAnd and it’ll know it. Maybe you live too far out. Or there aren’t enough people contributing in your area. Putting in the house numbers is a tedious task.
I highly suspect it’s a lack of contributors since I live in a small city in the United States (~50k population).
Ah, okay. Different continent, ~500k people here. More if you count the neighboring cities. I’ve programmed in a few house numbers like 10 years ago. But generally speaking, OSM knows most hiking routes and illegal mountainbike trails in the woods. And it rarely does silly mistakes while routing me in the car. Something it used to do regularly when I started using it. Guess the experience heavily depends on where you live, then.
Yep. And YouTube on teevee, just got to pay for it. I can’t suffer these ads.
No real replacement as of now for either.
Imagine paying and they are still mining you.
Wtf sort of dystopian bullshit time line is this.
Stop using them for everything else.
Ironically I found the best way to watch YouTube on the TV was to pay Google for a “Chromecast with Android TV” (or whatever it’s called) and install SmartTube on it. I could have spent a while tinkering around with my Raspberry Pi to create some custom solution and given Google no money, but this cost less than 2 months of YouTube premium and now I’ve got a device I can do whatever with.
Didn’t realize that was possible now you ate running on google controlled device…
I cant swallow that.
Hate paying them too tho
I’m paying for the convenience of a tv-optimised android device. It’s relatively versatile in that you can install most android apps, but much more robust than trying to build something myself. And all I use it for is watching video so there’s not really much it can data-mine compared to something serious like my phone.
Apple Maps is a good alternative if you have an iPhone. Apple may not be a whole lot better, but at least they aren’t an advertising company.
How sad it is when “at least they aren’t an advertising company” is one of the better alternatives!
I just switched to Petal Maps, though it doesn’t warn me if a place is closing soon.
I’d like to give Petal Maps a serious try, but for some reason it doesn’t work with CarPlay. So it’s a no-go for me.