If you own a recent Google Pixel phone you can very effectively DE-Google it yourself using GrapheneOS. Then you can choose what parts of Google you let back into your life (like maybe maps). Furthermore, you can sand-box every app. I enjoy trapping Google apps in their own little solitary confinement. The fact that you are using Google hardware to fight Google is delicious.
Try https://yewtu.be/ instead of YouTube. It mostly works (sometimes it's slow because YouTube is actively trying to shut them down) but when it works, it's great.
Also for searches on the Brave Browser - if you're not finding what you want, and would like to do a quick google search without tracking, you can put a !g at the end of your search, and it'll run it on google for that one time. I thin this works on DuckDuckGo as well.
- icloud drive is not as good as GDrive but works fairly well, is encrypted end-to-end, and has better privacy
- Brave for browsing
- I also haven't escaped GMaps and YT but one can reduce the impact by customizing their privacy features and turning off history and such. Everyone should go to https://myaccount.google.com/ and scrub the crap out of it
Great read, Josh! An interesting look at unhooking from Google and full of humor. Have you read Manoush Zamorodi's "Bored and Brilliant"? Reminded me of the book.
On a more serious note, I took your use of 'dehumanization' to mean a kind of 'formation' and was reminded that "one becomes what one beholds" (JKA Smith?). Anything we spend our attention on has the capacity to shape us, including--equally and curiously--those things we try to avoid. Our formation is our responsibility, and freedom can't come by staking ourselves to a negative position. Saying all this with a bias for paper, and not because Google Maps once tried to kill me: Your printer mis(?)adventure sent me viscerally back to a bridge in Maine, which patently would not have borne the SUV I had parked at the end of a overgrown ATV path, where I weighed my odds and wondered how I'd gone amiss... Good time or a good story, right?
Favorite line: bracketing your unscrupulous attempt at image theft between the 'man of IDEALS' refrain
PS. Loving my Galaxy S7. Does the eBay seller from whom I bought it refurbished have access to all my PI? Probably. Does it still work well despite not having been supported for over five years? Yes. Is this a trade-off I'm willing to make? Hey, it takes good photos!
If you own a recent Google Pixel phone you can very effectively DE-Google it yourself using GrapheneOS. Then you can choose what parts of Google you let back into your life (like maybe maps). Furthermore, you can sand-box every app. I enjoy trapping Google apps in their own little solitary confinement. The fact that you are using Google hardware to fight Google is delicious.
Try https://yewtu.be/ instead of YouTube. It mostly works (sometimes it's slow because YouTube is actively trying to shut them down) but when it works, it's great.
Also for searches on the Brave Browser - if you're not finding what you want, and would like to do a quick google search without tracking, you can put a !g at the end of your search, and it'll run it on google for that one time. I thin this works on DuckDuckGo as well.
Thanks for the pro tips!
Love this piece. That opening story made me LOL.
Suggestions:
- skiff.com for drive and other services
- icloud drive is not as good as GDrive but works fairly well, is encrypted end-to-end, and has better privacy
- Brave for browsing
- I also haven't escaped GMaps and YT but one can reduce the impact by customizing their privacy features and turning off history and such. Everyone should go to https://myaccount.google.com/ and scrub the crap out of it
Thanks for the suggestions! I'm sure you related to some of the crazy gymnastics of escaping google.
Great read, Josh! An interesting look at unhooking from Google and full of humor. Have you read Manoush Zamorodi's "Bored and Brilliant"? Reminded me of the book.
On a more serious note, I took your use of 'dehumanization' to mean a kind of 'formation' and was reminded that "one becomes what one beholds" (JKA Smith?). Anything we spend our attention on has the capacity to shape us, including--equally and curiously--those things we try to avoid. Our formation is our responsibility, and freedom can't come by staking ourselves to a negative position. Saying all this with a bias for paper, and not because Google Maps once tried to kill me: Your printer mis(?)adventure sent me viscerally back to a bridge in Maine, which patently would not have borne the SUV I had parked at the end of a overgrown ATV path, where I weighed my odds and wondered how I'd gone amiss... Good time or a good story, right?
Favorite line: bracketing your unscrupulous attempt at image theft between the 'man of IDEALS' refrain
PS. Loving my Galaxy S7. Does the eBay seller from whom I bought it refurbished have access to all my PI? Probably. Does it still work well despite not having been supported for over five years? Yes. Is this a trade-off I'm willing to make? Hey, it takes good photos!
"Freedom can't come by staking ourselves to a negative position." Really good.
Also I'd like to hear more about this bridge scenario.
(teaser trailer) It all started with a quest for water buffalo ricotta...
Loved this Josh! I admire your commitment. Encouraging to see you can be an artist AND be unplugged.
Write more!
Hey Joshua. Looking forward to you writing on here again.
You're so kind, thank you. I hope to have some space to write again soon!