degoogle

(crossposted from !exclusive_public_resources)

Musk’s changes to Twitter:

• must register as a member to get read access to content
• members no longer see a non-biased chronological linear timeline; an opaque algorithm decides what to prioritise on the timelines, subject to Elon’s hard-right manipulation

It’s perhaps fair enough that boot-licking pawns decide to subject themselves to quasi-brainwashing manipulation. But when GOVERNMENTS use Twitter, people with a legitimate interest in gov communication are forced to register on an exclusive walled garden where they will come under influence of the extreme right (and thus climate denial among other garbage; hence the crosspost to !climate_action_individual).

How to fix this using open data laws:

Public content published on Twitter legally must be openly accessible to all people. Perhaps not by default but certainly by request. This means individuals can submit an open data request to gov agencies who use Twitter, requesting a copy of all content they publish on Twitter. The gov legally must satisfy the request. All tweets must be in an open machine-readable format (csv, json, or xml).

The dataset is “dynamic”, so I believe future updates must be added to the open data. But what I’ve seen in practice is the gov is not diligent about pushing the updates. They may need to be nagged. If they are nagged enough, perhaps they will decide Twitter is not worth it.

BTW, all of this applies to Facebook as well, noting that Cambridge Analytica is why Trump took power in 2016.

Why this is in degoogle

European govs are using Youtube and thus force people into that access restricted walled garden. You need not register but you can only get access if you reveal your IP address to Google by not using Tor.

The same strategy of open data requests can perhaps be adapted to Google. Request that the gov agency put their videos in peertube or their own website.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/c/videos/p/1423692/the-trillion-dollar-scam-how-google-really-makes-money

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/38001927

In this post, I hope to clarify and expand on some of the points and rebut some of the counter-messaging that we have witnessed.

Recently Google decided that in the future for an app to be installable on an Android device, the developer of this app needs to be ID'd and registered at Google. They claim this is in order to "to better protect users". However, I think, this is a move to get more control over the Android ecosystem, and the data they can collect with it. If anyone who wants to develop an app for Android devices has to be registered with Google, this puts all the power of who to allow distributing an app to Google.

Furthermore F-Droid shows, that safe app stores can exist without registration, neither of users nor of developers. There is zero malware or spyware on the F-Droid store. What there is on F-Droid is thousands of beautiful, useful and, most importantly, safe apps. And this entire ecosystem is at risk, because Google wants to gain more control over its users and over the Android operating system.

For those that don't know, GrayJay allows consuming media from many platforms, all in one app. Peertube, Odysee (lbry), twitch, kick, removedute, nebula, soundcloud, and more! You can also sync your playlists, watch list, subscriptions, and so on across devices.

I've discovered interesting creators across multiple platforms (peertube, odysee, billibi, dailymotion, ...) and have reached the point now where I can just switch of the youtube source and just consume media from all other sources. Billibi (Chinese youtube) for example has accounts that just sync/copy/rip entire channels from youtube and there are some creators that sync their channels onto peertube, odysee, or elsewhere. With Grayjay, it doesn't matter where anymore since it can probably access it.

What I enjoy a lot is not worrying about youtube updating and breaking the plugin because I just don't consume it anymore. You can give it a shot too.

Long story short: Everyone should consider downloading NeoStumbler on their phones and help collect degoogled geolocation data from the places they travel to.

Degoogled geolocation data?!

A big problem with degoogling is positioning services. Whenever your device doesn't have a GPS signal but wants to know your position, it collects information about the wifi, cellular, and bluetooth networks around you. It then looks this up against a database of networks and their location, and returns to you your approximate position.

This has traditionally been crowd-sourced by Google for a closed database for them to use and abuse. Mozilla created and abandoned their own service a while back, as they tend to do. Their data was not anonymous enough for it to live on in open source, and for a while there was no real open source option out there. All location services would pretty much depend on Google. Thankfully, this is not the case any more.

Enter beaconDB!

A proper open source alternative has finally emerged in the form of beacondb (@beacondb@mapstodon.space), which currently contains location data for more than 75 million wifi networks and almost 4 million cellular towers, most of which in Europe and the US. This database allows degoogled devices to find their location in the world without relying on a Google service. It is still in its early days, but some open systems already use it by default.

How can you help?

Contributing to beaconDB is incredibly easy. The tl;dr on top of this post summarizes it, but here's a more detailed overview:

1. Install the open source app NeoStumbler
2. Open the app and set it up. It's a good idea to take a look at the settings. I have enabled movement detection (helps save battery on most devices) and passive data collection. I also enabled an option to send reports with less metadata, further increasing privacy.
3. Press "play" in the app. You can also add a "wireless scanning" button to the sliding drawer menu in Android to make this option more accessible. I generally keep scanning on at all times as I don't find it to drain the battery much, but of course it's mostly useful when moving around in new areas.
4. Walk around, live your life.

And, of course: Let people know about it! Contributions from people outside of Europe and the US would be particularly welcome, but it's the early stages of the project and contributions are needed everywhere. Also feel free to cross-post (or boost!) this to anywhere you'd see fit.

Since the end of June I have collected information about more than 150 000 wifi networks and more than 10 000 cellular networks. It's fun to keep track of how many new networks I've passed by at the end of the day.

Please join in! :)

As a result of this discussion in !degoogle@lemmy.ml, there is now an IRC channel about degoogling!

/join ##degoogle on irc.libera.chat:6697 (TLS). The channel name begins with a double hashtag (according to the namespace policy).

Come on down and join us through your local IRC client or the web client web.libera.chat!

Privacy pack

I use tuta mail and tuta calendar for mail and calendar, Vivaldi as browser on laptop, and Firefox on android. Bitwarden as password manager and bitwarden auth as 2fa. Use obsidian for notes and appstore is aurora store and droidify, I use archlinux. And for "cloud" storage, actually a backup I use This USB drive not cloud Buf works for me. Still kinda dependent on proprietary messaging platforms, but I have 1 friend on signal. Also I am trying to replace YouTube with fmhy.net not exactly YouTube alternative, but has so many resources for free to study, educate myself, or just watch something out of amusement.

cross-posted from: https://lemmybefree.net/post/1243814

Hi! I'm looking for a privacy respecting Android tablet.

I ruled out the google tablet due to it being too expensive with an LCD screen

I would prefer a nice OLED screen if possible (or similar), and preferably cheap. Must be able to stream HEVC encoded videos (not 10 years old hardware), and preferably more (VP9, AV1, for future proofing)

The main use will be to watch content (movies, series, videos) from YouTube and Jellyfin, and sometimes some other apps if they're not enforcing the Play Integrity API

So far I've searched some OS and I'm considering LineageOS or /e/OS, with /e/OS looking better in terms of privacy. Don't want google to track everywhere I go and everything I do.

Any recommendations for good cheap hardware with bootloader unlocking, and recommendations for a good Android ROM?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32207681

Your guide to a new File Storage service! (NEW)

FreeTube is an open-source standalone YouTube client that gives you control over what to see and what not to see on YouTube. Among my my favourite features are:

• No Ads
• Checkboxes to eliminate common distractions, e.g. Shorts, Trends, Live chat, Recommendations, Comments
• Word filters and channel filters
• Integrated SponsorBlock and DeArrow
• History and subscriptions are saved locally, away from Google's prying eyes
• Easy download of videos, e.g. for securing videos or re-uploading them to a PeerTube instance (of course, only if it's legal in your jurisdiction)

If you're a parent, know that FreeTube also has several child safety features.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/31955478

Google’s Gemini team is apparently sending out emails about an upcoming change to how Gemini interacts with apps on Android devices. The email informs users that, come July 7, 2025, Gemini will be able to “help you use Phone, Messages, WhatsApp, and Utilities on your phone, whether your Gemini Apps Activity is on or off.” Naturally, this has raised some privacy concerns among those who’ve received the email and those using the AI assistant on their Android devices.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/66561434

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/66561410

cross-posted from: https://europe.pub/post/1236359

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.nz/post/23935860

Google warns “passwords are not only painful to maintain, but are also more prone to phishing and often leaked through data breaches.” And that’s the real issue. “It’s important to use tools that automatically secure your account and protect you from scams,” Google tells users, and that means upgrading account security now.

Google says “we want to move beyond passwords altogether, while keeping sign-ins as easy as possible.” That includes social sign ins, but mainly it means passkeys. “Passkeys are phishing-resistant and can log you in simply with the method you use to unlock your device (like your fingerprint or face ID) — no password required.”

This is just one of their excuses, to keep their users inside google's walled-garden

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/44957349

I have some moeny set aside for donating to some open source projects. I was looking for some advice for the best way to determine the need of projects. With only a limited amount of money.

Also would it be better to give to a lot of things and a small amount of money or a large amount of money to a few.

Right now I was thinking of donating to the Lemmy intance I am on and Mastadon instance.

Sometimes a gmail user sends me an email. I object to that. In principle, I need be able to tell Google that I do not consent to them processing my personal data whatsoever.

If one of their users addresses an email to one of my email addresses, I do not want Google to store the message or even transmit it. They must refuse to handle my personal data, and thus refuse to process email traffic involving my email address.

I believe this falls under GDPR Art.18 or 21. But the question is, how can I submit my GDPR request to Google? I can write them a letter but I do not want Google to get my address. I don’t even want Google to know my name. The only thing I want Google to know is my email address, so that Google’s mail servers can refuse mail to that address. But the mere act of submitting a GDPR request inherently requires data subjects to prove their identity to data controllers.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29777938

More than half of Americans reported receiving at least one scam call per day in 2024. To combat the rise of sophisticated conversational scams that deceive victims over the course of a phone call, we introduced Scam Detection late last year to U.S.-based English-speaking Phone by Google public beta users on Pixel phones.

We use AI models processed on-device to analyze conversations in real-time and warn users of potential scams. If a caller, for example, tries to get you to provide payment via gift cards to complete a delivery, Scam Detection will alert you through audio and haptic notifications and display a warning on your phone that the call may be a scam.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/29224228