I’ve got to make a decision and want to take a room temperature check on what sacrifices people find acceptable for their own comfort. Use any services you know you shouldn’t? Any tools that you’re just waiting for a chance to replace but can’t yet?
Google maps for navigation in unfamiliar places.
i really want to switch to OSM apps (and I have comaps) but (1) it’s not nearly as good at understanding addresses (e.g. “123 first avenue” when it has my gps coords instead of “cityname, First avenue 123 zipcode”) and (2) doesn’t have nearly as many businesses mapped (e.g. i want to type in “Joe’s Restaurant” instead of the address bc i haven’t memorized it)
+1, maps is incredible and I wish a proper alternative existed. it’s the only thing keeping play services on my phone rn since I don’t have time to tinker with sandboxing it
Try Here We Go. It isn’t FOSS, but it isn’t google
I wanted offline maps and ended up with Sygic, which does well for the most part. It has some confusion over labeling state roads that trips me up occasionally.
Same. Although organic maps has worked for me for the most part. Haven’t needed gmaps for a hot minute. Although it would’ve made life easier on a few occasions
I occasionally need to use Google Maps but I’ve helped map my area on OSM which improved my experience. Most businesses in my town are now mapped.
I use Waze, I’ve no idea how much “not Google” is it, since it’s owned by Google. I’m trying comaps more and it’s quite good.
Grocery store rewards programs. I know they are designed to link purchases to me, but the financial savings is worth the loss of privacy for me.
the secret is, like Netflix, you’re not supposed to use your own card / number / account – someone in your family / apartment / friends has not only already signed up but also doesn’t care how many take advantage of the savings
In many stores, they will swipe “a store card” for you at the register if you ask them. I believe I’ve even seen the option on some self-checkout stations. I’ve only had trouble with this once or twice. But it may be worth risking for the privacy (and monetary) savings.
This works for cases where just being a member gets a lower price, but at least some stores have digital coupons that need to be added to my account. This would not work with a generic card. It is definitely a good tip for stores where it does work though.
Reward programs can link purchases to you through 2 different means:
- if you give your name and phone number to the smartphone application
- if the supermarket links the purchase to the actual bill sent to the bank account
You cannot technically avoid the second one but I know that most stores don’t do that because their systems are separated: one system for the inventory, one system for sending transactions to the banks. I’m telling this because, while they can link your debit/credit card to your purchase, it never happens because it’s a major PITA for them and it’s a manual process. But it can happen…
Same here. Trouble is, those aren’t “savings”, the price with the card is now just the price. If you don’t have a card, you have to pay an inflated price. A privacy tax, if you will.
I use an old phone number my sister used to have 20 years ago. We have no idea how many people are using that number currently but I get 60 cents off per gallon every month.
I just make up phone numbers.
8675309 in your local area code almost always works.
I need to take a closer look at this. We don’t do it but in these troubled times, young family et cetera… is it worth it?
They can just link purchases to the card I use to pay anyway right?
Having a quick look at my nearest grocery store, it looks like they give me 10% off one shop each month, amongst a plethora of other bullshit perks like points towards fancy cookware or something.
If I shop once a week and spend $200 then that’s $20 a month or $240 a year. Essentially one free shop a year.
Not much of a saving really. There’s other simpler things I can do to save more money I think.
If you buy groceries with a credit card instead of cash they will track that too, I’ve received coupons in the mail for specific items I’ve purchased in the past without any rewards program.
- Waze . They know my location when I drive, and there are no alternatives (AFAIK) for traffic jam. I don’t use an account though, it’s not tied to Google or anything.
- Kagi because all the others are worse. I may try SearX again to see if it’s good now.
- PayPal sucks but it’s good for subscriptions.
- Tuta and Bitwarden . They have a link to PayPal but the data is E2E encrypted.
Most of the time, I don’t mind a compromise as long as I can keep the data to myself and encrypted, or if the smartphone application can run without any permission.
The biggest threats for me in the above list are PayPal (they know what I buy), and Kagi (they know what I’m looking for). I could find a way to remove Kagi though…
Wait what’s wrong with Waze and Tuta? The PayPal tie?
Waze is owned by Google.
That… is unexpected. Why would they make a competitor to their own product?
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They didn’t. As far as I’m aware they bought the competition.
Waze serves a slightly different purpose to Maps, being a friendlier face that’s more of a driving GPS than Maps is. And while they don’t really market it as a Google product, people will use it thinking it’s a good alternative to using Google or Apple.
Noooooo. Nothing is wrong with Tuta, they are awesome. The compromise is that PayPal knows that I subscribe to Tuta and BitWarden.
As for Waze, it has been bought by Google a long time ago. If you have Android, you can restrict the location to “when the application is running,” but it’s still Google behind.
ohhhhh. I see. I guess that’s still better than maps. Do you think it had use of all the same geography as Google maps then?
The geographical data was always good, and you can use it without an account. The algorithm itself has improved a lot. It used to be very bad in the past though, it would switch the route every five minute to gain a few seconds towards the destination, but they stopped doing that.
CoMaps looks great, but it’s still buggy and I don’t know how to have some traffic data.
Kagi has no way of knowing what you’re looking for if you use their privacy tokens.
- Gmail, GCal, Google Photos, and GDrive
It’s the network effect. I need an integrated solution that replaces all of these functions that I can use, my more tech-casual spouse can use, and that my frustration-intolerant preteen child can use. Also, we use Family Link for youth device management since we use Android devices. No alternative exists that does all of these things, and I refuse to spend my precious free time providing constant tech support.
- Kagi Search - owner seems like typical asshole techbro
- I pay using Google Wallet and debit card everywhere
Using WhatsApp because in Germany there’s no way around it for public contacts.
I’m from Germany and don’t have WhatsApp :D But I totally understand what you mean, it’s terrible.
Yeah from car mechanics to doctors, schools to associations/clubs it’s mandatory.
Carrying a connected cell phone/tracking device
I have not yet but may soon be required to give biometrics (fingerprints, possibly eye scan) to my employer.
I haven’t decided yet what to do if it comes to that… know I’m giving random tech conglomerates far more in exchange for far less, but this one feels more invasive and personal.
But I’ll probably do it if needed. I like this job, and I trust them more than I trust these tech giants I sell my data to, just for a glimpse of the online hellscape.
oof, THAT’S a fucking leap. gotta be a job you must really want to be considering that
Best job I’ve ever had, both regarding benefits+salary, assignments, and work culture/colleagues/management.
Why? What’s going on? Isn’t it a breach of some sort?
It’s a security clearance thing. But there’s also talks of instead easing up on the requirements for different levels of security clearance, so we’ll see where it ends up.
Gmail and android phone.
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I have Microsoft Teams and Outlook apps installed on my phone because I need them to do my job. I use gmail, google calendar, and google maps because they work and are accessible anywhere I need them. I am certainly aware of the tradeoffs and use more privacy friendly alternatives on my own PC for things I need to do privately. The VPN DNS block lists running on my phone make it so the Microsoft apps barely function as it is.
I still use my old google account for youtube. It isnt flagged as underage so i can watch every video even though i never gave them proof.
Doorbell camera. Stock Android and Google services.
I’ve had a Google account since I was old enough to have one. I’ve been using my email to make so many accounts for years. How does one just move to something else when what yiu already have is so deep into your other stuff?
One step at a time.
it’s a process. by now you’re probably using at least one for doing 2 factor authorization with the other. to migrate you have to create a 3rd and go through all your accounts authorizing a login then changing the 2fa account.
I’d say it’s probably easier if you have a password manager app, then you can at least let it autofill login info and use it like a checklist to work your way through. Those are obviously their own kind of baggage though
Same. I made a new email, and every time i had to log in or something, i looked into changing the email of said account one by one. It wasn’t really all that bad
Gotta do it one by one. It’s taken years, but now most of my stuff is off of Gmail. It’s to the point where if my Google account got closed, I wouldn’t miss much. I wouldn’t even lose my emails that I care about since I’ve done multiple Takeouts.
- google messages - I really need the web ui, trying to switch to scrcpy
- google wallet & samsung wallet - have already decided to go back to a physical wallet with cards
- google maps - I use this mostly to find opening times for businesses.
- ms teams - for work
- facebook messenger - selling junk on facebook marketplace
Microsoft SwiftKey on my phone. I’ve been using it since before it was acquired by Microsoft. It is an incredible keyboard and after using it for years, I am very fast on it. I ditched it for about 6 months last year for the FOSS alternative HeliBoard, but it negatively impacted my typing speed so much that I recently gave up and reverted to SwiftKey.
Google Maps also on my phone, because it works really well compared to the alternatives I’ve tried. I’ve used (and contributed to) OSM, but it’s just not a drop-in replacement for Google Maps yet.
I “verified my identity” on LinkedIn a while back because I’m job hunting.
I can’t validate our use of them, but I can at least commiserate. Heliboard was so much slower it wasn’t even funny. SwiftKey just knows what I’m trying to say and I can type as lazily as I want. Heliboard had to be nearly perfect to even have a chance of autocorrecting correctly.
Google Maps too, I’m not ready to give it up.
Is LinkedIn even useful to you? Every time I’ve gone job searching, I’ve found a bunch on indeed and barely anything on LinkedIn.
