Are you "google free" ?

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@wynke

You can choose both. I try to make a poll that can capture human complexity and contradiction :)

[mariamakesamess@mastodon.ie]

@futurebird I was but then an employer moved to them 🤦‍♀️

[adredish@neuromatch.social]

@futurebird

I can't be google Free My entire university infrastructure is based on google workspace.

And, yes, when I asked the lawyers (OGC = Office of General Counsel) about a decade ago about this, they acknowledged that this meant google could do stuff with the data (translation and the like). Presumably, this now includes AI (although I haven't asked).

I never did find out whether they have sanctions in place to prevent google from using PHI (private health information) in the medical school files (which are also all google infrastructure. Or, more importantly, whether those sanctions actually work.

[driusan@doomscroller.social]

@futurebird@sauropods.win I would like to be but I don't think I'll ever be free of gmail and logging in to places with my gmail account.

I forward my gmail to my non-Google account but it's got 20 years of history if I need this find something and it's more convenient as a throw away if something needs a login.

For log in with Google buttons, it's out of my hands. I don't control what choices other people put on their site.

[drewnaylor@mastodon.online]

@futurebird Unfortunately, I have an Android phone, Google Voice for visual voicemail speech to text (I don't like having to listen to all my voicemails), and a YouTube account so I have to have Gmail.

[bonno@mastodon-belgium.be]

@futurebird I was very deep into everything Google.

I have moved my drive, docs, photos, keep notes, email away from Google.
I use a privacy browser and duckduckgo

I still have a Google account which I use for android. I have never been in apple nor Facebook. I've closed my Amazon, github and X accounts. I'm using Linux so no MS for me. F all of US big tech fascism enablers.

I'm looking into secure Linux phones but that's hard.
Still use gmaps as I need good search but it's next on the todo

[wynke@mendeddrum.org]

@futurebird Done that now.

I would like to be free of Google, but it has me locked in in several annoying and frustrating ways. A notable one is that mail from my main mail address (which is not self hosted but close in some ways) simply does not get through if I send it to some addresses that have (presumably) a hidden Google based backend (or possibly Microsoft, can't tell from my side), which is completely unacceptable when communicating with my child's school (and at the time I first had to provide another address to get around this I had Covid and was not really in a state to spend a lot of time and energy on a better solution).

[bonno@mastodon-belgium.be]

@futurebird filen.io - nextcloud with collabora - tuta mail - quillpad - brave browser - forgejo - kubuntu with libreoffice - no MicroSlop here

Stuff that's also good : Cryptpad - proton

[tricethetraveller@hachyderm.io]

@futurebird aiming for late 2026. Just ordered a pixel 8 pro for graphine. Which seems ironic

[hwll@sunny.garden]

@futurebird I'm trying. I know I'll get there. I have an ancient gmail account that receives fewer and fewer emails every year that I just forward to my main email. Also proud to have a completely degoogled phone finally!

I'm getting there in bites.

Maybe you already answered this (I'll check the thread), but I'm curious where you're at on your ungooging process.

[lffontenelle@mastodon.social]

@futurebird Realistically, it's more a matter of degree than of all-or-nothing to me

[hwll@sunny.garden]

@driusan not to judge in the least, but I've moved I think all of those google third party sign ins to use a personal email, so I believe it's possible. Maybe I'm missing something though. I appreciate that it's convenient if you're already signed in to google

[hwll@sunny.garden]

@mariamakesamess my condolences. 😩

[driusan@doomscroller.social]

@hwll@sunny.garden what? Do you hack in to every site you see to change their oauth settings?

[flagstone@hachyderm.io]

@mensrea @futurebird same. I moved away from it and essentially mothballed it (it forwards emails in case of the rare relevant email). Won't delete it to prevent an account lockout from something I forgot.

Also have a Pixel, but it has GrapheneOS.

I've nearly rid myself of all the FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Google) companies other than CDN (Content Distribution Network), of course.

[hwll@sunny.garden]

@driusan do you mind giving an example? I don't think I've come across one that wouldn't let me use a non-google email to sign in.

[balderdoordash@mastodon.social]

@futurebird working on it. One left

[Guest]

@futurebird I have deleted the account some time ago and don't miss it. I am using /e/os on my phone which is nearly completely Google free, works well. Sometimes I use Google search for specific queries. It is still much better than Quant or DuckDuckGo.

[sibylle@troet.cafe]

@futurebird I do have an account, from the days of google+.

I use newpipe for youtube, but I consider using my account to upload to youtube. Apart from uploading to peertube.

[futurebird@sauropods.win]

@sibylle

Every time I try to use peertube it freezes :(

I know the people making it are working very hard, but we need some kind of slush fund to make the bits flow faster.