LambOfLiberty ago

I would rather my browser history not be linked to my identity lol

steelgnat ago

I like the directed ads and ease of use it's not like they would ever use it for anything else. (yeah right) f google

HAESisalie ago

duckduckgo.com

startpage.com

Don't use google, ever.

kammmmak ago

Never ever used it.

frankenmine ago

Legitimate Chromium-based alternatives to Chrome include:

Scrooblemeyer ago

I also recommend Epic Privacy Browser.

Scrooblemeyer ago

Use protonmail.com for your email.

kalgon ago

https://www.lifewire.com/best-secure-email-services-4136763

https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2018/04/3-better-alternatives-to-gmails-self-destructing-emails/

https://www.techjunkie.com/most-secure-email-providers/

https://www.lifewire.com/top-free-email-services-1171481

https://www.techradar.com/news/best-email-provider

I'm really not sure the story around protonmail is legit, but well, you need to be sure

 

https://stallman.org/stallman-computing.html

E-mail service

People sometimes ask me to recommend an email service. The two ethical issues for an email service are (1) whether you can use it without running any nonfree software (including nonfree Javascript code from the site), and (2) whether it respects your privacy.

For issue 1, see the FSF's page. On issue 2, I have no way to verify that any email service is satisfactory. Therefore, I have no recommendation to offer.

However, I can suggest that it may be wise to use an email service that is not connected with your search engine. That way you can be almost sure that your email contents don't influence your search results. You shouldn't identify yourself to your search engine in any case.

boggle247 ago

Lot of people saying to use opera. Don't. Owned by the chicoms https://archive.fo/hBPhV

I'd say use brave or Firefox (make sure to edit config for privacy as they are in the pocket of Soros now, lookup project MITI)

boggle247 ago

Run NextcloudPi on a raspberry pi as a starting point. Replaced 90% of the Google services I used.

Silencedmajor ago

STOP USING GOOGLE CHROME. IT'S A TROJAN HORSE. GOOGLE DIDN'T MAKE IT OUT OF THE GOODNESS OF THEIR HEARTS.

If you must use Google products for work etc. then only use Chrome (or better yet, a proper open source browser) for Google products only. Stop searching using Google. Install Web extension blockers and privacy plugins that prevent Internet wide cookie tracking.

boggle247 ago

Just use Gmail for business stuff and use ProtonMail for personal. Maybe slowly migrate if possible. I do this for my resume, I use an outlook email for that bc ProtonMail is odd and I get recruiters and employers asking questions about it and I have to come with an excuse instead of saying that I don't trust the jew owned GOOGLE and M$.

Silencedmajor ago

Use it as an opportunity to discuss the alternatives. Simply say that Microsoft and Google (and Yahoo etc) are able to provide free email because they read your emails. You wouldn't accept a postman reading your sealed mail.

There’s no need to get tinfoil hat with them. It scares off the normies.

boggle247 ago

Lot of more important things to discuss during my interview. Otherwise I agree with that approach. I'd rather not give them ANY reason to question me being a good candidate, so I'd rather not even take this risk.

I just setup an outlook account for job recruiters and for my resume. It actually helps keep my real email account cleaner bc hose recruiters can blow up your inbox

boggle247 ago

I signed in to YouTube with my alias account and then I noticed that the icon for my Chromium browser profile in the corner matched my Google account used for YouTube.

Freedommaker ago

This is a problem for all of us. I have recently started using other browsers . Not sure which one is the best, you also have to tell your computer that the new browser is okay.. Opera seems to be easy to use.

boggle247 ago

Opera is owned by the Chinese. Their "free" VPN probably funnels all of your web browsing data through their chicom government servers

Freedommaker ago

Thank you, I had no idea.

kalgon ago

From what I've read setting up a mail server isn't the walk in the park it used to be https://serverfault.com/questions/125467/how-difficult-is-it-to-setup-a-mailserver

I run several mail servers of varying sizes ranging from my own for two users to hundreds of IMAP mailboxes. My opinion of email can be summed up by telling you that I am planning to decommission my own private mail server and move to Gmail for my domain.

The main reason why I want rid of this responsibility is spam. It is compute- and resource-expensive to filter inbound spam with any kind of effectiveness. It takes time and effort on my part to maintain the spam filtering to ensure that we are as up-to-date as possible with the techniques being used by the spammers. And then there are times when your tools seem to be actively mis-maintained by the maintainers, such as when SpamAssassin started marking up everything with a date in 2010 or later because it was impossibly far in the future.

Greylisting works much of the time too, but some relay systems just can't deal with it properly -- and even though greylisting is legal, dealing with the broken systems is your problem.

Using black-lists can skim much of it off, but inevitably someone finds a blacklisted host that they want to receive mail from.

If you run a mail server, blacklisting is always your problem. You get blacklisted so your users can't mail out? That's your problem. Especially when the blacklist is some penny-ante ISP in Southern Wisconsin which is blacklisting you because ten years ago your IP block was used by some fly-by-night DSL provider and not the backbone provider it is today. Or they insist that they have to run a "relay test" on your server before they'll de-list you, even though the IP that is in their list is an outbound-only IP and doesn't accept email from the internet at large.

Someone trying to email one of your users gets blacklisted so they can't mail you? That's your problem. The email is always of earth-shattering importance and it is up to you to create an exception to let their email in.

Secondary-MXing is broken. Spammers just beat up on that, and your system gets to accept, then scan and possibly bounce, drop, or false-negative it into your users mailbox. Frankly I never secondary-MX anymore because if my primaries are offline for longer than it takes email to die then I've got bigger problems (probably headed by the need for finding a new job).

Then there are the RFC-nazis. You'll get blacklisted if you are not strictly RFC compliant. And then you'll get shouted down by people who hate the fact that your anti-spam choses to bounce rather than just drop, meaning the innocent people used as header-forging get buried in the back-scatter.*

Email used to be interesting and fun. Now it's just one long, slow, hard kick in the nuts (pardon my colloquialism).

 

tbh, if emails are that important to you, go for a reliable paid solution, a paid mail provider known to be serious

But since I've tested none except roundcube and I've never bothered to verify how reliable they are regarding privacy, I can't really tell

Also, the origin of the protonmail story seems dubious, see post above

There's fastmail.com, people complaining about protonmail seems to fall back on this one, I've tested it years ago and it was ok, but today I have no idea wtf is going on at the other end of it

voats4goats ago

Fyi Edge started this shit too. Turned that shit off with the quickness

boggle247 ago

Lol if your using edge then you're using win 10. So you have much bigger privacy issues than a web browser logging you into a profile.Lol.

voats4goats ago

As if its any worse. Idk why google gets a free pass for fucking over privacy and yet msft get shit for every little thing.

Windows 10 was a DIRECT response to Google encroaching on the desktop. If you want to blame anyone for windows 10's telemetry its all the lemmings that accept googles services over what was once MSFTs domain.

Standalone Office and windows (7 and prior) may have been expensive software but you paid for the product with the understanding they weren't mining the fuck out if your personal data.

Now that google has basically given away what was once premium software and services in exchange for your privacy, people push off paid products because google is free and good enough (even though your privacy is being exploited)

Tldr : Windows 10 is the result of people refusing to pay for software and instead trade away thier privacy for something they once paid for

boggle247 ago

Hey I'm not defending either. I think Google is far worse than Microsoft but M$ is catching up fast and windows 10 is an absolute shit show. I agree with everything you said.

If you're going to stay with win 10 then use spybot anti beacon to disable the telemetry.

Regarding office, I actually prefer libreoffice. It's come a long ways and it's open source and free. I love it. Give it a shot. Idk what their PowerPoint is like. I'm out of college and have no need for useless PowerPoint now

deepstatebug ago

My advice: get rid of Chrome if you care about your internet privacy. At collects so many key markers about your pc and surfing behaviour it can identify you even if you change some things. If you keep using Chrome you are a part of the problem. Google is not your friend. Try Opera(has some basic inbuilt VPN too), Brave, or FF if you like.

boggle247 ago

Opera is owned by chicoms. And using that "free" VPN surely funnels all of your browsing data and habits through a Chinese government server. I'm sure they sell it to the highest bidder as well.

Firefox is in the pocket of Soros look up the MITI project. Brave is the best bet, but I'm waiting for that chromium front end so I can use ublock origin.

deepstatebug ago

True, but you must start somewhere. Most of the times I also use Brave but for some it may be a step far. They want or 'need' addons and extentions. When I use Opera(adblock, ghostery etc installed fucking up several webpages I dont care) the VPN it shows a Swedish IP-address. As long as Alphabet isn't split up or consumer rights aren't better protected I prefer to be followed by the Chinese. They have a lot less influence on my life than my own government. Omg FF Soros, is there anything on earth he doesn't touch with his filthy fingers? That was new to me. Thanks for feedback.

boggle247 ago

You don't think the Chinese sell your info to corporations or the US gov?

Brave is on the brink of getting the chromium front end which will allow you to use chrome webstore extensions like ublock. I can't wait.

I posted a big comment reply a minute ago about Soros' involvement with Firefox. Look in my comment history for it. It's a big long comment, you can't miss it.

deepstatebug ago

thanks. I will.

prairie ago

So basically the browser itself skims and then secretly uses your login info if you merely surf to a site like gmail.com and log in.

joecamoe ago

The same company allowing third parties to search my email.

The same company crying that Hillary lost even tho they did so much, and donated so much money.

The same company that put a DNC server in North Korea.

Anti trust these turkeys already!

1F4A9 ago

[Google] put a DNC server in North Korea

Do you have any more information on this?

Can't find anything with Google. Or other search engines.

joecamoe ago

Do you trust/believe QAnon?

Here is the QAnon drop from 8 months ago with that information::::

Obama Admin Emailgate 560 Q !UW.yye1fxo 19 Jan 2018 - 1:45:44 AM HUSSEIN CABINET / STAFF Who used private email addresses? What was the purpose? LL. HRC. JC. JC. CS. AM. We don't say his name. RR. SR. JB. HA. VJ. Did Hussein use a private email address? @what? Who just resigned from GOOG? Why was ES in NK? Why was ES in NK? What private network did ES set up in NK? What private network did ES set up in NK? Who else was in NK during this time? What private email address did Hussein use while in office? Why would the Chairman of GOOG travel to NK? WHY WOULD NK ALLOW ACCESS TO ES? Nothing is ever truly erased/deleted. These people are STUPID. DECLASS-POTUS_ THE SHOT HEARD AROUND THE WORLD. Q

1F4A9 ago

He claims Eric Schmidt was in North Korea to set up a private network.

That doesn't tell us that Google put a DNC server there.

joecamoe ago

Good point, I appreciate that.

Either I assumed the DNC was involved--or I listened to a commentator who made that allegation.

DOCornelius ago

Brave browser & duckduckgo for search. I have an old Juno email account I've been using more but finding a more suitable replacement for gmail continues.

Alopix ago

Not letting you stay signed out is particularly gay of them

ianadba ago

It can't be said often enough. if you think the product is free or you don't know who's paying for the development costs, then you and your data is the product and what's for sale.

prairie ago

I'm such a whore for the convenience of Google. Realizing that they've skimmed all this and I've taken it laying down saddens me.

boggle247 ago

Then change. The perception of their services conveniences is higher than it really is. I dumped their shit (except I still use LineageOS android which has Google traces in it) and I've never looked back.

ProtonMail for email

Self hosted Nextcloud on a raspberry pi (use NextcloudPi). Sounds daunting but it's pretty easy. Nextcloud syncs, calendar, contacts, files like Google drive, photos, and much more. I also have a rss news app on my Nextcloud server. You can also sync browser bookmarks to it.

I will admit that I still use Google maps. I need to just buy a Garmin GPS for the car and use that. There are alternatives to Google maps like osmAnd but it's pretty shitty. Waze is also owned by Google.

If you venture down this path, create a road map of what Google products you use, and an alternative to it. On the road map, make the jump with the most important product first. For me it was moving to ProtonMail. Then the next important (for me was Nextcloud). Don't actually abandon the Google service until the alternative is up and running and installed on your devices. That way when you make the jump, the boat is beside you and you don't risk falling into the water.

Good luck

Optional_Reading ago

Adreno-Chrome

Atomized_Individual ago

Replace Google apps with https://f-droid.org

hardshaft ago

And most people will welcome it as a convenient (((feature)))

boggle247 ago

Google just trying to make our lives easier duh /s

Shouldn't be surprising, these same people have no concept of how money is made and what the purpose of a business is (to make money). They think all business first priority is to appease society.

The old saying is true: if you don't know what the product is, it's you.

Zalmoxis ago

Brave browser. Tutanota email.

kalgon ago

https://protonmail.com/about

Try the free version, it's limited in scope but then if you need a pro use there are affordable pro offers

Interface is rather nice, but there's no auto login feature/"remember me", because that's a security flaw to them

boggle247 ago

There was a response to that on the ProtonMail subreddit. They explained it and clarified. Idk what's true but I do know ProtonMail is still better than yahoo, Gmail, or outlook/Hotmail. Tutanota besides having a difficult name to spell out over the phone when ordering stuff, is located in Germany. Germany is probably the country I trust the least in Europe right now.

What email service do you use?

alele-opathic ago

So much is wrong with this post.

There was a response to that on the ProtonMail subreddit. They explained it and clarified.

They've already attempted to explain it, which led to more digging, and is what lead to researchers eventually finding they they share a fucking CEO. There are only two possible options here:

  1. Their story is consistent, in which case the above link is a better source (the source from their original confrontation), or
  2. They changed their story, which renders anything they say that contradicts their first story invalid.

Reminder that their first story was already proven invalid: they first stated that they were entirely separate entities, then it was slowly proven over time that they share offices/infrastructure and Tesonet even signs their crypto certs (so no, your data isn't protected from them via encryption).

Idk what's true but I do know ProtonMail is still better than yahoo, Gmail, [...]

This is attempting the lesser of two evils fallacy. Worse, it isn't lesser at all - merely different heads of the same Hydra.

Tutanota [...] is located in Germany. Germany is probably the country I trust the least in Europe right now.

It is a logical impossibility to prove any option safe unless you have direct control or oversight over it. The only option that can be known to be safe is to roll your own and deal with the accompanying 'problems' ("problems" in quotes as the difficulties seem to be designed to discourage independent email hosting from ever becoming a thing).

The only way you can talk yourself into using one webmail over another is through lesser of two evils.

boggle247 ago

Here is the reddit post I was talking about where they address it. It seems reasonable to me but to each his own opinion.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/8ww4h2/protonvpn_and_tesonet/

alele-opathic ago

  1. Thank you for the link.

  2. Did you read the link? He writes a novel claiming that 'the stories are false', and then turns around and admits they are true. I'll pull the relevant bits here.

First, before presenting anything that could pretend to be evidence, he tells you what to think:

There's some false info out there about ProtonVPN, and these stories were first fabricated by Private Internet Access, a competitor who has been feeling pressure from ProtonVPN lately. [Editor's note: character assassination doesn't discredit the evidence]

The stories are false, [...]

[...]the ProtonVPN Android keystore mistakenly lists[...]

This is not the first time one of our partnerships has been inaccurately portrayed [...]. The truth however, is less interesting than the conspiracy theories might have you believe.

Then he turns around and establishes everything that has been proven.

-> They have been colocated and used the same administration/infrastructure:

"(it would not have been possible to source local candidates, handle HR and payroll, understand local regulations, etc, without outside assistance). We worked with Radix (Macedonia) and Tesonet (Lithuania) to accomplish this. Tesonet in particular was selected since they are one of Lithuania's largest tech companies (and we already knew them)."

Note how they logically linked the need to use Tesonet to handle their own admin and legal bits. No evidence was provided that the story was false - instead he gives excuses for why it is true.

->They shared employees:

"Similarly, the ProtonVPN Android keystore mistakenly lists Tesonet as the organization name, since our Android developer was at that time formally employed through Tesonet."

Again, he provides excuses in lieu of contrary evidence. Whether or not it is mistaken doesn't affect the facts, disregarding that it wasn't actually mistaken.

He admits "Swiss" ProtonVPN/mail is actually located in Lithuania, but outright lies about who is a subsidiary of who:

The entities we use today in Skopje and Vilnius are both subsidiaries of our corporate entities in Switzerland.

Remember, there is no lie he can tell to explain this away; anyone can check the business registries for themselves. The Swiss entity is wholly owned by PROTONVPN IAB, which is Lithuanian.

Further, because traffic passes through Lithuanian datacenters, their "no-logs" claim is false by definition. Lithuanian law requires 6 months of data retention. There is no lie they can tell to explain this away either.

The rest of the post falls apart pretty easily. E.g:

Proton does not share any employees (or company directors) with Tesonet. This is also a verifiable fact.

Though this may be technically true on it's face (or may be a lie like most of the rest of this), they have shared employees in the past, and this is also a verifiable fact.

Here is the reddit post I was talking about where they address it. It seems reasonable to me but to each his own opinion.

There is no new information in this link that wasn't covered in the original confrontation I linked you prior. Further, his post was full of excuses with no evidence (and a few easily-proven lies). Facts aren't a matter of opinion - these crooks are objectively intertwined with a datamining company.

boggle247 ago

alright, let's assume you're correct. What email provider do YOU use?

boggle247 ago

Okay. Say it's all true. What provider do YOU use then?

kalgon ago

I'm sure it's worse than google /s

https://www.zdnet.fr/actualites/protonmail-une-attaque-frontale-mais-bancale-d-un-de-ses-concurrents-39871021.htm

In a long blog post , a BestVPN.co website editor embarked on a long demonstration to highlight the links between Protonmail and a Lithuanian data mining company, Tesonet, based in Lithuania. The editor puts forward several elements to justify these accusations: on the one hand, ProtonVPN and Tesonet share the same premises for their headquarters, a building located in Vilnius.

The companies also share several employees, as well as the same CEO: Darius Bereika. According to the writers of BestVPN.co, Bereika is both listed in some registers as both the head of Tesonet and founding member of the entity Cyber ​​Alliance, a company behind ProtonVPN. In addition to these similarities, the writers of BestVPN.co point out that the ProtonVPN mobile application uses a certificate signed in the name of Tesonet, proof according to them of the close links between this data mining company and the secure messaging provider.

The demonstration is worth the detour: with the help of accusatory headlines, Godwin point and typographic emphasis, the authors of BestVPN.co attempt to demonstrate the close links between Protonmail and the company Tesonet.

The survey uses a post published on the Hackernews website, a community-based website for publishing articles related to new technologies, which reported that Protonmail had a Lithuanian entity sharing premises with Tesonet, and left to hear in passing that the service NordVPN was also in the hands of the company Tesonet, without bringing this time of conclusive element.

And all this argument ends with an eloquent end point from the writers of BestVPN.co: "Note: People who are already looking for an alternative to ProtonVPN can visit our site for secure VPN services. This has the merit of clarifying the intentions of the author: the site BestVPN.co offers comparisons between different providers of VPN services. ProtonVPN does not appear in their search results.

Protonmail admits working with other human beings

As wobbly as it may seem, the publication of this argument was enough to sow doubt among Protonmail and ProtonVPN users, who called on the developers. The company was forced down the arena (understand: Reddit and Hackernews) to explain.

In several messages, Protonmail explains the situation : Protonmail has indeed several partnerships with companies, including Tesonet. In 2015, faced with the difficulties posed by Google including Protonmail has sought cheap labor in several countries of Eastern Europe: Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Macedonia were the places chosen for put this plan in place.

In the absence of a seat in these different countries, Protonmail has made agreements with these partners: they have recruited employees to work on Protonmail technologies. "Although our first recruitments in Vilnius and Skopje were working full time on Protonmail, they were on paper used by our local partners because we did not have a structure that could do it," says Reddit one of the founders from Protonmail.

He goes on to explain that following the resolution of the problems encountered by Protonmail in 2015, the company was able to open two subsidiaries in Macedonia and Lithuania in order to take under its wing the employees recruited through these partners.

However, Protonmail said that "for historical reasons, some connections to our local partners remain": the certificate signed on behalf of Tesonet in the Protonmail application is an error due to the fact that at the time of registration of the application, the developer responsible for its design was legally employed by Tesonet. "Because of the operation of the Google Play Store, it is impossible to change this mention, but it remains under our sole control. "

Protonmail is therefore facing a wave of misinformation and does not hesitate to cite its origin: competition. Protonmail emphasizes that the site BestVPN.co is owned by the company PureVPN, a VPN provider and that the initial information published on Hackernews and taken over by the editors of the site comes from the head of another competing service based in the United States, Private Internet Access. Charges that are difficult to verify as well, but that say enough about the wonderful atmosphere in the consumer VPN industry.

mad_saxon ago

Holy shit that is an interesting thread. Thanks goat, that needs to be bumped!

Alopix ago

Begins? Account based sync has been in both chrome and firefox for years and this is the only way it could possibly work. How did you think account-based syncing works? Why are you bitching about it years later? You could have stopped it then but you didn't because it was convenient.

Saturday405 ago

I wonder if this impacts corporate gmail accounts. Seems like that would be unfuckingbelieveably bad.

Sheeitpost ago

Because when they know everything about the customer they can charge more for their ads. And also they can sway the product.. I mean the customer.. like a sheep by promoting certain content over others etc which they're already beta testing probably.

Hand_of_Node ago

Ads?

MaggieMcC ago

I never even look at ads.

Sheeitpost ago

That is why they give services for "free" they are selling companies a chance for google customers to see the companies ad or click on the ad.

Elemental_Lightning ago

There's ads, where?