this post was submitted on 21 Apr 2025
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DeGoogle Yourself

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A process that started roughly a year ago with just changing browser and search engine, now feeling that I got somewhere. The journey ended up being more than just degoogle, but also demetaing and taking more control over my data and privacy.

Before and after picture with notes:

Chrome -> Zen browser (Firefox on iOS)

Google -> Qwant

Gmail -> Proton Mail

NordVPN -> Proton VPN (I don’t use VPN very often, but have NordVPN through another subscription, now replaced with Proton across my devices)

Google Drive / Photos -> Proton Drive

Google Password Manager -> Proton Pass

Google Authenticator -> Proton Pass / Ente (Ente Auth is only used to store my 2FA keys for the Proton account, other keys are stored in Proton Pass)

Google Translator -> DeepL

YouTube -> FreeTube (Unwatched on iOS)

Google Maps -> Magic Earth (OSM on desktop)

WhatsApp -> Signal

Notion -> Anytype

Keep / Notes -> Notesnook

X -> Mastodon / Bluesky

Reddit -> Lemmy (Voyager on iOS, dreaming of an eventual complete migration)

Instagram -> Pixelfed

Facebook -> stopped using

Windows 11 -> Ubuntu (Only personal laptop, work laptop still windows)

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[–] biofaust@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

If you had nothing, as you said you would have, you would have nothing to provide to the authorities.

This is exactly what happened with Mullvad: https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/21/23692580/mullvad-vpn-raid-sweden-police

I know that this may be a requirement in Switzerland, that is why I would not use a Swiss product in the first place.

[–] dogs0n@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 day ago

I don't think a vpn and mail providers can relate in this scenario.

I have heard in the past that authorities have forced (possibly proton, but I forget) to basically wiretap incoming mail before proton can encrypt it for storage on the users account (because pretty much no one sends encrypted mail in a way that only the receiver can read it).

The only data other than that, that they store is ip logs (when forced to, I believe) and recovery email addresses. They are not able to present existing encrypted mail to authorities (from before a wiretap).

This seems overblown, I don't think theres more they can do. Users have to start sending encrypted mail from their inbox, then the wiretapping won't be an issue (proton address to proton address can work like this I think).