• Dr. Wesker
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    911 months ago

    Primarily. Secondarily, to avoid putting all my eggs in one basket. As in, not using one singular network of services, and instead spreading it out. Diversify yo services.

  • @IntenseCalm@lemmy.ml
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    811 months ago

    Privacy was the reason it started, but I was also constantly bothered by the growing annual profits they earned from people basically giving away access to their information and livelihoods for free. I realized how valuable our information is, and the only way to break this deepening centralization and control of it, was to take it all back. Self-hosting and supporting FOSS are my methods to regain control in this war. It has become a sort of holy war for me at this point. Lol

  • superkret
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    11 months ago

    No. I’ve met a guy whose google account got banned. It almost ruined his life (primary mail address, access to his Google business site, most of his phone’s functionality, docs, private photos, etc. all gone in an instant). And there was not a single thing he could do about it.

    I don’t want to put my life into the hands of a faceless corporation that isolates itself completely from its customers (or should I say, products?) when things go wrong.

    • Queen HawlSera
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      211 months ago

      Now that Google is looking through all of Google Drive for content for its bots, I’m worried that I’ll be banned for all the porn I’ve written. Which isn’t good because my email address is tied to everything, including my Steam account. That would be thousands of dollars worth of games lost.

  • @kool_newt@lemm.ee
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    711 months ago

    My dislike of Google (Alphabet) as an organization is my motivation. I want nothing to do with them.

  • @jet@hackertalks.com
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    611 months ago

    Privacy is a concern but not the primary concern. Google is too big to be in your life. If you use Google it’s in everything. If Google ever kicks you out your life is going to be very difficult while you rebuild your entire digital profile. Google’s too much of a risk.

    Not to mention Google is demonstrated they will kill services at the drop of a hat. So relying on them is asking for trouble.

    Google heavily uses algorithms to identify accounts to delete or block or ban. And this goes back to if your entire digital life is tied to Google and they do block you, you have no recourse. Google doesn’t talk to humans for reconsideration. You’re just out of luck.

    Google is too much of a risk for a stable life

    • @UnverifiedAPK@lemmy.ml
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      311 months ago

      Always make a new account for every website, never sign in via your Google account, Microsoft account, etc. It was a neat feature when it came out, but it’s just too much of a risk.

  • Mkengine
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    11 months ago

    For me, privacy on the Internet was something I wanted for a long time, but was too lazy to do. The decisive moment for me was the story with Reddit, at the same time YouTube goes against adblockers, Twitter goes down and Google develops technology to determine with which browser I visit websites.

    Lemmy quickly intrigued me, and privacy is a big deal here. I don’t want my digital life to be controlled by mega-corporations, so I’m gradually getting out. I’m slowly working my way through https://www.privacyguides.org/ and https://www.privacytools.io/ and hope to be done by the end of the year.

    So far I have managed to

    • Set up Pihole
    • Set up Bitwarden
    • Set up New email address
    • I am using SearXNG
    • Librefox for PC and Icedraven for Android are downloaded and will be used soon.

    Next phone will be a Pixel, so I can use GrapheneOS.

    So to answer your question, yes mostly privacy.

  • TechNom (nobody)
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    511 months ago
    • Lack of privacy
    • Arbitrary cancel culture with no recourse
    • Corruption and bloating of open standards like web
    • Non consensual logins (android, chrome)
    • Sabotage of federated services (email, xmpp)
    • Suggestion of new tracking methods (like FLoC) when old tracking methods (like 3rd party cookies) are phased out
    • Centralization of information flow (eg: AMP)
    • Bait and switch tactics (like YouTube ads)
    • Support for horrible laws (like illegitimate DMCA strikes)
    • Locking down devices (with remote attestation, safetynet api, etc)
    • Geolocking apps unnecessarily
    • Invasive use of credit card information to prove location (why not just use GPS or cell info?)
    • Incompatibility with open standards to achieve user lockins (eg: IMAP, caldav, carddav)
    • Riding the open source wave with projects that don’t behave like one (AOSP, chromium)
    • Untrustworthiness when it comes to long term presence of services
  • @inetknght@lemmy.ml
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    511 months ago

    Privacy is my biggest thing. But, no. Then there’s the whole “I don’t to put all my eggs in one basket” argument too. Last, but not least: my battery life is also much better when all of the invasive tracking is blocked :)

    • @Duamerthrax@lemmy.ml
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      211 months ago

      Especially when the person carrying the basket like to chuck eggs out of it at random. Never know when google will discontinue a service.

      • @GaryAblett@lemmy.ml
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        111 months ago

        I agree with this. I actually feel that the way they have restricted certain advanced search strings on the search engine is the most criminal of all. To me, watering down search results on a product that was previously excellent, is manipulation and control of information and thus, restricts people actual life. They are an extremely sly company and the control goes all the way to the top.

        • wanderingmagus
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          211 months ago

          What are examples of advanced search strings they’re restricting? I haven’t heard of this. Do other search engines restrict them?

  • @shortwavesurfer@monero.town
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    311 months ago

    Primarily yes, however a few other reasons are that i like FOSS, see no advertising (thanks to controld dns), and it makes midrange phones run much better than they would with all that crap in the background.

  • @rockhandle@lemm.ee
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    311 months ago

    It started as a privacy thing but as I dug deeper, I found that all of the foss alternatives I found were simply much better in terms of functionality & usability

  • @Mandy@beehaw.org
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    211 months ago

    Started with privacy Followed into fuck the big company’s And ended up in the ballpark of “Foss software works so much better and functions so much nicer”