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Megathread De-Google

Thread Description
Remove Google from your life!

Tsaine

varishangout.com
Google Play Books

I’m not sure if Calibre works as a replacement, as it’s software to organise and view, there isn’t a store or built-in library access, as far as I remember. (Feel free to correct me on this.)

For books there are plenty of open libraries. Some general purpose would be
- Archive.org;
- Z-library (mirror1, mirror2, mirror3, tor-mirror1, tor-mirror-2);
- Library Genesis (main mirror, also try .lc, .lib, .gs, .io and the onion address);
- Project Gutenberg provides a large body of texts, though often only as texts or poorly compiled ebooks;
- Library of Congress

Now some specialised libraries:
- Sci-Hub (mirror1, mirror2) – a storage for scientific papers, so it’s mostly for those who seek a particular work by its DOI;
- Scientific library of Cornell University – same as above;
- The internet Classics Archive – if you’re into Plutarch, Plautus or Confucius. Nothing new, the editions are the same as on Archive.org, but this library may have texts from books not yet scanned. Plenty of worthy translations, though one should keep in mind, that despite the perfect or nearly perfect translation was possible a hundred years ago, it wasn’t always the case.
- Perseus digital library – another classics archive;
- Petrucci Music Library is for musicians, it’s a library of scores;
- e-Museum: a large collection of Japanese art, calligraphy and scrolls, all digitised at high resolution;
- Vatican library – primarily interesting for its incunabulas and centuries-old documents;
- Metropolitain museum of art publications– for those interested in art.

Social media
Mentioning Mastodon here is a questionable choice. Its creator is known to have ties with European government project known as Eunomia. Working as a consultant he was on their payroll. Eunomia was supposed to be the EU government’s attempt at decentralised networks. The project was closed because either the govt thought it’s a waste of money or because they just feared, that there will be a massive exodus from Twitter, and when only a small one happened, they’ve realised there won’t be people coming to their alternative. Still, if they’d want a backdoor in fedi software, Mastodon would be the candidate number one.

”Ten friends” is a suspicious project. For something made just by “one of the ten” it has too good of a promo site. They don’t suggest a way of communication, however, they seem to seek binding people to a hosting provider instead. So it’s basically an ad of a hosting provider, it’s a bulb of a deep sea fish. Some ISP probably heard of this thing called “fediverse” and decided to make some quick money while the iron’s hot. Like “look how we’re good and oriented on giving people resources for their own fedi place” – while what they offer is virtually as anywhere else, just with a “SPECIAL!!” label. The expressive colours on the promo site are chosen to push you to them. For someone who can see marketing tricks, it consists on 100% of those. Ordinary programmers and sysadmins, who – as the website claims – are behind this, usually don’t know shit at design and promoting stuff. This makes it suspicious.


Ungoogled Chromium is still chromium. And chromium is still chrome. Because the play store is still there. Google has you by the balls, unless you disable it and install extensions by grabbing extensions from the creator’s website and placing them manually into your config folder.

Brave is made to breed normalfags who watch ads and yeet at Brave’s cryptotoken. They’re all tagged and identified. It’s very questionable what this piece of crap even doing in this list.


Messaging and Videochat
How there’s no XMPP + encryption layer?


Dictionaries
There’s Oxford dictionary, which works online with little javascript. I’d recommend also the Cambridge one, but that one is bugged beyond repair without JS (and with it too). Also paper dictionaries as PDF.
 

Tsaine

varishangout.com
Thanks for the link to debloated user.js for FF. Maybe I’ll give modern FF a chance, when the one I currently use will have the internet broken.
 

DarkMahesvara

varishangout.com
Regular
I’m not sure if Calibre works as a replacement, as it’s software to organise and view, there isn’t a store or built-in library access, as far as I remember. (Feel free to correct me on this.)
I think its the closest thing there is. AFAIK there is no truly open alternative where you can organize AND buy/download content (at least not DRM free). If you have better ones do tell.
For books there are plenty of open libraries. Some general purpose would be
- Archive.org;
- Z-library (mirror1, mirror2, mirror3, tor-mirror1, tor-mirror-2);
- Library Genesis (main mirror, also try .lc, .lib, .gs, .io and the onion address);
- Project Gutenberg provides a large body of texts, though often only as texts or poorly compiled ebooks;
- Library of Congress

Now some specialised libraries:
- Sci-Hub (mirror1, mirror2) – a storage for scientific papers, so it’s mostly for those who seek a particular work by its DOI;
- Scientific library of Cornell University – same as above;
- The internet Classics Archive – if you’re into Plutarch, Plautus or Confucius. Nothing new, the editions are the same as on Archive.org, but this library may have texts from books not yet scanned. Plenty of worthy translations, though one should keep in mind, that despite the perfect or nearly perfect translation was possible a hundred years ago, it wasn’t always the case.
- Perseus digital library – another classics archive;
- Petrucci Music Library is for musicians, it’s a library of scores;
- e-Museum: a large collection of Japanese art, calligraphy and scrolls, all digitised at high resolution;
- Vatican library – primarily interesting for its incunabulas and centuries-old documents;
- Metropolitain museum of art publications– for those interested in art.
I will add all of them to the Book section as a source for content!
Mentioning Mastodon here is a questionable choice. Its creator is known to have ties with European government project known as Eunomia. Working as a consultant he was on their payroll. Eunomia was supposed to be the EU government’s attempt at decentralised networks. The project was closed because either the govt thought it’s a waste of money or because they just feared, that there will be a massive exodus from Twitter, and when only a small one happened, they’ve realised there won’t be people coming to their alternative. Still, if they’d want a backdoor in fedi software, Mastodon would be the candidate number one.
hm okay thx will consider removing them.
”Ten friends” is a suspicious project. For something made just by “one of the ten” it has too good of a promo site. They don’t suggest a way of communication, however, they seem to seek binding people to a hosting provider instead. So it’s basically an ad of a hosting provider, it’s a bulb of a deep sea fish. Some ISP probably heard of this thing called “fediverse” and decided to make some quick money while the iron’s hot. Like “look how we’re good and oriented on giving people resources for their own fedi place” – while what they offer is virtually as anywhere else, just with a “SPECIAL!!” label. The expressive colours on the promo site are chosen to push you to them. For someone who can see marketing tricks, it consists on 100% of those. Ordinary programmers and sysadmins, who – as the website claims – are behind this, usually don’t know shit at design and promoting stuff. This makes it suspicious.
Have to disagree. They state pretty clearly that you should self host (that's why there slogan is "One in Ten Friends has the technical ability to self host" and i don't see any ads or even an option to buy/rent a server from them.

They also support the open fediverse ActivityPub protocol making it impossible for them to even "bind people".

If you have more than "feelings" and actual reason to suspect malicious behavior, i reconsider it.
Ungoogled Chromium is still chromium. And chromium is still chrome.
No. Its based on Chromium which chrome is based on (i already have a disclaimer clarifying this). UGC has removed all google parts making it pretty much the only truly De-Googled chromium fork.
Because the play store is still there. Google has you by the balls,
Chrome Webstore support is disabled/removed.
unless you disable it and install extensions by grabbing extensions from the creator’s website and placing them manually into your config folder.
That's literally the only way to get them besides installing an Extension that reinstates Chrome Webstore support.

see:
Brave is made to breed normalfags who watch ads and yeet at Brave’s cryptotoken. They’re all tagged and identified. It’s very questionable what this piece of crap even doing in this list.
I agree that they did shady stuff in the past (just like Firefox) but still think they hold value as long as there is no current factual evidence supporting your claims.
How there’s no XMPP + encryption layer?
right, added!
There’s Oxford dictionary, which works online with little javascript.
They serve ads by google and much more crap. They also state in there privacy policy: "IF YOU ARE NOT AT LEAST 16 YEARS OLD, DO NOT USE THE SERVICES.".
325523.png

I’d recommend also the Cambridge one, but that one is bugged beyond repair without JS (and with it too). Also paper dictionaries as PDF.
No...
23553.png
 

Tsaine

varishangout.com
hm okay thx will consider removing them.
If you need more information on Eunomia, consider their Privacy policy, and sections 8 to 11 in particular.
This clause reveals that they will share your data unless you specifically request not to do so.
> Right to Object – You can object to our use of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, including profiling or where processing has taken the form of automated decision making. However, we may need to keep some minimal information (e.g., email address) to comply with your request to cease marketing to you. (emphasis is mine)


Have to disagree. They state pretty clearly that you should self host (that's why there slogan is "One in Ten Friends has the technical ability to self host" and i don't see any ads or even an option to buy/rent a server from them.
It’s there: https://wiki.10friends.info/getting-started
Scroll to “Recommendations”.

That one should self host still implies that one entrusts their data to the hosting provider. That it will not sniff the inbound/outbound traffic, will not profile your users, and will not sell their profiled data. They of course do not offer servers themselves, but neither the light bulb of a deep sea fish bites the victims itself. That said, the truth lies in the EULA of those providers, and I’m only raising a healthy suspicion towards those. I don’t personally need their services, so I’m not going to go deeper, but if this guide aims at cryptoparanoiacs, then if not me, someone else would point at that later.


No. Its based on Chromium which chrome is based on (i already have a disclaimer clarifying this). UGC has removed all google parts making it pretty much the only truly De-Googled chromium fork.
Chrome Webstore support is disabled/removed.
That's literally the only way to get them besides installing an Extension that reinstates Chrome Webstore support.
Oh. I admit that I went too far on that.

I agree that they did shady stuff in the past (just like Firefox) but still think they hold value as long as there is no current factual evidence supporting your claims.
First of all, let’s remember what’s the Brave’s philosophy is. “No one wants to be tracked”, “watching ads is voluntary”, “rewards are based on an internal currency”. Brave claims that the ads it shows are not targeted, or, rather, have a vague anonymous profile of all Brave users, a kind of gigantic cast. So the users allegedly aren’t profiled. Meanwhile in their current terms of service:
> 6. Brave Ads
> Brave Rewards includes private ads.
> …
> You’ll only see ads if there are ads in the catalog which match your Brave Rewards profile
How can ads be private if the user isn’t profiled?

They of course do not forget to soothe you with how protecting your privacy is their mission etc.
> 9. Privacy
> The Brave browser sends information related to Publisher URL activity, vote totals, and contributions to the Company server for our provision and support of the Services, but as noted above, consistent with our mission to protect user privacy, we have incorporated privacy-protecting technology into the Services that is designed and intended to prevent us, Brave Verified Publishers, or other third parties from identifying such information to particular Brave Rewards Users.
However, there’s no mention of how safe that “privacy-protecting technology” is. Well, I can too put a copper wire in a box, cut one line in Cat 5.e cable and declare that this “device” is “designed and intended to protect privacy”, as it’s practically able to transmit words and messages without anyone in the room hearing them, which is also a kind of privacy. But only a kind of. Those, who doubt what I say, may proceed to section 13, Disclaimers, which, as per custom, states:
> we do not represent or warrant that the Services are reliable, …

But there’s not only that. A couple of lines below, within the same paragraph there’s the requirement to follow the ad. Which means that the user has to send an HTTP request with headers, where the user’s browser will be neatly identified. And as Brave has a minor share on the internet, there will most probably be quite a narrow sample of Brave users. Together with the data companies are able to gather about the user (both directly and indirectly, I’ll elaborate on that below), this provides the companies with a possibility to profile people themselves, rather than providing prepared profiles. In this regard Brave works like a fine sieve just by being a browser with a minor share (like Firefox or IE), except that with Brave companies get visitors, who are inclined to click on ads, and thus far more identifiable.

Companies that are selling stuff have their own tracking (which Brave may or may not block completely, as long as javascript and cookies aren’t turned off, but Brave’s target audience is far from being this much into cryptoparanoia), they gather their own “big data” including the indirect ways of tracking you, such as when you use a search/store aggregator to find a shop, then open the shop without following the links (opened it directly from the location bar instead), they’ll still know that you most probably used the aggregator, as you were there not long before visiting the store. The fingerprint is thus spread across multiple websites while you did your search, and each of the sites will try to fingerprint you. And some probably will, because those site tend to not render at all, unless you allow enough of their subsystems, some with built-in tracking. And as you were using the aggregator, the aggregator’s data will now seem profitable for the store.

All in all, Brave plays on the normalfags’ desire to do what they typically do (watch ads, click on porn banners) without the fear. They’re not capable of maintaining privacy, and Brave, though provides them means to obfuscate their presence, on the other side makes them quite identifiable and desirable targets, which, together with people’s habits puts a cross on their privacy and makes their situation even worse. I don’t like Brave because they are tricky merchants, playing on human desire to do what they want without care about consequences.

As Eich said in 2016: “we keep user data out of our cloud Brave Vault by default. It’s better for you and us that we don’t store any of your data without your permission.”
But the ecosystem of Services, to which the terms of service apply, consists of two things: the Brave browser and the BAT, basic attention token. The browser vault indeed will not store data, but that doesn’t mean, that it won’t leave users’ browsers (as many would probably expect). Instead, the data are stored in the BAT part of the system. It’s there, that users are profiled. And Brave was created exactly with this in mind, this is what should support it afloat when the money invested in it, would end. I don’t know what more direct evidence there may be.

It’s of course possible to use Brave without participating in any of its token-related schemes, however, using it is supporting it. And there are browsers which provide similar or better capabilities at blocking ads and tracking, while being more honest about their approach. For the being honest part, that’s virtually any other browser.


They serve ads by google and much more crap.
Is that adblock working? I don’t see any ads nor crap in FF with uBlock.

ox.png
1629201457.png


The website shows articles even with JS disabled. No search bar, though, but changing word via URL works.

Heh, I’ve said, that “I would recommend…” (but I don’t), because it’s broken af.

[Polarwindz] Majo No Tabitabi - 07  [BD 1080p x265 10bit Opus 2.0][24F4932F] 00:14:51.648.jpg


I’d like to thank you for having patience to respond to all this. If anything, I don’t insist on any changes to the list, it’s hardly worth breaking spears over something, that maybe three of a hundred people would read. I’ve just shared my own considerations, will there be a response to those or not, doesn’t concern me much (so if an elaborate response would trouble you, feel free to skip on parts or this post entirely).
 

DarkMahesvara

varishangout.com
Regular
If you need more information on Eunomia, consider their Privacy policy, and sections 8 to 11 in particular.
This clause reveals that they will share your data unless you specifically request not to do so.
> Right to Object – You can object to our use of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, including profiling or where processing has taken the form of automated decision making. However, we may need to keep some minimal information (e.g., email address) to comply with your request to cease marketing to you. (emphasis is mine)
Thx removed them :nana-thumb:
It’s there: https://wiki.10friends.info/getting-started
Scroll to “Recommendations”.
They just list 2 providers. Don't know them but they have no ref links and even state that they are not affiliated.
That one should self host still implies that one entrusts their data to the hosting provider. That it will not sniff the inbound/outbound traffic, will not profile your users, and will not sell their profiled data. They of course do not offer servers themselves, but neither the light bulb of a deep sea fish bites the victims itself.
Yes you have to trust someone at some point but that's not a problem of 10Friends or even those 2 specific providers and just generally with how the internet works.
That said, the truth lies in the EULA of those providers, and I’m only raising a healthy suspicion towards those. I don’t personally need their services, so I’m not going to go deeper, but if this guide aims at cryptoparanoiacs, then if not me, someone else would point at that later.
It's not necessarily aimed to be for "cryptoparanoiacs" (maybe i do a separate thread about that in the future). If it was i would only list self-hosted/offline services).

I try to choose privacy friendlier alternatives that even normies can use.

Examples:
I will not list Whatsapp even tho its E2EE because they are closed sourced and owned by a bad actor (Facebook).
I will list Signal despite being centralized and having made many bad decisions (sabotage forks, refuse F-Droid for bs reasons, not update server side code for almost a year, crypto bs integration) because they are open source and implementing general good features making them the most secure and easiest alternative to Whatsapp/SMS.
First of all, let’s remember what’s the Brave’s philosophy is. “No one wants to be tracked”, “watching ads is voluntary”, “rewards are based on an internal currency”. Brave claims that the ads it shows are not targeted, or, rather, have a vague anonymous profile of all Brave users, a kind of gigantic cast. So the users allegedly aren’t profiled. Meanwhile in their current terms of service:
> 6. Brave Ads
> Brave Rewards includes private ads.
> …
> You’ll only see ads if there are ads in the catalog which match your Brave Rewards profile
How can ads be private if the user isn’t profiled?
As i understand it, it's context based.
They of course do not forget to soothe you with how protecting your privacy is their mission etc.
> 9. Privacy
> The Brave browser sends information related to Publisher URL activity, vote totals, and contributions to the Company server for our provision and support of the Services, but as noted above, consistent with our mission to protect user privacy, we have incorporated privacy-protecting technology into the Services that is designed and intended to prevent us, Brave Verified Publishers, or other third parties from identifying such information to particular Brave Rewards Users.
However, there’s no mention of how safe that “privacy-protecting technology” is. Well, I can too put a copper wire in a box, cut one line in Cat 5.e cable and declare that this “device” is “designed and intended to protect privacy”, as it’s practically able to transmit words and messages without anyone in the room hearing them, which is also a kind of privacy. But only a kind of. Those, who doubt what I say, may proceed to section 13, Disclaimers, which, as per custom, states:
> we do not represent or warrant that the Services are reliable, …

But there’s not only that. A couple of lines below, within the same paragraph there’s the requirement to follow the ad. Which means that the user has to send an HTTP request with headers, where the user’s browser will be neatly identified. And as Brave has a minor share on the internet, there will most probably be quite a narrow sample of Brave users. Together with the data companies are able to gather about the user (both directly and indirectly, I’ll elaborate on that below), this provides the companies with a possibility to profile people themselves, rather than providing prepared profiles. In this regard Brave works like a fine sieve just by being a browser with a minor share (like Firefox or IE), except that with Brave companies get visitors, who are inclined to click on ads, and thus far more identifiable.

Companies that are selling stuff have their own tracking (which Brave may or may not block completely, as long as javascript and cookies aren’t turned off, but Brave’s target audience is far from being this much into cryptoparanoia), they gather their own “big data” including the indirect ways of tracking you, such as when you use a search/store aggregator to find a shop, then open the shop without following the links (opened it directly from the location bar instead), they’ll still know that you most probably used the aggregator, as you were there not long before visiting the store. The fingerprint is thus spread across multiple websites while you did your search, and each of the sites will try to fingerprint you. And some probably will, because those site tend to not render at all, unless you allow enough of their subsystems, some with built-in tracking. And as you were using the aggregator, the aggregator’s data will now seem profitable for the store.

All in all, Brave plays on the normalfags’ desire to do what they typically do (watch ads, click on porn banners) without the fear. They’re not capable of maintaining privacy, and Brave, though provides them means to obfuscate their presence, on the other side makes them quite identifiable and desirable targets, which, together with people’s habits puts a cross on their privacy and makes their situation even worse. I don’t like Brave because they are tricky merchants, playing on human desire to do what they want without care about consequences.

As Eich said in 2016: “we keep user data out of our cloud Brave Vault by default. It’s better for you and us that we don’t store any of your data without your permission.”
But the ecosystem of Services, to which the terms of service apply, consists of two things: the Brave browser and the BAT, basic attention token. The browser vault indeed will not store data, but that doesn’t mean, that it won’t leave users’ browsers (as many would probably expect). Instead, the data are stored in the BAT part of the system. It’s there, that users are profiled. And Brave was created exactly with this in mind, this is what should support it afloat when the money invested in it, would end. I don’t know what more direct evidence there may be.

It’s of course possible to use Brave without participating in any of its token-related schemes, however, using it is supporting it. And there are browsers which provide similar or better capabilities at blocking ads and tracking, while being more honest about their approach. For the being honest part, that’s virtually any other browser.
Even if your claims are true (i don't know), it's still a opt-in feature. I understand the distrust but similarly to Firefox i have them included despite there problems because they are pretty much the only 2 "bigger" normie and privacy friendly browser on Desktop.
Is that adblock working? I don’t see any ads nor crap in FF with uBlock.

View attachment 6793 View attachment 6794

The website shows articles even with JS disabled. No search bar, though, but changing word via URL works.
The problem is that they have all that crap on there site to begin with. Im not gonna recommend something that is even more of a privacy/security risk than the Google counter part. Also wiktionary.org has non of that crap.
Heh, I’ve said, that “I would recommend…” (but I don’t), because it’s broken af.

View attachment 6795

I’d like to thank you for having patience to respond to all this. If anything, I don’t insist on any changes to the list, it’s hardly worth breaking spears over something, that maybe three of a hundred people would read. I’ve just shared my own considerations, will there be a response to those or not, doesn’t concern me much (so if an elaborate response would trouble you, feel free to skip on parts or this post entirely).
It alright im glad someone took the time to respond :flan-yea:
 
Last edited:

island

varishangout.com
I used freetube temporarily when google locked my account and held it ransom in exchange for me verifying my identity, it was a pleasant experience, there is no delay in any of the actions and it feels much more secure keeping your data local. The developers haven't yet implemented playlists and liking videos has no effect on the uploader, which is sad because I would like to support their growth, even if it's just a like. I eventually got back control of my account without verifying and immediately saved and backed up my data, I'll be ready for the day when verification is no longer optional.
 
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