My journey towards more European, open source, privacy-oriented, and decentralized alternatives

[ceiron@lemm.ee]

Over the past few months, I embarked on a rewarding digital journey to move away from US big tech and towards more European [EU], open source [FOSS], privacy-oriented [P], and decentralized [D] alternatives.

I'm sharing my experience here in case it can be useful to others, as well as to gather any additional thoughts or suggestions:

• Desktop OS: Microsoft Windows 11 --> OpenSUSE Tumbleweed + KDE [EU][FOSS]
• Web browser: Google Chrome --> Brave --> Vivaldi --> Mozilla Firefox + Strict privacy settings, uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger, Conset-O-Matic [FOSS][P]
• Email: Gmail --> Infomaniak Mail [EU][FOSS]
• Calendar: Google Calendar --> Infomaniak Calendar [EU][FOSS] + OneCalendar [EU]
• Files: Dropbox --> Infomaniak kDrive [EU][FOSS]
• Photos: Google Photos --> Infomaniak kDrive [EU][FOSS]
• Notes: Google Keep --> Notesnook [FOSS][P]
• Social Media:
  • Facebook --> Nothing
  • Twitter/X --> Mastodon (mas.to) [EU][FOSS][D]
  • Reddit --> Lemmy (lemm.ee) [EU][FOSS][D]
• AI Chatbot: OpenAI ChatGPT --> Mistral AI Le Chat [EU]
• Videos: Youtube --> Unwatched [EU][FOSS][P]
• Podcasts: Apple Podcasts --> Spotify --> Pocket Casts [FOSS]
• Translate: Google Translate --> DeepL [EU]
• Maps: Google Maps --> Organic Maps [EU][FOSS][P]
• Weather: Apple Weather --> YR [EU]
• Online payments: PayPal --> Revolut [EU]
• Password manager: LastPass --> Mozilla Firefox --> Bitwarden [FOSS][P]
• Online shopping: Amazon --> Cdiscount [EU]
• Travel booking: Booking.com --> Direct booking

And here's the list of things I couldn't let go of:

• Mobile OS: iOS | I have a business iPhone which is also my personal phone
• Messaging: WhatsApp | The network effect is too big here: family, friends, local businesses, etc
• Streaming services: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ | These come basically for free with my ISP and are too convenient for the moment (esp. w/ kids)

[tweak@lemm.ee]

WhatsApp is the big one, that shit is a proven vulnerability. It was literally the vector for zero click access to Android devices in the Pegasus toolkit.

One way around it is to have a separate device for WhatsApp itself, then use WhatsApp4Web from F-Droid. It's basically a web wrapper for the browser version of WhatsApp, but it does run somewhat independently of the main WhatsApp device (unlike eg Threema where the website won't work unless the device has internet).

[tynansdtm@lemmy.ml]

They're using an iPhone so F-Droid is off the table. Is it also an attack vector on iOS?

[kissaki@beehaw.org]

Given uBlock Origin and Firefox native privacy functionality, what do you install and use Privacy Badger for? Isn't there nothing left for it to do?

[ceiron@lemm.ee]

Could well be it’s not much use actually; I need to look into that.

[cawright@infosec.pub]

Thanks for posting this! As an American who dislikes the big tech here, these are helpful in knowing what's beyond our borders. I had never heard of Infomaniak before you posted! I currently use Proton but I'm not happy with the ability of their calendar and contacts to integrate with my underlying system. I've also been looking at mailbox.org to expand my capabilities there.