The Chrome team says they’re not going to pursue Web Integrity but…
it is piloting a new Android WebView Media Integrity API that’s “narrowly scoped, and only targets WebViews embedded in apps.”
They say its because the team “heard your feedback.” I’m sure that’s true, and I can wildly speculate that all the current anti-trust attention was a factor too.
Ah, let me guess, now Google’s gonna get everyone and their sister to move all their content to apps…
They already have. I can barely go to a mobile page that isn’t broken or doesn’t have a pop up I must dismiss telling me it’s better in the app when it most certainly is not. Some things I use have let their desktop web pages go into disrepair and when I contact them with my issues logging in they just tell me to use the app and that their site has been down for months. Gotta force that tracking and those arbitration clauses somehow.
Tell them that you don’t own a smartphone and that you can’t use their product.
Might not solve the issue in the short run, but eventually they’ll hopefully realize that a desktop site is important as well.
K, I’m still not using Google search engine anymore. And once I find a replacement for any other Google services and devices I have, it’s out with those as well.
My concern is saving my email and photos before my account is randomly banned one day with no customer service and no recourse. God only knows what data they already harvested from when I used to back up my photos with their service.
Just grab a copy using Google Takeout, then after that use Syncrify, FolderSync, Resilio Sync or something else to automatically copy your phone media to your computer.
Definitely the first step is to get more SSDs. I was traveling a lot and barely used a desktop or even a laptop for 6-7 years. I’ll check out those sync systems, thanks.
This is something I wrote in another thread earlier but it’s relevant here too
A security guy popular in the internet, Ollam, recently left Delta’s program because they are changing it to be more pay to play vs miles traveled or something. Delta walked it back but he’s sticking to his guns. In his rant, he said something poignant. Something to the effect of “if your significant other raises their hand like they’re gonna hit you, but they don’t? The time to leave is now.” (Video)
(Quote)
https://ecosia.org as a search engine :) Uses bing in the background (and newly also google), but your data isn’t sold (AFAIK).
If you want opensource there’s YaCy
I’m on Kagi but I did the one time payment and am unsure about whether I’ll extend. Results are good but 10 dollars a month isn’t insignificant (cheap plan is orders of magnitude less than what I need in searches)
I tried kagi and wasn’t impressed. For all but one or two queries the results were exactly the same as ddg. Not to mention they had that stupid metric stating 78%+ unique kagi results for every search, even though that was blatantly untrue. They seem pretty dishonest as a company.
I used Ecosia for a long time (almost 5 years) but the search results are pretty bad. Often I had to use another search engine to actually find what I was looking for. DuckDuckGo is pretty good, Brave Search is OK as well but SearXNG is my personal favorite.
I use SearXNG. Google’s search results aren’t even good anymore so there’s really no excuse not to switch at this point. For awhile I couldn’t break the habit but recently Google has gotten considerably worse.
Honestly. Off the back of this debacle I switched to Firefox and duckduckgo. Previously I used to use the shit out of incognito because I hated that when I searched for something once that I then get that thing popping up everywhere else in ads etc. Since the switch I no longer get the feeling of being stalked.
NoScript helps a lot, too. I suppose other extensions also. It’s horrifying how many sites embed Google and Facebook tracking, including ones that really shouldn’t like medical sites and banks.
DuckDuckGo has an extension that blocks trackers.
Both leaving reddit and leaving google s.e. were two things that I thought would be harder than they were.
Leaving google isn’t hard.
Leaving YouTube specifically, however… Well, it’s been getting easier as content seems to be less and less frequent or quality.
This is true, I still use youtube and I don’t see it changing soon since there are no viable alternatives.
Closest I’d say would be a service like Odysee. Can’t really say whether their practices are better than yt or not, but I can at least confirm I’ve found a few channels I don’t wanna sub to on yt also have accounts on Odysee. As to whether or not they made those accounts/channels is a different story.
Peer tube but no one actually makes content for it far as I can tell.
and you can’t watch content from other instances right?
Personally, I can’t imagine what is on YouTub that’s worth watching. I don’t know, I haven’t used it in ages.
I think that’s unfair, there is so much content there and so many content creators that saying there is nothing worth watching just comes out as snobbish.
The sheer variety is the key to YouTube’s dominant position. Whatever subject you want to watch something about, there’s a very good chance you’ll find it.
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VSauce2 is so weird. His topics are interesting and research behind the vids is done well, but the presentation is, well, not for me. Too many jump cuts and “reveals”.
Maps is the last one to replace. There are so many ads now that I’ll tolerate a lower quality alternative.
There’s are some OpenStreetMap-based apps that are worth checking out. Some of them are made for specific purposes, while other are for general navigation. I’ve tried some of them through the time with various success, though I’ve still haven’t found a favorite to stick with for good. But I believe making the switch is definitely possible and probably worth it!
You can install all the mentioned apps through F-Droid:
- GraphHopper Maps
- OsmAnd+
- Organic Maps (hike/bike)
- Alpi Maps (hike/bike)
- SeaMapDroid (nautical)
Additionally, use Transportr for public transport navigation almost anywhere in the world, and GMaps WV, a restricted WebView wrapper for accessing the web version of Google Maps. Intended for use when OpenStreetMap isn’t enough.
I use OSMAND
I use piped/newpipe etc. and simply support creators i watch via patreon/direct donations/merch. Less money for shitty ad company more money for creatives.
Nebula is a good alternative
leaving reddit is easy leaving google is pretty damn difficult
The hard part is the cost difference (I haven’t looked terribly deeply yet) Family Proton (3TB) is 395 AUD (when you sign up for 2 years)
2 TB, 125 AUD per year for google drive, and it’s per year.
Pro-rata that’s literally twice as expensive, and you have to sign up for 2 years to get that rate, which makes moving my stuff a hard pill to swallow :(
Is there a plug and play service that’s as good as proton without the hefty premium?
(The single plans are even more steep, 24 months, 158 AUD per year for only 500 GB…)
Just need to install Linux as your primary OS and your transition to software freedom will be complete.
Doing so on the desktop is easy enough. Getting rid of Android appears to be a much harder challenge, though.
Lemmy has a hate boner for Apple but iOS is dope
Apple is not much different than Google
Heaps better when it comes to data collection and privacy, if you’re concerned about that.
their privacy policy is not much different.
Android is opensource. You can get phones that support ROMs like LineageOS (would recommend a FairPhone) or /e/ (godawful name, good ROM) for example - you can buy the Murena phone for this.
Linux phones are about 5 years away from mainstream usability, IMO.
I’m really looking forward to Linux phones. Have been for years. It’s sad that Mozilla and Canonicals ventures didn’t pan out because both had really fun ideas. Hell I say they had the right ideas, it just wasn’t the right time.
I’ve tried running Replicant and degoogled Lineage OS on an old Samsung phone many years ago. The experience was a bit rough, but tolerable as long as you’re a tech enthusiast and willing to make some sacrifices. Back then it wasn’t quite acceptable to me, because my bank app didn’t work. Then they announced that they were going to phase out the old code paper, so authentication through a mobile app was seen as the only acceptable method going forward.
I have tried /e/ os, I have found it to be meh
I second the recommendation for Fairphone w/ CalyxOS. Feels just like having a Google Pixel running Android. Just way way more private.
Linux phones are about 5 years away from mainstream usability, IMO.
Is this gonna turn into a new meme?
Maybe 😄
Until banking apps except the use of custom ROMs it will be a major stumbling block to switching to them.
I’ve never had an issue using banking apps from Lineage. I use 3 different pretty mainstream ones
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I have 3 banking apps installed right now through Aurora Store (FLOSS access to Google Store). They work fine. The only bank that didn’t like my degoogled phone, I dropped.
Monesse, Monzo and Revolut all refused to work for me. They’re mobile-only banks so maybe that’s the reason.
Fingers crossed that linux gets better support and development on phones
I can reccommend graphene os however u need a pixel for that
I use it for work but at home with gaming and stuff it’s just not sustainable
Proton keeps getting better and better. I long for the day when I can ditch windows completely and it might not be too far away.
If by “not too far away” you mean “5+ years ago,” then sure. That’s how long I’ve been gaming Linux-only, anyway.
Is it possible to mod Bethesda games on Linux?
Yes, I’ve done it myself following some tutorials online for Skyrim SE. It’s not as simple as on Windows but it’s definitely possible.
Yeah you just use Mod Organizer 2 same as on Windows.
How’s Factorio on Linux?
If I can play that I’ll move.
It works perfectly fine for me.
it’s native since inception, i believe
prolly even runs better than on windows, although it doesn’t really matter since it’s so freaking optimized
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What games do you play that aren’t compatible? I don’t play many of the really mainstream games. I think the last game I played that wasn’t compatible at the time was genshin impact.
I still worry that leaving Reddit is going to make it tilt to the right. I spent a decade posting there in the hopes that it would nudge people towards sanity.
The right use it and all other social media sites for coordinated disinformation. No matter how much you try to combat it you’re going up against people/ideas with deep pockets and a lot of resources meaning your voice is just a drop in the bucket.
Sure, but there are a lot more of us, and we make more sense.
It’s important to present people with the contrasting view when they’re presented with disinformation. It’s natural to believe the first thing you read if it’s just a narrative with no dissent.
I think it probably already is somewhat, but there comes a point where trying to change the system from within becomes futile and complicit.
I’d rather be out here making a better place.
I replaced gmail with protonmail and everything else with nextcloud. Couldn’t go back.
Hosting your own nextcloud I’m guessing?
If so how did you install it?
Their docker stack is pretty simple to setup
Nope, I don’t have a server and I also want to secure my files in a different location so I paid for hetzner.
Based
Question: can email from gmail be imported into proton mail?
Yes, they even have a walk through on how to do it.
After a lot of privacy switching I finally did try NextCloud, but I couldn’t get port forwarding to work on my Internet and gave up… For now
You are probably behind a nat. I contacted my isp and they disabled it, since it works perfectly!
What do you mean nat? For me there is an app with an option (apparently no other way) and it didn’t worj
Compare what your router reports as ip and compare what your public ip is. If its not the same then that means you are behind a nat(?)(or something else) and you can’t port forward now.
Hardcore Mode on IVPN is insane (it blocks Google). Sadly it’ll break a lot of stuff though, but fuck Google.
I adjusted my entire digital life so I can do everything without ever connecting to Google services. I block them in my self-hosted Pi-Hole, on NextDNS and in my OPNsense Firewall.
Mainly I’m talking about random captchas that break. Everything else I can live with.
I refuse to use services that force me to surrender to Google. Why don’t people use hCaptcha, it’s not perfect, but it’s far better than this Google garbage…
That’s much easier said than done. Right now I’m dealing with a late payment on a website because first I couldn’t access the website via VPN (blocked by Cloudflare), then even after allowing the IP to bypass the VPN I couldn’t pass the hidden captcha. After completely disabling the VPN + Google blocker my real IP was blacklisted due to forgetting to clear cookies between the two. Now my credit is being impacted.
That’s why I isolate my financial stuff from everything else, separate device with a separate browser, separate dedicated IP address, etc.
On the topic of this, what is the best alternative out there? A few years ago I’ve tried a couple options, out of curiosity, but the search quality was super poor for anything that’s not in English, and the accuracy of found content wasn’t always there
Best? Kagi. Best free? Probably bing or searx
I reckon Kagi is the best search engine out there. It’s paid though. Second I’d have Qwant followed by DDG.
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I absolutely do not trust Chrome or the google team. It does not make me feel any better the only barrier to them trying to ruin a internet a bit is some backlash.
the web has been getting so shitty lately i’ve actually gotten into drawing and reading and vinyl and film, which i highly recommend as a backup plan; just the idea of this feels like the atomic bomb for the internet
The mainstream web… yes.
The back of the house has never been fucking better. Mastodon changed the game. Why hang out at some asshole’s website, hating the website, lacking features and full of advertisements to suck you dry, when you can just come down to the flea market of federated social media and shoot the shit with someone real?
“Flea market of federated social media” is an awesome description!
Web Integrity API proposal is what happens when Big Tech takes over the internet.
Floc returned as something else, we will see this come back I am certain
The “don’t be evil” motto was replaced with “don’t be evil, but greedy and posessive is okay”
And then later edited to
“
don’t be evil, butgreedy and posessive is okay”Soon after it changes to it’s final form:
“
don’t be evil, butgreedy and posessive is okay”I just figured they skipped straight to:
“
don’tbe evil,butgreedy and posessive is okay”Then it will eventually come to its end and become:
“
don’t be evil, but greedy and posessive is okay”It has always been…
Some people have moved to /e/ already.
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This should never be left up to Chrome. We need antitrust laws.
I’m sure that’s true,
How can you be sure? Are you in their team and are aware of all the talks?
There’s this thing called sarcasm. I’m not surprised you didn’t spot it; it’s an advanced skill.
then you haven’t understood “this thing” in my comment
That usually means they will have something worse at a later time.
They have to figure out how to apply DRM to YouTube first.
I mean, Widevine is present in all browsers and actively used by Netflix for example. YouTube also uses this when you’re watching movies on YouTube Movies.
Not running DRM on the majority of YouTube content is also likely due to the added cost of running such encryption (the encryption is usually on a per-customer level, not one key fits all) and the added bandwidth and computer cycles required. Not to mention that this might be a legal struggle with the content creators.
Yeah, it makes me worried about what they have planned to replace it.
The most likely option is that they will rebrand and we will have to push back against a “completely new, completely different functionality” in a few months.
Good! Now we just need to degoogle everything else on the internet.
Moving it to WebView just makes it a Trojan horse for the rest of the web.
Isn’t Webview just a proprietary Android thingy? I still don’t like it, but that sounds pretty isolated to me.
I think Android WebView is open source as part of AOSP, but yes, it is Android only.
“We’ve decided not to pursue Web Integrity API.”
“Oh great! But what’s that giant thing under the tarp behind you”
“Oh don’t worry…”
we already have play integrity and now we have this webview attestation now?
They’re just starting it smaller scale. Within a year it’ll be pushed out to everyone broadly.
This is literally going to be what they did for FLoC. Basically release it as topics.
Google absolutely cannot stop tracking everyone at this point. I’m pretty sure they’ve put the entire house on the bet to track people more and do everything to ensure that Google Chrome tracks every aspect of your web browsing experience.
So while WEI is dead, I think Google’s boat is so far out to sea now that it’s either try this again a bit more gently or watch the ship sink. Everyone said FLoC was dead and they absolutely put it into the web browser with Topics. Nothing convinces me this is any different, they are absolutely going to, and I dare say have an existential need to, put this shit in everyone’s browser.
They get the permissions for the little thing that is worded vaguely enough to them funnel people into the larger thing
