I am trying to re-adjust how much effort I want to put into privacy concerns. Too much stuff I’m using isn’t working properly or using a lot of my mental resources that I need elsewhere.
For (a bad) example: I recently performed a half-switch from my self-hosted Nextcloud instance to ProtonDrive, in the hope that it would spare me the stress to maintain my private Nextcloud. Unfortunately, it doesn’t, as basic functionality like cross-device-sync is not possible (there isn’t even a client app for Linux, as of yet).
This brings me to the question: have you found any services/apps/stuff that significantly eases your life while still being privacy friendly? I know, this is a broad question, but I think this is for the best as this thread then maybe even has use for other users.
Pi-hole and Simplewall, everything except my phone is running Ethernet
DNSCrypt has been working pretty well for me.
I never heard of it, but reading their website I find it kind of strange that 2/3 testimonials are from online casino websites…
That is not the DNSCrypt official website.
Official site: https://dnscrypt.info/
Official repo: https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy
Two I use a lot daily are KeePass 2 in various versions, computer as well as tablet. I used KeePass “original” 1 for years, but moved to 2/XC/DX. Occasionally also used for storing notes and not just passwords.
My notetaker, all hands down, though. Joplin, with encryption activated, the file stored for syncing on my privacy oriented community’s encrypted NextCloud. I am an avid notetaker, both digital and analogue, and Joplin really fits my needs.
OK, third, honourable mention: Veracrypt
NextDNS - I use it on my router and all mobile devices.
Is NextDNS really a good privacy tool? I use it myself because it’s convenient, but I always assumed that they would collect data about me since it’s a free service
I pay for mine, not sure how it differs from the free version but you can turn logging off, or if you have logging on you can specific how long to store logs and what jurisdiction to keep them in (I keep mine for a few months in Switzerland). You of course have to place some trust in NextDNS the company that they are actually doing what they claim to do as far as respecting user privacy but I trust them more than Google and Cloudflare, which is what I was using previously.
You can turn off logging in settings
NC isnt perfect imo but its like having an open source car or house. Its not emergency ready like no downtime, no bugs, no issues but it will do 95% uptime if configured correctly and its is insanely versatile. I cant imagine any other app being this versatile. You can check my setup if you want.
What’s NC? Got a link?
Edit: Ah, NextCloud, I’m assuming…
Nextcloud, yes. It is insane. Its a full cloud experience. Documents, bookmarks, pictures, whiteboards and more.
e/os on the phone was a game changer but mostly just accepting that digital privacy is not going to work if you cannot take a step back from tech and accept that the transaction is your data in exchange for access to new shiny toys you don’t need that will never belong to you no matter what they cost.
Apple
It seems to get derided a lot here, but none of your data is harvested and tied to you or sold. It’s aggregated and anonymised if it’s sent off device, and I stopped using Proton drive when you could finally encrypt iCloud storage. I even use their email as default now since it’s not reading my messages and selling my info like outlook started doing.
I was considering to switch to apple for this reason, but I’ve read that in terms of privacy, there’s no significant difference between a Pixel Android with Stock OS and an iPhone. This made me hesitant. I really just want things to go smooth and hasslefree without being spied on and coerced… Do you, by chance, have any reading material on the privacy of apple services I could read up on?
Apple really doesn’t advertise. The data never leaves apple. Everyone else sells your information.
“Apple… is the most privacy-conscious firm out there. Apple only stores the information that is necessary to maintain users’ accounts. This is because their website is not… reliant on advertising revenue. “
Source: https://9to5mac.com/2022/08/25/apple-collect-less-data-than-other-companies/
KitchenOwl, an Android app to organize recipes, ingredients and shopping lists, it’s FOSS and available on f-droid.
- uBlock Origin saves time and resources
- This is a classic one, but with Mullvad VPN I can pretend to be in any country. When combined with Tailscale, it becomes really OP. With Tailscale, I have a secure, flat network, which allows me to access all my devices from anywhere. Things like LocalSend, KDE connect or other apps that normally require all devices to be in a LAN also work over Tailscale.
- A DNS filter doesn’t just help with protecting your privacy, you can also use it to block/restrict distracting websites that you spend too much time on. NextDNS for example lets me restrict social media websites to only work on certain times of the day.
- Private frontends like Invidious and Piped for YouTube, Redlib for Reddit, SafeTwitch for Twitch (RIP Nitter, Libreddit and Teddit)
- LibRedirect automatically redirects sites like YouTube, Twitch, Reddit and many more to privacy frontends
- Alternative desktop/mobile clients for YouTube and Twitch. For YouTube, FreeTube on desktop, LibreTube/Tubular on Android, Yattee with this guide on iOS, Xtra for Twitch on Android. These all block ads or any other annoyances.
- GrapheneOS makes my life easier in many ways, but I specifically want to mention this one. Since GrapheneOS uses per-connection MAC address randomization by default, I can simply reconnect to a wifi network that wants to restrict my usage. This is so useful on trains/airplanes.
- UnifiedPush/ntfy allows me to send notifications from my server to my phone. For example it notifies me if one of my self-hosted services goes down (through Uptime Kuma), but I can also use this for Signal notifications through the Molly client for Signal (which also improves security and adds a few other cool things).
If I am being completely honest, there are very few. Convenience is consistently the #1 trade-off when I make privacy-based decisions about which applications and services to use.
An exception I can think of are ad and tracker blockers like uBlock Origin, iodé, etc - I cannot imagine life without them Any time I borrow the phone or computer of someone who doesn’t have an equivalent of these installed I am just blown away by how many ads they are confronted with while performing even the simplest tasks. And not just harmless ones, but ads that directly waste their time. I genuinely don’t understand how people can live like that unless they just don’t know there is an alternative.
I guess another one I can think of is the Aurora Store. The UI is so much cleaner than the Google Play Store’s, important settings and features aren’t hidden and it has some additional features like Exodus Report that I think are genuinely useful. It’s so superior as an application that I actually prefer using it even on devices where the Play Store is installed and working.
NewPipe makes life very easy.
OSMAnd+ does not lead me to deadends and weird places, and saves the day when others using Google Maps fails.
The most impactful are probably browser (Firefox), adblocker (uBlock Origin), DNS over https (Mullvad), and password manager (Bitwarden), because these are used every single day.
Bitwarden, Aegis (2FA app for Android), Syncthing are probably the most impactful
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@politicalcustard @lens17 If you’re open to advice or ideas, I highly recommend setting up a VPN in your router. That makes sure all devices in your home are protected at all times, and avoid the matrix protocol for all purposes, as it’s by Amdocs under the guise of New Vector and The Element Foundation.
It’s a more complex setup to have vpn active on your router though. It’s not noob proof, because you’ll get blocked from websites like Netflix. I have an openwrt based router that allows be to use device based vpn policies, which is more efficient and effective
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Ntfy - no more google reading notifications
Jellyfin - media served without questionable Plex account
Arch - on so many levels allows me a private computing experience
Posteo - simple but efficient email service
Resilio sync - cloudless syncingNTFY looks intriguing.
If I’m reading the description properly, it uses an HTTP server as the middleman for the notifications?
Pretty
neatnifty idea. (Yea, had to come back and edit because I missed a great opportunity).It’s based on unifiedpush standard https://unifiedpush.org/. So a central notification middleman like google firebase for all your apps (that support it). There’s messengers like mercurygram, fluffychat, Molly that support it and you can also send notifications yourself via a simple curl command.
Wow, I really appreciate how they use animations to show how it works (and I generally despise any animation on a home page).
That’s how it should be done.
Also, what they’ve done is impressive. Smart. I had no idea this existed, though I’ve seen another open solution to Unified Messaging (just can’t recall what). This is really promising.
