A deGoogling Milestone
From: Google
“Your Google Account will soon be considered as inactive“
”... if you don't sign in soon”
“Is this a phishing scam?” was my first thought. But no, it's true! This officially confirms I am freed at last from Google's clutches on my data, on my digital life.
Hurray!
I once thought Google was my friend. The most convenient email, the most convenient search, a great phone, with a feeling of being quite open-source-y, not too locked-in. But of course their lock-in is immense, almost inescapable, just like all the other Big Tech silos. Once disillusionment set in, it was hard to leave that all behind. Took me five years.
Now, for months and months I haven't signed in to my gmail, to play store, to youtube, nothing.
And I feel great!
Want to know more?
How did I Leave Google?
Starting at the biggest and most important:
- Registered my own DNS domain.
- email: at my own domain, managed by Fastmail; used with K-9 & Mailspring apps
- phone: my degoogled/indie phone
Once those key cornerstones are freed, all the other things fall into place more easily. personal photos, public videos, maps, files, messaging, video meetings, and all the rest.
My biggest regret: not starting sooner. In fact I got my own domain many years before, only because it came “for free” with an ISP account. Initially I regarded it as a play thing, a place to put a few photos and stories for friends to look at. Now I think of my domain as the key to my online identity.
From there I continue building up my Matrix, Android, Self-Hosting Skills.
#fossGadgets #degoogled #android #lineageOS #awesomeFOSS
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