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Remember when Google was just a search engine? In the age of Gmail and Google Drive and Google Maps and GooTube and Google phones, it’s truly unsettling to think how much of the average person’s online activity is now directly feeding the Google data behemoth. Today on #SolutionsWatch, James talks to Rob Braxman (The Internet Privacy Guy) about how to de-Google, and why protecting your privacy online is so important.
Watch on Archive / BitChute / Minds / Odysee / YouTube or Download the mp4
SHOW NOTES
Brax.me
Braxman Tech channel on Odysee
Android without Google? How is that possible?!
Bombshell! Manipulated Google Search Results PROVED
How the Government Predicts The Future – Inside the “Sentient World Simulation”
Google’s Selfish Ledger in an Unsettling Vision of Silicon Valley Social Engineering
F-Droid – Free and Open Source Android App Repository
Alternatives to Google Products for 2021
Salting Your Data – #SolutionsWatch
It would be nice if you asked these “privacy experts” about header data tracked through auxiliary services.
For example, brax.me loads fonts.googleapis.com. This is nothing more than a typeface which could easily be served from the brax.me server. Google collects “header data” to form a browser fingerprint that they use to track your movements across the WWW. As it happens, corbettreport.com also loads fonts.googleapis.com, so Google can see that visitors of corbettreport.com also visited brax.me, eventually performing a sort of triangulation to determine which human being has that browser fingerprint, all from forcing users to download a stupid 70 KB font file that webmasters and developers refuse to serve from their own servers (BTW, this can easily be removed from WordPress using a plugin such as Disable and Remove Google Fonts or manually removing them from your installed theme).
Another issue we can see when going to the brax.me wiki:
“The infrastructure of this program was specifically designed for Amazon AWS. This assumes AWS functionality, VPC, S3 Storage, a MySQL Database provided by Amazon RDS, Simple Notification Service (SNS), and Mail Service.”
While his code may be “open source”, unless it is re-written it won’t run anywhere except on Amazon’s proprietary servers, so Amazon is also tracking the users of brax.me.
So, this “solution” (brax.me, not the de-Googled phones) forces users to be tracked by Amazon and Google.
Thanks for the tip. I thought I had manually disabled Google fonts but looks like it didn’t work. I’ve just installed the plugin. Let me know if it’s working now.
Still there. Something is loading:
@import url(‘https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Montserrat:300,400,500,700’);
If you have server level access, grep Montserrat ../wp-content/* (and keep appending /* until you find the offending file) or if you don’t, then download the whole thing locally and search the folders for that phrase.
I think the plugin only takes care of themes, but other plugins or even custom or non-standard theme builds or something can still load the fonts, and you have to check back every now and then to make sure it isn’t still loading. Like cockroaches.
Oh, and apparently I was wrong: it isn’t as easy as installing that plugin. Man.
OK, clear the cache and try now.
Gone!
Turns out the offending call was coming from a widget I added in the weeks since I last checked. It’s like an infestation that requires constant spraying to keep the roaches out.
If I knew some basic scripting and CSS, it would probably be a cinch to track that, but I have other things I’m working on that don’t require those (really basic) skills.
(BTW, it could not have been a local cache issue as I was using curl -H ‘Cache-Control: no cache’ to fetch the page, so any caching would have been something upstream of me, which can happen.
“…Say you’re running Linux open source system distribution. It’s quite likely that US gov (NSA or whomever) has hijacked nowadays crucial parts of all major distributions with systemd and SElinux projects..”
Linux is still a hundred times better for security then Windows or Mac… but TBH the CPU on everyone but the most technical and paranoid is pretty much back doored anyway so if your at THAT level of interest to the NSA its time to go back to pen and paper 🙂
This Episode is for those who are hopelessly caught in the World Wide Spider Web and cannot imagine existing without a Smart Phone.
I actually ditched my Smart Phone because I could see how they were using it to try and control my behavior. Indeed, it is harder to communicate and find places, but I get by.
I despised being tricked into paying a monthly fee to be tracked and manipulated. Once they have you tied to a Smart Phone they will find you, for you are in the Spider Web.
We can only hope that as more and more bad info comes to manipulate Smart Phone users, “Smart People” will begin to ditch (cut the strings) holding them in the Web.
I try to talk to as many real people as possible these days, and I don’t even carry a Dumb Phone most of the time, so contact tracing cannot work..
Problem with that is that I have a lot of customers who call me and SMS so as much as I’d like to dump the phone I’d be letting too many people down if I did. I don;t use it for anything else though.
Cue ‘coviads vaccine passport’ in 3…2….1…..
paul823
Do you need to carry your phone or can it live at the office? I like to keep mine on a little plastic square on the shelf so I can find it again
The problem is not so much people who use their phones for specific things as people who always have it on their body or their fingers rubbing the screen endlessly like its a pleasure organ
Not really, I’m mostly out so people need to get me on the go and would be bulk hassle to have to go back out after coming back to all the messages and calls. 🙂
I agree with Truth Seeker said, “This Episode is for those who are hopelessly caught in the World Wide Spider Web”…
1. Why do you need to carry a “Smart Phone” everywhere you go? I survived most of my life with only a “landline” at home that didn’t even have an answering machine. You had to be at home to take the call and you had to pick up the phone to know who was calling you. I’m not saying that you need to ignore all technological advances since then, but be aware that you can survive and thrive without them.
2. If your answer is, “just in case there is an emergency”. That is my answer too. On the occasion that I think I might need my phone for emergencies, I put it on airplane mode, turn off location, and put it in a carrier that supposedly shields it from location tracking. Are those measures good enough, or do I have a false sense of security?
3. I do need my computer, if only to watch the Corbett Report. I am trying to translate what was said to the computer I use at home. How can I protect my privacy while watching and commenting on Corbett Report and while following the links that James and the Corbett Commenters post on each episode?
4. If I do travel, I take my laptop with me. I know about VPN’s. I don’t have one, but if and when I do travel, I will get one. Is there something else I can do to avoid being spied on and tracked?
5. I am slowly turning my Google account into a “salted” alternative personality and trying to transfer all meaningful communication to protonmail and duckduckgo. The problem is when people I email are still using gmail. I will use this episode to try to convince them to get an alternative email provider.
6. Thanks, James and Corbett Community for the information you provide.
2) put the phone in the case you mention and then dial your mobile number. If it rings, the case isn’t any good.
3) this is difficult if not impossible. Using a text only browser will help. Keeping your devices for the single use only should also help. I.e. keep your stuff spread across devices. Having a dedicated PC that remains offline at all times will help.
4) I trust VPNs as much as the Tor network. Not at all.
5) You are right, even if you are completely outside of their area of influence but keep interacting with people who are inside of it, they will have a puppet of your somewhere, keeping tabs on what you were doing when communicating with their users.
mkey
Tor is better then a VPN since at least it has some chance of not having an outside entity recording and selling your data.
For hiding your IP from marketers and websites dont they work just fine against normal ‘marketing’ spies?
dennis
“..Most countries (AFAIK) have made this illegal…”
Where did you hear that?
Not saying you are wrong but I have not heard that running an exit node is against the law and am interested to know more… I duckduck’d and found that some people got some grief off cops but they were not punished for anything that I could find
Ahh… running one from HOME is a bad idea,
https://2019.www.torproject.org/eff/tor-legal-faq.html.en
“… How can I protect my privacy while watching and commenting on Corbett Report and while following the links that James and the Corbett Commenters post on each episode?..’
1)When you sign into Corbett report (even on TOR) you are doxing yourself…thats fine IF you use a different computer for your other activities.
1B) When you visit a website you get cookies and other stuff that stay on your computer and track you EVEN ON OTHER WEBSITES… fix with solution below
2)Rather then buy lots of computers (or run ‘live USB’s which is also VERY easy except you need a handful of thuimbdrives) run “Virtualbox” and set up ‘virtual computers’ for doing different things
Have one for Corbett report running Ubuntu OS and another one with PArrot OS or Whonix or Kali, or whatever, and run THOSE with VPN or TOR and keep them segregated for doing specific things li9ke CR or Podcasts or Youtube ect.
Thus no one ‘computer’ has cookies linking you to the other activities… do NOTHING online on your actual real computer, just in the virtual computers.
Virtualbox is free to download and use
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvlMDAxgMsQ
example video
This will NOT hide you perfectly so read up or watch someone talking about how to use these tools… but get rid of win 10 one day 😉
Google abuse of dominant position: some facts about the Google Android operating system and personal data collection.
https://www.indidea.org/gael/blog/google-abuse-of-dominant-position-some-facts-about-the-google-android-operating-system-and-personal-data-collection/
“The Hated One”
https://www.bitchute.com/channel/rveHH7pMZVtI/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjr2bPAyPV7t35MvcgT3W8Q
Has some great information about privacy as well.
And videos how you can change your phone OS.
And this is the “vaccine” that important people on the news get:
https://i.imgur.com/Zm9s9tC.mp4
I am not at all a tech guy…. I love the earlier comment about living most of your life with a old school house phone as I totally did that and miss it…. I am very tempted to get rid of pretty much all my modern tech. My question to the Corbett community is: I have been using IPhone for 10 years and haven’t been salting any data… I know google is bad, but is apple and iTunes not as bad, just as bad, or worse?
slurry
just as bad.
They want to make you live on their little corner of the internet so they can feed off selling your data.
“..Also, the more you look into the Steve Jobs ‘from the garage’ story, the more you start to wonder if Apple was some kind of technocrat agenda all along…”
Yes, true. I wondered how a guy could come from such an interesting family, get adopted into a normal family, then end up making computers when he had zero tech skills and such a revolting personality.
There were plans to bring computers out into normal peoples lives back way before it was possible and Technocracy is literal insanity to suggest before you have computers and networks to manage everything.
10% success estimate for any given human being to install a custom recovery ROM + Lineage OS on a random Android phone is BUNK. Absolute unadulterated bullshit. I’ve been doing it for years now and as time goes by it gets easier and easier to do. I understand not everyone is savvy with these things, but it’s very much doable, I kid you not.
There are two main issues, none of which will directly lead to your phone being bricked, i.e. destroyed.
1) Does your phone model have Lineage OS support? If not, there still may be options out there.
2) Unlocking the bootloader. This is not a technical hurdle, but an artificial impediment put there by the service provider/phone seller. Many phones have an option in the settings that allow you to unlock the bootloader and install on the phone whatever the hell you want (duckduckgo your phone model for more information on the subject).
What follows is the general procedure that will probably get you 80% there, way WAY past the 10% success mark set by the guest.
1) Install
flashbootandadb(I believe all of the major operating systems support said software)2) All the commands mentioned henceforth are to be inputted into a command prompt, interpreter or terminal emulator (bash, cmd, powershell, duckduckgo it)
3) Plug your phone into a PC over the cable (can be done over wifi with some minor/major fiddling, cable is better for sure, cable is easy, cable is reliable)
4) Reboot the phone into fastboot mode (typically hold the volume key down + power button, duckduckgo your phone model for details) or input something like
adb reboot bootloader5) Unlocking the bootloader can also be done from the command prompt, if supported, by inputting
fastboot flashing unlockorfastboot oem unlockfollowed by a screen unlock on the phone itself.6) N.B: If you can not unlock the bootloader, you’re pretty much screwed (unless you find a way to root your phone without unlocking the bootloader which would allow you to dump much of the software garbage – this can indeed be a major pain in the posterior, better to just get a bootloader unlock friendly phone, proceed with research only if stubborn as a mule)
7) N.B.2: if you can not unlock the bootloader, no harm no foul. You simply can not proceed, your phone isn’t bricked, it’s status in fact diametrically opposed to “bricked”, the phone is as functional as it was prior to the bootloader unlock attempt
Continued…
Proceeding from this point onward data/device loss may occur. Not nearly as dangerous as the guest sets it out be, but a chance is there so we take responsible action. It would be perfect if you can get your hands on some disposable device, that’s still somewhat usable and can be flashed, for training purposes.
1) To clear the phone storage
fastboot format cache2) To clear user data
fastboot format userdata-> this is optional and it will delete all your data from the phone. Depending on the image you are installing later, userdata may need hedging so that you don’t inadvertently delete it.3) Following images (.img files) need to be obtained for your phone specifically. If you get the wrong image, you may indeed brick/destroy your device.
4) N.B.3. When looking for a ROM for your device, note that GAPPS means Guulag apps, so this is something you will want to skip. Sometimes it’s offered bundled with the system image. Looking for the system ROM and the recovery ROM is usually one stone two birds type of scenario because you’ll be getting both from the same place.
5) To flash the custom recovery (like BIOS of sorts for your phone, a very nifty tool for backing up, recovering etc)
fastboot flash recovery <recovery_image>.img6) To flash the ROM, as provided by Lineage OS for example, you would basically input
fastboot flash <linege-os-rom>.imgfollowed byfastboot reboot7) As an alternative to step above, once can also put the ROM file onto the phone data storage, boot into recovery and then backup/install whatever they want from there. I’m providing this info here without details just to inform of what can be done.
8) The first boot after flashing will take some minutes. If things go awry, you can typically flash another image or proceed into the recovery and restore any backups that you have made.
9) With the first startup you’ll get that stock android breath of fresh air emanating from your phone, so brace yourself because you will not encounter a plethora of garbage that typically comes preinstalled.
10) If you prepare in advance and get your .apk files ready (that is Android applications you will want to install, like F-droid or the Aurora stuff) it’s very easy to install them through the command prompt via
adb install <app_to_install>.apkThat 10% estimate is the single most ridiculous piece of trash ever to emanate from this site. Pardon the ranty bits. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Does this also apply to a desk top computer as well? I don’t have a cellphone, smart or otherwise but I do have Google Chrome and would like to be rid of it but lack any tech skills.
I would believe that to be the case only if a) the battery was out b) the phone was tightly sealed in a faraday cage or c) down at the bottom of a ravine.
“..You need to be able to read and follow instructions though. …”
and therein lies the problem for most people, myself included on occasion, TBH
Telling your phone to power down is only a software ‘suggestion’ … that you can wake it up without flicking a real power switch should show that its not really at zero internal activity either
Am I the only one who just uses the phone to make phone calls? 🙂
paul823
If you have a smart phone it is doing plenty more then calling all on its own without input from you
🙂 Remember a mobile phone is really just a computer you dont control connected to a radio network
Oh yes, ‘it’ is, but I’m not. Might have a go at degoogling a phone one day but can’t see a way around needing to make phone calls but not having a SIM card. There also needs to be a way to get around the coming vaccine passports. Even here in convict Australia we can;t go to a restaurant without scanning the phone app. Some cafe owners are a bit too nazi in their implementation of this BS and we simply don’t go back there. The state government is pressuring and threatening business owners to comply. What I will try in that case is a second phone with no SIM card, connect to the Cafe’s free wireless and use fake/sated info in the govt. tracking app. Without a SIM card I’m pretty sure the phone wont be transmitting IEMI numbers and if I only turn that phone on for the purpose of keeping cafe owners happy and out of trouble with the gestapo the it ‘should’ be right.
As I said, the vaccine papers will be another hurdle.
Paul
“….What I will try in that case is a second phone with no SIM card, connect to the Cafe’s free wireless and use fake/sated info in the govt. tracking app…”
If thats your plan for it NEVER let that phone see your home wi-fi… infact never let it be turned on and out of a faraday bag (someone gave me a mission darkness one and it worked well) anywhere even near your home. Mr Braxman was talking about the world wi-fi map (explains why google was recording wi-fi names with the google earth car so many years ago)
https://www.wigle.net/ this looks kinda like what i’m thinking of only not as good
“..Without a SIM card I’m pretty sure the phone wont be transmitting IEMI numbers..”
I would not bet money on that TBH
Some here might be interested in the Librem 5 phone, which uses neither Android nor IOS, so I will report my experience. I ordered one some while ago (3 years?) understanding that the schedule might get delayed as development issues were dealt with. It finally arrived about four months ago.
I can report that (1) it does work on the North American wireless network (I use Ting), and (2) Librem tech support is responsive when I have problems. Which I have. The phone is an actual linux computer and works like one, sort of. Software to support the cameras isn’t yet ready. The phone is expensive (even more costly now than when I accepted the risk of pre-ordering it).
As far as I know there’s no physical keyboard available for it, which is a big disadvantage for clumsy folk. It does have privacy advantages over Android or IOS phones, but getting it working for everything I need turns out to be quite a project.
It’s my understanding that carriers are removing support for non-smart phones, so even if you have one that works it might not be usable for calls in a year or two.
Privacy = something for rich and for paranoid people these days.
Think phones are creepy consider how many kids are using google docs and services to do their school work. If an AI can color a movie or fill in the rest of a face from under a mask then all that personal data is or will be building a psyc profile of everyone from childhood.
https://petapixel.com/2020/02/24/using-ai-to-colorize-and-upscale-a-109-year-old-video-of-new-york-city-to-4k-and-60fps/
99.999% of children will grow up with almost total behavioral predictability
It’s possible to De-Google a locked down OEM phone. Not everyone has $$$ for a Pixel Phone, compared to entry level Android phone for under $100 dollars.
* To start with as soon as possible after purchase, ask the attendant to place the phone in airplane mode, or at the every least disable data.
* Go through all the settings, especially location, accounts & sync, disable all. You know your making the right choice when it warns you not to disable because it will make your device less secure.
* Enable battery savings, this prevents some apps from communicating in the background.
* Enable Unknown sources – this allows installation of apps from sources other than Google Play Store
* Phone is still in airplane mode, using USB sideload open source NetGuard apk. This will allow you to block applications from communicating by setting up a dead end proxy, no root required. Go through each application and disable as much as possible, if not sure, disable, specially apps from Google or the OEM.
* Go to settings – Apps, go through each app, remove or disable as much as possible from the OEM and Google. Google Play Services is the heart of the Googleplex, with this running Google will always have a backdoor to your phone. Disable Google Play Services if you can, on my LG phone I was able to.
* After all this you are now ready to take the phone out of airplane mode. Under normal circumstances the phone would immediately start doing a bunch of updates. It should do nothing, since we either disabled the service, or blocked from communicating using NetGuard.
* Reboot the phone at this point, to make sure it still starts up as expected. If it doesn’t enter recovery mode by powering on while holding down power and volume down key to re-image. Start again from step one, figure out which component is necessary for it boot.
* Now you can load F-Droid repository: Load FFUpdater – this will download Firefox. Don’t use Google Chrome. Download both Firefox and Firefox Klar. Add essential add-ons uBlock Origin, NoScript, edit the settings, delete browsing data on quit (Firefox) – quit often. I loaded Opera (apppure.com) as backup backup browser with virgin settings, rarely used.
* Install AnySoftKeyboard from FDroid, make this your default keyboard, replacing the OEM installed keyboard application.
* As stated by Brax – avoid using apps, use the web browser were all possible.
* Since the phone is not rooted, some apps that requires Google Play Services will not work. Since I was only able to disable, not uninstall, I am unable install microG Services to fake Google Play Services. The T-Mobile voice mail app doesn’t work, no big deal. If I recall both Uber and Lyft apps wanted Google Play services, both services offer hailing through the web browser. Other apps complain that “Google Play Services” is required, however they work without a problem. For me this includes Google Maps 9.47.3.
* Other recommended FDroid apps: Mail – Tutanota, RSS AntennaPod, Calendar by Simple Mobile Tools (I don’t need sync), Tor Browser.
* Don’t use Gmail, if you use Gmail find a different provider. If you use Gmail, you will be data mined, no cell phone required. If you insist on using Gmail, don’t use Gmail app, use a third party app and connect via IMAP.
* Don’t update any system apps, only trusted apps.
* Encrypt your phone
Interesting, I hadn’t heard of KaiOS. From a bit of research though I see that Google already has it’s fingers in KaiOS:
https://mobilityarena.com/google-invests-in-kaios-do-we-have-your-attention-now/
So I would assume KaiOS is already compromised and someone would need to figure out how to de-google it too. Not clear if that is a better option than just going for a de-googled Android phone.
I like the idea of just using a phone on WiFi and removing the SIM though – effectively turning it back into a PDA. Perhaps that plus a basic “burner” dumb phone for comms would be good enough.
mtalbot
“..I like the idea of just using a phone on WiFi and removing the SIM though – effectively turning it back into a PDA…”
If you are not on Airplane mode (And EVEN THEN I bet) even a phone with out a SIM connects to the network in some way… if you dont believe me dial the cops on such a phone.
I saw someone do that by accident and it went right thru to Emergency services so it WAS connected to the Cell network even without a SIM….
I have a flipper I use to play podcasts on and I can see it pings the network when not in airplane mode EVEN AFTER I scrapped out the internal antenna
Can I suggest using an Open Source product like Nextcloud to replace Google services such as Drive, Calendar, and Hangouts?
Using my own instance of Nextcloud and Protonmail means that I don’t have to use Google services at all.
Sure you will always say your smartphone saves you alot time, but dont you see how much time you invest in that tech thing. And its on purpose so you have less time for real important things.
Why not get rid of it, boycott smart devices, if majority would do that they would lose most power, no prediction would work without enough data, no profiling would be reliable.
I got none.
AnimalsArentFood
“… very capable, low-power portable mini computer…’
You have a point there, except that I recall seeing Tim Leary, gov spook and pusher of the LSD craze, talking in a 90’s doc on CyberPunk (I’ll see if I can link it) and he had moved on to saying how the inner city kids having all that computing power in their pocket would make them more powerful.
He was lying about that just like he lied about LSD, “ultimate democracy” my ass… and when he says we will control our own screens….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxbZq8Zmd88
about 14:20 -16:00 he shows up.. and again at about 40 min (on transhuman body mods)
Hmn… Tim Leary also made the computer ‘mind mirror’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oabRxvjf9k
He appears to have invented proto- google mind shaping too….creepy old guy
I’m always surprised how far back they were working on this stuff…I watched the New York library archivist on Ytube who has his junk talking about the amount of personality shaping games he was trying to get produced but the tech was just too far behind his evil vision…. there must have been some real money backing him.https://www.engadget.com/2013-09-30-timothy-leary-video-game-archive-drugs-are-bad-mmkay.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADjRlgi7sUeV38a70KtYDVhtUN1eiyRRi4_wm6UZzyYvbeLYfFIApk4Ksx1b8XLwkO6vmjcHTdrVrZwTTQ6t68Sxz78hs7mEpcvjPpu6iBF4l2tQIjC8nBayhZAMqqyLR7AKA87Z368i0oPn0ZtEK-BmQ0xF5B7rLT_et4XMEbW9
Had no idea he was pals with johnny depp either…
I got no smart phone, its not that bad.
And the more things are denied to you, the more militant you get thats the best thing. Worked long time in IT and radio engineering, and still i deny smart devices access to my life.
I find it unbelievable how much time people waste per day on with and about their smartphone, i can just imagine this is very welcome, distracted people are always the best sheeple.
Why not give yourself a timeout and try at least for some time with no smart devices, guess majority cant even grasp what to do with all their time if they got none anymore.
Sure aside from all the data grab with smart devices, without them and the drained data the current powers who abuse all this data would not be that powerful if they could not profile whole populations and predict all behavioristics.
Most countries can even predict their future enemies in case of wars, you got all data from the children, teens and young adults you would be your future enemies, their skillsets reactions and behavior profiled in the smallest detail in online games(which sure would be another problem but they all tie together in the data drain).
Minimize the data drain by not using smart devices and configure the remaining of them.
Am I correct that Rob states something incorrectly @20:05 when he says “we install the DuckDuckGo browser”? I see DuckDuckGo as only a search engine — not an Android phone browser. On their referral page at URL
https://restoreprivacy.com/google-alternatives/
…under category “Google Chrome alternatives” there is no DuckDuckGo browser listed.
Did Rob mean to say “Brave” browser?
W0W: thank-you! It just wasn’t listed on the Chrome alternatives page. My bad.
RamRod0
TBH A smart phone itself is so suspect that using it to browse the web is pretty much giving your data away anyway whatever browser you use
DuckDuckGo
Tidbit:
On our local “News, Traffic & Weather” CBS Radio Station (1080 kHz AM – KRLD), they often advertise DuckDuckGo in a quick 15 second spot.
It seems so out of place.
The radio station is hardcore vaccines, masks and pro-Biden agenda.
Linux is going to be as bad as windows within 10 years 🙁
No way did all the social justice weirdos just show up for random reasons any more then antifa and the proud boys do at protests and riots
I hope there will still be some secure-ish OS’s left
For folks interested in linux, it is an excellent step in the right direction. Even within linux universe, closed source exists, just be sure to keep it open and you are moving in the right direction. Open source linux universe does by no means mean you are out of the weeds, but you are at least in the green fields away from the murky hell of apple/microsoft/google. A fantastic stepping stone.
Very easy to find tutorials on switching over to linux. I just did a quick search and found ‘The Linux Experiment’ gootube channel with the following very beginner videos:
How to switch to linux: https://youtu.be/ro6IWsT3uRk
How to choose 1st distro: https://youtu.be/o9Nq1Reu0Wg
And as a bonus, related to this report’s topic, he did a video on something called the /e/ project, providing a de-googled version of Android. Just as another option specific to Andriod phones, he even talks about its use of something called ‘Nextcloud’, which Sabex mentions below, all of which I’m unfamiliar with, but an option to look into: https://youtu.be/C9fFiaGv2WA
And that’s just one gootube channel’s offerings. Lots out there. I of course would recommend folks keeping an eye on pine64’s pinephone project, currently only really usable for non-beginners, but with ‘normal’ users as a project goal: https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/
Thanks for this interview James, all good stepping stones in the right direction.
GOOGLE-FREE CUSTOM ROM:
Custom ROMs like Resurrection RemixOS or LineageOS are completely Google-free, bloatware-free with many additional customizations. To get google services (playstore, google apps…) back a separate .zip file called Gapps needs to be flashed using TWRP.
There are many guides depending on the phone. My phone is also rooted with magisk and I also have an Xposed Framework installed.
MODIFIED GOOTUBE:
Vanced Manager is an app that enables the installation of YouTube Vanced. It’s a modified version of YouTube with additional features like no ads, dark theme, background playback, swipe controls for brightness, swipe control for volume…..
TWRP: https://twrp.me/Devices/
Resurrection Remix OS: https://resurrectionremix.com/
LineageOS: https://lineageos.org/
Magisk: https://github.com/topjohnwu/Magisk/releases
Exposed Framework: https://magiskroot.net/download-xposed-for-android-10/
Gapps: https://opengapps.org/
Vanced Manager: https://vancedmanager.com/
Not really, there are many options. As I commented earlier, if you install a custom ROM like Resurrection RemixOS, there’s no google on the phone at all. If you’re on a Stock ROM (android version the phone came with) and if the phone is rooted, you can uninstall/freeze any system apps including google. Even if the phone is not rooted, you can uninstall apps through ADB (command line).
If you don’t want to do any of that, here are some handy Google settings to disable to stop Google spying on you.
Go to phone settings, then Google settings.
Click on “Manage your Google Account”/ “Data and Personalization” / “Activity Controls”, then disable “Web & App Activity” and “Location History”
Hope that helps
I really, really like this Rob Braxman fella.
I’m glad he is on our side.
I flunk out when it comes to tech savvy stuff, but I enjoy Braxman’s communication style.
Here are a few previous mentions of Rob Braxman on the Corbett Report…
This is non-technical. Meant for anyone.
You need to see this…Society is changing of March 24, 2021
https://www.corbettreport.com/salting-your-data-solutionswatch/#comment-106782
“The Great Firewall of…America? WTZ!”
https://www.corbettreport.com/5-ways-biometric-security-can-be-spoofed/#comment-104350
Excerpt comment…
“…Rob Braxman mentions February 2nd (Tuesday) as the start date.
For me, this date rings a bell.
Very, very early that morning of Feb 2nd, prior to U.S. market open, SILVER PRICES CRASHED.
This was during the days of the “Silver Short Squeeze”, and silver prices on Monday had almost touched $30 an ounce….”
PaulDiggsJazz says:
“Check out Rob Braxman’s website. He is focused on privacy and security. He also sells degoogled phones…
…Here is a video where he discusses how to create a Home without Spyware:….”
https://www.corbettreport.com/our-digital-gulag/#comment-106074
Duck says:
“You should check out The guy linked guy, or SwitchedToLinux or Rob Braxman all of whom know more then I do.”
https://www.corbettreport.com/interview-1631-new-world-next-week-with-james-evan-pilato/#comment-107707
For those of us that still have gmail and want to change to a different email client that has more privacy:
1. Create a gmail account that is salted
or
2. Create a Proton mail account?
From the solutions watch, Braxman recommends solution 1. What do other thinks?I can see how number one allows you to remain in the open and have privacy whereas having a proton mail account announces that you are interested in privacy.
Apologies if I’m preaching to the choir here, I haven’t read through the comments, but…
I’m now on my 2nd de-googled phone. The 1st was a Blloc phone ( nice UI, liked the Aurora store option for apps but the handset itself wasn’t brilliant, somewhat ironically for a phone I didn’t find it to be the best for making phone calls, what does that tell us about priorities?)
I recently bought a Gigaset GS290, from e.foundation, and it’s brilliant! As modern as you’d like…proper full screen (no borders)tiny selfie camera, which is great for reading articlesand it uses the F Droid store for apps, where you can check out the scores for privacy for each app, including searching for just open source apps. Maybe the store doesn’t have all the social media apps carried by the Play Store, I don’t know, they’re not my thing, but for apps I couldn’t find in the Play Store I found a perfectly good alternative.
Come over to the Un-Googled world, it’s fine, really…