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.
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Both leaving reddit and leaving google s.e. were two things that I thought would be harder than they were.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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)
I replaced gmail with protonmail and everything else with nextcloud. Couldn't go back.
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
I'd like to believe that enough of us actually stopped using chrome and switched to Firefox the day they made that announcement that swayed them... But in reality I'm sure it was just the bad press and they're going to try to find a different more sneaky way to do the same shit.
'Heard your feedback' is becoming the death flag of future fuckery these last few years
more like they realised that the Irish data protection officer looked like they were gonna side with privacy advocates over anti-adblock, which is a precursor (and main usecase of) this API
Bet they'll just rename it later, like what they did with FLoC to Ad Topics.
What's funny is how these companies refer to ads as if it's something we should be excited about.
"Good news! We're implementing a new ad delivery feature for your enjoyment! You can now choose what ads to watch, yay!"
That usually means they will have something worse at a later time.
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.
They had some of those changes already checked into their code base. It'll be interesting to see how much of that code comes back out.
My money is on zero. They'll comment it out and then turn it back on when no one is looking.
The Advert People are easily startled, but they'll soon be back, and in greater numbers.
This is your wake up to stop using Chrome and Chromium based browsers (e.g. Brave, Vivaldi, etc). Switch to Firefox if you haven't already.
This should never be left up to Chrome. We need antitrust laws.
We'll see how this shakes out in a year.
Eternal vigilance is the price for a free web.
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!
Moving it to WebView just makes it a Trojan horse for the rest of the web.
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, but~~ greedy and posessive is okay”
"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..."
Floc returned as something else, we will see this come back I am certain
One small victory to fend off the cancer that is current year google.