Note: I prefer Apple over Google and I’m not ready to go full privacy-hardened, I want to find a balance between convenience and privacy protection.
So I’m moving from Samsung to iPhone soon, mainly because I despise Google. Want to cut Google out as much as possible while I’m at it.
What I’m planning so far:
- Mailbox.org instead of Gmail
- DuckDuckGo for search, would prefer something even better
- Safari with all the privacy stuff turned on
Where I’m stuck:
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What about YouTube? Just use the web version?
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Google Drive alternatives that actually work well?
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Best way to store photos that aren’t big greedy corps?
Questions:
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Any must-have privacy apps once I get the iPhone?
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Settings I should change immediately out of the box?
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Services I’m forgetting that are probably feeding Google my data?
Try newpipe for youtube. I am in love with it…
I actually use newpipe for casting to my chromecast at the moment so I see the appeal
I would consider GrapheneOS instead of iOS. GrapheneOS provides full compatibility with Android without Google, and you can optionally install Google Play Services. Apple is as bad as Google in some aspects.
As for your main questions, these are my suggestions:
- Email: Proton Mail or Tuta Mail
- Search Engine: DuckDuckGo or Mullvad Leta for search engines, or SearXNG for a metasearch engine
- Browser: GrapheneOS’s Vanadium browser
- YouTube: LibreTube for mobile or FreeTube for desktop
- Cloud Storage: There are many options, but a familiar option for you would be Proton Drive
- Photos: Aves Gallery or Gallery, with network permissions disabled
Most of these are Android-only, because iOS is still privacy invasive by nature. More software can be found on my list of software.
Cheers!
I like Grayjay for YouTube and also other video platforms
The only thing to note with GrapheneOS is that apps that use the Google Play Integrity API don’t work. It’s mostly banking apps that use it. There is a list here of which banking apps work with GrapheneOS https://privsec.dev/posts/android/banking-applications-compatibility-with-grapheneos/
NewPipe or a fork for YT, has a better UI than LibreTube.
LibreTube uses the Material Design 3 design language, which, in my opinion, looks much nicer, more user friendly, and more responsive. NewPipe (and its forks) don’t even use the proper system calls for Picture In Picture.
I’ll take function over form. NewPipe has everything where you need it without excessively large thumbnails or text. LibreTube suffers from “modern” web design principles, where using more screen space to show less information is #1.
But NewPipe has more often updates and works well. Libretube often isn’t working cause google push some updates for yt to block 3rd party apps and only newpipe released update quickly.
“What about YouTube? Just use the web version?” Web versions are almost always more secure than the mobile app version of any app. The browser provides more security enforcement than app security.
How so? I’m not doubting your info but how does a browser provides more security than a native app?
Seeing all those upvotes, this must be true somehow… However I was certain that native apps are more secure than webapps.
Do you have any reputable ressource to backup your claims?
The only security and privacy settings for apps are what the operating system offers. Because you are voluntarily installing the app there’s a certain amount of assumed trust. Many apps abuse that trust and do things the user never really agreed to. Especially around tracking. Browsers also have to comply with the opening system security, but because the websites you visited are rarely fully trusted they tend to guard privacy and security better. And many people use browser extensions to enhance their security.
You make a good point tbh
You can install Firefox from App Store and install some tracker blocking addons like ublock and privacy badger. Even sponsor block is available on Firefox mobile.
i thought firefox add-ons were pc/android only?
AdGuard works with the web version.
Picture in Picture extension can force the YouTube Picture in Picture too.
It’s beaten only by the YouTube app with YouTube premium.
Proton Drive works great for me. They have a free tier, so you can try it out.
- kDrive for cloud storage
- Tidal for music
- PeerTube/Odysee/Youtube (trying to get rid of the last one but it’s almost impossible) for videos
- Proton pass for password management
- Anytime player for podcasts
Apple is bad, but still probably better than Google when it comes to privacy.
Regarding Apple, That’s what I feel too, but I don’t feel like going Pixel and GrapheneOS or fairphone etc.
But I still want to optimize my privacy and move to open source alternatives where I can without sacrificing too much
Yeah and let’s not forget that depending on your job it’s doable.
My employer is giving me an iphone so I can’t use anything else except if I had a second phone, which would be really annoying for me.
I don’t think it’s good to use a work device for personal use. My thoughts is their hardware so anything used on there is their info.
Agreed, but carrying two phones, charging them and paying for them would be too annoying and wasteful.
But I know that my employer could see a lot of my infos if he wanted to. Luckily I trust my employer way more than all these companies like Apple or Google who already have acces to our data.
But if you are handing over data to Apple or Google I don’t see any good coming from also handing over additional data to an employer. And they are ones positioned to have a much more direct impact on your life as opposed to being another random forgettable consumer among billions. I’d say employers are the ones to be more concerned about when it comes to privacy because of how much more impactful and on their radar you are.
For YouTube I use grayjay for without an account, it works fine for me, and I really like it.
For cloud storage I’ve tried dozens of services, red what I landed on was Filen. This is subjective ngl and last time I checked rclone was in beta?
For photos, I use ente; it’s very solid. I see people use Immich too, but that’s self-hosted.
Hope this helps you, good luck
Would love an alternative to GrayJay on iOS that lets me cast to tv
For YouTube I use grayjay for without an account, it works fine for me, and I really like it.
OP is switching to iPhone. Grayjay isn’t available on iOS.
Shit, really? Didn’t know that, thanks.
Great app, though!
I only ever open YouTube links in the Brave browser, and I only use the brave browser for YouTube. No ads by default, even when signed in; speaks for itself. For all the people here who hate on Brave; only use it for YouTube. Its the best solution on Apple that I have found.
iCloud Drive is the best integrated, smoothest way to go for cloud storage. But you’re gonna pay, and Apple knows exactly how to price it so it always seems like the next tier is worth it, even though all of them are overpriced. I pay around $40 a month after taxes for Apple One because it’s the most cost effective option that gets me AppleTV+, Apple Music+, and 2TB of iCloud+. I don’t need 2TB of storage, I need 500GB; But that’s not a fuckin option. It goes from 200GB for $2.99 to 2TB for $9.99 with nothing in between. Apple TV+ on its own is $9.99 a month. Apple Music individual plan is $10.99 a month…but you can only stream on 1 device at a time, and they WILL give you constant annoying pop-ups and stop your music if you try to stream on more than one or if they mistakenly think you are streaming on more than one, which happened to me constantly, and fucking Senior Tier AppleCare support could NOT figure it out OR solve it. So I pay the extra 6 bucks a month for Apple One Family or whatever, which lets me stream on 6 devices simultaneously. I don’t ever DO that, but it magically stops that error that no one could solve. You also get Apple Arcade+, Apple News+, and Apple Fitness+, and I don’t use any of that shit.
The above also solves for your photo storage inquiry, which is also what I do.
Extensions I use for Safari are AdGuard, Wipr, Extract, Vinegar, Consent-o-Matic, Hush, and superagent. I use Kagi for search. Yes I pay for that.
Brace yourself. You’re going to get a lot of really mean and hateful comments in this community asking about Apple, so fair warning.
There is also the option of sideloading a modded YouTube client for the adblock aspect.
I was thinking about getting 256GB version of the phone and self hosting a storage solution, but I ain’t got the server to do that yet, might aswell pay for icloud drive until I finish my studies. Luckily I dont need alot of storage, just need the security of having stuff backed up.
I also selfhost adguard home over my home network.
Yeah I guess getting hate for choosing Apple is fair, I was anti-apple a few years ago but now I would rather get rid of Google, and ios isnt bad nowadays either for my use cases.
I could just go for a fairphone tho with /e/OS tho
I am slowly accumulating all my favorite music in flac, and when I summon the motivation I am going to load it right onto my local phone storage and play it with an app, because I am also sick and tired of my music cutting out when I lose internet connection while driving, even if it’s something I’ve downloaded to my library to avoid that happening. I live in northern Maine and it’s a problem.
That’s a struggle, but I’ve heard of some great music storage self hosting services out there, can’t remember the names of any atm tho
Evermusic and Flacbox are the apps I am considering
