this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2024
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Privacy

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Hey guys, it's pretty much the tittle. I've been using Lineage with microg for a year now and despite using the majority of FOSS apps in my routine I still feel like I have to struggle to preserve my privacy and keep Google away from my data. Do you guys feel the same sometimes?

Every time I have to use a banking app is a pain ..I kept changing banks to the ones who I could use with Magisk but every app update breaks my setup and I have to find a workaround or change to another app. I just quit using banking apps and passed them all to the wife.Now even home brokers have been blocking me asking to use a "official android version"

Today even a government app we must use to get access to services and information started complaining about my play store.

I self host a nextcloud service on my old desktop that serves as a server but every now and then the updates crash something. Sharing calendar and notes is too complicated if you don't have a vps or a domain. I keep getting complains from the wife about how come I just don't use google keep and Google drive anymore.

After a year I'm starting to think that maybe my data is not worth the hassle just to keep big tech out of my digital life.. I guess Big Brother wins

What do you say? Am I too lazy or it is unpractical to stay away from big tech?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago

I'm about 4-5 years from where I started to self host things. I went through a raspberry, minipc and now I built a small rack where I have a custom built PC where I self host things. Is it a pain in the ass to start without anyone teaching you? YES. I spent a lot of time trying, testing, failing and retrying, but it was a nice trip, I learnt a ton of things and a lot of things I'll learn, I'm still definitively not an expert but I'm improving myself.

I tried (more than one time) nextcloud and I've definitively not liked it. I tried filebrowser which is more near to my use case, than I finished choosing a WebDAV instance using apache, it is perfect for my use-case, compatible with my windows job-pc and mounted perfectly from my LineageOS Android phone.

I've LineageOS without microG and any google thing at all; all I need is self hosted and available through a custom domain and/or through a VPN I self host. 90% of my apps are Foss.

My bank app works great without an official Android OS ( I didn't root my phone).

It's all about the amount of time you can invest through it:

  • A lot of time: learn about self host, try the available solutions and choose which one fit your use-case
  • Some time: find available solutions that don't require you to do anything (like proton drive, private nextcloud instances etc...)
  • No time: use Google.

If you need something, I have some free space on my server that you can use (don't trust me or anyone else, use it by thinking).

Don't give up!