Don’t use google. They aren’t your friend.
truth nuke
How far they have fallen in the past 20+ years.
Yeah… And soon they will block third party apps.
I want a Linux phone alternative yesterday.
Graphene OS is superior IMO. Android is open source already and Graphene fully removes Google.
I don’t see any advantage of trying to build everything from scratch again, which would mean giving up the enormous app ecosystem and existing work.
It’s way easier and more practical to just hard fork Android.
Don’t use any company’s storage as your only copy, or even as your main means of access. Self host as much as possible.
Self-hosting can be a “Let them eat cake” kind of first-world answer for Japanese users. Most of them get tiny apartments to begin with. A desktop computer and enough space for it is a pretty heavy luxury to begin with. A dedicated always-on machine is another step above that.
Much of their lives revolves around mobile or smaller devices (part of why the Steam Deck was popular there and introduced many of them to Steam)
Fair point. Self hosting is a luxury. I don’t think having a hard drive for backups is that expensive though if you already have the digital tools for creating manga.
One is none, and two is not enough. The more places your data is, the harder it is to lose.
Lick boot lose teeth
If you must use gdrive: at least encrypt your files.
Stop right there criminal scum!
Encryption means you’re hiding something, and that you’re probably a criminal!
I cant believe someone down voted this.
Learn to recognise sarcasm before pressing buttons. It doesnt get any more obvious.
Either that or Google shills working over time…
I’m generally fairly down-votable
Could be a missclick tbh
You have committed crimes against Skyrim. What say you?
Cryptomator !
Easiest step is probably to archive the files (7z, zip etc.) with a password.
But not the most convenient.
There are Apps which automatically mirror the content. someone commented a name below my comment, I think.
Rsync can encrypt and sync. I think there are implementations for phones.
For desktop users: Kde plasma has a feature for encrypted containers, that’s quite well integrated, IIRC.
I recently completely finished completely decoupling my life from Google. My GMail account isn’t used for anything of importance anymore. People really should take a moment and think about what would be the consequences if Google suddenly mistakenly deleted their account like that. A lot of people’s entire lives are connected to their GMail account.
I have self-hosted my own personal email server since the late 90s. It has been a tedious, often unpleasant chore. I hate email. But it’s the one thing I’ve never compromised on, because to this day they try to tie your identity to your email and giving up control of that seems insane to me. Apps that use your phone number are doing the same thing, but you can’t self-host that, so I won’t use them. I’m sure Signal is very nice and people keep recommending it, but my phone is an untrusted device, and my phone number is an untrusted identity I don’t control. I am not going to use it for anything important.
I remember reading Signal got rid of the hard requirement of a phone number. Haven’t tried it as I’ve already got it attached to my number. At least starting a chat with someone new I didn’t have to give them my number, used signal’s internal id.
same here, the only google thing i use is youtube
YouTube is fine by me. I don’t care that they track my activity there because they use it to recommend videos and I usually only go there when I have time to waste, which actually makes sense. My YouTube account is its own thing that I don’t use for anything else too. On top of that I use ad blockers so they can’t even make money off of me. If anything, I cost them money by using YouTube.
That’s probably going to be the toughest for me, but I’ll still try.
If anyone has any suggestions for an alternative to Google Docs for my university essays that can track my writing literally word for word, I would be forever grateful. Getting really tired of having professors flag me for AI use just because I can string sentences together with an em-dash, and also getting tired of feeding all my essays to Gemini.
It’s not word for word, but a git repository with frequent commits with meaningful descriptions is easy to do, and then you can push to codeberg or wherever to have backups. That’s cryptographically signed and therefore strong evidence of what you wrote when, and what you were thinking.
That’s cryptographically signed and therefore strong evidence of what you wrote when, and what you were thinking.
This logic doesn’t work out in the given place.
Cryptographical signatures are used to determine that the thingy was made by the person you trust.
Problem is, in this case, the creator of those commits is the one that is not being trusted.The professor will just go, “Oh you made it with AI and then used
git commit!”.I have had a similar experience in the past, where I made some MATLAB code for a Mathematics course, which the professor said I had copied from someone else (pre-AI times), because he had given the same assignment to other people in the university. This, he claimed without even looking at what I made and without remembering the specific question he had passed to me.
There’s still the trace left showing the reasoning, which is harder to fake than a complete document. The commits and commit comments would show a human style of building a narrative.
Yeah, that might make it easier when he feels the need to report the professor to the HOD.
Except it doesn’t matter when the HOD just wants to shit on you, because they can just say that you are good at AI-ing and that’s how you did it.
shouldve went to the dean or the department head.
The Maths HOD was my professor.
Should’ve *gone
To be fair, you CAN monkey with timestamps and stuff in git. It is cryptographically proven that a given history results in a given commit hash, but you’re free to rewrite that and just have a new commit hash. If you give anyone else your repo, though, then if you rewrite history later they can be like “huh? this doesn’t match!”.
Not that that matters much here. Proving beyond a reasonable doubt is the goal, not Absolute 100% Certainty level proof.
This is really helpful for my CS/mathamatics courses actually, but if you think my English prof is gonna be able to parse a git repository… :/
or to mass transfer stuff from drive to another without too much of a hassle.
Maybe typst.app would work for you, or the likes of a self hosted next loud with only office (which is also an office suite in the browser)
What other options are there though? Most non tech people have no idea how to degoogle their info
Proton’s a good one.
- be me
- want to be able earn and spend money
- need bank account
- online banking is only option
- mandatory usage of the bank’s proprietary mobile app for 2FA
- bank blocks evil hacker tools such as GrapheneOS
- app only available for Android or iOS
- Google and Apple can terminate your ability to use any smartphone for any reason
Guys are we really at the whim of just two unregulated private corporations?
They have all your data, grip you privates tight, enter AI, don’t say a word, it’s just a beast that will consume us all.
I see only one solution:
- Be Luigi
Why is online banking the only option?
Because banks decided it’s cheaper to do an app than to pay for people available in branches.
So the same operation is 2mins on the app, or 10mins driving to the nearest branch (YMMV), 20mins waiting in line (YMMV), 5mins to get it done, 10mins to go back.
Oh, you also have the option to wait for 1h on the phone…
My credit union recently went to the no tellers in the branch option. They have remote tellers i fucking hate it. And they closed down the drive through. It fucking sucks
It’s not, but it’s much easier than visiting a branch or spending hours waiting on the phone to speak to someone who doesn’t have great English.
Or you could just bank from a web browser on a cheap laptop. Or use a cheap burner phone for banking only, separate from your everyday phone.
I have a few bank accounts and none of them force the app for 2FA. They can also use text or even an email address.
Hmm yeah fair point.
Don’t credit unions have desktop sites? Can’t you use an e-mail for authentication?
This type of thing is why you never 'login with Google, Meta, Apple ’ whatever.
If they decide they don’t like you for whatever reason you end up locked out of every account, event the ones that are not explicitly Google.
The only time I ever did that is when Jitsi started requiring accounts to create video meetings. I used GitHub, thinking “that seems harmless”. Now it seems risky as fuck, considering how enshittified GitHub has become. 😬
Forgive my bluntness.
…But I feel like “artist tech debt” is now a problem.
I first started complaining about it in the photography space. Basically, no one understands colorspace, HDR formats, HEIFs/JXL, how modern sensors/encoders actually work… everyone is “stuck” in a circa-2000s “crush RAW stills to JPEG, export video to mp4” workflow, like they’re in a time loop. They’re not even using the crazy dynamic range of modern sensors and displays, and have no clue.
But the more I look around, the more I see it elsewhere. A manga artist choosing Google Drive as their host is a great example.
I dunno what to do about it, though.
A lot of older artists are stuck in their ways. A lot of younger artists cannot afford the subscriptions they perceive they need for those workflows you mentioned.
A lot of younger artists cannot afford the subscriptions they perceive they need for those workflows you mentioned.
It often doesn’t work anyway!
Take HDR photography, as an example:
https://gregbenzphotography.com/hdr-display-photo-software/
The list of supported software is short, and doesn’t mention caveats (like Lightroom’s/Affinity’s HDR editing looking wonky if you don’t understand “paper white” and such). Popular “switch away from Photoshop” apps like DXO don’t even support HDR, or AVIF or anything.
Some cutting edge cameras support HEIFs instead of JPEGs, but only sometimes, and not well; they’ll pretty much only render right on an iPhone or Mac.
The video side is pretty greusome, too. VLog LUTs, for example are mostly to Rec709, and no workspace uses HLG by default.
I’m going a bit far here. My point is: ask many photographers about the RAW -> image conversion process, and they’ll have an intuitive grasp. Ask them about SDR vs HDR, and 98% think you’re talking about “HDR” multi-exposure stacking like it’s 2009. 1.9% will tell you HDR is “TV nonsense.”
One can navigate this software stuff if they understand the basics of HDR vs SDR, but the most basic understanding isn’t even there.
This is true in a lot of spaces that have a specialized skill set. Lots of people doing things by rote without actually understanding the underlying fundamentals of what they’re doing, or just cargo culting nonsense that happens to kind of work but with a lot of wasted effort or a poor quality result.
It comes up in both IT and software development more or less constantly.
Lots of people doing things by rote without actually understanding the underlying fundamentals of what they’re doing
That’s the fault of the YouTube Effect. In color grading or video editing, for example, we have people learning from youtube tutorials on what buttons to push, but nothing about the actual science and theory behind why to push those particular buttons. You’ll watch a ten minute video on “How to get the bleach-bypass look for your video” with absolutely no explanation of what the Bleach-bypass look is or when it would appropriate to use it (for example).
Most new creatives in any field have learned primarily from YouTube content creators that have themselves learned from other YouTube content creators. They’re just re-recording the same tutorial that they learned it from, down and down the line. Maybe at some point down the line, there was originally somebody who went to an accredited film-school/photography school or what have you that actually understood the why of it, but for the most part it’s amateurs teaching amateurs what buttons to push.
It’s even more frustrating that “old” stuff (like debayering, white point and such) is often understood on a technical level, but it stops at anything new.
I guess this happens in software, too.
Tbf a lot of modern screens can’t display HDR properly, even those that advertise that they can, so when people do see an “HDR image” they don’t get it.
The HLG standard, gain maps, and honest display specifications should take care of that. But alas…
A manga artist choosing Google Drive as their host is a great example.
Mmh, they didn’t say Google Drive was their host, but rather that they wanted to make an additional backup of their work.
Man I hate HDR, just makes my screen brighter without asking me
Remember, folks: encryption and redundancy (and redundancy).
And redundancy.
And redundancy.
And redundancy.
And testing the redundancy ^Redundancy ^^Reduncancy ^^^Redundancy
Don’t test redundancy here bruh! These servers are public running
And the brain damage…
And the brain damage…
And the brain damage…
Oh hey guys when did you get here?
And the ADHD, and… uh… I’m sorry, what were we listing again?
Having AI make decisions should put corporate leaders in personal legal problems.
A human is always to blame.
On the one hand this really, REALLY sucks for the artist. I wouldn’t wish it on my personal enemies if I had them.
However stories like these are instrumental in teaching the broader public that AI is to be boycotted.
Telling Joe Schmoe that datacenters are a rising problem just doesn’t register. This they could relate too.
that AI is to be boycotted
I don’t think the AI part is the relevant bit here.
I think the message should be that trusting your data to off-site storage where it is subject to third-party moderation should be boycotted. So boycott Google Drive, One Drive, icloud and keep your data on your own computers.
Yes, the important part is that data was lost. How was it lost? Um… magic, probably. W-we don’t need to look at the details.
How was it lost?
Because you put it in the hands of a third party who is not accountable to you, and gave them full control over it. Whether they exercise that control via AI or a human is rather irrelevant here. There are plenty of documented cases of people losing their account in pre-AI times due to human moderation.
It is relevant, because the AI did a stupid.
Telling Joe Schmoe that datacenters are a rising problem just doesn’t register.
The Joe Schmoes have been uniting against the data centers and winning in many cases.
*to
Goddamn such a huge nerd!
<3
Deleted? Now: No one’s data.
I didn’t realize AI was looking at my google drive. I’m just deleted my files, but that’s like a huge chunk of my career they could have potentially stolen.
I do still want backups beyond my flashdrive, maybe an encrypted file?
No one should have anything on google specifically, or on a non-privately owned and properly secured server in general.
There was a guy, during covid lockdowns, whose child developed a severe rash in the diaper area.
because lockdowns, the doctor asked them to send photos of the rash so he can diagnose.
googles auto-moderator labeled it child pornography, immediately deleted their account (which was very much all eggs in one basket. his phone number, email, data, everything was tied to his google account, all of which went away with no ability to recover anything on any of it) and called the authorities.
Police came to his home, talked to him, talked to his doctor, said there was nothing untoward there and went about their business.
Google said it didnt matter what the police said, it was child pornpgraphy.
the doctor sent a letter to google saying it was a legitimate medical necessity.
google said it didnt care, its child pornography.
That their expert photo-lookers said there was no rash in the area that they could tell, so there for the doctor was wrong, the police were wrong, and that man was a pedophile and he would never get anything back in any circumstance.
and for proof of that, they pointed to a video in his google data from 6 months prior that had the mother laying in bed, naked, with the baby on her chest.
Because, according to google, the only reason to be naked in the same room as a child, or to take a medically dictated photograph of a childs rash, is if you are a dirty dirty child molesting pedophile sexually exploiting your child.
Which I imagine makes almost all of our parents and grand parents pedophiles, by googles standards, because I guarantee the overwhelming majority of us have a parent that has a picture of us naked, probably in the bath, that is compltely fucking harmless to any sane, normal human being, unlike the actual pedophiles that google has looking at this shit who gets their rocks off to it and assumes everyone else is just as fucked up as twisted as they are.
Reminds me of a joke: someone is driving on a certain road and listening to the radio; suddenly the announcer warns: beware anyone driving in [that particular road], there’s a madman driving in the wrong direction. To which the driver exclaims: One!? It’s all of them!
Google are that driver in this case. I.e., the real paedophiles. For only a paedophile could consider a picture of a mother with her child child pornography.
or a medically legitimate photo, as requested by the doctor, as verified by the very police they called on him… They have to measure whats pedophilia and whats not by how aroused google employees get when looking at them.
I wonder if that same google employee didnt make copies to take him for his collection.
Encrypting something with your own key before you upload it is a solution for backups, but you do lose the convenience factor of cloud storage. If you are only using Google Drive for backup, that could work.
The alternative is to use a service with built-in end-to-end encryption.
I’m just using it for backups. I’m not really interested in remote services out side of that - they kinda sounds like a scam.
I’m not really interested in remote services out side of that - they kinda sounds like a scam
I don’t think they’re a scam. They’re just more honest: you use x amount of storage, you pay for x amount of storage and you can do with it as you like.
It’s not presented as “free” where you actually pay with your data, a dependency on the service and hidden content restrictions.
Was thinking more paid remote services are almost always something that’d be better done locally.
For free remote services, Idk. Maybe. I used to think there should be a public option for most things: email, 5GB storage, radio, social media, etc. Through that lens using free remote services was just settling for the lack of a public option. My experience with lemmy has kinda shifted my views on that. Small lemmy instances are like a person doing a service for their community (which happens to be federated with other communities). When federated the costs are low and these sorts of public-good things really ought be funded by endowments that are easy to build with low costs as the communities slowly grow. I’m not sure how that should work with email or storage or if it’s right to expect individuals to associate with one community or another to obtain them – but,I don’t really trust the government or large corporations to handle the public-good responsibly.
Yeah, I just don’t know what the right answer is for everything, but I like the individual / non-profit federations model for a lot of small cheap things.
Was thinking more paid remote services are almost always something that’d be better done locally.
But offsite storage is something that per definition can’t be done locally …
Just use a zero-knowledge end-to-end encrypted service. Which means the company literally can’t ever read your files!
I use Filen for a long time now, and I’m super satisfied.
This makes as much sense as having my shelves and cabinets judge what socks I put in them and trash it.
GTFO
I mean, you’re not wrong but the problem is that the online storage that you (and most people) think of as “your storage”, is not “your storage” in the same sense as those cabinets and shelves are yours. You’re really just borrowing the storage, and have given the actual owner the right to freely snoop through it and kick you out for anything they find they don’t like.
The only storage that’s actually yours is the one on your computer. That you own. In your house.
Yes. And ban me from using any other doors or drawers in the house.
Something to look forward to with smart houses, I guess.
So AI can just delete my pirated videos and music?
It is not limited that way.
Not just your pirated videos and music
This is why my e-mail isn’t gmail and I never store my shit in somebody else’s cloud.
Way back when they were starting offering free e-mail and later cloud services it was an obvious risk, because putting one of your main points of contact and only copies of data which you can’t get back in the hands of a massive company with whom you don’t even have a proper contract and which, besides, has more lawyers than the year has days, is a needless risk.
Same reason why none of my code that’s important is in GitHub.
As soon as the cloud thing started, I thought “Who thought this was a good idea?” Especially when they were trying to get The Cloud to basically replace a computer’s hard drive.
No thanks, I’ll hang on to my own stuff. I can put my important stuff on a couple of thumb drives, and carry them around.
The only thought I had was that with scalability and redundancy your data could be reasonably safe and reasonably accessible, however over the years shit like this keeps happening.
The only way I would use cloud storage is if I sent it already encrypted data
Using somebody else’s cloud for scalability and redundancy is reducing one risk vector by increasing a different risk vector.
It makes some sense to use a cloud service of a company which is around the same size as your own, with whom you have a proper contract in a jurisdiction where it’s legally enforceable in a timely manner and even then you’re now taking in the risks associated with them going bankrupt.
I avoided that kind of situation exactly because having worked in IT already for almost a decade when this kind of thing came out, I had already some experience with what can happen if one puts oneself at the mercy of a 3rd party entity for whom even your business isn’t worth much (either because you don’t even pay or because you’re a tiny, tiny customer).
That is way more so when we’re talking about having an important point of contact with the outside world like one’s e-mail address under control of such a 3rd party entity (e-mail, like phone numbers in many countries, should be something you can take with you from provider to provider, but we’re not there yet and may never be given that unlike with phone numbers, it would require a transnational regulatory agreement, which almost certainly will NEVER happen). Personally for my e-mail I DO use the mechanism were due to regulations I can move the core element around with me from provider to provider - I have my own Domain Name and subcontract the e-mail support to a 3rd party.
I understand that my use is much lighter than some. My stuff is mostly documents, and some graphics and photos, so it’s no big deal. Some people have tons of data and stuff, and/or they travel around and need access to all of it from all over the world. The cloud is handy for them.
That’s not me, but my little bit of data is just as important to me, and I’m not leaving it in the hands of some third party who doesn’t care at all.
What are people who are not tech wizards supposed to use? Most people use gmail or if your old, Yahoo because that’s all they know how to use
… a Flashdrive?
Just because they arent tech wizards doesn’t mean they’re tech cave people
Getting e-mail hosting complete with your own domain name on one of many, many companies available worldwide which sell that (just search for “e-mail hosting”) does not require tech knowledge to the level of “wizardry”.
They even have interfaces similar to Google.
However those things are paid, and they’re definitely not as accessible to non-techies since for example your smartphone won’t just pop-up an “add account with X e-mail hosting” during initial config.
Absolutely, those things aren’t “so stupidly simple that even my dog can use it”, but then again I’m making my point in Lemmy to a crowd which is well above average tech aware, not to my nana on Facebook.
It’s only a matter of time until something really big fails online isn’t it?
Always has been.
