Keep my own data Privacy? Answers?

[kazambie]

Gotta get away from google Facebook MSN. Anybody have any options?

Sick and tired of tracking, its getting creepy and i feel like I'm being pigeon-holed. I admit that i love google services and the integration (it just works) but the cost is starting to cross that line. I would rather pay and keep my privacy. I'm all droided up and need a fix. I've been trying all sorts of stuff to get away but..... then there's this thing about most of my friends just cant seem to dump FBM or Hangouts.

is there and integrated secure person to person communication and data sharing option?

Like my own personal portal that follows me device to device.

 

The tech is here is there anybody sticking it together in such a way?

 

isps are going to start shutting down vpns soon just like TOR fuck i hate COX (the name fits)

[Bailey]

Hmm? I'm not aware of any but if you do find any it would be interesting for you to post them!

 

You could always create your own

[Guest warinca]

You can use Telegram or Discord or Self-hosted Teamspeak to overcome your privacy concerns with Instant Messaging.

For social networks... Well just don't use them.

[rmurthy]

If you truly want to move away from Google and need replacements for the various services it offers, you could try to host your own cloud solution. Depending on your requirement you can choose from a variety of free LAMP-based cloud applications available - just search for owncloud alternatives in google.

 

You would need to have your own machine or a VPS to host them. You could find a webhost that supports one of the open-source cloud services apps too - but again you will have to trust them with your data. Not sure if nextcloud is supported on heliohost and cloud hosting is acceptable use, but I think it has everything that is needed for nextcloud to work.

 

I have been using self-hosted NextCloud for sometime now just for personal use. It satisfies all my needs - Contact/ SMS/ Calendar/ Notes/Task sync and call log backup on my Android phone with Nextcloud apps(most are free on Google Playstore. But all apps are free and can be downloaded from FDroid). I know that atleast some of these Apps exist on IOS platform too. File synchronization across multiple devices(Phone/ Tab/ Laptop).

 

Recently they introduced a multi-platform Messaging(NC Talk) App - somewhat similar to WhatsApp. Currently supports only Voice/ Video calls on Android, but I am using a beta version that also supports text chat. From what I hear, file sharing in talk app is in development, though it can already be done through File sharing integration in Nextcloud). The desktop version of this app apparently supports Screen sharing too, though I have not tried it. I have seen some online collaborative document editing apps too which I haven't found a need to try yet.

 

It has a plethora of other apps for various purposes - even a few apps like Poll, Mood, etc that provide partial social functionality but it is not a Facebook replacement. For that you can use diaspora, I guess - haven't tried it yet.

 

For email, you could consider using heliohost itself, though there are data limitations. But if you are using your own server/ VPS for nextcloud you can host an email server on the same server and get larger capacity.

 

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Edited May 26, 2018 by rmurthy