Piped for desktop would be a better option for youtube imo, but really depends on which “Big tech company” you’re trying to hide from and what information do you want to share with them. For example, Google probably has your ip tied to your gmail account, which has whatever information you used, since you didn’t use a vpn when first creating it. Also unless you disabled the bloatware via adb that came with your xiaomi device some other third party company may also have your ip and whatever info you inputted into those apps, if at all. Again just depends on what you want so your setup might be fine.
Edit: if wanting to protect from google then your mobile device is the biggest issue. Getting an always on vpn is a must (look at proton or mullvad), remove your personal account and create a burner with fake info and use something like aurora store with that burner account should help a lot. Would be really inconvenient if you still use your personal gmail account so maybe before doing anything start migrating to a different email provider
Edit 2: if protecting from meta then facebook messenger is the biggest issue. Getting an always on vpn that comes bundled with protection from trackers/ads (mullvad and proton i think does this) maybe your best choice unless you want to recreate your account and lose all of your contacts/messages which would be really inconvenient. So just treat facebook messenger like a public forum and dont give up too much info. If its possible maybe use a hardened browser, like mull +ublock, instead to use facebook messenger again if thats possible
My goal is to reduce the information collected about me (increase my privacy) as much as possible and at the same time keep as much of my convenience as possible. I’m not sure how much of an effect this has, but I never used any of the Xiaomi bloatware apps, because when you first open any of them you have to agree to their terms & conditions and when I tap disagree the apps just close (even the calculator, for example). Piped sounds like an interesting thing I should look into, I keep seeing it being mentioned everywhere. But I would assume that if there is a way to login to my account to get all my subscriptions and recommendations the privacy aspect will still be heavily compromised.
Havent personally created an account with piped since I like to limit accounts where ever possible but I believe you create an account with the piped instance that you choose so you dont login to your google account at all. You’ll have to do a google takeout iirc inorder to get a copy of your youtube subscription which you can then import.
A lot of open source software is made by enthusiasts for free. A lot more of it is made by companies like Microsoft or Google for various reasons - I believe mostly to claim “we’re open source”, but also to entice others to contribute more code that they can leverage for free, which is a valid reason too. One thing is sure: they do pay their engineers’ salaries
Free services however… That’s different: we all know why Microsoft or Google propose free services.
Now this unknown search engine you linked to: they could be funded by idealists who want to promote privacy, like the Calyx institute for example. However, looking at their website, I see no obvious reason why they propose the service they propose: they do have a Donate button that leads to a page with 4 payment links - 3 of which crypto - and their About Us button leads to a page that just says “test”. Kinda sketchy…
Therefore, I assume it’s up to no good, because that’s the reasonable thing to assume with any unknown website that looks sketchy.
when it comes to server-side software, FOSS is of little importance unless you are self hosting. there is zero way for you to verify, unlike client software.
Open-source isn’t a guarantee that whoever makes the open-source software is privacy-respecting. Android was made by Google for example, and it was made open-source for the express purpose of creating a mobile OS ecosystem that would become so dominant it would allow Google to collect data on as many people as possible. Google invested massive amounts of money developing an entire operating system for a reason: they didn’t do it out of kindness.
Conversely, closed source isn’t a guarantee that whoever makes the software is up to no good. There’s plenty of closed source software out there that’s perfectly legit. But of course it’s harder to verify the code if you have doubts.
Realistically I’ve never been banned, rate-limited or affected when using Aurora. I would recommend at least using microG installation as well though. I suspect that phones that look most suspicious would be ones that never formally “logged into” Google Play Services normally as well, so make sure you’ve logged into your chosen Google account once with the phone in it’s stock full OEM Google Play Services configuration.
Critically, Do Not Use the “Built in Anonymous Accounts” In Aurora! That’s just painting a target on your backside and would probably make your device look even more suspicious to whatever AI is swinging the banhammer these days.
Setting up a fresh, new, Google account is critical. Then go about “hardening” the account by setting up TOTP 2FA and disabling all the unwanted tracking options in your Google Account page. You can even generate “app passwords” here that can work for logging into Aurora.
My advice to you is to use this one new Google account across any Google Services you need to log into. Do not just log into microG and Aurora with your new account! Throw it a bone and log into a Youtube page or some other Google Service like GMail every once in a while, even if you do so from the phone’s browser only.
The more suspicious and single purpose the account appears to be; the less it blends in and could potentially be suspended by some wayward AI.
Critically, Do Not Use the “Built in Anonymous Accounts” In Aurora! That’s just painting a target on your backside and would probably make your device look even more suspicious to whatever AI is swinging the banhammer these days.
But this is the whole thing about the anonymous accounts. What thing of yours are they going to ban? They don’t even know you. There is nothing they can ban.
I’m sure they will ban the anonymous accounts often but the Aurora guys just keep adding more to the pool.
I’m mentioning that it’s a bad idea to Only use that account for Aurora Store and microG services.
You need to log it into a few other apps on the web too. This gives the account more “livelihood”. Of course nothing you use the account for should be anything you care about; you just need to occasionally log into it through a browser and browse YouTube while pretending to be someone entirely different from yourself for a bit and check emails or compose a Google Doc, full of nonsense of course, for it.
Those info sites aren’t built from bank records. They’re built from public records databases like voters, property, taxes, legal cases, and government actions, including stuff like just showing up to the city council to complain.
You could conceivably open an account in another country where they’re very private about banking info, but it wouldn’t help your case, and it would probably be a huge hassle for your day to day life.
If you’re paying property taxes, you’re going to be in a database. At least here in Texas, all addresses (home, business, empty land) are in the county’s appraisal and tax database that’s publicly searchable.
Right, and the data in Texas contains your address and name attached to it. It’s all public, you can’t avoid it. I don’t know about other states but I assume it’s the same
Apple does not care and will never care about open source other than the bits it has to care about because they’re a part of Darwin, their core.
They’re a company offering a particular “experience” and open source products do not fit into that model well at all. I use apple phones because I’m partially blind and for a very long time the accessibility story on Android was a screaming nightmare (I’m told it’s got better) but I have no illusions that they’re anything other than a profit seeking MegaCorp with all that implies.
I am absolutely aghast that Firefox would say Firefox is the best web browser. Their chart is, however, open to external audit so it is entirely unimpeachable.
(This is a parody of people who were arguing in favor of an “independent” browser privacy website run by someone paid by one of the browser companies)
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