I am trying to re-adjust how much effort I want to put into privacy concerns. Too much stuff I’m using isn’t working properly or using a lot of my mental resources that I need elsewhere.

For (a bad) example: I recently performed a half-switch from my self-hosted Nextcloud instance to ProtonDrive, in the hope that it would spare me the stress to maintain my private Nextcloud. Unfortunately, it doesn’t, as basic functionality like cross-device-sync is not possible (there isn’t even a client app for Linux, as of yet).

This brings me to the question: have you found any services/apps/stuff that significantly eases your life while still being privacy friendly? I know, this is a broad question, but I think this is for the best as this thread then maybe even has use for other users.

  • abbenm@lemmy.ml
    0·
    8 months ago

    NewPipe is a killer app I would say, with nearly Youtube Red level functionality in something that’s free and OSS. A bit afield from privacy, but you do get to access youtube stuff without logging in.

      • FutileRecipe@lemmy.world
        0·
        8 months ago

        From what I understand, NewPipe has been abandoned…

        That’s completely incorrect. From NewPipe’s Github:

        We are planning to rewrite large chunks of the codebase, to bring about a new, modern and stable NewPipe. Please do not open pull requests for new features now, only bugfix PRs will be accepted.

        …and someone else forked it to Tubular which includes SponsorBlock.

        polymorphicshade “stopped” development on their fork of NewPipe, which included SponsorBlock (because NewPipe did not want to include it) and started working on their rewrite of their own fork and/or NewPipe, which is now Tubular.

      • Ulair@beehaw.org
        0·
        8 months ago

        Newpipe is definitely not abandoned. :) But always nice to learn of an alternative

  • nehal3m@sh.itjust.works
    0·
    8 months ago

    I’ve found Syncthing a better way to handle file sync than NextCloud. Much more set and forget and not a single point of failure. It also syncs a notes directory in flat .md format, so anything can edit them, in a simple directory hierarchy.

    • abbenm@lemmy.ml
      0·
      8 months ago

      Syncthing is brilliant, although for me it has had a heck of a learning curve to keep straight. Might just be me though.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
        0·
        8 months ago

        It does have a bit of a learning curve, you have to think about what you’re trying to do.

    • LWD@lemm.ee
      0·
      8 months ago

      SyncThing is great for encrypted, serverless, bidirectional sync, preferably with small folders… But unfortunately really eats up a lot of battery.

      I’m still waiting for some company to figure out E2EE syncing with the quality of Google Drive (mobile and desktop integration built in). Proton is close, but they fumble reliable integration.

      • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
        0·
        8 months ago

        I’ve used it for years, across multiple devices, syncing 100gb. My average daily sync is probably 20gb.

        It’s been surprisingly good on battery - currently using 0.9% average. It’s never been a significant battery hog for me.

        Apps like Foldersync are much heavier on battery for me. Resilio is terrible for me (and it’s also a memory hog because I have some large folders).

        Maybe you have a stuck file that’s causing it to hang.

        Also, check out Syncthing-Fork, it has finer controls over individual sync jobs. For example, I let photos sync over any connection and on battery, but my media (music/video) only on wifi and while charging.

        • LWD@lemm.ee
          0·
          8 months ago

          Between all these replies, I have to say I’m a little jealous. And I might have to look into making a SyncThing dedicated “server” on my home network using YunoHost, a thing that (IIRC) wouldn’t require exposing to the Internet because SyncThing will also happily run across volunteer-run relays.

          By any chance, have you had any success with a unidirectional sync between your phone and your computer, where it’s possible to delete old photos on your phone to save space without worrying about them being deleted on the computer side? (This issue really only crops up for me when I’m already far away from a computer, BTW.)

      • nehal3m@sh.itjust.works
        0·
        8 months ago

        I’ll have to defer to your experience; I’ve set it up on a PC, a NAS and a phone. The phone was connected to an ethernet-equipped dock at the time of setup so the sync was quick and painless.

        I don’t see a hit on battery life on a Fairphone 4 running /e/OS after initial sync has completed.

    • Molecular0079@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      8 months ago

      My biggest issue with Syncthing is that it becomes unusable for large amounts of data due to the lack of selective sync (ignore lists are cumbersome as hell) and lack of virtual file system support. I have about 8TB of data on my NAS that I want to access remotely and it is not feasible to have duplicate copies of that much data on all of my devices.

    • Rez@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      8 months ago

      Is NextDNS really a good privacy tool? I use it myself because it’s convenient, but I always assumed that they would collect data about me since it’s a free service

      • ultranaut@lemmy.world
        0·
        8 months ago

        I pay for mine, not sure how it differs from the free version but you can turn logging off, or if you have logging on you can specific how long to store logs and what jurisdiction to keep them in (I keep mine for a few months in Switzerland). You of course have to place some trust in NextDNS the company that they are actually doing what they claim to do as far as respecting user privacy but I trust them more than Google and Cloudflare, which is what I was using previously.

  • edric@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    8 months ago

    The most impactful are probably browser (Firefox), adblocker (uBlock Origin), DNS over https (Mullvad), and password manager (Bitwarden), because these are used every single day.

  • robber@lemmy.ml
    0·
    8 months ago

    Nextcloud all the way. I especially love the calendar, contacts and notes integrations besides the file sync, and it’s extensibility in general. Such a powerful tool.

    • Human Crayon@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      8 months ago

      I love my Nextcloud instance, too. Zero problems in the past 4 years. I don’t run many extensions on it, though. The mobile app works great as well.

      Trillium plus its sync server in a VM is my goto for notes. Mobile isn’t a problem (I usually drops everything into my notes app, then expand on it when I’m in front of a full keyboard at home).

      Not sure how I could get through my day without either of these two.

    • abcdqfr@lemmy.ml
      0·
      8 months ago

      Have you gotten any recipe integrations to work with nextcloud? Can’t find a satisfactory apk to enter and edit recipes correctly, kinda turning me off to the entire nextcloud thing.

      • robber@lemmy.ml
        0·
        8 months ago

        I just use a bunch of markdown files for that. Guess you could also use Notes and its category feature.

  • Dupree878@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 months ago

    Apple

    It seems to get derided a lot here, but none of your data is harvested and tied to you or sold. It’s aggregated and anonymised if it’s sent off device, and I stopped using Proton drive when you could finally encrypt iCloud storage. I even use their email as default now since it’s not reading my messages and selling my info like outlook started doing.

    • lens17@feddit.deOP
      0·
      8 months ago

      I was considering to switch to apple for this reason, but I’ve read that in terms of privacy, there’s no significant difference between a Pixel Android with Stock OS and an iPhone. This made me hesitant. I really just want things to go smooth and hasslefree without being spied on and coerced… Do you, by chance, have any reading material on the privacy of apple services I could read up on?

    • ErwinLottemann@feddit.de
      0·
      8 months ago

      i wonder why this happens. are you from somewhere where this is common or were your transactions shady? i only got my bank block one transaction for me and that was because i didn’t know i had to ‘activate’ the ability to send money to accounts in the eu

      • delirious_owl@discuss.online
        0·
        8 months ago

        Likely its because of all the other privacy tools that I use. Banks don’t like it when they can’t track you. Every time they think I have a new device. They interpret “oh shit we can’t track this person between sessions” as “its suspicious! Lock the account!” …even though I use the correct username & password on the very first try. Smh

        Ultimately this is the result of Machine Leaning algorithms, but terrible ones because they never learn that they false positive 100% of the time on my account.

        Anyway, this is never an issue with monero. The transactions can’t be blocked. It literally works every time. And I hold the keys, so I don’t have to worry about loosing my money because my bank gets hacked (or someone calls them with the knowledge of my mother’s maiden name and the last 4 street addresses I had, and uses this public information to reset my password and steal my money)

  • Andromxda 🇺🇦🇵🇸🇹🇼@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    0·
    8 months ago
    • uBlock Origin saves time and resources
    • This is a classic one, but with Mullvad VPN I can pretend to be in any country. When combined with Tailscale, it becomes really OP. With Tailscale, I have a secure, flat network, which allows me to access all my devices from anywhere. Things like LocalSend, KDE connect or other apps that normally require all devices to be in a LAN also work over Tailscale.
    • A DNS filter doesn’t just help with protecting your privacy, you can also use it to block/restrict distracting websites that you spend too much time on. NextDNS for example lets me restrict social media websites to only work on certain times of the day.
    • Private frontends like Invidious and Piped for YouTube, Redlib for Reddit, SafeTwitch for Twitch (RIP Nitter, Libreddit and Teddit)
    • LibRedirect automatically redirects sites like YouTube, Twitch, Reddit and many more to privacy frontends
    • Alternative desktop/mobile clients for YouTube and Twitch. For YouTube, FreeTube on desktop, LibreTube/Tubular on Android, Yattee with this guide on iOS, Xtra for Twitch on Android. These all block ads or any other annoyances.
    • GrapheneOS makes my life easier in many ways, but I specifically want to mention this one. Since GrapheneOS uses per-connection MAC address randomization by default, I can simply reconnect to a wifi network that wants to restrict my usage. This is so useful on trains/airplanes.
    • UnifiedPush/ntfy allows me to send notifications from my server to my phone. For example it notifies me if one of my self-hosted services goes down (through Uptime Kuma), but I can also use this for Signal notifications through the Molly client for Signal (which also improves security and adds a few other cool things).
  • haui@lemmy.giftedmc.com
    0·
    8 months ago

    NC isnt perfect imo but its like having an open source car or house. Its not emergency ready like no downtime, no bugs, no issues but it will do 95% uptime if configured correctly and its is insanely versatile. I cant imagine any other app being this versatile. You can check my setup if you want.

  • eveninghere@beehaw.org
    0·
    8 months ago

    As a paranoid I’ve started writing my own note taking app, and I’m very happy knowing what it doesn’t do.

  • Pher@lemmy.world
    0·
    8 months ago

    KitchenOwl, an Android app to organize recipes, ingredients and shopping lists, it’s FOSS and available on f-droid.