[PLUG] privacy and freedom specting replacements

[Tom]

On Sun, 22 Sep 2019 20:09:36 -0700
"Mike C." <mconnors1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> You make some good points, but also demonstrate the level to which
> google is embedded in software development. In recommending ways to
> get away from google's tracking, you mentioned compatibility with
> Android, which renders all efforts to afford the problem meaningless.
> Tracking
> that is baked into the OS affects all apps running within that OS, so
> you have to stop using android.

Google's variant of Android from the AOSP Project is not the only
implementation of an Android system. Completely google-stripped
implementations exist, such as LineageOS and Replicant. There are also
App Stores that are not associated with Google such as F-Droid and
Amazon Appstore. There are also completely Android unrelated options
available such as Debian Mobile and Librem.

https://source.android.com/
https://lineageos.org/
https://www.replicant.us/

https://f-droid.org/
https://www.amazon.com/getappstore

https://wiki.debian.org/Mobile
https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/


> Another example of OS-level integration is systemd. systemd defaults
> to google's nameservers when no others are provided. It's a
> fallback mechanism if standard DNS configuration fails, and is
> implemented at compile time. Like you mentioned, it's more than just
> IP tracking, you need to start rejecting entire chunks of your OS
> stack if you want to actually get away from google's profile building.

Completely doable and many such solutions exist. Regarding Linux
network managers plenty of privacy respecting replacements exist such
as Wicd and Debian Networking, and OpenRC. There are also a wide
variety of systemd-free operating systems to chose from. My personal
reccomendation is Devuan, which is binary compatible with Debian.
Devuan supports both sysV init and OpenRC and comes with wicd by
default.

https://launchpad.net/wicd
https://wiki.debian.org/NetworkConfiguration#Setting_up_an_Ethernet_Interface
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/OpenRC#Network_management

https://devuan.org/
http://www.slackware.com/
https://www.alpinelinux.org/
https://crux.nu/
https://guix.gnu.org/
https://artixlinux.org/

> 
> It's pretty disgusting these days. Distros like Debian and Ubuntu
> working behind the scenes to sell out the community. Even Mozilla
> links up with all those API's, making a weak claim that their use for
> tracking is totally different from everyone else's. They still send
> data to google servers...

Indeed, there is a pretty extensive article about Mozilla's malicous
and untruthful behavior on Neocities at
https://digdeeper.neocities.org/ghost/mozilla.html
I am currently working on a fork of the modified Goanna engine which
removes all unsolicited connections. Until then there is always Tor
Browser. It's pretty easy to install and it's the best you can get for
privacy.

https://www.torproject.org/

> This has been a pretty long standing thread and I haven't read all the
> > responses but this is some good and disturbing information that
> > raises a few questions for me.
> >
> 
> Why is ip tracking itself such a concern?
> 
> I tend to focus on the EFF's surveillance self-defense
> recommendations of apps and general internet use practices.
> 
> I don't see information regarding IP Tracking by EFF with the
> exception of an article on Do Not Track Policy.
> https://www.eff.org/dnt-policy
> 
> I've used the uBlock Origin and HTTPS Everywhere browser plugins for
> a few years based on some reviews I read, but I honestly don't know
> exactly how they work and who effective they are.

They essentially sit front seat in your browsing session and prevent
connections to known tracking and advertisement servers. Umatrix works
a bit differently than Ublock Origin in that it works on a heuristics
basis rather than a blacklist basis. This offers far greatly protection
but does require the user to configure it to their needs.


> However, the rub is when you're trying to communicate with friends,
> family and other orgs via digital medial.
> 
> As far as Google's services. I wouldn't say that I rely on them, but
> they're convenient and work well for my needs.
> 
> I often use Duck Duck Go or log out of Google when I do Internet
> searches. However, I consume a lot of content on Youtube.

Searx.me and https://www.yacy.net/en/ are also great replacements for
google search. https://invidio.us/ is a fantastic replacment for
youtube for accessing youtube content. It's a completely HTML5 frontend
replacement for youtube and it even works without any Javascript.
There is even a non-web based frontend called youtube-viewer available
in both gui and cli form. https://github.com/trizen/youtube-viewer