40 sats \ 2 replies \ @Public_N_M_E 4 Aug 2023 \ on: Why Everyone Should Care About Privacy tech
Question regarding proton mail @kepford do you suggest for a first time user setting up a proton mail address to use an alias or does it not matter?
I'm also looking into installing grapheneOS (ironically the recommended phones to use are Google phones 😂) but I'd had experience of zero Google life before (when I had a Huawei phone and Google stopped supporting it) it became very difficult for me to use any of the apps I wanted to use. Eg ESPN for my fantasy football with friends, sleeper (same thing different platforms) Pokémon Go as another example some features didn't work without connection to Google fit, which wouldn't work on a non Google supported phone. So degoogling is very much more difficult and a giant inconvenience. (That's part of the problem, they've made themselves so intertwined with our needs/wants that removing them is hard work) what's your experience of using apps like these on grapheneOS?
I've been trying to move my WhatsApp groups to signal and the resistance is just mad, for no other reason than they can't be arsed to do it and "we're already here may as well stay here" means I'm sitting on signal with no one using it 🤣 and end up right back on WhatsApp to continue chatting with friends. What arguements/quick points would you make to convince people who aren't against better privacy, but are generally lazy ass SOBs to move. Because I am absolutely done with Zuck and his lot.
As you may be able to tell, I am kinda new to this so please forgive my previous privacy disgression such as owning a Chinese spy device (Huawei P40, great phone, useless real world usage due to lack of Google functionality).
Thanks for your suggestions in the main post, I've taken a lot of them onboard.
Are you meaning use an email address that doesn't use your real name or an alias for your real name? Honestly it just depends on what you are using it for. If you are using the address for friends and family and things attached to your real identity I guess you could use your real name for both. If you are are paying from proton with fiat you will have to use your real name as well for the billing I believe. However if you have a more private use then yeah use an alias.
The main difference between Proton and Gmail is that with Proton your email is encrypted at rest. Gmail reads your email to show you ads. Unless you use PGP or Proton's secure message feature the email is sent just like any other email service.
Also, you are of course trusting Proton or whoever you use for email. Email is not a secure messaging system. It can be more or less secure and private but it is important to understand the limitations.
As far as Graphene, yes they recommend the phones manufactured by Google. This is because of the hardware's quality and open design allowing for modifying the bootloader. These phones are high quality and as far as we know they are not compromised. Google does their tracking in the OS and apps and they do a ton of it.
Hope that helps. Others can add to what I have here I'm sure.
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Thank you for your response and advice. I've found it all very helpful. Much appreciated.
Ofcourse as you mentioned there are always limitations to just how private you can be. But like you also said. At least proton isn't reading my mail to show me ads. Or reading my mail at all really.
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