In today’s show I detail my journey into what will be a multi-year endeavor – completely de-Googling my life. For us to live as sovereign human beings this day in age, we have to consciously design our digital lives to maintain appropriate levels of privacy and security amidst the ever-rising tide of surveillance and tracking. De-Googling my phone was one process I began a year ago in order to start to take back some control over my data and my reliance upon centralized tech cloud services.
Despite the many pitfalls we face daily with smartphones in our lives, they are also tremendously powerful tools, and can be one of the most powerful tools you have when operating your homestead and homestead enterprises as a well-integrated whole. We need to be conscious of how we integrate tech into our lives, and understand that anything they say is “free” means that you are the product.
Join me today as I share my experience in de-Googline my phone and give you the concrete steps to follow to do the same and claw back from digital privacy from the technocrats.
Show Resources (aka your guide to de-Googling a Google Pixel phone)
- Operating Systems
- CalyxOS – this is what I ended up going with – maintains the Android privacy standards, very user friendly, faster than Graphene, looks great, excellent functionality and plenty of options to customize everything – oh and privacy is the default setting, but you have plenty of options to make yourself less private if you so desire.
- Watch TechLore’s review of CalyxOS: The Private & Secure Android ROM For Everyone!
- GrapheneOS – more secure and private than Calyx, but requires more technical knowledge to operate, is slower and has a less seamless user experience – for more advanced folks IMO.
- LineageOS – steered clear of this due to reported lack of verified boot mode – backdoors perhaps?
- CalyxOS – this is what I ended up going with – maintains the Android privacy standards, very user friendly, faster than Graphene, looks great, excellent functionality and plenty of options to customize everything – oh and privacy is the default setting, but you have plenty of options to make yourself less private if you so desire.
- Installing & Setting Up CalyxOS
- Calyx OS Installation Guides
- Set Up Guides
- TechLore’s Complete Android Privacy & Security Guide
- Android Privacy Lab’s CalyxOS – Full Post-Install Set Up Guide – Maximize Privacy On Your Android Phone
- Rob Braxman’s deep dive into MicroG – what it is, what it does, how it impacts your privacy – excellent resource!
- very helpful Reddit thread – How I Made CalyxOS The Perfect Balance Of Private & Awesome – A Guide
- App Stores
- Sandbox
- Shelter App – a MUST have! Basically allows you to have two phones in one – one for work, one for personal, and limit any unruly behaviors from work-necessary apps to a small sandbox so they don’t have access to all the info on your phone. You can also “freeze” apps that have spyware or trackers so they can’t constantly report back to the mothership.
- Read this article from MakeUseOf on how Shelter works.
- Browsers
- Fennec (Firefox)
- Tor
- Video Calls – Jitsi – has desktop and mobile apps for open source video conferencing
- Simple Mobile Tools – found in Fdroid, all the basic data management tools we’ve come to expect on a phone – only simpler.
- Gallery Pro – all photos and videos, multiple formats
- Contacts
- Notes
- Calendar – use EteSync service to create shared calendars, sync across devices – very affordable and works great
- File Manager
- Camera
- Documents / Office Suite
- NextCloud – Calyx has great integration here – can also be self-hosted on Embassy and auto-sync with your phone!
- NextCloud Hub
- NextCloud Files – file sharing
- NextCloud Talk – calls, chat, video conferencing
- NextCloud Groupware – calendar, contacts, email
- NextCloud Office – real time document collaboration – integrates with LibreOffice on Desktop
- NextCloud Hub
- NextCloud – Calyx has great integration here – can also be self-hosted on Embassy and auto-sync with your phone!
- File Sharing
- Navigation
- Magic Earth – download map files ahead of time – will work even if you have no service or connectivity – this is Great for off-grid stuff! Has voice directions
- Organic Maps – based on OpenSTreetMaps – no spoken directions
- Password Manager
- BitWarden – I self host my own instance on my Embassy personal server, but you can create an account with BitWarden or download and run your own instance if you have the technical chops.
- Messaging
- Telegram
- Signal
- Briar – haven’t used this myself, but I’ve read good things.
- Simple Messenger (native to CalyxOS – slim on features, but can do group texts etc)
- Phone – integrated w/ contacts, call history, simple dial pad etc.
- Drawbacks – no Missed Call alert flags, have to dial in to listen to voicemail, can’t merge calls (at least I haven’t successfully done so yet).
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Music by Alex Grohl
