Privacy
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
Normal people: Gladly give google maps access to location data at all times and never think about it
Me: Instinctively worry that on the rare occasions I do use google maps it's somehow identifying me and keeping track of all the locations I look at, so I sometimes look at random places I'm not really interested in just to throw off the algorithms.
But most of the time I prefer osmand.
Me: can't install Google Maps because my phone doesn't have gapps. Awesome.
Oh yeah, I tend to forget that there's an app and it's not just a website.
You have been free for a while then i suppose.
Oh, yeah, I do use the website sometimes to convert an address to GPS coordinates and load that into OSMAnd
Osmand is really cool and it's really capable but I understand that it isn't for people who don't want to tinker a bit to make things work just right for them.
For that Organic Maps is what I recommend.
I daily drive osmand. Where do you need tinkering there?
The UI is definitely confusing for OSMand
Or have your phone location turned on and be super boring back and forth. When you deviate use a burner.
TL;DW?
EDIT: thank you guys for the summaries.
Google saw neat idea, built cool software, users happy. Replace cars to generate map data with phones for utmost accuracy. Trends of maximizing profit from cool technology makes users sad and services suck like other popular sites. Host begs Google not to make maps suck next.
Every free tech service can be (notionally) graded on how much value it offers for how much of your data it sucks up and monetizes. Most of the time we see an initial high value that gradually decreases as the developer gets greedy.
Google maps has managed to become Google "best" service, but it's important to be aware of the scale of problem we'll see if they start squeezing it for increasing profits, since it sucks up so much of our data and manages to be so useful.
That's the bulk of it, but there were other points being made about solving for edge cases that seem less central to the point.
I've been trying to use osmand but it doesnt have public transport capabilities or live updates which is just too much its missing out on to switch for 100% of tasks
It's fine to use it for 80% of tasks too and try to contribute to it becoming available for 100% of tasks.
Most people into Privacy, either stumbled upon the niche or work(ed) in some IT or related field. Have tried talking to the family, they are in denial or do not care. Or think that using WhatsApp is a wise choice and/or they are immune to ads. Somehow. It's like talking to a goat who has more desire for habit over sense.
I remember playing with Google Now, thinking it 'neat' and then within seconds realizing that in order for it to work optimally meant giving Google everything. It got me to root my phone and removed Goople Play Services and/or different ROMs. Today, I do not use Google for anything or use front-ends with a VPN or if ever really needed, Tor.
Organic maps or OSMAnd. Plus, I find these two better for cycling and hiking, over Gmaps. If you must use Gmaps briefly, then GMaps WV from F-Droid.
what's a good alternative if one's using GMaps mainly for travelling instead of navigation (i.e. looking up nearby restaurants and getting reviews, public transport, attractions and their opening hours, etc.)?
Organic maps is what I use. Keep in mind OSM is built by the community so in places with lower tech literacy it will incomplete
Used to know someone who looked for cars around a restaurant, or long lines waiting to get into a tiny cafe, asked wait staff for interesting places they liked to go; went into non-chain stores where locals shopped (off the main streets); asked walkers and service station workers for directions. Always had wild stories about what happened, if you could get past their private nature. Weird fucker, unpredictable, never could get used to'm. Likeable enough, though.