Every year or so me and my friends will find Chinese gibberish entries in our calendars that link to phishing sites.

D@mn! That was an absolute PITA. In my experience, my calendars and contacts never synced properly anyway so I went to the Proton ecosystem a few years ago.

Anyway, thank you for sharing. I only know one other person who had the same problem and we both thought we were going nuts.

Shoofly Pie!

Ahh, apologies then. I thought OP wanted to de-google. I use DuckDuckGo because of their duck player; it opens YouTube on a separate window without all the extra stuff you don’t want (just the video you wanted to see). I guess OP can use PeerTube? I’m quite happy with my Proton Unlimited but it’s not for everyone. And yeah, I’m a browser hopper.

Yes, you can have multiple duck addresses at the same time. There’s a personal and private duck address.

Composing email: https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/email-protection/duck-addresses/how-do-i-compose-a-new-email

About duck addresses: https://duckduckgo.com/duckduckgo-help-pages/email-protection/duck-addresses/can-i-create-multiple-custom-duck-addresses

I also used SimpleLogin and loved it until I subscribed to the Proton products. Like you, I haven’t needed to use SimpleLogin because of Proton Pass. Haven’t used iCloud since 2021 and have no regrets.

Check out DuckDuckGo, they also have an email alias forwarding system like SimpleLogin. I have a different email address/alias for each account that I have and they all end up in my Proton inbox. Also, you’re able to reply and send email with the DuckDuckGo address from Proton mail.

@Corduroy_Pillows_Making_Headlines Created a Post/Group about how to De-Google. The details about my set-up is also there. Hope it helps:

https://lemmy.myserv.one/post/19040195

😂LMAO, thanks!😂

Mullvad and Proton! But not these:

‘Cause these VPNs may have ties to…

Thank you from a Lemmy newbie.

When my Android tablet wouldn’t let me do anything unless I was logged in to Google, I ditched gifted it away. Albeit, I like my apple phone, iCloud syncing has screwed me before so I don’t use any of the stock apps. I went full-on Proton (mail, calendar, drive, etc.). I also have a separate email alias FOR EACH account courtesy of DuckDuckGo. It’s been a few years since I’ve had this setup and I have no regrets.

The default browser on my phone is DuckDuckGo only because it has “Duck Player” for YouTube videos. I also have both Firefox browsers, Brave and Startpage (I still have Safari but don’t use it).

Yes, I’ve been using EHDs and USBs since I learned how to use a computer and will do so for the rest of my life. I highly recommend it (redundancy, offline use, Cloudflare chaos).

I wanted to join your de-google team but I don’t have a Signal account (due to the phone number requirement). Speaking of phone numbers, TextNow was my Google voice replacement until the latest update logged me out and demanded that I take down my VPN and subscribe to theirs instead. Such audacity. App deleted and subscribed to MySudo just to have an additional phone number

Instead of Signal we’ve been using Session (The Loki Project). It doesn’t require a phone number to sign up which was my selling point to my fam/friends. My nieces/nephews use Simple X chat (no phone number required).

The Proton Blog has an article about privacy and big tech alternatives which is how I discovered Lemmy:

Wary of US surveillance? Try these European alternatives to Big Tech

Having read your post, I wish that I properly deleted my Google and TextNow accounts instead of just abandoning them. I look forward to learning more. Thanks again.