Two years without Google, et al. – has it been worth it?

Back in the summer of 2023, I decided it was time to remove myself from the surveillance economy, and stop being a product of the advertising industry. That meant making a conscious effort to avoid all on-line services that harvest personal data, including, but not limited to, all Google services. It also meant abandoning mainstream smartphone platforms like iOS and any vendor’s version of Android. Even with an open-source version of Android on my cellphone, it meant giving up most commercial apps.

In this article, I outline the changes I’ve seen in the de-Googling world over the last couple of years, both for good and for ill.

Note
I should point out that I’ve never really used Microsoft Windows and, while I’ve read about worrying changes to its advertising and telemetry policies, I can’t really comment on them. Windows users have an additional need for caution.

What’s changed – installing a non-vendor operating system on a cellphone

Back in 2023 I reported that it was difficult – unnecessarily difficult – to install an open-source operating system like Lineage OS or /e/OS on a modern smartphone. This situation has mostly not improved: it’s still a bear. In some senses it’s gotten worse: the demise of 2G and 3G network services now excludes Samsung handsets from effective de-Googling.

What’s changed, however, is my level of skill. In the last two years I’ve de-Googled many smartphones and tablets. I have all the software tools I need, and I know how to use them. I can install Lineage OS on a phone, test it, and reinstall the vendor firmware if necessary in less than an hour.

I’ve learned how to root various brands of cellphone, because this process uses similar tools to the ones we use for flashing new firmware. Being able to root the device is helpful even if you’re not installing a new operating system, because it provides access to a more comprehensive level of de-bloating than regular end-user tools.

In my efforts to make things work, I’ve learned a lot more about telephony than I ever wanted to. I now know what ‘VoLTE’ is, and why it matters, for example.

Another thing I’ve learned, to my horror, is that Google is far from the most avid data siphon in the industry. The amount of data-gathering cruft in Samsung’s Android implementation is simply staggering.

What’s changed – the de-Googled marketplace

It’s always been possible to buy a de-Googled phone from an on-line auction site, but since 2023 I’ve noticed a number of more substantial vendors joining in the game. What’s for sale is mostly refurbished Google Pixels two to three years old, running either /e/OS or Graphene. Ironically, the Google handsets are pretty easy to de-Google. For the easiest Google-free experience, you could consider the Murena ecosystem, which includes de-Googled handsets and the services to back them. It’s an interesting approach and, while I prefer to set everything up myself, not everybody is as geeky as me.

Back in 2023, I said there was no viable alternative to Google Maps. Sadly, that remains the case. The nearest I’ve found is Magic Earth, whose app can be installed on de-Googled cellphones, and which works very well. It’s a subscription service though and, while I’m happy to pay for what I use, the supplier doesn’t provide any way to pay except through Google’s payment framework. So, when I tried Magic Earth, I had a tantalizing one-month free trial to see how good it was, before finding I could no longer use it. I’m told that alternative payment methods are under investigation. In the meantime, I’m using OpenStreeMap as I was in 2023, and it has all the same limitations.

In 2023 I lamented the demise of the ViewRanger topographical mapping application, and its replacement with OutdoorActive. I’m happy to report that OA is now pretty useable and, although I don’t like all the add-on social media features it offers, it still does mapping pretty well, even offline. It’s a paid app which is, again, fine – but the vendor’s payment policies are more flexible than those of Magic Earth.

What’s changed – email and PDA services

Since 2023, a number of new email and PDA services have come on-line, or become mature enough to use. Back then I decided to use FastMail because, frankly, there wasn’t much of an alternative. Now we have new offerings from Proton, tuta, Murena, Posteo, and probably others. I compared some of these offerings in an earlier article.

In 2023 I complained about how fiddly it was to integrate FastMail’s calendar, contacts, and file management with the Android infrastructure. I’m pleased to report that this is no longer the case. I still use DavX5 as the synchronizer, but it now has built-in configuration for FastMail’s services. So does the K-9 (now Thunderbird) email client.

Alternatively, you could opt for Murena’s integrated services, which seem to be as seamless and convenient as Google’s, but without the privacy concerns. Of course, you’ll have to pay for these services, but they aren’t expensive.

On the whole, using a de-Googled smartphone for routine communication and PDA tasks has gotten quite a bit easier since 2023.

What’s changed – over-reliance on apps

I complained in 2023, and have continued to complain, about how many public services have become reliant on apps. Even the gym I frequent has stopped using physical membership cards, in favour of having everybody sign in using an app. Happily, all the staff there know me, and my applessness (is that a word?) isn’t a big deal. When there’s no way to exercise indoors without using an app, I guess I shall have to do more outdoors, and invest in an umbrella if necessary.

I was worried in 2023 about the number of concert and entertainment venues, and car parks, requiring the use of apps. The National Health Service repeatedly sends me messages extolling the virtues of its app but, so far, I haven’t been refused medical treatment without it. I’m pleased to report that, although the situation remains lamentable, it doesn’t seem to have deteriorated in the last couple of years, which is a relief.

What’s changed – open-source apps

The number of serviceable apps that are completely open-source, and available without access to Google services, has continued to increase. There’s no problem finding good-quality apps for email, scheduling, note-taking, media playback, all kinds of messaging, word processing, drawing, spreadsheets, and so on. When you’re divorced from Google, you’ll have to find ways to back up or synchronize all the information these apps manage, of course. That’s not necessarily a disadvantage: apps that were written to be independent of cloud services will operate quite happily on locally-stored data. Yes, you have to look after your data, but at least you’ll still have it during a service outage.

That’s not to say that the open-source apps are as good as their commercial equivalents, or that they even exist. There still isn’t an open-source handwriting recognition app. There isn’t an open-source mapping app as good as Google maps, a music player as good as USB Player Pro, or an audiobook app as good as Smart Audiobook Player.

On the other hand, the open-source VLC is a better video player than anything you can buy. YouTube clients like NewPipe and Tubular are far better than the official YouTube app. These are positive developments, and I expect them to continue.

What’s changed – closed-source apps

It’s become much easier to run closed-source apps without Google services since 2023. Mostly, I think, this is because of the increased sophistication of Google service stubs like MicroG. These stubs fool apps into thinking that Google services are available and, in fact, can register with Google servers in a somewhat anonymous way.

On-line banking and payment apps, in particular, have always been fussy about the handsets they’re prepared to run on, and that hasn’t changed. There continues to be a kind of arms race between the banks and the de-Googlers, with the banks finding increasingly clever ways to determine whether a cellphone has been de-Googled, and the de-Googlers finding increasingly clever ways to fool the apps. The situation remains fluid, and it’s difficult to ensure that any specific app will work on a de-Googled phone.

If you buy a pre-de-Googled phone, it will almost certainly have MicroG installed. Many users want the convenience of access to the Google Play Store, as well as an ability to run for-payment apps. I had mixed feelings about this in 2023, and I continue to have concerns. On the one hand, it irks me that I can no longer use apps that I’ve actually paid for. On the other, I don’t know how anonymous MicroG’s communication with Google can really be, especially when payments are involved. Right now, I’m only using apps that don’t require MicroG and the like, most of which are open-source.

The problem with closed-source apps, apart from the almost inevitable privacy concerns with Google, is that they could be leaking your data to more-or-less anybody. Some apps are pretty open about this, but some are distinctly shady.

What’s changed – ‘sideloading’

Google recently announced, to a barrage of disapproval, that upcoming versions of Android would not allow software to be installed except via channels it controls. I don’t expect this to affect de-Googled phones, so I don’t think it’s a concern for the de-Googling community. It’s a pain in the butt for the users of regular Android, of course.

What’s changed – public perception

So far as I can see, nothing much has changed here. Those of us who eschew surveillance capitalism tend to be seen as tinfoil-hatters and, of the few people who actually understand the issues, many seem to feel the battle is lost. The sentiment I hear most often is: everybody already has all my personal data, what more is there to worry about?

That’s a fair point, I think. Another is that even if I do what I think is the right thing by de-Googling, I’m surrounded by people who are still in Google’s thrall, so the tech behemoths are still sucking up my private information indirectly.

Was it worth it? Should you do it?

Living a Google-free life requires a fair amount of research and experimentation, and a willingness to make compromises. It also means paying for things that you didn’t pay for in the past; to be fair, though, the expense will be minimal for most people.

If you use commercial and closed-source apps – especially the heavy-hitters like Instagram, WhatsApp, and YouTube – I don’t know that you’d get much out of de-Googling. If you’re using those apps, you’ve already tacitly agreed to having your personal data slurped up by the app, regardless of what the platform does. De-Googling will be like worrying about your sunburn when your house is on fire.

I’m prepared to continue on this adventure because I’m a nerd, and I enjoy tinkering with technology. I find that I can live Google-free (and Samsung-free, and all the rest of them) without too much hardship. On a trivial level, I find that I don’t need phone vendors’ AI to edit my photos to remove acne and nasal hair – that’s what Photoshop is for. I don’t need my email messages sent off to some remote server to have my writing checked for run-on sentences, I’ll run on my sentences if I damn well please. Oh, look: I just did. More seriously, I continue to miss Google Maps, and Samsung’s excellent handwriting recognition, but I can live without them.

But should I? Should you?

Google and the other tech giants are turning the world into a giant telemetry platform, and using it to support a massive advertising industry. Some of the telemetry data goes to distinctly shady operators, in places with no respect for human rights. What they do with that data, nobody knows but them.

For me, these are points of sufficient concern that I’m willing to tolerate the modest inconvenience of de-Googling. I’m aware of course, that not everybody has the same priorities, and not everybody has spent a lifetime in the IT industry. De-Googling will be difficult for many people, and inconvenient for almost all.

And, in the end, it might already be too late. I’m well aware that my token efforts to preserve the last vestiges of privacy will have little impact. Nevertheless, I am encouraged by the words of 19th-century clergyman Sidney Smith:

It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little.

So I will continue to do a little, even if I do it alone.