Note: I prefer Apple over Google and I’m not ready to go full privacy-hardened, I want to find a balance between convenience and privacy protection.

So I’m moving from Samsung to iPhone soon, mainly because I despise Google. Want to cut Google out as much as possible while I’m at it.

What I’m planning so far:

  • Mailbox.org instead of Gmail
  • DuckDuckGo for search, would prefer something even better
  • Safari with all the privacy stuff turned on

Where I’m stuck:

  • What about YouTube? Just use the web version?

  • Google Drive alternatives that actually work well?

  • Best way to store photos that aren’t big greedy corps?

Questions:

  • Any must-have privacy apps once I get the iPhone?

  • Settings I should change immediately out of the box?

  • Services I’m forgetting that are probably feeding Google my data?

  • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.works
    41·
    21 hours ago

    I only ever open YouTube links in the Brave browser, and I only use the brave browser for YouTube. No ads by default, even when signed in; speaks for itself. For all the people here who hate on Brave; only use it for YouTube. Its the best solution on Apple that I have found.

    iCloud Drive is the best integrated, smoothest way to go for cloud storage. But you’re gonna pay, and Apple knows exactly how to price it so it always seems like the next tier is worth it, even though all of them are overpriced. I pay around $40 a month after taxes for Apple One because it’s the most cost effective option that gets me AppleTV+, Apple Music+, and 2TB of iCloud+. I don’t need 2TB of storage, I need 500GB; But that’s not a fuckin option. It goes from 200GB for $2.99 to 2TB for $9.99 with nothing in between. Apple TV+ on its own is $9.99 a month. Apple Music individual plan is $10.99 a month…but you can only stream on 1 device at a time, and they WILL give you constant annoying pop-ups and stop your music if you try to stream on more than one or if they mistakenly think you are streaming on more than one, which happened to me constantly, and fucking Senior Tier AppleCare support could NOT figure it out OR solve it. So I pay the extra 6 bucks a month for Apple One Family or whatever, which lets me stream on 6 devices simultaneously. I don’t ever DO that, but it magically stops that error that no one could solve. You also get Apple Arcade+, Apple News+, and Apple Fitness+, and I don’t use any of that shit.

    The above also solves for your photo storage inquiry, which is also what I do.

    Extensions I use for Safari are AdGuard, Wipr, Extract, Vinegar, Consent-o-Matic, Hush, and superagent. I use Kagi for search. Yes I pay for that.

    Brace yourself. You’re going to get a lot of really mean and hateful comments in this community asking about Apple, so fair warning.

    • Lfrith@lemmy.ca
      1·
      4 minutes ago

      For safari why do you use adguard and wipr as opposed only one of them? I thought they are both adblockers so redundant to run two adblockers or does one of them offer settings to run both?

    • twikz@sopuli.xyzOP
      1·
      21 hours ago

      There is also the option of sideloading a modded YouTube client for the adblock aspect.

      I was thinking about getting 256GB version of the phone and self hosting a storage solution, but I ain’t got the server to do that yet, might aswell pay for icloud drive until I finish my studies. Luckily I dont need alot of storage, just need the security of having stuff backed up.

      I also selfhost adguard home over my home network.

      Yeah I guess getting hate for choosing Apple is fair, I was anti-apple a few years ago but now I would rather get rid of Google, and ios isnt bad nowadays either for my use cases.

      I could just go for a fairphone tho with /e/OS tho

      • DominusOfMegadeus@sh.itjust.works
        2·
        21 hours ago

        I am slowly accumulating all my favorite music in flac, and when I summon the motivation I am going to load it right onto my local phone storage and play it with an app, because I am also sick and tired of my music cutting out when I lose internet connection while driving, even if it’s something I’ve downloaded to my library to avoid that happening. I live in northern Maine and it’s a problem.