Privacy

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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.

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189

Finally ditched all Google apps/services on my phone (startrek.website)

submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

48 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hello I use GOS have for almost a year and finally removed sandboxed play services in my main profile and only use Aurora for my bank app and Apple Music in my main profile still have Google Voice in private space but seperated from my main profile all my apps are only FOSS other than the 2 apps from aurora and it feels so good to finally say that. I just wanted to share my big news with you and hope you can all ditch Google apps/services as I have its amazing how my spam calls/texts have stopped or become less the more I degoogled.

I hope everyone has a great Degoogle/privacy enchancing experience

Any better replacements for Google Voice welcome in the comments if there is any.

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[–] zerozaku 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Recently I too have made a huge change in move towards degoogling and replaced Gboard with Heliboard. I never thought I'd be able to replace Gboard because I use gesture typing a lot. Heliboard doesn't come inbuilt with gesture typing but you have to import from closed source(?) data which is just a one time import (would like to know more on this one from someone more knowledgeable). So far, it has been great!

[–] copd 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Unfortunately I can't access my banking app without a "certified virtual keyboard". I have to flip back to gboard whenever I want to check my bank balance

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That sucks my bank app doesn't seem to rely on it for anything other than notifications and I can live without those.

[–] copd 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

To be fair, android custom keyboards are ridiciously insecure. They have access to effectively everything on the screen and what you're typing while also having access to make external requests.

The solution is for Android to allow you to select keyboards per app

Yup

[–] MidsizedSedan 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I learnt to just use my PC for all banking. Double check my balance before leaving the house for groceries.

[–] copd 2 points 2 days ago

I'm an idiot for not thinking of that. Fuck I'm so dependent on my phone

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Man can you tell me how to import the gesture typing Library?

[–] zerozaku 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

It is explained in their github.

"Glide typing (only with closed source library ☹️) library not included in the app, as there is no compatible open source library available can be extracted from GApps packages ("swypelibs"), or downloaded here (click on the file and then "raw" or the tiny download button)" https://github.com/Helium314/HeliBoard#:~:text=Glide%20typing%20(,tiny%20download%20button)

In the app, you go Advanced > Load gesture typing library > Select your downloaded library.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Thanks man