patrick.net

https://www.go350.com/posts/replace-google-analytics-with-a-shell-script/

Lol, you can get most of what you want just by parsing your log files.

Now that google stopped being a product, and offers propaganda filtered information I prefer not to use it. Value isn’t there.

Patrick says

I've been using Brave and think it's very good.

Same here but yesterday (and still today) the Tor feature isn't working. It just says:

Tor Status
Disconnected

edit: The fix is to delete the data folder from the AppData tor folder.

https://reclaimthenet.org/switch-to-private-email-provider/

How to switch to a more private email provider
Follow these steps to easily back up and transfer your data.

https://reclaimthenet.org/google-drive-blocks-vaccine-side-effect-document/

Google Drive blocks access to document that compiled news coverage of COVID vaccine side effects

Google is blocking access to a PDF document that has compiled 106 pages of screenshots of mainstream media reports about people who have allegedly experienced negative side effects or died after taking a COVID-19 vaccine and social media testimony from those who have alleged adverse vaccine reactions.

The document is titled “Informed Consent Matters” and states that “it is everyone’s right to review the first-hand testimonies of the COVID vaccine adverse reactions without censorship.” It adds that by giving people access to this data, they can perform their own risk benefit analysis.

https://circleofmamas.com/health-news/frontline-workers-testimonials-vaers-reports/

Patrick says

https://restoreprivacy.com/google-alternatives/

I'm playing around with YaCy (a peer to peer search engine) - I've opened a port up on my machine if anybody wants to play with it. This is running on a raspberry pi. The address is:

http://samoyed.dynu.net:8090

If somebody wants to try it out. I hope somebody does, I'd be interested in how you think it compares to Google.

It's a little slow initially, but if you get 1000 results, clicking the next page is instantaneous. This is using a peer to peer system, which means no one entity controls it.

Patrick says

Google Drive blocks access to document that compiled news coverage of COVID vaccine side effects

Google is blocking access to a PDF document that has compiled 106 pages of screenshots of mainstream media reports about people who have allegedly experienced negative side effects or died after taking a COVID-19 vaccine and social media testimony from those who have alleged adverse vaccine reactions.

Here's what happens when I search for "covid vaccine side effects"

http://samoyed.dynu.net:8090/yacysearch.html?query=covid+vaccine+side+effects&Enter=&auth=&verify=ifexist&contentdom=text&nav=location%2Chosts%2Cauthors%2Cnamespace%2Ctopics%2Cfiletype%2Cprotocol%2Clanguage&startRecord=0&indexof=off&meanCount=5&resource=global&prefermaskfilter=&maximumRecords=10&timezoneOffset=420

This is what Google returns:

https://www.google.com/search?q=covid+vaccine+side+effects&sxsrf=ALeKk025re0NeZsd1ORNex_zwdOyZxXTuA%3A1619484274139&source=hp&ei=cl6HYICEBYiIsQWW0b2wCQ&iflsig=AINFCbYAAAAAYIdsgp21xR0IXPmCcIXcCyrV6JhijloR&oq=covid+vaccine+side+effects&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMyBQgAELEDMgUIABCxAzIFCAAQsQMyBQgAELEDMgUIABCxAzIICAAQsQMQgwEyAggAMgIIADICCAAyAggAOgQIIxAnOgsILhCxAxDHARCjAjoICC4QsQMQgwE6DgguELEDEMcBEKMCEJMCOggIABCxAxDJAzoFCAAQkgNQ1gpYlylg5ipoAHAAeACAAaQBiAHYGZIBBDAuMjaYAQCgAQGqAQdnd3Mtd2l6&sclient=gws-wiz&ved=0ahUKEwiAhYGHmZ3wAhUIRKwKHZZoD5YQ4dUDCAo&uact=5

richwicks says

YaCy (a peer to peer search engine)

Thanks, this looks interesting.

Patrick says

richwicks says

YaCy (a peer to peer search engine)

Thanks, this looks interesting.

It's a bit wonky. It runs on a pi, but a Pi4 with 4GB of memory - not 1GB. I moved it to a VM.

I'm playing around so I'm starting and restarting it.

It's interesting that sometimes I get amazing results and sometimes, lousy ones. I wouldn't recommend running it on a VM with less than 2 GB, and even that might be tight. I'm being very permissive and using 8GB.

Brave is a superior product to anything else out there. I used firefox for 20 years and was sold after only 1 week. In doing more research, I actually enabled the Brave ads on my computer. Their Basic Attention Token (cryptocurrency) ad system is a great idea and can potentially cut into the revenues of google, facebook etc... which are incredibly invasive. They give you a slice of their pie. I currently have $7 earned just for using their browser. If you don't want them, you can "tip" or contribute them to your preferred content providers.

https://themarkup.org/privacy/2021/04/27/google-promised-its-contact-tracing-app-was-completely-private-but-it-wasnt

Privacy

Google Promised Its Contact Tracing App Was Completely Private—But It Wasn’t

Researchers say hundreds of preinstalled apps can access a log found on Android devices where sensitive contact tracing information is stored

theoakman says

I actually enabled the Brave ads on my computer. Their Basic Attention Token (cryptocurrency) ad system is a great idea and can potentially cut into the revenues of google, facebook etc... which are incredibly invasive.

@theoakman Good idea, I enabled their Basic Attention Token in Brave as well.

I feel a trust toward Brave the I absolutely do not feel with any Google product like Chrome.

How do you collect the money from Brave Attention Tokens when you have surfed enough ads?

You can activate the wallet in your browser. It will start the ads, and then it lists your rewards payout which happens monthly. I liked the system much that I purchased 200 in Basic attention token to support the system.

@theoakman Yes, I did that, but how do they actually pay you US dollars? You have to give them a bank account or something, right?

This guy gets into everything, including alternative mobile app stores:
https://www.minds.com/embed/1233716368224440320

I like it.

Finally watched it all, and it's a really good interview:

https://www.minds.com/embed/1233716368224440320

Didn't know about router triangulation, that's actually pretty cool from a tech standpoint, but of course super creepy with Google. Also, not surprised to hear Google bought Android, reminds me of the Gates/Basic story.

https://reclaimthenet.org/free-speech-friendly-discord-alternatives/

Discord also censors on the basis of political views. Avoid them.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/may/25/gchqs-mass-data-sharing-violated-right-to-privacy-court-rules

The UK spy agency GCHQ’s methods for bulk interception of online communications violated the right to privacy and the regime for collection of data was unlawful, the grand chamber of the European court of human rights has ruled.

In what was described as a “landmark victory” by Liberty, one of the applicants, the judges also found the bulk interception regime breached the right to freedom of expression and contained insufficient protections for confidential journalistic material but said the decision to operate a bulk interception regime did not of itself violate the European convention on human rights.

The chamber, the ultimate court of the ECHR, also concluded that GCHQ’s regime for sharing sensitive digital intelligence with foreign governments was not illegal.

The grand chamber judgment is the culmination of a legal challenge to GCHQ’s bulk interception of online communications begun in 2013 by Big Brother Watch and others after Edward Snowden’s whistleblowing revelations concerning the interception, processing and storing of data about millions of people’s private communications by the eavesdropping agency.

Lawsuits are the answer! There still seem to be enough honest judges for lawsuits to work.

This organization started the suit: https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/

https://apnews.com/article/europe-technology-business-d7c3819420c7bb5221e7ed8cb8042520

BERLIN (AP) — German regulators have launched an investigation into Google’s position in the market, and how the search engine and advertising giant handles user data.

The Federal Cartel Office, or Bundeskartellamt, said Tuesday that it has started proceedings against Google entities in Germany, Ireland and California based on new provisions in German competition law that apply to large digital companies. Similar probes were launched into the activities of Facebook and Amazon in recent months.

It also helps a lot that we do not yet have one world government, but various governments with different ideas on how to do things.

Some more good alternatives for search:

https://reclaimthenet.org/private-search-engines/

https://www.mojeek.com/
https://searx.ir/
and more

I'm in the beta of https://search.brave.com/

Going to use it for a while and see if it's better than DDG.

https://reclaimthenet.org/vivaldi-translate-email-calendar-rss-reader/

Vivaldi’s wide range of features have made it a compelling alternative to Big Tech browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge.

https://creativerly.com/google-analytics-alternatives/

You do not need Google Analytics - A list of privacy-friendly Google Analytics alternatives.
If you want to get insights about the traffic happening on your website you probably came across Google Analytics. Let me tell you: it is bloated, hard to use, and scraping user data. In this blog post, I will show you a list of privacy-friendly and ethical Google Analytics alternatives.

I read some articles on google from the past couple years to recent ones, and they talked with many execs that either work there now, or recently left google.

Many complaints that:
- google is unrecognizable from just a few years back
- their employee base is becoming very politically outspoken and difficult, and its causing external problems
- tough to get things approved. either theyre too scared to try something bold, or they take too long to think about it.

A handful of mentions about how one of their NPCs employees short circuits, then turns on google by whistle blowing or invoking wokeness.

I think it would be terrific if their commie employee situation turned into a public soap opera with google going down in flames, showing business leaders everywhere what happens when you dont smack down entitled bratty wokies. But I can only dream about it for now.

I know a guy who joined Google a year ago. He says that the Gmail project is in disarray because so many people left.

Made me happy.