The Rearview Mirror
A lot can happen in a calendar year.
If you’re a professional technologist, eager to limit telemetry sent to the big tech companies, you learn a lot during the year. You spend money on devices and software to decrease the information companies sell to data marketers and data brokers about your online habits.
Also, you bore your beautiful wife when sharing the interesting but nerdy information you learn, and confuse her on many occasions as she wonders which phone number and email of yours should be shared when someone asks for contact information.
After the gifts were unwrapped and this year’s holiday season had concluded, I took a look back to see what I learned this year, what I acquired, and what I implemented in my technological life.
Sorry, Apple…it’s not me, it’s you
I stopped using my iPhone SE 2020, purchased a used Google Pixel 4A, and installed GrapheneOS on it.
I stopped using my iPad Air 2020 for personal online content and increased usage of a Dell Latitude 7480 laptop with Linux Mint installed on it.
I moved all my iCloud files onto local external hard drives with an encrypted Veracrypt container.
I stopped using Apple Music for streaming my audio and started developing my own Plex Media Server to stream my music collection, using PlexAmp on my PIxel 4A.
I decreased my usage of Apple Books, purchased a Kobo Libra H2O eReader for reading eBooks. I also signed up for a free Pocket account to read articles saved for later on my Kobo Libra.
You’re a mean one, Mr. Google
I decreased time spent accessing Youtube. Instead, I visited Invidio.us instances to watch YT videos while eliminating telemetry sent to Google.
I installed the NewPipe application on my Pixel 4A to watch YT videos without sending any telemetry to Google.
I learned how to use youtube-dl at yt-dlp via command line. For evaluation purposes, of course.
I moved all Google Drive files onto local external hard drives with an encrypted Veracrypt container.
I exclusively used DuckDuckGo for all my web searches.
Walking in a tinfoil hat Wonderland
I installed Progressive Web App on my Pixel 4A for my Outlook work calendar instead of the full application.
I backed up my Bitwarden password vault to a KeePassXC database, then stored the .csv Bitwarden archive and KeePassXC .kdbx files in my encrypted Veracrypt container.
I decreased masked emails stored with Abine Blur and increased usage of SimpleLogin for masked email accounts for non-essential website accounts.
I increased usage of Mullvad VPN on the majority of my devices, especially when connecting to public wireless outside of home.
I increased my usage of TailsOS on my Dell Latitude 7480 laptop to sell illicit drugs and weapons on the dark web. Just kidding, I just wanted to learn how to create a persistent volume on my TailsOS USB drive. I was just seeing if you were still awake.
I deleted my Pixel 4A’s bluetooth connection in my car and purchased a USB-C to Headphone jack cable to listen to PlexAmp and Podcasts on my Pixel 4A through the AUX input.
If you are curious how I was able to accomplish any of these tech changes, drop me a line. I’d be happy to go into further detail and share ways how you can avoid some potholes I encountered in my own discovery process. I hope your 2022 will be less than this year. Less telemetry sent to “them,” less files stored everywhere, less opportunities for your account to get compromised, and less stress about your technology. #Cheers