What can we do to keep the web open?
Just use Firefox
And an alternate email service like ProtonMail.
They also have ProtonDrive as an alternative to Google Drive. Apple’s iCloud is also end-to-end encrypted now. pCloud is another popular option. There are a number of choices for secure cloud storage these days.
Web search is a bit more difficult. DuckDuckGo is heavily integrated with Bing. Brave Search is hit-or-miss. Yahoo is just a front-end for Bing.
If you need live document collaboration, you’re probably already in a setting where either Sharepoint or GSuite are mandated. If you’re not, BitAI may be worth looking into.
All great advice, but I personally cannot urge people towards pCloud. I have one of the permanent tiers, but I found the service frustratingly buggy and, when contacted, support was rude and unhelpful. There are so many little odd limitations on the pCloud file system it was frustrating. I also worry that their buy-once business model is not sustainable.
Sync.com provides an even more secure service (zero-knowledge across the board) with similar (better than US anyway) privacy protections in the host country (Canada) that has been, so far for 2 years of use, rock solid (I couldn’t go a week without pCloud farting out some error). The subscription model is affordable and generous and the customer-facing pages for sharing files are very professional looking (important to me, because I professionally share files and pCloud looked like a hobbyist page in this regard AND leaked private information).
EDIT: Regarding iCloud. Not only is iCloud end-to-end, but you may turn on zero-knowledge encryption now, as well (Advanced Data Protection I think is what they call it) so that Apple doesn’t even have the keys to decrypt your data, making it quite similar to sync.com now.
Removed by mod
Swiss technology company that focuses on privacy products. Initially funded by a Swiss startup capital firm and now uses a subscription model. ProtonMail is not open source or non-profit, but the product they offer is privacy. Switzerland also has strict privacy laws and resists state-based information requests. Best option is to run one’s own email client server, but simple folks like me don’t have the skills to do so. (FWIW, I use ProtonMail and think it works great.)
For web search, I always first try SearXNG, but if I dont find what I need, I use startpage.com (private frontend for google.com)
Kagi is also really nice. But it’s not free…
I am confused by why everyone thinks this is a big threat?
What stops the FOSS community from just continuing to allow ad blockers and other webpage editing features?
DRM is already applied for certain content in websites such as Netflix, etc, and it makes it waaaay harder to bypass.
For example, Netflix (and the others) use DRM to block Linux computers from higher quality content. Why? I guess “hackers” and “think of the children”. Truth is… content is already pirated from the second it gets released on any of these platforms… so they are not really fixing anything… I guess they really want you to use a tracking OS.
Imagine this kind of system but for an entire website. Big companies imposing their devices and software as the only way to access a website… which is really just HTML and Javascript files, entirely platform agnostic… but who cares? They are struggling for money so they are squeezing every little possibility.
deleted by creator
You don’t need to “be smart” to switch to Linux. Linux for the most part ‘just works’ these days of you choose the ‘right’ distro.
deleted by creator
https://lemmy.ml/post/511377?scrollToComments=true
Thank me later ;)
Agreed but you do need to be willing to tinker a bit. Even ubuntu required a lot of tinkering to get working on my system. I’m all for getting people to switch, and it’s much easier than it was 15 years ago when I started, but for most people they’re not going to just install linux. We definitely are in the <1% of users.
You need to mention that NVIDIA GPU is the problem for Linux usage, and even then, just install Nobara (made by Steam’s Proton creator) or Garuda which takes care of everything related to NVIDIA GPU better than Ubuntu/Debian non-free firmware would. There is NO issue with Intel/AMD CPU and AMD GPU machines with installing any mainstream Linux distribution. No tinkering needed.
If the web is DRM’d in a way that requires chrome or windows then it could be difficult to bypass.
I remember the days of, “sorry, you must use Internet Explorer to use this website” when visiting my bank.
I remember that government sites were the same way it was frustrating.
It’s a big threat because once it’s easy to block unapproved browsers, lots of people will do it. Yeah, there will always be a few weirdos like us that don’t enable it, but just imagine when it’s your bank, your insurance company, your government, and most every linked-to page on Lemmy. You’ll be forced to use Chrome to interact with large parts of the internet then.
Shout-out to Librewolf as well (basically Firefox with better privacy focused configs).
People don’t care enough about using browsers that reduce Google’s influence on web standards (i.e. non chrome-based browsers)
Stop supporting those who intend to close it.
I just want remind everyone that Windows 11 requires your computer to ship with TPM2.0 enabled. This will complete the circuit meaning remote streaming websites can ensure you don’t have DRM on your machine.
TPM is a security token loaded into the firmware of the BIOS put in by the manufacturer to ensure you haven’t tampered with the operating system as shipped and controlled by them.
That will be nice for those websites.
Conspiratorial but has a string of possibility. Note that Microsoft itself has a solution to workaround the TPM 2.0 needs on their forums, so Windows definitely is not going DRM kiosk mode on internet browsing this early.
Conspiratorial but has a string of possibility.
User: What are you doing?
Microsoft and Motherboard manufacturers: Putting DRM chips on the motherboard.
User: Why?
Microsoft: No reason.
User: Most businesses would switch to a cheaper toilet paper to save $5, why are you shipping chips and developing software and technology to use these chips.
Microsoft: Oh we’re not going to force anyone to do anything, we just want the ability to. Look at this workaround that we expect 0.015 of our billions of Windows users to use.
It’s easy to tell people how to bypass enabling the feature, you play the slow game. They’re waiting for Windows 10 to fade out too. “Oh look you’ve beaten TPM… so clever” but when 90% of machines have it enabled, they will switch on DRM for Netflix and leave you unable to play things. They say you chose to tamper with DRM security and that’s why you can’t watch things.
In terms of conspiracy, motherboards components cost money. TPM adds risk to the operating system. They features are being shipped because they plan to use them. It’s not just for the giggles.
Probably a sinking ship, but it can be plugged. An airgapped Windows 10 machine, or with heavily secured with anti executables after August 2025 EOL can be used for the next 10-15 years easily. Scan anything you put on it using Kaspersky’s Virus Removal Tool and Emsisoft Emergency Kit.
Use Linux for daily life, honestly, with Windows XP in VirtualBox. You will not believe how well a Linux machine can be used with ease today. I am dailying Debian 12 and have Windows 10 Ameliorated on a SSD that I force boot if I need to use it.
For your “streaming” needs, have either a Chromebook with HDMI and USB-C/Thunderbolt port, or pirate the streaming DRM content.
I think a good first step is to use free and open-source, non-profit alternatives (Firefox, Lemmy, Mastodon, Matrix, etc). The next is to help grow these technologies by contributing to their development. You can contribute by fixing bugs, translating text, or just donating money.
It will take a while for most people but try to DeGoogle, DeMicrosoft, and DeApple your life. It’s quite liberating to not be tied to any of these company’s DRM, policies or rules.
Use tech and services outside the big tech. Just Fedi over standard social. Use Peertube instead of Youtube.
Run Firefox.
Set up your own servers for yourself or start a community. Matrix, Mastodon, Lemmy, etc.
Run SearXNG as your search or help others by hosting.
If you can work of free and open source code that helps decentralize and give the power back to the people or create something new. Even if you can code, learning a project and helping others with it or helping create docs, etc.
Spread the word, but don’t be annoying. Help less technical folks get decentralized.
It’s very difficult and can be disheartening, but you don’t have to cold turkey all of it. Each drip in the bucket helps until we’re all united and become a tidal wave.
When all the power is centralized that’s when those central players think they can do whatever they want.
Instead of SearXNG which just uses big tech search engines, shouldn’t people use something like https://yacy.net instead? Just a thought.
I’ve never heard of yacy.net but I will check it out. Thank you for the info!
Start replacing your Google and Microsoft products and services with alternatives, bit by bit. Begin by switching to Firefox for the browser.
Normies won’t do that unless it affects them directly in a big way. Without them it will not make a difference.
Just like everyone else said spread the word and de google, Microsoft, apple, etc… your life
Don’t close the browser.
I’ve been running the entire internet in my browser for 20 years. If I ever close this window, the entire internet will explode.
Kill google
Alphabet needs to be broken up, same as Microsoft and Apple and Amazon. The consolidation of tech into a few giant corporations that have a tremendous amount of power and hold a monopoly/duopoly is doing a lot of harm.
Support financially FOSS developers. And stop using corporate shit.
As many people as
peoplepossible need to use Firefox.Twice in the past few months I came across a site that would not work with Firefox. The other time it actually did work, but said that it recommends chrome to function properly.
The first one was a local government form that would not let me select boxes, but chrome worked without any problems.
The second was some 3d game or something like that.
This is one of the reasons to use FF. I know it can be a bit inconvenient, but these sites don’t care about optimizing for anything but Chrome because it has such a huge market share.
And you can keep a second browser installed for the few times this happens, e.g. Chromium or Brave. Also an addon to change your user-agent string for a website works 90% of the time.
If it’s a random site, then fuck it, I’ll just not visit it again. That’s their issue, not mine. If it is something important, I’d try changing the user agent. That works most of the time.
Removed by mod
gopher
Gemini
UUCP
Create good content and post it on a free platform. Also give it a permissive license.
A free license is better. Corporations can benefit from the work under permissive license without giving back.
Use RSS. Find good independent blogs which meet your standards of good open web content and subscribe to them. Some places to look:
Also, start your own website/blog and link to other websites and blogs.
There’s a lot of good comments and suggestions, but the one that I’m not seeing is, “tell others”.
Do you perform support for friends and family members? Explain why it’s not in their best interest to use Chrome (and Google products in general), then ask and help them to install and use alternatives.
Have a laypersons response to why they should avoid Google for that person you’re chatting with on the bus. Have a response ready to the awful, “but I don’t have anything to hide” counterargument. As an aside, being the tin foil hat wearing guy/gal doesn’t help the cause, explain it in plain language.
Could you please share yours I only have:
“Arguing that you don’t care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don’t care about free speech because you have nothing to say.” ― Edward Snowden
(just now learnd who sad that)
The logical fallacy here being that, based on that context alone, you should care because you will have something to hide in the future. Saying you have nothing to hide is always used in the context of one’s sense of guilt, or lack thereof, based on past actions. A counterargument would then be to ask why you should be allowed to hide your future wrongs.
For many, the subject has nothing to do with that. It’s about not wanting to be monetized without consent. There’s also benefits in the form of protection against identity theft or social engineering. For others, the simple right to fundamental personal privacy itself is important - it’s about not having all of one’s life’s details on public display.
Also known as “none of your goddamn business.”
As a tangent, because it’s now stuck in my head and needs expression - the more thought you give to the problems introduced by technology that blur or step over this line, the more you realize how much harder it’s becoming to prevent outcomes where privacy is lost.
Only engaging AI under tightly controlled circumstances is one thing; having it in the background perceiving everything you say and do on your desktop is a very different conversation. No matter what assurances are given that your privacy is protected, almost every situation like it that’s arisen since the advent of personal computers has resulted in a loss of control through duplicity, intrusion, sabotage, bad design, or floundering integrity.
