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I Cut the 'Big Five' Tech Giants from My Life. It Was Hell (2019)

30 points by ayoisaiah 6y ago

readnews1 6y ago
Most of this difficulty seems to arise from the fact he would block a website just because they used a AWS/Google backend, instead of simply just stop having a Google/Facebook etc. account. The latter is relatively simple to do, the former is nearly impossible (as it is seen in the article).
- Shared404 6y ago
  It does make more sense to me to just use Tor then block everything using AWS/Google, as much as I dislike those companies.
tomohawk 6y ago
> Critics of the big tech companies are often told, “If you don’t like the company, don’t use its products.” I did this experiment to find out if that is possible, and I found out that it’s not—with the exception of Apple.
6510 6y ago
> He usually starts the class by asking people if they know when their phones are communicating with cell towers. “Most people say, ‘When I use it,’ but the answer is, ‘anytime it’s on,’” he says. is it using so much power when "off" the above isn't believable :P
mark_l_watson 6y ago
I liked the article, but a few things rubbed me the wrong way. She said she stopped using Signal because the service was hosted on AWS, and that she didn’t want to use Apple products. If a service is hosted on a large hosting company or a small one, it doesn’t seem to matter. Also, Apple is probably the best large company for protecting our privacy. I liked the phrase “I am a digital vegan and a real one” (or something like that). ‘Digital vegan’ is an interesting expression.
- nix23 6y ago
  >Apple is probably the best large company for protecting our privacy. At least the Marketing works at Apple ;) But your probably right, since Apple makes no Money with user-data. On the other Hand China, give up your stance on privacy for having access to a Market...well. I'm not a "digital vegan" but i refuse to eat shit.
olivierduval 6y ago
Actually, for IT guys, there's a lot of subsitution self-hosted products and docker images, ready to be deployed on independant VPS. But it's obviously not mainstream or end-user friendly...
- nix23 6y ago
  True, Mail=iRedMail (with SOGO) CloudStorage=Nexcloud WebGit=Gitee ....and much more Everything on Vultr with 1vm (Freebsd) with around 12Jails, and Backup to tarsnap.com (because i am truly paranoid)

30 points by ayoisaiah 6y ago

Most of this difficulty seems to arise from the fact he would block a website just because they used a AWS/Google backend, instead of simply just stop having a Google/Facebook etc. account. The latter is relatively simple to do, the former is nearly impossible (as it is seen in the article).

Shared404 6y ago
It does make more sense to me to just use Tor then block everything using AWS/Google, as much as I dislike those companies.

tomohawk 6y ago

> Critics of the big tech companies are often told, “If you don’t like the company, don’t use its products.” I did this experiment to find out if that is possible, and I found out that it’s not—with the exception of Apple.

6510 6y ago

> He usually starts the class by asking people if they know when their phones are communicating with cell towers. “Most people say, ‘When I use it,’ but the answer is, ‘anytime it’s on,’” he says. is it using so much power when "off" the above isn't believable :P

mark_l_watson 6y ago

I liked the article, but a few things rubbed me the wrong way. She said she stopped using Signal because the service was hosted on AWS, and that she didn’t want to use Apple products. If a service is hosted on a large hosting company or a small one, it doesn’t seem to matter. Also, Apple is probably the best large company for protecting our privacy. I liked the phrase “I am a digital vegan and a real one” (or something like that). ‘Digital vegan’ is an interesting expression.

nix23 6y ago
>Apple is probably the best large company for protecting our privacy. At least the Marketing works at Apple ;) But your probably right, since Apple makes no Money with user-data. On the other Hand China, give up your stance on privacy for having access to a Market...well. I'm not a "digital vegan" but i refuse to eat shit.

olivierduval 6y ago

Actually, for IT guys, there's a lot of subsitution self-hosted products and docker images, ready to be deployed on independant VPS. But it's obviously not mainstream or end-user friendly...

nix23 6y ago
True, Mail=iRedMail (with SOGO) CloudStorage=Nexcloud WebGit=Gitee ....and much more Everything on Vultr with 1vm (Freebsd) with around 12Jails, and Backup to tarsnap.com (because i am truly paranoid)