Degoogling

After 20 years on Gmail, I decided to move to a different email provider.

TL;DR for busy readers: I moved to Fastmail for email, iCloud Drive for documents, Apple Numbers for spreadsheets, and Authy for 2FA. All because of reports of Google accounts being locked due to false CSAM detections and a difficult appeal process, which can mean losing access to everything including Gmail, Drive, Docs, etc.

There's a trend called "de-googling" where people move everything away from Google services, including email, photos, drive, and docs. The main reasons are privacy concerns, and reducing dependency on a big corp.

In my case, I don't have a problem with Google being a big corp. My main motivation was reducing the risk of losing my digital identity and data due to an account lockout.

My Google Account is a Single Point of Failure

My Gmail address has been my digital identity since 2006, and I have been using it for everything since then. I am keeping a lot of important documents and certificates in Google Drive. I use Google Sheets on an almost daily basis for tracking personal finances.

A simple lockout of my Google account will be a catastrophe for me. This is a bus factor of 1, meaning a single failure can cause a complete failure of the system.

I was aware of this risk for a while, and wanted to change my email service to a different provider, but I kept procrastinating.

Sudden Trigger: Google Account Lockouts

I have seen multiple stories of Google account lockouts before, but recently started seeing a spike in incidents on r/googlephotos. It seems that Google Photos uses automated tools to scan photos, and some users report false CSAM detections. Users report that the photos are of their own family and kids. In such lockouts, Google not only locks Google Photos, but also locks the entire Google account. Users report that appeals often don't work; most responses seem automated and not helpful. That can mean losing access to everything including Gmail, Drive, Docs, etc.

My nephew was born during the lockdown and grew up in front of me, and I have tons of photos and videos of him in all sorts — with and without his diapers. I don't want to risk losing my Google account because of a false detection on photos like these.

So I decided to move away from Google services, starting with Gmail. Here's the journey so far.

Moving to a New Email Service

I researched a lot of email providers. My conditions were:

• Use my own domain for email.
• Use alias email addresses to give out at different locations, like mcdonalds@example.com, textile_shop_offer@example.com, etc. This will help me avoid handing over my primary email address to spammers, and track which services are sharing my email address.
• Preferably a provider that primarily focuses on email services.
• I'm fine paying, but I wanted to keep costs reasonable.

Here's a good list comparing multiple email providers. My top options were ProtonMail, Fastmail, and Tuta.

I decided to go with Fastmail. Fastmail lets me use my own domain name, and I can create as many aliases as I need. Their mobile and desktop apps are simple and good. Their support is also good: they promptly responded to my queries, helped me with the setup process, and even gave me an attractive discount.

Main Benefit — Less Clutter

When I moved to Fastmail, I started with these steps:

• Updated all the important accounts to use the new email address. This was a bit of work, but it was worth it.
  • Created alias email addresses for all not-so-important services, like fb@example.com, insta@example.com, etc. This allows me to easily filter the noise from these services. It will also help me track which services are sharing my email address with spammers.
  • A few government accounts won't allow changing the email address, but I can live with that.
• Created filters and enabled notifications only for important emails, like card transactions, bills, etc. Anything else will just go to the relevant folder silently.

This significantly reduced the clutter in my inbox, allowing me to get notified only for important emails.

My original Gmail inbox still receives a lot of spam, but I don't have to deal with it anymore.

Moving out of Google Drive

Finding an alternative to Google Drive and moving all my important documents was a bit more work. My conditions were:

• Easy to use and manage. Best if accessible from macOS Finder and my phone.
• Synchronization across devices.
• I'm fine paying, but I wanted to keep costs reasonable.

I looked into Dropbox, Proton Drive, NextCloud, Filen.io, OneDrive, and iCloud Drive.

Since I am already using iCloud, I decided to go with iCloud Drive and moved all the important documents there. I keep these documents downloaded on my main devices — laptop and phone. In the rare event of a lockout, I still have my documents in my local filesystem.

An additional local backup like a NAS is planned. I am researching the best options, and will write a follow-up post once I finalize the solution.

Moving out of Google Sheets

I access Google Sheets every day to track my personal finances. If I lose these documents, I lose everything. My only criteria for an alternative was:

• As good as Google Sheets in terms of features and ease of use.

I did a lot of research and found that most alternatives are not as good as Google Sheets. Microsoft Excel online is the closest, but I need a Microsoft account to manage just this sheet. It's the same situation with Proton Sheets.

Final Decision: use Apple Numbers and Local Files

I decided to try Apple Numbers. It is free and available on macOS and iPhone. It is not as good as Google Sheets, and there's a slight learning curve, but it is more than enough for my use case.

I downloaded my Google Sheet documents as Excel files, and converted them to Apple Numbers format. I had to work on some formatting and rearranging because Apple Numbers uses tables instead of sheets. But overall, I managed to get it working, including the formulas.

Then I put these files in iCloud Drive, so they will be automatically synced across devices. Syncing is not as fast as Google Sheets, but it works fine for me now since I mostly access these files from my laptop.

Moving out of Google Authenticator

This was the easiest part. There are tons of alternatives like Authy, Microsoft Authenticator, Ente Auth, Bitwarden, etc. I picked Authy and moved all my accounts there by visiting each account and configuring Authy as the new 2FA method.

I already have a password manager app, but I advise against storing TOTP in password managers.

Moving out of Google Chrome

This was not necessary, but why not give it a try!

Chrome has been my daily driver since the first version of it. I know that Chrome is resource-hungry and wanted to try another option. I am hearing a lot of good things about Safari in terms of hardware integration, resource efficiency, privacy, and better energy efficiency. I decided to give it a try, and I made a full switch.

After a couple of weeks, I am seeing a few glitches here and there, occasional page freezes, but overall, the performance is good and I am liking it.

I am not missing Chrome at all. For website testing purposes, I have Chromium installed.

To Do: Move out of Google Photos (and Take a Backup)

Currently I have stopped syncing my photos to Google Photos, but I haven't moved out of it yet. I am still researching the best options. Ente Photos is a popular recommendation with E2E encryption, but I am not fully convinced yet. I will probably move to a self-hosted solution like Immich. I have to invest some time and energy to learn about the 3-2-1 backup strategy to implement a reliable solution.

I will do a follow-up post on this once I finalize the solution and move out of Google Photos.

Not a Complete De-Googling

I am doing this out of fear of an account lockout, and not to "de-google" in its true sense. I am still using Google Search, Google Maps, and YouTube on a daily basis. I am not trying to move out of these services anytime soon, and I don't have any plans to do so.

So far, I've moved email, documents, spreadsheets, 2FA, and my daily browser away from Google. Photos (and a reliable backup) are next.

References and Resources

If you are also thinking about moving away from Google services, the subreddit r/degoogle is an excellent place to start. Here are some other references and resources:

1. European Alternatives: GDPR compliant privacy-focused alternatives.
2. EU Tech Map: A map of European alternatives to popular tech services.
3. Privacy Guides: A comprehensive list of privacy-focused tools and services.
4. Comparison of Cloud, Sync & Email services: A comparison of cloud services, including email providers, storage providers, and more.
5. r/degoogle Wiki: The wiki of r/degoogle with a lot of resources and guides.

#life #productivity