#degoogle

Shoutout to everyone who’s been valiantly escaping the AI-riddled hellworlds of Google Docs and Microsoft Word, hauling hundreds of thousands of docs over to Ellipsus with Markdown import (or good ol’ copypaste).

But now, you can make your exit from the LLM-industrial-productivity-complex a lot faster.

Introducing…

.docx import and export!

Import your your docs quickly (one by one, or a bunch at once!), or export your Ellipsus docs to .docx whenever you want. Keep your formatting and images as they are! (Note: Tables won’t carry over yet; stay tuned for that!)

Keep on writing like humans!! <3 - the Ellipsus Team xo

Besides being online and collaborative like GDocs, a few things I've liked about it so far:

It has a drafts feature, which you can use to track and merge revisions to your doc OR you can use them as sub-documents to store things like your bible--character info, notes, scenes, whatever OR you can break down your story into chapters

Strictly anti-AI, and wanting you to own your writing 100%

Has a built in writing timer, and a focus mode (Strips away the UI)

Aaaaaand….!! What's that...?

Oh yeah, snippet sharing:

and a built in export to AO3

Interested in taking tech privacy more seriously in our current..situation? It can be ridiculously overwhelming. When I set the intention to work on having a more private tech set up this year, it felt honestly kind of impossible. I'm not "techy" - I know some HTML/CSS from my neopets days and that's kind of it.

So I wanted to share some resources that have helped me along the way.

The Cyber Cleanse

This is a 21-day guided series to taking stock of where you're at and moving toward a more private set up. It's very easy to follow. Some of the steps may take a while - I haven't finished everything on the list - but it's been key to helping me understand how the component parts of privacy fit together.

Privacy Pack

This is a site that helps you visualize what services you're using that could be security risks and what some of the common alternatives are. It's constantly being updated so even for the categories where there aren't many options, it's worth checking back later for more. By having the names, you can poke around and research to see what's right for you.

Into to the Fediverse

Corpo social media is a privacy nightmare. They don't just collect what you post but they stitch it together with your real world travel and purchasing behaviors and manipulate you to stay on their platforms longer. What if there were social sites that *didn't* do that? There are! It's called the Fediverse. This linked video will get you up to speed. Neocities is also worth checking out!

I'd also recommend The Hated One on YouTube with a hefty dose of take what works. He's got some very good tutorials on phone privacy, how VPNs work, and other basics for those who like a video format.

It's process. Anything you can do helps you and people around you - so it's not just people the government hates using privacy methods and making it easier to target folks.

Please note, this document is a work-in-progress. It will be updated often to keep up to date and provide as many alternatives as possible.

Why?

YouTube recently enforced a new AI-powered age-estimation and age-verification policy. The AI will look at user watch history, and attempt to guess if the user is an adult. Any user the AI deems as a non-adult will have their account locked down into teen mode unless the user can prove they are an adult via credit card or government ID.

This directory is intended to provide feasible alternatives for various platorms that are implementing similar policies that may put user's privacy and security at risk. Alternatives on this list must not have similar AI-powered age-estimation and age-verification policies, must be free or reasonably priced, and must not push AI. Some may have generative AI features, but as long as it is not actively pushing AI on users, they will be considered. Further notes for consideration will be labelled under each item as necessary.

All of the following sites have implemented or plan to implement similar policies, and should be avoided if at all possible

YouTube

Google (including Chrome, Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, etc)

TikTok

Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and Whatsapp)

Twitter/X

Bluesky (only in the UK)

Spotify

Reddit

Discord (only in the UK)

Dailymotion

Xbox (only in the UK)

Twitch (only in the UK)

Quick Reference Guide

These symbols are used to quickly communicate some basic information about the alternatives on this list.

💝 - Free, or its paid tier is unnecessary

📵 - Not recommended for moblie

✒️- No AI features

🌐 - Website, no download required

🍎 - Has an app for iOS

🤖 - Has an app for Android

🍏 - Has a download for macOS

🪟 - Has a download for Windows

🐧 - Has a download for Linux

🛡️- Adblocker Recommended

Links to individual alternatives lists

General Recommendations

YouTube Alternatives

Chrome Browser Alternatives

Google Search Engine Alternatives

Gmail Alternatives

Google Play Store Alternatives

Google Suite Alternatives

Google Docs Alternatives

Google Slides Alternatives

Google Sheets Alternatives

Google Translate Alternatives

Google Drive Alternatives

Google Maps Alternatives

Spotify/Music Alternatives

Kindle/Audible Alternatives

Discord Alternatives

Whatsapp Alternatives

Twitter/X/Bluesky Alternatives

Reddit Alternatives

Instagram Alternatives

TikTok Alternatives

YouTube Downloaders

Here is a reddit resource link and image post via bsky to get started:

After this post about Google automatically enrolling everyone into their AI program (including reading Google docs), I realised that many people may not be aware that there are actually very, very good alternatives to using Google docs – although what they can do for you varies.

So, since I’ve over the years tested quite a lot of different applications for usefulness in writing fanfic, I thought I’d share some of my experiences here. The link list below will be expanded as I continue writing more pieces, so keep checking here.

Part 1: LibreOffice Writer

Part 2: Zettelkasten

Part 3: LaTeχ

Part 4: Markdown

Part 5: Obsidian

De-googling Journey This post is partly due to the whole YouTube boycott/blackout going on due to the privacy invading (and frankly EXTREMELY DUMB) AI age verification. So, what I have succeeded in doing thus far:

1. Stopped downloading apps from Google Play: replaced with Github and F-Droid Basic repos.

2. Stopped using Google Drive for Fanfiction and Non-Fanfic writing: replaced with a partly online-offline system using LibreOffice (offline, Laptop), Ellipsus (supposed privacy centered cloud for writing), and Material Notes (offline, android phone). Libreoffice and (soon) Material Notes will be holding the "master" copies of my works as Ellipsus is purely a middleman for cloud syncing, I update my offline copies as soon as I can.

3. Partly stopped using Gmail: Use FairEmail as main frontend on phone, keep Gmail in secure folder (isolated environment) and only use Gmail browser on laptop.

4. Replaced various Google services with other open source options available on Github and F-droid. Using Fossify Calender and Contacts for local storage on my phone.

5. Stopped using Chrome (technically that was last year): replaced it with LibreWolf (laptop), Duckduckgo (mobile browser), and Waterfox (mobile browser). DuckDuckGo is the main search engine on all of them (if there are other recommendations, do tell.)

6. (Mostly) stopped using Google Messages on my phone: replaced it with Signal. Sidenote, I switched to this after the whole fiasco a few months ago, plus both google messages was risk of being downright BROKEN and my old online messenger, Viber, is so far corrupted with ads it's ridiculous. It was a change made out of necessity as well as privacy...

7. Due to recent events, I have replaced my patched YouTube apps with FreeTube for both Android and Laptop. I don't know how much longer I can hold out on this blackout, but even if I do go back on YouTube, I am not using the main app/site anymore. I'll be using Freetube for watching. YouTube will only be for cataloging videos via the almighty algorithm, to which I then either watch on FreeTube or "save for later" offline (I've been playing this game for a LONG time). This has and will continue to dwindle my screentime on YouTube. Unfortunately, I have yet to find a good (frontend) replacement for YouTube Music... a decent replacement is Kreate, but the podcast function is very... rough to say the least. Which is unfortunate since I primarily use YT Music for podcasts (I also patched this app so no ads, yipee).

8. Additionally, I've basically disabled all permissions on the main google app on my phone, only using it for the "Google Feed" option. I still get good articles through there, but I've trying to balance it with a self curated RSS feed and either opening articles in DuckDuckGo or saving to Instapaper.

9. I stopped using Gboard as my default keyboard: replaced it with Heliboard instead.

10. I plan on fully replacing the Google Drive suite with Nextcloud soon, but that involves a self-hosted server and intermediate networking... which is a large project as I figure out what exactly I can recycle/repurposed before thinking I need to buy things.

I've been debating on whether I want to try and root a phone to finalize a "de-google" and use a different OS, but I do not know if I want to accept the tradeoffs. So it's a final decision.

It's a little ironic I'm trying to de-google whilst using an android phone, but I still find Android much more flexible than iOS, and personally, I prefer the flexibility, plus the phone I'm using still supports SD cards and headphone jacks. But... it's, it's been a journey, and it seems like it'll be a long one indeed...

For anyone who may want to start, this de-googling list is where I started my journey: https://github.com/tycrek/degoogle

With growing concerns over online privacy and securing personal data, more people than ever are considering alternatives to Google products.

After all, Google's business model essentially revolves around data collection and advertisements, both of which infringe on your privacy. More data means better (more targeted) ads and consequently, more revenue for Google. The company pulled in over $230 billion in ad revenue last year — and that number continues to climb higher.

But the word is getting out. A growing number of people are seeking alternatives to Google products that respect their privacy and data. Since you are reading this, we assume you are one of them.

Small steps to restoring your privacy

When beginning the journey of restoring digital privacy, some people get overwhelmed with all the work involved, and perhaps give up. Don't let that be you. Understand that you don't need to do everything right away. Instead, start small and go step by step at your own pace. With each step in the process, you get more security and control over your personal data, which is a small victory.