this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2024
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Privacy
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That's the catch: you can't not use Google at all if you're online at all, because Google has managed to insert itself into every little corner of the internet.
And that's how the surveillance trap has quietly snapped shut on all of us without most of us noticing anything.
George Orwell had it wrong: the surveillance isn't conducted directly by a tyrannical dictatorship but subtly, indirectly by the private sector in cahoots with the government. And the date he predicted was 40 years off. Other than that, he was right: we live in a full-blown dystopia now.
A good ad-blocker goes a long way. You can block all Google domains with minimal impact to non-Google services.
DNS, most web searches, trackers in apps, location data, just to name a few. Ad blockers won't help you there.
Using an ad-blocking DNS server solves most of those problems. Mullvad offers a public DNS server with no account required, but there are plenty of options out there.
You should still use a browser extension on top of that for pattern-based URL blocking, but a DNS-based blocker should be your first line of defense.
Maybe DNS or IP blocking, but blocking only in the browser likely won’t be helpful as apps (on basically any platform) also track users by calling assets on their domains.
Well, I am pretty sure the FOSS apps I use don't have external trackers at least.