I’ve had 2 or more messenging apps for about a decade now because of this.

Some countries have a less evil version of Amazon. Mine has shoepping.at, for example.

But also, there’s very few things you actually NEED that you can’t get anywhere but Amazon. My main strategy in avoiding Amazon is to just reduce my conspicuous consumption. Everything I need, I buy from brick and mortar shops: tech shop, grocery shop, textile retailer, sports shop. When I was living out of town, I’d order from the specific shops/chains website, so at least it was only them who had my address. Also, no account needed.

All of this, of course, depends on what country you live in and what your town/area has to offer. Except reducing consumption.

Funnily enough, calculator is one of the few proprietary apps I’ve paid for and still happily lose. Wolfram alpha just does many things that other calculators don’t.

When I was a teen it wasn’t the government I was afraid of, but digital devices were just as likely to be read as paper. What I did was keep anything I needed to be private at school, work, a friend’s. Is any of that an option? Would a super old laptop with a fresh OS that you never connect to the internet be safe in your home?

That sucks, didnt know charging by the minute was still a thing at all in some places.

Anyone who uses Facebook messenger as their only messenging app will need to text or call me. Fuck that. I do, however, use WhatsApp and discord for work and uni group chats. If or when that’s no longer the case, people who only use those will need to text me, too.

Not a solution to all your problems of course, but the only way to buy something and preserve your privacy is to pay cash. Everything else will get your info to someone. Lots of good suggestions for lesser evils here for when you have no choice but to shop online.

It’s legal if they irreversibly anonymise it.

So the content you created will still be used to train AI with no consent from or payment to you.

Well that just made my day a little worse

This won’t work if you use actual, classic TV. But I researched for a fair while and found none of the dumb TVs are cheaper than low end smart TVs. Not by a long shot. So I got a giant computer screen instead. I just connect my switch or my laptop.

My fairphone even SHOWED me the mic was running, in the top banner. Sure enough, google had accessed my mic that minute, clearly stated in the settings. I’ve turned it off since, but I don’t trust that. I’ll have to get around to switching to calyx.

Unrelated, but if she’s ever interested in sharing, I’d be interested in hearing what it was like to be a female dev in the 80s! It’s tough enough today.

Nice, thanks for the tip! Also thanks for going through the trouble of finding out for me, I appreciate it! I’m unfortunately in one of the regions where it’s specifically not available. But the second phone thing might be an option. That, or just a compatibility layer with regular old android after all.

Thanks for the input, i realise it’s been a while since I checked this! ÖBB Scotty, ÖBB Tickets (could forgo this one) and SBB mobile. I also need Digitales Amt (official government app for things like signing contracts without printing them, ordering your election materials to a different address than usual, checking your medical info etc). Do you happen to know whether that would work?

Huh TIL, thanks! So would apps usually work, just like on regular android? Except the aforementioned, of course.

I haven’t switched my phone yet, but will do so soon. Does anyone have experience with compatibility layers on phone, akin to wine? I unfortunately cannot go without my public transport apps, and they’re android or IOS only. I’ve looking into postmarket OS, but open for suggestions.