To use an Alphabet product is to support Alphabet regardless of how you access it. If you want to de-google, then stop using their products 100%.

It boils down to consent. You should always always get consent before taking an action that includes somebody else. Just because you can see me is not consent to record me. If you don’t have consent, don’t do it. It’s as simple as that.

Look into Pixelfed.

So you want me to visit one of the greatest surveillance capitalist and privacy abusers video website to get tips on how to help people understand why privacy is important? Yah, about that. No.

If you have a Nextcloud instance, then https://apps.nextcloud.com/apps/phonetrack might work.

You can’t stop location tracking on cellular devices. If it’s connected to a cell tower, you’re being tracked and profiled.

Jabber (XMPP) or Matrix/Element.

Cell phone tracking is common place. If you carry one, you’re being tracked, profiled and having your data correlated with others. The question is whether you support living in a surveillance society. If you do, grab a cell phone and be happy. If not, get rid of it and use alternative communication methods. It’s a simple choice. In my experience, most people choose convenience over privacy.

You’re not alone, but even people who claim to want privacy are typically unwilling to stop using the very things that violate their privacy. I suspect that until that changes on a mass scale, the expectation that you should give up your data will remain.

Nope. It’s public. Assume everybody has a copy of everything sent over ActivityPub.

It’s a small step, but does not solve the issue of location being tracked to start with. A better law would be to ban the tracking of location without consent, along with banning requiring location tracking for services that don’t technically require it.

Nextcloud and Phonetrack maybe? https://github.com/julien-nc/phonetrack

It depends on what other data your ISP has vs what other data Google has. If Google knows more about you, like web history, then it can correlate the data to create a more complete profile. The reverse is also true. Pick your poison, there’s really no privacy either way.

I host my own. I’d say my contacts are split between XMPP and Matrix with many people having both. A lot of business use self hosted XMPP servers too. For example, Cisco communications solutions are based on XMPP.

The issue with free public servers is that you have no accountability. If they go away, or are left unmaintained, there’s nothing you can do about it.

My two cents, host at home, or at an infrastructure provider you pay for service.

There is no such thing as a private cellular device. It does not matter if it’s a smartphone, dumb phone, or simple internet access device.

Cellular devices are location tracked and their owners profiled. All devices have proprietary cellular modems that communicate over the network and have full access to your system. Nothing you do on device will stop that.

The only exception I’ve heard of is from Purism. The Librem 5 claims to separate the base system from the cellular modem, but that still won’t stop the location tracking.

Point blank, you can’t carry a connected cellular device, and have privacy. They are mutually exclusive goals.

Free speech is a basic human right. No politics necessary.