News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by hashr8064 on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @11:35AM (#17758865)
> Suggestions are welcome for good alternatives,

I'm in the move away myself. Here's some services I've started using, in many areas I'm still looking for other replacements. Hopefully others can help.

1. E-Mail : protonmail.com, I really like this one, great service.

2. Video Calls : I'm currently using signal to some extent, not very happy though, would really like something like Hangouts.

3. Browser : Firefox

4. Phone : Apple

5. Things I'm still looking for : Google Calender, Drive, Chat, Backup Storage services.

Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by rapnie on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @11:41AM (#17758918)
Using ProtonMail too. Very happy, and you get to use ProtonVPN too.

Also install Privacy Badger extension (or other tracker-/ad-blocker) in your browser and block Google Analytics etc.

And for site-owners that use Google Analytics now: there are alternatives, like e.g. Matomo.

Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by 323454 on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @11:44AM (#17758950)
I've used Signal for a while and I think it's great although admittedly I don't use video calls on it very often (mostly because the people I need to video call are mostly not on Signal).

For Drive the best alternative I've found is Dropbox. It's not free but at least the business model isn't (yet) about monetizing your data.

Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by StavrosK on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @12:15PM (#17759233)
I tried Signal the other day to call a friend in the US from Greece and was blown away by the quality. It was as if I was using a landline to call someone in my city, it was amazing. Even the latency was nonexistent, which I don't know how it happened since they're bound by the speed of light.
Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by distortedsignal on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @11:40AM (#17758906)
For video calls, you should try zoom.us. From what I've seen, they have the best streaming infrastructure of any of the major players (FaceTime, Hangouts, Webex, GoToMeeting). Apps for all the major platforms, too. The only bad thing is that if you're on a multi-way call, they limit you to 40 minutes.
Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by chimeracoder on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @01:28PM (#17759936)
> The only bad thing is that if you're on a multi-way call, they limit you to 40 minutes.

To be clear, that's for the free version. You can pay to remove this limit (along with getting some other features).

Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by fasteddy760 on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @12:15PM (#17759228)
> The only bad thing is that if you're on a multi-way call, they limit you to 40 minutes.

40m limit is for free accounts. Paid will get you video calls as long as you want to go.

Besides some needed minor UI tweaks, I love Zoom.

Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by brogrammer5 on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @11:40AM (#17758904)
On Protonmail: I've been using it for about a year now and their spam filtering is terrible. I was thinking about migrating my yahoo account to them but it does nothing to prevent the huge amount of recruiter spam I get. I also am not a fan of how little space you get with them.
Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by PakG1 on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @11:45AM (#17758952)
FWIW, Fastmail filters spam very well for me.
Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by mbel on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @11:39AM (#17758893)
> 5. Things I'm still looking for : Google Calender, Drive

Fastmail provides a DavCAL calendar and some storage space with their email offering. They also have a wonderful browser client (much better that gmail at least for me).

Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by adtac on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @11:51AM (#17759028)
+1, I recommend FastMail's web client too if you like to manage your email and calendar using a browser. It's fast and snappy, has a clean interface (they have a couple of themes you can choose from), and it's pretty lightweight (for example, a gmail tab uses 195 MB for me while Fastmail's uses 51 MB).
Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by StavrosK on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @12:16PM (#17759242)
For file syncing, I recommend Syncthing and/or Nextcloud (they're slightly different, Syncthing syncs directories peer-to-peer extremely well, Nextcloud is an OSS Dropbox alternative).
Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by corkscrew on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @11:41AM (#17758909)
If you already have an apple phone the apple calendar is competent. Keybase is a potential alternative to drive (if you don't use it on mobile much). Signal for chat
Re:Google tracks users who turn off location history by nicoburns on Tuesday August 14, 2018 @11:44AM (#17758944)
Drive: Dropbox Backup: Backblaze B2