Last saturday we only had 4 of us including myself. We discussed:
- Initialising a degoogled phone during its first startup.
- Alternative to google maps app ... Organic Maps.
- Encrypted containers for storing sensitive files.
- We had some discussions about installing Linux and what machines would be suitable.
- Add-ons for the Firefox (or LibreWolf) browser apps on computers that help with improving your privacy as you browse the world wide web.
- We also talked about synchronising bookmarks between different devices and browser apps
See below for descriptions and further info and links.
Initialising a degoogled phone during its first startup. We had a Google Pixel 7 Pro that I recently loaded CalyxOS onto for Peter. So we went through the first launch questions and made the choices that suited him. One thing that needs some thought is which apps to include. CalyxOS offers several recommended open source apps and details about which ones they include and offer can be found here: https://calyxos.org/docs/guide/apps/
Alternative to google maps app ... Organic Maps. This one is offered by CalyxOS during initialisation and maps are downloaded within the app for off-line use. Go into the settings with in the app to download the state and cities you plan to use. You can then use the "navigation feature" similar to google maps and your phone does NOT need to be online to mobile data during the trip. This can obviously save a lot of battery charge and also removes any distractions while driving if "notifications" appear on the phone.
We watched some of a video by Naomi Brockwell that talked about using VeraCrypt to create mountable encrypted containers that you can use to store sensitive files like password managers, accounting data, sensitive communication files, and any files you do not want other apps on your device to have access to. We talked about the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) software being installed on apple and microsoft devices and how this encryption tech can help keep info private from these intrusive apps. You can see more info at its website here: https://www.veracrypt.fr/en/Home.html
We had some discussions about installing Linux and what machines would be suitable. Generally speaking, Intel (or AMD based) computers will run faster when Windows is wiped and Linux installed. As Intel based Mac computers run an operating system that derives from similar roots to that of Linux, the speed improvement will be less noticeable, however the privacy factor might be enough to tempt you to change systems.
We delved into some add-ons for the Firefox (or LibreWolf) browser apps on computers that help with improving your privacy as you browse the world wide web. Built into Firefox is the ability to right-click a link and open in a container tab or new private window. This is useful, but do you always know that the link goes to Facebook, Youtube, or other Meta and Google sites that are known to track you around the web? The answer is no, and so to undo the planting of cookies into your browser that allow the tracking, there is an add-on called Cookie Quick Manager which lets you delete all the cookies for that website before closing the tab or window. This add-on can be found in the "Add-ons and Themes" entry in the Tools menu or there is also an icon in the top row that looks like a jigsaw puzzle piece that goes to the same place. Use the "Find more add-ons" box to find it. You can see what it is capable of by checking the description found down the page here: https://github.com/ysard/cookie-quick-manager.
For Brave browser, the one above is not available there but if you search for "cookie manager" in its Extensions area and choose one with at least 4.4 stars and "featured" or a large number of ratings you should get pretty good functionality.
We also talked about synchronising bookmarks between different devices and browser apps using an add-on called "floccus bookmarks sync" which can also be found in the add-ons section like the cookie manager above as well as the add-ons section of the Brave Browser. To find out what it will synchronise with, visit its website here: https://floccus.org/
We also talked some local politics and efforts by certain groups to free themselves for the top down oppression.