00:00:00
So, the past couple weeks, I've
00:00:01
completely deooled.
00:00:03
Wait a minute. Is this real?
00:00:04
I don't use any of Google's so-called
00:00:07
free services.
00:00:09
PewDiePie is done with Google. PewDiePie
00:00:11
is a privacy advocate.
00:00:13
Now, this all started because of privacy
00:00:15
concerns. Being tracked with literally
00:00:17
everything I do just feels kind of odd.
00:00:19
I'm really happy to see this
00:00:21
development. It came out after Felix
00:00:23
started building his own computer and
00:00:25
then he installed Linux on it and he
00:00:27
absolutely fell in love with the whole
00:00:29
world of open source and Linux itself.
00:00:31
And now he seems to be going yet another
00:00:33
step further with this whole journey and
00:00:36
realizing that the importance of open
00:00:37
source is not just for the freedom to
00:00:39
install whatever you want to and modify
00:00:41
your gadgets. But it's to also protect
00:00:43
your fundamental human and digital
00:00:44
rights such as your right to privacy
00:00:47
which is being violated by literally
00:00:49
every single proprietary and centralized
00:00:51
service out there. And I'm very happy to
00:00:53
see that PewDiePie is now making these
00:00:55
videos about this because he he's doing
00:00:57
this important advocacy for the stuff
00:00:59
that we privacy advocates have always
00:01:01
been struggling to get out there to get
00:01:02
to the normal regular people. I've been
00:01:05
doing this on my channel since like
00:01:06
2016, right? And I realized that a lot
00:01:10
of my talking points are really just
00:01:12
preaching to the choir. I really like I
00:01:14
try to get to as many people as possible
00:01:15
and I really try to get even the normies
00:01:17
which is why I'm on YouTube. But the
00:01:19
YouTube algorithm works in a way that it
00:01:20
does not really open you up to the
00:01:22
outside of your bubble to new
00:01:24
communities. So it was really
00:01:25
frustrating to see that I cannot
00:01:27
actually reach the masses as widely as
00:01:29
it is needed. So now with PewDiePie, the
00:01:31
one of the biggest channels out there
00:01:33
proactively promoting and going out of
00:01:35
his way to actually promote Linux open
00:01:37
source and now privacy is a massive win
00:01:39
for all of our communities. Now, I have
00:01:42
a lot of things to say about what this
00:01:44
video, PewDiePie being done with Google,
00:01:46
is about, and I have a lot of of my own
00:01:47
suggestions about what you can do with
00:01:49
your privacy setup. I admire what Felix
00:01:51
is doing here because he's going this
00:01:53
self-hosted I'm my own boss route, which
00:01:55
is valid, and it's absolutely amazing.
00:01:57
However, not everybody is really willing
00:01:59
to go that route. And because Felix is
00:02:01
also making this point that it is
00:02:03
important to protect your privacy, I
00:02:05
want to build up on the strategy that he
00:02:07
is showing to his audience. And if you
00:02:09
stumble upon this video, I want to help
00:02:10
you find maybe easier ways that you can
00:02:13
achieve the same level of privacy
00:02:14
protection that Felix is getting with
00:02:16
his decentralized self-hosted solution.
00:02:19
So, right off the bat, Felix start with
00:02:20
where it is most important and that is
00:02:22
your search engine. He's suggesting
00:02:24
duck.go and there is like not much else
00:02:26
to you know talk about this. Duck.go is
00:02:28
not a self-hosted solution. You can have
00:02:31
uh more decentralized search engines if
00:02:33
you want to but uh I I personally do use
00:02:35
duck go. There are other options such as
00:02:37
start page, quant, eosia. You can also
00:02:39
use surrex I think and maybe there are
00:02:42
some other options. Deco is solid. The
00:02:44
reason it is important to change your
00:02:45
search engine. It is because this is
00:02:47
something that you probably use the most
00:02:48
out of all of these things and it is the
00:02:50
easiest to change. You don't have to do
00:02:52
anything. You either change your default
00:02:54
search engine inside your web browser
00:02:55
settings or you can also install the
00:02:57
Doug Go search engine app on your iOS or
00:03:00
Android. Doug Duggo also comes with this
00:03:01
search bar and other widgets and it has
00:03:04
some privacy features built into it.
00:03:06
Anti-rackers. It can also wipe your
00:03:08
search history from the device so that
00:03:09
it's not being used to track you in some
00:03:11
way. That is a browser on its own. So we
00:03:13
can use it in that way too. And it is
00:03:15
just a fascinating way to start moving
00:03:16
away from Google. And we are not moving
00:03:18
away from Google for the sake of being
00:03:20
deooled. We are doing it for privacy
00:03:22
reasons because you can have a
00:03:24
completely deooled device on an iPhone
00:03:26
and you would still not be any
00:03:27
reasonably more private. The next most
00:03:29
important step is obviously to change
00:03:31
your web browser even though a lot of
00:03:32
people are using native mobile
00:03:34
applications. Browsing is one of the
00:03:36
major ways that you are being surveiled
00:03:38
and tracked on the internet. Felix is
00:03:39
suggesting Firefox which is the
00:03:41
nonprofit open-source champion in the
00:03:43
world. It has decades of experience and
00:03:45
Firefox is really good. Although Firefox
00:03:47
really does have some problems with
00:03:49
development, mostly in terms of their
00:03:51
security features. Unfortunately, and
00:03:53
this has been proven to be the case,
00:03:54
Firefox is not as secure as
00:03:56
Chromiumbased browsers. Now everybody
00:03:58
knows Google Chrome and hopefully
00:04:00
everybody knows that Google Chrome is
00:04:01
bad for your privacy because it is a
00:04:03
Google product. It's proprietary. It is
00:04:05
spying on your activities. So you need
00:04:07
something else. Fortunately, you can
00:04:08
take what is great about the Google
00:04:10
Chrome which is the open- source
00:04:12
Chromium engine and have it on a
00:04:13
different web browser which is for
00:04:15
instance on Graphine OS which is a phone
00:04:16
that Felix mentions in his video. You
00:04:18
can actually use Venadium which is ultra
00:04:20
secure and also very private web
00:04:22
browser. If you don't have graphine OS,
00:04:24
you can also use something like Brave
00:04:25
browser, which comes with its own
00:04:27
privacy enhancement features that are
00:04:28
not found elsewhere and is also stripped
00:04:30
off all the Google tracking that's built
00:04:32
into the Google Chrome. The third most
00:04:34
important step in your privacy journey
00:04:35
should also be changing your email
00:04:37
address. I've done many videos about
00:04:38
this privacy strategizing and uh the
00:04:41
steps that you need to be taking and
00:04:42
Felix is very much following the exact
00:04:44
formula that that I've actually created
00:04:45
for myself and for my viewers. I don't
00:04:48
know if he actually watched any of my
00:04:49
videos or how he figure this stuff out.
00:04:51
But it's not that I'm the only one that
00:04:52
figured it out, but it it would be
00:04:53
really awesome if he actually watched at
00:04:55
least one of my videos. Changing your
00:04:56
email address can be very very simple.
00:04:58
As Felix suggests, you can use Proton
00:05:00
Mail. I think Tuta email, which is based
00:05:02
in Germany, is also very good, if not
00:05:04
better than Proton Mail. In many
00:05:05
instances, it is just as secure and just
00:05:07
as private and probably even cheaper
00:05:09
than Proton Mail. But both Proton Mail
00:05:11
and Tenoda are very good options. You
00:05:13
can obviously self-host your email. The
00:05:15
problem with email is that it doesn't
00:05:16
really have any privacy built into it.
00:05:18
So if you are just messaging anyone from
00:05:20
outside of Proton or from outside of
00:05:22
Tutenota, the contents of the messages
00:05:24
is not is not going to be encrypted
00:05:26
unless you go out of your way and
00:05:28
exchange the PGP keys and all that stuff
00:05:30
which is a complicated mess of things
00:05:32
where everything can go wrong if you
00:05:34
just make one mistake. The benefit of
00:05:36
using something like Proton Mail and
00:05:37
Tutenoda is that neither of these
00:05:39
providers are going to be using your
00:05:40
inbox to spy on you or monetize you or
00:05:43
target you with ads. So while you have
00:05:45
the proton mail and toutinota encrypted
00:05:48
within themselves, the bigger benefit
00:05:50
that I see in these me in these email
00:05:52
providers is that when you install them
00:05:53
on your phone or use them on your laptop
00:05:55
or wherever, they're not actually like
00:05:57
following you around the web or tracking
00:05:59
your activity across apps as Google is
00:06:01
for instance doing because Google has
00:06:03
Gmail. When you have Gmail, it's not
00:06:04
just that you're giving up your emails
00:06:06
to Google. You're also giving up all of
00:06:08
your other activities across different
00:06:10
apps and websites that have nothing to
00:06:11
do with Google on the surface. But
00:06:13
behind the scenes, there is hidden
00:06:15
Google Analytics and tracking pixels or
00:06:17
tracking code that these developers have
00:06:19
put in there and Google is just spying
00:06:22
on your information that way. The next
00:06:24
step that Felix is going for is to use a
00:06:27
graphino device on Pixel. Pixel is a
00:06:30
Google phone, but if you install
00:06:31
graphine OS on it, you actually like
00:06:33
remove all of the Google code and
00:06:35
trackers on it. So, Google is actually
00:06:37
not making any money off of you outside
00:06:39
of that single hardware purchase that
00:06:41
you made, which in my opinion, this is
00:06:43
perfectly fine with me because the
00:06:45
primary market for Google, the major
00:06:47
revenue stream is obviously advertising
00:06:49
and services. So, if I'm not allowing
00:06:51
Google to advertise on me when and I'm
00:06:53
not giving them any money for their
00:06:55
services, then the fact that I bought
00:06:57
their phone is actually probably losing
00:06:59
them more money, which I'm very much
00:07:01
for. Now, graphinos is a privacy
00:07:03
enhanced and security focused mobile
00:07:05
operating system that is based off
00:07:07
Android, but is building a lot of
00:07:09
privacy-enhancing features that no other
00:07:11
phone, including the iPhone, has many of
00:07:13
the benefits that Graphin OS offers are
00:07:15
actually invisible to the end user. It's
00:07:17
like memory allocator and harden SE
00:07:19
Linux policies that overall make your
00:07:21
operating system so much more secure
00:07:23
that it's just very very difficult and
00:07:25
expensive to hack into it to compromise
00:07:27
it even by advanced nation state
00:07:29
sponsored hacking groups. Most
00:07:31
importantly, you can pretty much use
00:07:32
graphino completely anonymously. You
00:07:34
don't have to use a Google account. You
00:07:36
don't have to use any Google app and
00:07:38
still get your favorite apps on it. You
00:07:40
can use it pretty much as any other
00:07:42
Android device. You don't have to learn
00:07:43
anything new. any app is going to work
00:07:45
on graphine OS with a very very small
00:07:47
selection of exceptions that can be you
00:07:49
know substituted for something else. I'm
00:07:51
using graphine OS exclusively as my
00:07:53
daily driver. I literally do not have
00:07:55
any other phone other than graphine OS
00:07:57
and it's perfect. It may sound kind of
00:07:59
scary that like you're installing a
00:08:01
custom ROM on your mobile device, but
00:08:03
it's really not that problematic. Like
00:08:05
it's extremely simple. It's a matter of
00:08:07
just plugging in your phone into your
00:08:09
laptop for instance and then using the
00:08:11
graphino website to just install graphos
00:08:14
on your phone. You don't have to learn
00:08:16
any coding. You are not actually using
00:08:18
any like commands or anything like that
00:08:20
which is something that PewDiePie likes
00:08:22
to showcase his Linux command skills in
00:08:24
his videos. With graphino, this is not
00:08:25
the case. It is extremely simple. It is
00:08:28
the most simple installation that you
00:08:29
can experience in your whole life. And
00:08:31
also the chances of you actually
00:08:32
breaking something to the point that you
00:08:34
cannot actually recover from that are
00:08:36
very very close to zero. So graphos has
00:08:38
went very very far for the end user to
00:08:41
make security and privacy the paramount
00:08:43
feature of what they're doing but also
00:08:45
making it as user friendly as possible
00:08:47
so that anyone and literally everyone
00:08:49
could be using this. Now the next step
00:08:50
for Felix is uh a choice of password
00:08:53
managers and Felix is using something
00:08:55
called Vault Warden which is actually
00:08:57
coming from the company called Bit
00:08:59
Warden and Bit Warden is an open-source
00:09:01
privacy focused password manager where
00:09:03
you can actually sign up for that
00:09:05
service. Yes, you're actually paying a
00:09:06
subscription fee. What Felix is using is
00:09:08
self-hosted. That's the Vault Warden
00:09:10
version. But if you don't want to
00:09:12
self-host and you are just okay with
00:09:13
paying a relatively small fee for a very
00:09:16
very good service, I highly recommend
00:09:17
Bit Warden. Bit Warden is going to be
00:09:19
doing all of that synchronization and
00:09:21
cloud backups for you for the for your
00:09:23
passwords. The the passwords are all
00:09:25
going to be encrypted. So you will only
00:09:26
have to remember your password to the
00:09:28
Bit Warden itself. You can secure Bit
00:09:30
Warden with a second factor
00:09:32
authentication. And actually Bit Warden
00:09:34
does have a free plan that that you
00:09:35
don't have to pay anything for, but I
00:09:37
actually highly recommend that you get
00:09:38
the paid version so you have access to
00:09:40
more features. And if you want to have
00:09:42
something that is just a file that does
00:09:44
not exist anywhere in the cloud, then I
00:09:46
would highly recommend KeyPass. You can
00:09:48
get keypass from keypass XC for a laptop
00:09:50
for a Linux laptop for instance or you
00:09:52
can get keypass for your Android phone
00:09:55
or even the iPhone I think and you can
00:09:57
just manage your passwords completely
00:09:59
offline and then they don't have to
00:10:00
travel anywhere if you if that's you
00:10:02
what you want. Now then Felix is talking
00:10:04
about note-taking which is one of these
00:10:05
things that that Google has a product
00:10:07
for pretty much anything that you would
00:10:09
want to do on the internet. Note
00:10:10
takingaking is one of those things that
00:10:12
people actually like probably don't even
00:10:13
know that there are alternatives that
00:10:15
are very very secure and very private. I
00:10:17
personally like standard notes and also
00:10:19
notes nook. These are very good
00:10:20
note-taking apps. They allow you to do
00:10:22
plenty of uh text editing and it's a
00:10:24
very good office replacement also. It
00:10:26
has reminders and all that stuff and all
00:10:28
of it is encrypted which is the absolute
00:10:30
gold standard that I want to have in all
00:10:32
of my apps. I want all of my content to
00:10:35
be endtoend encrypted so that I am the
00:10:36
only one who has access to what I'm
00:10:38
writing about. I want any of my
00:10:39
information especially my thoughts and
00:10:40
ideas to be accessible to anyone except
00:10:42
for me. It is possible to self-host
00:10:44
notetaking, but I personally like to use
00:10:47
something like notes nook or standard
00:10:48
notes because I can just log into my
00:10:50
notes nook or standard notes account and
00:10:52
access my notes from anywhere and just,
00:10:53
you know, resume work from where I left
00:10:55
it. For Google Drive alternatives, there
00:10:58
are several options that you could
00:10:59
choose from. I personally like Proton
00:11:01
Drive, although it's kind of like new
00:11:03
and it doesn't have as many features as
00:11:05
uh Google Drive does, but is in terms of
00:11:07
like syncing your files between
00:11:08
different machines that you might have
00:11:10
and then uh uploading a backup of your
00:11:13
files to the drive using something like
00:11:15
Proton Drive could actually be quite
00:11:17
reasonable. You can also back up your
00:11:18
photos in there. If you just want
00:11:20
something to back up your photos, maybe
00:11:22
that is entry.
00:11:29
So that's crypt.eee and it's also very
00:11:31
good although it only exists as a web
00:11:33
app so you would have to access it from
00:11:35
the web browser. It doesn't have a
00:11:36
mobile app. And there's also treasurate
00:11:38
which I think is actually offered by the
00:11:41
Swiss Postal Service which is
00:11:42
interesting. But the most important
00:11:44
thing is that whether you decide to go
00:11:45
the self-hosted route or not, you want
00:11:47
to make sure that your cloud backups are
00:11:50
encrypted, either endent encrypted,
00:11:52
especially if you go for a third party
00:11:54
provider or at least encrypted in in
00:11:56
some way that only you can access.
00:11:58
Otherwise, you know, people could get
00:11:59
access into your cloud backups. Now, for
00:12:02
AI, I've done actually like lots of AI
00:12:04
videos recently talking about how you
00:12:06
can set up open source AI and open
00:12:07
source models on your host machine. You
00:12:09
can self-host it in a server if you want
00:12:11
to or you can just run it on your laptop
00:12:13
if you have a powerful enough laptop.
00:12:14
Some models can actually run off of your
00:12:16
phone. Some of them you would have to
00:12:18
get like a separate GPU device probably
00:12:20
which you can get. You can run it on
00:12:21
your computer. Philick says that he has
00:12:23
a powerful computer. The easiest way to
00:12:25
start running a local LLM today I think
00:12:28
would be with something called Jan.ai.
00:12:30
And that is pretty much a front end for
00:12:32
you to open up an an LLM and any anyone
00:12:35
that you want and just text with it or
00:12:37
do whatever you want with it. maybe, you
00:12:39
know, let it analyze some information
00:12:41
for you. And you can download any model
00:12:43
that is capable of running on your
00:12:45
laptop with or or your computer with the
00:12:47
hardware that you configured. There's
00:12:49
also another way to get all of this
00:12:51
running and that's with open web UI and
00:12:53
I have tutorials that I've done on my
00:12:54
channel and I've done in collaboration
00:12:56
with Naomi Braal on over over there on
00:12:58
her channel. So, you can check that out.
00:13:00
I'm going to leave all the all the links
00:13:01
to the videos in the description. So,
00:13:03
yeah, go ahead. And running an LLM
00:13:05
locally, I think, is a must if you want
00:13:06
to use an AI. Although these AI are
00:13:08
going to be less powerful than the large
00:13:10
cloud-based AIs, I would never trust
00:13:12
something like OpenAI or Gemini or
00:13:14
anything that is uploading all of my
00:13:16
prompts to these companies and then
00:13:18
these companies can use them for
00:13:20
whatever purpose and reason, including
00:13:22
training of their future models. Now
00:13:24
then, Felix is talking about something
00:13:26
called NexCloud. I've had experience
00:13:28
with Nexcloud, but I haven't been using
00:13:30
it very much recently, but you can go
00:13:32
ahead and give it a try if you want to.
00:13:33
Nexcloud is very much about self-hosting
00:13:35
all of your stuff. Although you can find
00:13:37
different providers offering you
00:13:39
different different NextCloud services
00:13:41
if you want to. A lot of these are for
00:13:42
free. Some of these are paid. I think
00:13:44
you can find a different provider for
00:13:46
different things. Like for instance,
00:13:47
Proton is not just Proton Mail. It is
00:13:49
also Proton Drive. It is ProtonVPN and
00:13:52
many of the other Proton products that
00:13:53
are out there. So, it's a suite of apps
00:13:54
that you can have inside Proton. Same
00:13:56
with TUDA. TUDA also comes with a
00:13:59
calendar app and that's also very good.
00:14:01
So, NexCloud is something like that.
00:14:03
like it's a suite of apps that you can
00:14:05
use and the biggest benefit of Nexcloud
00:14:07
is if you can self-host everything. Now
00:14:09
for the final thing I think that that
00:14:11
Felix is mentioning is uh the
00:14:12
replacement for Google Maps and he says
00:14:14
that
00:14:14
the first time I used my open source
00:14:16
alternative I ended up 30 minutes late.
00:14:18
He doesn't mention which one it was. I
00:14:20
think that's good that he doesn't
00:14:21
mention it because I think it was his
00:14:22
fault for getting it wrong to be honest
00:14:24
because I've been using open source maps
00:14:26
exclusively for the past 10 years or
00:14:28
more and I was never late and I never
00:14:31
was able to not find the place that I
00:14:33
was looking for and the only two maps
00:14:35
map apps that I've been using are OSM
00:14:37
and organic maps and both of these are
00:14:40
pretty much based off open street maps
00:14:41
and they are excellent. I I was never
00:14:43
able to not find a route. And that's
00:14:45
whether it's for hiking, for trails, for
00:14:47
biking, uh car navigation. I don't use
00:14:49
that much because I don't actually have
00:14:51
a car. But, you know, I was able to find
00:14:53
everything in any country and or any
00:14:55
city that I've been to. So, I don't know
00:14:57
what the problem Felix had there, but
00:14:58
you should absolutely use something like
00:15:00
OSM or organic maps. What you should be
00:15:02
doing is that you should be downloading
00:15:04
apps that you need for your routes or
00:15:06
for your trips to your phones. they're
00:15:08
offline so that you don't have to use
00:15:10
any data or or internet access to
00:15:12
actually navigate. You can have all of
00:15:14
your navigation happening on your phone
00:15:16
without any data leaving your device. So
00:15:18
there would be no tracking of your
00:15:20
activities even if you have GPS location
00:15:22
enabled because GPS in that scenario is
00:15:24
just completely local. And what you can
00:15:27
do, and this is what I do, is that I
00:15:28
actually have my phone in airplane mode.
00:15:30
And I only enable location services for
00:15:33
the organic maps app or OSMN, and no
00:15:35
other apps know where I currently am. On
00:15:38
top of that, if you're on graphine OS
00:15:39
and you're extra paranoid, what you can
00:15:41
do is that you can completely revoke
00:15:43
internet access to these apps. So that
00:15:45
after you downloaded a bunch of offline
00:15:47
maps, you can revoke their internet
00:15:49
permission. And they even if they try to
00:15:51
like track certain amount of information
00:15:52
from you, they don't do that. But even
00:15:54
if even if that was the case, you can
00:15:55
just prevent them from doing that by
00:15:57
running them completely offline and you
00:15:59
would have peace of mind and none of
00:16:00
your data would ever would ever
00:16:01
realistically leave your device.
00:16:02
Overall, I'm very happy that Felix made
00:16:04
this video and I really wonder if he
00:16:06
actually watched any of my videos to,
00:16:08
you know, get some of these ideas
00:16:09
because they're very similar to what
00:16:10
I've been talking about. There are
00:16:11
plenty of other, you know, privacy
00:16:13
sources out there that are going to be
00:16:14
suggesting very, very similar stuff. But
00:16:16
in terms of YouTube, I think I've been
00:16:18
the longest advocate for this exact
00:16:21
privacy setup that I'm recommending here
00:16:22
with the biggest exception that I have
00:16:24
with Felix is that like I'm not
00:16:26
self-hosting anything because I'm not
00:16:28
actually in control of the premises
00:16:29
where I would be doing the self-hosting,
00:16:31
which is a very fancy way of saying that
00:16:32
I don't actually own the place where I
00:16:34
live. I am renting and I move a lot. So,
00:16:36
I cannot actually afford to move all of
00:16:38
my self-hosting setup with me at all
00:16:40
times. But yeah, if you're inspired by
00:16:42
PewDiePie's video to start your own
00:16:44
privacy journey and you don't want to
00:16:45
learn all all the complicated
00:16:46
self-hosting, which you can do, but if
00:16:48
you don't, then feel free to follow the
00:16:50
setup that I've expanded on in my video
00:16:52
and follow any of my privacy tutorials
00:16:54
that I have on my YouTube channel. And I
00:16:56
also talk a lot about privacy, security,
00:16:58
anonymity, and other stuff on my Patreon
00:17:00
podcast, which I highly recommend that
00:17:02
you join and listen to all of my
00:17:03
episodes so that you can actually get
00:17:05
even more information and tutorial
00:17:07
analysis about all of that. So, thank
00:17:08
you very much. Have a good one in
00:17:09
goodbye.
