# Going Google-Free



## Triadd (May 9, 2012)

As we almost all know, privacy is a myth in today's digital world. Every website tracks you, your phone company collects "anonymous" data about your usage, your government undoubtedly has access to any information about you they could ever want or need, though whether they actively collect gigabytes of data for every citizen remains debatable.

Recently I've decided that I would prefer to have a little more control over my data, and I'm not the first one. I've slowly begun migrating my online services away from Google, switched to different search engines, and started using FoolDNS. I abandoned Facebook two years ago in favor of social networking that better respects my privacy (i.e. Diaspora). This thread was started after a suggestion from another member here on this forum as a way to help others achieve the same goal.

In all honesty, I am a bit of tin-foil hat type, but not that extreme. However, *I would appreciate it if this thread remains free from discouraging conversation, e.g. "what's the point without Gapps" or "why don't you just unplug all your electronic devices".* This is to encourage open discussion on alternatives to google apps, using pure AOSP roms, FOSS apps, etc. I will try to participate as much as possible, but my life has just recently become a bit more busy and complicated than it was a few months ago (baby on the way, trying to make ends meet, etc...). So I would encourage everyone who is interested to really help each other out with this endeavour.

Here is a link to an XDA thread that I spotted a few months ago that started as an alternative to Gapps. It's got some good info and still appears to be active. http://forum.xda-dev...d.php?t=1715375

Now for my current resources and findings. Currently I'm using CM nightly from 07-14. As far as I know, CM contains nothing that communicates with Google, but someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong there. I know they do use a few proprietary binary files here and there to make things work, but the Replicant Project is far from being available for a wide number of devices.

*Email*: I've switched to two accounts, one with zoho and one more personal account with mailoo (french webmail provider). Once you decide on your e-mail provider, I highly suggest K-9 Mail. I use the F-Droid build. It works beautifully and is easy to set up.

*Market*: I always look in F-Droid first, as it contains only open source apps (though I've read about some security issues since they sign all the apps on their servers, or something of that nature, but I haven't read enough about it to be truly informed). If F-droid doesn't have what I need, then I move on to alternative markets that include closed source apps. There are some apps that I prefer not to be without, even if they are closed source (the problem here is that I'm assuming closed source app developers use Google analytics, but I don't know if the info collected is utilized only by the dev or by Google as well). PowerAmp, for example, is my go to music player, which I can download from the website. Some good alternative markets I've found are SlideME, Aptoide, Android Pit, AppBrain, and Yandex (though I'm not sure how I feel about a search provider/app store, lol). *Please note that some of these might include pirated apps (aptoide, for instance, possibly includes pirated apps). I am not condoning piracy here, especially since pirated android apps could contain malware or other detrimental modifications. You must understand the risks involved (personal, legal, etc...) and I take no responsibility for your use of alternative markets.*

*Maps*:	I found Osmand in F-Droid. I literally just tested it out, and seems to be a suitable replacement. One downside is you have to download map data. That said, this would be an upside if you were navigating in an area with no data or cell signal. It uses OpenStreetMap data.

*Contacts*: I signed up for an account at OneMediaHub. The commercial cloud service, which operates on open source Funambol software, offers a basic free version with plenty of space to store contacts and a few other things. Once you create an account and import all your contacts via the web interface, you can then download Funambol Sync from F-Droid. *Note that the latest version in F-Droid does not have calendar support, but there are other clients available.* If or when I find other good clients to use with Funambol/OneMediaHub, I'll post them here. I should also note that the first client I tested from the play store didn't appear to do two way sync, i.e. adding a new contact to the phone wouldn't sync to your account with OneMediaHub. The f-droid build, if I remember correctly, had an option to force new entries to sync with the server.

*Calendar*: Honestly, I don't really use a calendar for much at all, except to check and see what day it is, lol. Therefore, I haven't gone looking for a calendar replacement. By replacement I mean one that I could sync between multiple devices, like with OneMediaHub for instance. If anyone knows of a good calendar replacement, either with another webmail provider or cloud based service, feel free to suggest them. I'll add good alternatives/options to this OP when I have time.

That's all I've got for now. I commend anyone that tries to do this. Google provides excellent services, unmatched by many, but the data mining combined with lack of true concern for the privacy of it's users (handing over data to governments, the recent revelation that app developers had access to mass amounts of customer data, etc...) has gone too far. Feel free to suggest other ways to make the pure AOSP experience just as rewarding as the Google experience! I'm counting on everyone interested to keep it alive since I won't always have a chance to reply or edit this OP every day. I also don't mind if you want to discuss other operating systems such as FirefoxOS or Ubuntu for phones, but try to keep it minimal to keep the thread clean and on point. For instance, I have a Galaxy Nexus (toro), and would be more than happy to find a working build of FirefoxOS to play with. So if you would like to post links to new builds for various phones, feel free to do so. Just try to keep most of the discussion concerning other OS in their respective threads.

Thanks for reading, and good luck!

Edit 07-16-2013: Added Yandex app store


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## airforcegeek (Nov 17, 2011)

FirefoxOS has partnered with Verizon (NSA's biggest fan) on collaboration efforts and for Service Provider Advice. I don't see FirefoxOS or UbuntuOS or any other new emerging Mobile OS NOT being tracked/bugged in the future. As far as an Open Source Alternative to GAPPS, a few things would need to happen because I believe that it could be done. For every app Google has : Keep, Gmail, Now, Calendar, Messaging, etc. You would need to create the alternative first. I'm not saying it can't be done, it can, but a giant push by independent developers would have to be done. I think we, as a community, could easily and feasibly create a OSGAPPs initiative and create a open android experience that decreases the reliance on GAPPs. I personally have nothing to hide, so let the NSA read my texts, email, etc. They will gain nothing. If they try to look into my life, they will find it to be boring, and not exciting. That aside, I'd love to see the push to OSS as I fully support open source and wouldn't mind a non-reliance on one companies (any companies for that matter) products to allow a full user experience. Creating a market place for solely open source applications is also feasible, but raises more risks. Who will regulate products to ensure the non-existence of malware? Just my two sense on the issue... but I get where you are coming from.


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## yarly (Jun 22, 2011)

airforcegeek said:


> [background=rgb(245, 245, 245)]Who will regulate products to ensure the non-existence of malware?[/background]


That's kind of specious reasoning. Might as well say "Who would want to use Linux? We can't ensure the non-existence of malware." Better yet, "Who would want to root and flash ROMs? We can't ensure the non-existence of malware in random created ROMs that have total access to your phone by default by total strangers."

Android market is already full of malware, despite (minimal) oversight of Google. Anything that is open sourced though, anyone that can read code can simply download the source and compile it themselves if they prefer. If I want to do the same for Google's Android Market, I have to decompile and reverse the code back into something semi readable.

To really avoid google though, you have to not install the Android Market App period and related things (location services, etc).


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## Triadd (May 9, 2012)

airforcegeek said:


> FirefoxOS has partnered with Verizon (NSA's biggest fan) on collaboration efforts and for Service Provider Advice. I don't see FirefoxOS or UbuntuOS or any other new emerging Mobile OS NOT being tracked/bugged in the future. As far as an Open Source Alternative to GAPPS, a few things would need to happen because I believe that it could be done. For every app Google has : Keep, Gmail, Now, Calendar, Messaging, etc. You would need to create the alternative first. I'm not saying it can't be done, it can, but a giant push by independent developers would have to be done. I think we, as a community, could easily and feasibly create a OSGAPPs initiative and create a open android experience that decreases the reliance on GAPPs. I personally have nothing to hide, so let the NSA read my texts, email, etc. They will gain nothing. If they try to look into my life, they will find it to be boring, and not exciting. That aside, I'd love to see the push to OSS as I fully support open source and wouldn't mind a non-reliance on one companies (any companies for that matter) products to allow a full user experience. Creating a market place for solely open source applications is also feasible, but raises more risks. Who will regulate products to ensure the non-existence of malware? Just my two sense on the issue... but I get where you are coming from.


Wow, didn't know Firefox went to Verizon for advice. That kind of blows. But then again, it would be silly to think that even by going google free we're really avoiding anything. I mean, who knows how much info Verizon collects on their own.

That said, there is an alternative Gapps package that was started some months ago over at XDA. Link is in the OP. I have not tested it myself yet, as I've been tinkering with other alternatives.

To be honest, I don't have anything to hide either. Just the principle of the matter, which it seems like you agree with (as well as many others). If they want to see my mundane convos with my pregnant girlfriend about groceries, baby stuff, money woes, etc... then they're wasting their time. The thing that bothers me most is not only is it an invasion of privacy, but it's a waste of tax money. But you know, maybe I'll send the NSA a surprise pic every once in a while, lol.


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## Triadd (May 9, 2012)

Here's another interesting project I just found over at XDA. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2319026

Guardian ROM, focused on encryption and secure, private communications. If I give this a go I'll report back here.


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## tt100 (Aug 19, 2012)

Thanks for starting this thread. I'm interested. I too have nothing to hide, but consider it a principle item. I wanted to leave Google a couple times, but don't see anywhere to go nor am I smart enough to write my own apps and host my own private cloud. Hopefully, interest in this thread picks up and some smart people think more about this and maybe even begin to try and figure out a more secure option,


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