"It was a private donation from Daniel the individual. Mullvad or its parent and sister companies did not endorse and were not involved in it. Since it has attracted attention and questions we still think it appropriate to comment.

Mullvad is a political company."

You can search and read more about it, but I thought I'd make a post since Mullvad is still being recommended in many places.

Isn't it insane that you can only 'disable' most Google apps? Not 'uninstall' them? Why is this. My phone, my property, my decisions on what to install. Why can't I uninstall Chrome and YouTube? I don't use them and they're taking up space. They are not 'breaking' any functionality of other app when I remove them.

I'm old enough to remember United States v. Microsoft Corp. so why is Google allowed to do this? Genuine question. I really don't know the answer.

I discovered this program by chance; it jams ads and spyware on the network, causing algorithms to learn false information about you, thus preserving your privacy.

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share some context on a recent development that might affect privacy advocates across Europe.

Today, July 21st, 2026, French lawmakers approved a bill banning social media for children under 15. The text passed both chambers of Parliament and is the flagship initiative of President Macron's second term. The government has indicated the measure should take effect at the start of the school year in September 2026.

France becomes the first EU country to pass such a blanket ban, following Australia which enacted similar measures for under-16s in December 2025.

Here's where it gets complicated for privacy. The law doesn't just restrict minors, every platform considered as a social will need to verify the age of EVERY user registering in France. If they can't confirm someone is over 15, access gets blocked.

But to verify ages at scale, platforms will likely need to collect ID documents from adults too. This means that potentially millions of new ID submissions flowing to private companies, questions about storage duration, data access, and who audits the databases, risk of function creep, could this infrastructure be repurposed later?

The European Commission has already flagged compatibility concerns with EU law during the legislative process.

Why this matters beyond France :

Given how GDPR works, this could set a precedent for other member states. Once one major economy establishes age verification infrastructure, others may follow citing "similar protection needs." We've seen this pattern with data retention and content moderation laws.

There are technical alternatives worth exploring : zero-knowledge proofs, on-device age estimation, parental consent frameworks that don't require central databases. But none seem to be getting serious consideration right now.

The law has passed Parliament but implementation details remain unclear. Platform operators are still figuring out how to comply without violating GDPR principles. Legal challenges are expected.

If you're following this issue or want to raise awareness about the privacy implications, I've started collecting signatures here: https://www.change.org/Verifagefr

p.s. i keep wa for college groups and stuff, nothing personal there tho.

Hello, I know this isn't exactly a degoogle question, but thought I'd still give it a shot and ask here. I live in Europe and WhatsApp is the default messaging app in a lot of countries here. The issue I'm having is that I'm currently trying to migrate to Signal, but my friends and family keep saying that I can just reach them on WhatsApp or Telegram.

Has anyone managed to convince their friends to switch to Signal without being pushy?

I live in the apple ecosystem and also used a lot of Google services. And when I decided I did not want that anymore, I thought the solution would be moving over to Linux and replacing all my software and clouds with Linux compatible ones that were more privacy oriented.

But as I started moving my mail to proton, and using my own domain, and exporting my Google adresbook and calendar to mailbox, I slowly realized that if I have replaced everything I need with stuff that uses open standards for data import and export, etc, my data can live (and be used by me) in any ecosystem.

Because The operating system then will also just be a modular component that can be replaced.

In theory this sounds very exciting to try to accomplish. Had anyone tried and what were your practical hurdles?
What am I missing here?

Most de-Google posts are victory laps. I want the honest version, because the failures taught me more than the wins.

What stuck with zero regret:

• Search Google -> DuckDuckGo. Instant, never looked back.
• Mail Gmail -> Tuta on a custom domain. The custom domain is the real unlock, because it means I can leave Tuta later without changing my address again.
• Browser Chrome -> hardened Firefox-based setup + Mullvad Browser for anything I want anti-fingerprinting.
• OS Windows -> Arch on my daily driver.
• Passwords / 2FA -> Bitwarden + YubiKeys and Ente Auth.

What I gave up on, and the pattern behind it:

Every failed swap failed because of other people, not the tool. Chat is the clearest example. Signal works for the friends who'll install it, but family flatly would not leave iMessage, so I stopped fighting it and accepted a split. Trying to move a whole family off a default is a social problem wearing a technical costume, and I lost that fight more than once.

So my actual question for this sub: which of your swaps survived contact with daily life, and which ones did you roll back? And when they failed, was it the alternative that let you down, or the people around you who wouldn't move? I think we'd all calibrate better if we talked about the abandoned swaps as openly as the successful ones.

I download all my music, but that doesn't help me find new songs. I need the recommendation algorithm that Spotify and YouTube provide to find new songs.

How do you find new music you like?

Hi.

Hope you’re doing well.

I literally don’t use any Google service at all. I have an alternative for everything they offer, even if some of them aren’t as good, it’s worth it just so I don’t have to use them.

But my degoogling efforts took a few years across as Google is obviously a massive presence in peoples’ lives for a reason and it’s more complicated when friends/family/co-workers only want to collaborate with you using Google products.

But now I’m free of anything Google directly (ie signing into Google or typing Google into the address bar).

What about you?

I'm currently using the Google keyboard and ideally need a keyboard where I can speak into it, it gives suggestions, and preferably it's open source. Can anyone help me with this, please?

On google. What do you call these types of websites? They appear for practically every search I make whenever I’m trying to learn something. It’s tricky trying to find any credible website it seems, because so many links lead to websites where people are trying to sell their course packages. It would just be cool to visit informative websites where someone isn’t trying to sell me something.

I’m creating an account for my kiddo. He doesn’t have a number. I’m not using mine.

Cannot degoogle it. Stuck in bootloader. Not getting it done. With a few methods.

So I have been reading about Unified Attestation to replace play integraty..

As ive understood about play integraty is it is needed for banking & other apps that want to ensure your apps or device is secure, ie not hacked or compromised and under your control. So rooting your phone was a possible introduction to malicious apps etc. Ive had rooted phones off and on for years, so ive always rejected that argument youl be hacked if your rooted.

What I don't quite understand about Unified Attestation is that it seems to work offline. I get if its online it could check that its a secure trusted device. Offline, how does that work? Is it just it keeps working till your back online?

The other question is how is this different then the hacks to play integraty? Or is it the same, except now you won't have to play a cat & mouse game with google with every update. Basicly is it just a server that says hey your good to use that app?

Lastly what would make any company decide to trust this server in Europe saying your device is secure? I guess that's more of a question of popularity & trust comes later. I still don't quite understand why we need this anyway, can't a banking app check for a latest virus/malware check done on your device & agree that the check is good allow access? I guess this is deeper then a virus check and or those apps never took off to secure android. Kinda like Microsoft finally built in the virus/malware app after years of avoiding the problem.

See: https://uattest.net/

Hey all,

This is more of a hardware question—I’m in the market for a new laptop, and have been taking my data privacy and security fairly seriously for a year now.

After just general searching, I came across a laptop on Facebook marketplace that someone had used for cybersecurity schooling. The features he lists:

• Dual-boot Kali Linux + Parrot OS
• Forensics software suite
• OSINT/information gathering tools
• Bluetooth sniffing/jamming
• Wi-Fi sniffing/jamming
• Claims to crack social media logins, Wi-Fi APs,

Now, since I have zero software dev experience I do NOT plan on making use of these advanced features, conducting penetration, or anything of the sort. HOWEVER—I am having thoughts that if I decide to develop my tech/pricacy experience in the future as I continue down this path, these features could be helpful.

Is it stupid to buy a laptop with this if I’m just a Mac user who takes my privacy seriously? Also want to add that the price is fair and I am not necessarily in the market for another thousand dollar Mac.

LG Electronics says it will suspend smart TV apps that secretly turn hundreds of millions of TVs into residential proxy nodes, after researchers found the proxy SDKs in more than 42% of apps in LG's webOS store and over a quarter of Samsung's Tizen apps, routing unknown third parties' internet traffic through users' home connections.

Residential proxy firms pay developers to bundle these SDKs, then rent the resulting home IP addresses to customers who often use them for large-scale scraping aka stealing your shit (also for AI training).

Proxy nodes are being embedded at scale in hardware people don't treat as computers and can't easily inspect, and LG's cleanup does nothing for Samsung's Tizen store, where the same problem is present.