I am stalking you.
I use Session because it doesn’t require a phone number.
I keep a GPS in my car in case of emergency, but I try to plan my trips ahead by memorising landmarks on OSM. As a species, we are losing our navigation skills.
Linux Mint’s software manager is not bad.
Anyone remember download accelerator plus? I’d download stuff at night while everyone was asleep, then pause DAP/disconnect from the Internet in the morning. Rinse and repeat.
A solution would be to create a proxy app of some kind. As for the poor working class guy thing, I feel you man. Things ain’t getting easier.
The Taliban should spin up their own Mastodon instance.
Even if it’s Chinese spyware, how would they ban it? You can always install the apk from a third-party source if you’re on Android.
Emacs user eh? A man (or woman) of culture I see.
Firefox + uBlock Origin + Reader View
Depending on your situation, most of your issues can be avoided by not owning a smartphone. It’s extreme (by today’s standards, at least), but it does work. I ditched my smartphone back in 2017 for a cheap flip phone. I can find spare parts on eBay easily. My car is older, so there is no SaaS crap in it. If I need to keep in touch with someone, we can use SMS, call each other or meet in real life. I use a Linux laptop for banking/browsing the web and I keep a physical GPS in my car in case of emergency.
and I agree with you. Privacy is pretty much gone already.