Stop Uploading Your Data to Google

Yesterday, I saw this video on YouTube by DJ Slope, a videogame youtuber. The very short version is that YouTube is deactivating all of his services and deleting his channel. He suspects they are doing that because he uploaded a file to Google Drive that triggered an automatic account deletion.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened. Here is a case from 2022 where CSAM detection deleted a man's account when he sent pictures of his child to his doctor.

DJ Slope will likely be fine because he has a large enough YouTube channel, which should help him find someone who can connect him with a real person at Google.¹ The same applies to the gentleman who got The New York Times to report on his problem.

But it probably won't apply to you when it happens to you.

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A few years ago, I realized that I had photos and emails dating back to the mid-90s on my Google account. I had auto-upload enabled on my phone's Google Photos account. What are the chances that one of these hundreds of thousands of pieces of data would trigger some automatic action at some point? What are the chances that I could get in touch with somebody who could fix this for me?

At that point, all of my email went through Google, my calendar ran on Google, my phone required a Google account to work, my files were on Google Drive, and I had logged into probably hundreds of third-party services using my Google account. And that's just off the top of my head.

Losing access to my Google account would have been devastating.

So I set some rules for myself:

1. Do not upload any data to Google. My Google account is too important to risk it. Now, no services are tied to it, except for those that must be tied to it.
2. Self-host as much as possible.
3. If self-hosting is not possible, use end-to-end encrypted services whenever possible.
4. Use one service for one thing, so that when it gets disabled, only that one thing is affected.

Here are my suggestions. These are not exhaustive, but they are services I trust. If I don't include a service you love, it's because I'm not familiar with it and haven't used it, not because it's not good.

Email

Use Proton Mail or Tuta. Do not use the email address they provide. Use your own domain name so that you can keep your email address when you switch providers.

Cloud Storage

Use Filen or self-host. Self-hosting cloud storage is surprisingly easy. Install Syncthing on your devices, and you're essentially self-hosting a cloud storage solution.

One downside of both options is that they don't use OS-level features, such as downloading files on demand. Proton Drive does, but I already use Proton for mail, so according to my "one service for one thing" rule, I'm not going to use Proton Drive.

Password Manager

Use 1Password or self-host Bitwarden using Vaultwarden.

Photos

Use Ente or self-host Immich.

Search

Use Kagi or self-host SearXNG.

Calendars

Self-host using Baikal.

Those are the most important ones that allowed me to remove myself from Google's services completely. They're not the only services I self-host. For example, I use Paperless-NGX to manage my documents, Karakeep for bookmarks, and Pi-hole to block the 40% of my Internet traffic that is useless to me.

However, they're the primary ones.

About Self-Hosting

Self-hosting this stuff seems daunting. It sounds like you need a server, handle admin work, and perform a lot of maintenance to keep everything running smoothly. In reality, if you read this blog, you can self-host something like Immich. All you need is an old PC and some way to back it up. You probably already have both of these.

Here's what to do:

1. Install Docker. It's free.
2. Install Tailscale on all of your devices, create an account, and log in. Now you can access them from each other even if they're not on the same network. It's also free.
3. Install the software you want to self-host on the computer you installed Docker on. Every app that can be self-hosted has a tutorial on how to do that. For example, here's the one form Immich. It's a three-step process, and you're done.

This does mean that you will be responsible for backing up your data. But you're already responsible for that because Google can take away your access to the stuff on its cloud any time it wants. It's just easier now to keep backups, because all of the data is on your local storage to begin with.

Anyway, here's a list of other cool stuff you can self-host. And now stop uploading your data to Google.