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In case you need some motivation to de-google (mastodon.online)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
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[โ€“] 27 points 2 months ago (1 child)

I'm guessing that they made it location dependent like they did with the Gulf of Mexico. In Canada it's still showing Lake Ontario.

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    • [โ€“] 25 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Openstreetmap, US VPN

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    • [โ€“] 10 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    I checked. This is real.

    Apple Maps holding for now

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  • [โ€“] 8 points 2 months ago

    It's still showing as Lake Ontario on Google Maps in the Netherlands

    The Gulf of Mexico is also still called the Gulf of Mexico, but they put Gulf of America in parenthesis

    By all means de-Google though. Cut all the American tech companies out of your life as much as feasibly possible.

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    • [โ€“] 7 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Here they've decided to pick both sides, which doesn't make me think any better of Google but still is a bit nice:

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    • [โ€“] 13 points 2 months ago (6 children)

    Next phone I get needs to be non-Android

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  • [โ€“] 14 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

    You don't need to get a non-Android phone in order to get a non-Google phone.

    Android is open source, and if you are willing to forgo the Google Play Store and Google Play Services there are non-Google options. GrapheneOS and /e/OS are de-Googled versions of Android, for example.

    Fairphone comes with an option with /e/OS installed by default, if you don't want to bother installing it yourself.

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  • [โ€“] 7 points 2 months ago

    Android may be technically 'open source' but it is not a collaborative project. It is completely controlled by Google, who are reducing the frequency of their source code releases and gradually making it more difficult for third-party Android forks to survive by convincing app vendors to make their apps refuse work on non-'certified' Google Android installations.

    Alternative phone operating systems are the way to go if you really want to de-Google. Lots of them can run Android apps as well as the Android forks for now, and their own app libraries are growing rapidly as developers get tired of Google's shenanigans.

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  • [โ€“] 5 points 2 months ago* (2 children)

    I need to look into this. Fairphone seems a good option.

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  • [โ€“] 6 points 2 months ago*

    If you specifically want /e/OS, you need to watch out where you buy the Fairphone.
    There is two versions, with the regular Android (with Google services) version being the more common one.

    https://www.fairphone.com/nl/the-fairphone-gen-6-e-operating-system

    If you buy this one from their website you are guaranteed to get the /e/OS version

    Edit: Also worth noting that you could also unlock the bootloader, and install /e/OS on the regular Android version as well. You might be able to save โ‚ฌ 150-200 that way.

    To my knowledge you can relock the bootloader after you are done? You'd have to look into that yourself though.

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    • [โ€“] 4 points 2 months ago

    The funny thing is that Lake America doesn't even associate it to the US, it just makes the name more ambiguous. Of course, the Trump admin would never have suggested naming it Lake New York because the US government is even alienating their own states at this point.

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    [โ€“] 3 points 2 months ago

    Ah Shit, Here We Go Again

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    [+] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 child)
    [deleted]
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  • [โ€“] 3 points 2 months ago*

    I get what youre saying, but damaging google in Europe is an unintended and deserved consequence of the shit show that is US politics.

    But absolutely right: don't forget the ongoing war in Iran, the unneeded trade war in Canada, the bullying of the EU and other allies over trade, the constant threats to NATO, American indifference to the Russian war on Ukraine, Trump generally being a putin arse kisser, the criminalisation of tourists to the US, Trumps enabling of Israeli atrocities in Gaza and of course the Epstein files. And much more.

    We don't have a vote in the US elections, but we can stop using Google, Facebook, Twitrer/X, and Microsoft products. And we can vote in our elections for people who codemn Trump. That is how we can have our say.

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    • [โ€“] -2 points 2 months ago (7 children)

    It is only in US, and all other parts of the world still see "Lake Ontario". Also, they are following the law they have to follow. So... there are plenty reasons to de-google, but this ain't one.

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  • [โ€“] 10 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    Also, they are following the law they have to follow.

    Huh, I must have missed the news that Google had become a federal government department.

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  • [โ€“] 0 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

    So why did Google then show Lake Ontario before instead of for ex. Lake Google? Can't they then just write like... whatever they want?

    But yes, I was wrong. They simply have an internal policy to follow the federal data. So, in a way, they don't need to be but they will follow what they decide.

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