ZacharyGross's Journal

Phone

I finally received in the mail my new dumb phone! I got a Kyocera Duraxe, and I love it so far: https://www.kyoceramobile.com/duraxe/att/. It’s quite sturdy, waterproof, and great for outdoor activities.

It has 4G LTE, so I don’t have to worry about it getting phased out. It can also be used as a hotspot: if I’m on the go and need to do something substantive on the internet, I can do so on my laptop or a tablet. Having that option relieves a lot of the anxiety I have about this project. Hopefully the minor friction with having to turn on the hotspot, get the laptop out, etc. will prevent me from using that option unless absolutely necessary.

I’ve read that the operating system is technically android-derived, which might be a downside, but I’m still accomplishing the main goal of getting rid of all the smartphone apps that are constantly tracking me and devouring my consciousness.

I’m still using my old phone number, but I’m thinking of changing that soon just to get a little extra privacy by getting a step away from all the data out there currently associated with that number.

Browser

I am using Firefox with the tunneling configuration.

Search engine

I am using DuckDuckGo?

Maps

I am using OpenStreetMap? . It’s not quite as clever as Google Maps (it can’t find my home address), but it gets the job done.

Social media

This one's easy for me: I haven’t had social media in many years. I deleted Facebook shortly after college.

Next steps:

Computer

This will be the bigger project for the summer — I am going to look into ditching the Macbook.

Email

I am currently researching alternative email providers to replace my personal Gmail account. For my Columbia account, I suppose I am stuck with Gmail.

Money

This one is tough given that I really like my American Express rewards points, but I suppose they are just buying my data from me. I will use cash as much as possible, and will be doing research on alternatives to credit/debit cards for privacy with respect to online purchases.

YouTube

I currently get a lot of my entertainment through YouTube? , which is a big problem from a privacy perspective. I'm currently researching services that allow you to access YouTube? while retaining privacy, but maybe the Firefox tunneling is enough for now.