It fits into the whole philosophy. There are several posts ( Initial Kuketz, discussion on Kuketz critique, reminder/restart discussion, criticism on usage of OpenAI in /e/ and poor communication, same questions again with no or wrong answers) criticising /e/ for heavily ignoring privacy and security flaws and only one response post on this Duvals answer on OpenAI usage in which they clarify to see ‘emotional’ reactions and look for alternatives while still finding it acceptable and criticism is ‘FUD’ and ‘hurt of reputation’ instead of valid concern.

Additionaly the points postet by Kuketz are not addressed since today. Updates are a bit faster but still with weeks delay and still not including several parts of security updates (instead it’s the bare minimum).

I looked for several posts on social media and Duval always ignores the points and yells that all the people are only up to harass him. He also uses false arguments to convince (probably) himself of this ridiculous behaviour.

I started using /e/ in summer 2022 and was positive and hopeful because of the idea (long updates, privacy in mind, degoogled). But over the years learning that nearly all internal community and external expert criticism was ignored or marked as irrelevant or harassment when it’s not, my opinion changed and I’m no longer willing to talk or write about /e/ diplomatically as it is inappropriate.

if this is true

It’s not. Can be closed

Had the same problem. Contacted the admin who said that I was blocked due to many requests. The problem: They block critical queries sending something like 0.0.0.0 or 127.0.0.1. So the problematic connection cannot be established. That is the intended behavior. But the problematic will keep retrying and therefore you get blocked. When having startet my companies notebook (I got blocked) due to many Windows requests. Don’t know why but the treshold is not high enough

Many? Not for one

…are there any unofficial WhatsApp clients I can use to preserve my privacy?

Using WhatsApp and ‘preserve privacy’ is a contradiction. Accept no privacy or stop using any kind of Metas services and networks

It was promised that it will never happen. Don’t know why you thought unrealistic thingd

Librewolf for Linux Desktop and Fennec for AOSP

OpenAI feature is called Murena Voice to Text, so users don’t know, it’s OpenAI. They use tracking ids in their own update process. They ignore critique.

Graphene is currently only available for Google devices and therefore no alternative.

Lineage contains connections to Google as well.

Recommending iOS is ridicolous.

OpenAI feature is called Murena Voice to Text, so users don’t know, it’s OpenAI. They use tracking ids in their own update process. They ignore critique.

Graphene is currently only available for Google devices and therefore no alternative.

Lineage contains connections to Google as well.

Recommending iOS is ridicolous.

UltraVision fully respects your privacy

Furthermore, any info you personally insert into the app, such as your name and email address, is stored on US-based servers

Lol, immediate contradiction.

Answer to your question: Only local/offline is privacy respecting. Anything else is naif

/e/OS is not Google free (several calls, integrations and so on are connecting to Google). It makes use of OpenAI as well, uses tracking ids for updates. It is far behind regarding updates and thus risking privacy due to lack of security. They ignore any sort or critique.

Graphene: You have to buy a Google device. Even second hand is support as it increases the value of their devices (or stabilize) and you walk arround with their name.

Advice: Have a look at Iode.

Pick a device that is not meant to be used for many years as Graphene plans to support a non Google device in coorporation with an unknown manufacturer.

(Written from a Fairphone using /e/)

Childish attitude. It definitely makes a difference walking arround with a Google logo. If it’s okay for you: fine, says alot.

One should avoid giving money and presenting Google (and others) wherever and whenever possible.

It is not. It is better than bloated Google Android but not “great”.

• They use tracking ids for updates
• They are far behind with updates lowering security and thus risking privacy
• They use testing keys which is ridicolous
• They added OpenAI integration and called it “Murena Voice to Text” so that unfiliar users could unintentially leak sensitive data
• They ignore valid critique and call it ‘personal harassment’ although nothing personal nor something like harassment happen there (for example in related /e/OS threads)

That is exactly such a mentioned third party alternative

Never use Chromium based browsers as it is coming from Google and gives it more power. The only alternative is Gecko / Firefox based: Fennec for Android and Librewolf for desktop.

Break free from Google with buying Google product? Lol

Nice hint. Thanks!

This man is a lyer. /e/ os is not degoogled but tgey keep saying it. They ignore critique regarding their very slow updates. They introduced OpenAI but labeled it as a Murena feature, so that user could think, it is a valid service but data is sent to USA. Critique was ignored and labeled as personal harrasment. Wtf.

Yes, /e/ has much less Google integrated but their service, their communication, their promissises and their security is a laugh.

After his last response to the AI integration, I realized that he is not willing to accept valid critique and they will go on what we usually call ‘enshitification’

I only know two visble options in terms of credibility and costs per feature ratio: Posteo and mailbox.

Proton should be avoided since their descructive behaviour regarding critique and their baclground. Tutanota is to be avoided since they only support their own client. That leaves us with no flexibility and a smack of something.

This happens unfortunately more often since a year or so with Tor as well. It should not depend on DNS because I use always Mullvad. I guess, it’s a weird blocking behaviour.

That’s why I switched to brave and use startpage much less