Own your data (again)

 Updated again in February 2021 with even more tasks and tools that got replaced.

Updated in January 2020 with significant improvements since originally posted.

My personal #gdpr today, May 25th 2018: completed my project to get back all my data from @Google, @evernote et al and host it all by myself with @Nextclouders, #joplin and dozens of other @OpenSourceOrg tools that come with the same convenience but with real privacy. Check!

Following this Twitter post I got asked about more details and how I actually achieved that goal. Here is a table of tools that I'm using now instead of the old tools that I consider harmful to some extent:

Task	Old Tools	New Tools
		Network	AddOn	Desktop	Mobile
Files	Google Drive		FileLink*		Nextcloud
	Dropbox
Mail	Outlook		Mail	Thunderbird	Kaiten
Calendar	Google Calendar				DAVx5
Contacts	Google Contacts		CardBook*
Tasks	ZenDone				OpenTasks
Notes	Evernote			Joplin	Joplin
Bookmarks	xMarks		Floccus		Nextcloud Bookmarks
Local Search	n/a		Elasticsearch
Office	MS Office		Collabora	LibreOffice	Collabora
News	Feedly		News		News
	Pocket		Bookmarks		Nextcloud Bookmarks
Tracking	Google				GPSLogger
Communications	Skype WhatsApp Messenger		Talk	Element KeyBase Signal	Talk Element KeyBase Signal Threema
Media (Images, Video, Audio, Podcasts)	Google				AntennaPod
		Emby			Emby
		Plex			Plex
		PhotoPrism
	Audible	Booksonic			Ultrasonic
Mobile Phone	Google, Samsung, etc.	Fairphone			e/OS
Development Collaboration	GitHub	GitLab Mattermost
	BitBucket
Shields	n/a	Pi Hole		Privacy Badger uBlock Origin
Internet Search	Google			Duck Duck Go Ecosia
Analytics	Google Analytics	Matomo (Piwik)
Vault (Passwords)	LastPass			KeePassXC	Keepass2Android
Two Factor Authentication (2FA)	Google Authenticator
	Authy
Home Automation		Home-Assistant			Home Assistant
Backup	SpiderOak ONE	Borg Backup
IDE	IntelliJ IDEA
Time Tracking	Toggl

* Plugin for Thunderbird

All the red ones are gone completely - and that feels really good. The green marked SpiderOak ONE - although it falls into the old tool category as it is proprietary - I'm planning to keep that in the tool set, simply because it is powerful, affordable, and it well protects my data because everything is encrypted prior to uploading it to their facilities. SpiderOak ONE is now gone also because their CLI support has always been weak and since they clearly stated in multiple support issues, they won't be improving that, it got time to drop this too and BorgBackup as a replacement turned out to be even stronger.

That leaves the yellow ones. Those are the tools I would love to replace but haven't found an appropriate solution yet:

• Feedly and Pocket: The news app in Nextcloud aims to provide the same sort of functionality but lacks some features at this point. Let's hope this is going to improve over time. But as the content being managed, there is collected from internet sources and already public, this is not one of the most urgent tasks in my view. The news app is now good enough, and I'm happy with it.
• LastPass: this is my go-to password manager, and it does work really well not only because it integrates almost perfectly on all the platforms I'm using day in and day out. However, since they've been acquired by LogMeIn Inc. my confidence dropped significantly and I'd replace it rather sooner than later. There are lots of alternatives, and it feels like I've tried them all, but none of them is mature enough yet and I have to keep watching out. January 2020: switched to KeePassXC and couldn't be more excited. I didn't really expect better integration in browser and Android, but all the tools around KeePassXC are better than everything I had seen before (including LastPass).
• Authy: the fact that all the sites where I'm using 2FA are registered and stored on a third-party facility is a fairly big worry to myself. As the protocol for 2FA is public and the algorithm well documented, this is my number one candidate for a new app on Nextcloud so that I could be hosting all those keys in my own private cloud. January 2020: successfully switched to andOTP which stores all its data on my Nextcloud instance and hence I can use multiple devices or switch to a new one without having to re-setup 2FA everywhere. February 2021: now dropped andOTP as well as all the required features are included in all my KeePassXC clients too.
• IntelliJ IDEA: as a freelancer, I heavily rely on a code writing tool with lots of integrations and supporting features. There is the open source alternative known as Eclipse, but it is far less capable and lacks performance. As a result, IntelliJ IDEA is one of the last tools that I pay an annual fee for with no regret.
• Toggl: this is equally important for freelancers - no billing without meaningful time tracking. As Toggl integrates very well into almost any task and/or project management system on the planet, it is very convenient and works without extra time being spent. That's the final reason to stick with them, otherwise I'd switch to self-hosted open-source alternatives.

Of course, while not yet living on an island, there are frequent scenarios where exchange with others is important, either for work or pleasure. That's why a number of communication tools (WhatsApp, Messenger, Hangouts, Slack, GoToMeeting, Citrix), networking platforms (LinkedIn, Xing) or social networks (Facebook, Twitter) are still being used daily. Don't think we are close to the point where we could consider closing them down, but even positive things are happening unexpectedly now and then - so let's keep hoping for the better. January 2020: most of the above is not true any more: cancelled my Xing subscription, haven't used Facebook for months and don't use the communication tools mentioned above any longer. Just Twitter is left in the toolset, hoping to replace that with Mastodon when my peers are going to move also. Voice and video sessions are on a paid Zoom account now which is a commercial tool but at least offers end-to-end encryption. February 2021: Not sure about my judgement regarding Zoom any longer. Alternatives like Jitsi and BigBlueButton are getting there, and I should be replacing that in the next phase too. Facebook and WhatsApp accounts are deleted, the Google account will be next to be deleted.

Especially the communication tools are a main concern. While Skype screwed up completely and friends and customers are all using the wide range of tools listed above, I'd really love to consolidate most if not all on a single platform. Nextcloud Talk is pretty good already, but Zoom is the best platform to date (screen sharing on a multi screen desktop in particular) and Mattermost is amazing, feature rich and can be self-hosted. But for all three of them it's hard to get other on board as well which leaves you talking to yourself, which doesn't make sense all day.

Conclusion

Nextcloud managed to evolve into the central hub of all my personal and business data which is well protected with a 3-2-1 backup strategy and synchronized across all desktop and mobile devices when used together with add-ons and apps from various sources almost all of which are Open-source products. Of course, these are moving targets as new platforms, gadgets and ideas arise all the time. But so do these platforms, and they often integrate faster with new APIs than most of the proprietary tools. I am controlling my data to a very high degree without giving up significant convenience.