Please post the link to the video before we can discuss. Most of the videos are nothing but conspiracy theories.
The particular one I believe they are talking about is not conspiracy theories. Second Thought: Americans Are Being Watched (and it’s getting worse)
That’s the catch: you can’t not use Google at all if you’re online at all, because Google has managed to insert itself into every little corner of the internet.
And that’s how the surveillance trap has quietly snapped shut on all of us without most of us noticing anything.
George Orwell had it wrong: the surveillance isn’t conducted directly by a tyrannical dictatorship but subtly, indirectly by the private sector in cahoots with the government. And the date he predicted was 40 years off. Other than that, he was right: we live in a full-blown dystopia now.
A good ad-blocker goes a long way. You can block all Google domains with minimal impact to non-Google services.
Maybe DNS or IP blocking, but blocking only in the browser likely won’t be helpful as apps (on basically any platform) also track users by calling assets on their domains.
DNS, most web searches, trackers in apps, location data, just to name a few. Ad blockers won’t help you there.
Using an ad-blocking DNS server solves most of those problems. Mullvad offers a public DNS server with no account required, but there are plenty of options out there.
You should still use a browser extension on top of that for pattern-based URL blocking, but a DNS-based blocker should be your first line of defense.
Sweet summer child… it’s a LOT! Especially now. Tl;dr FOSS is your friend, EVERY actor you engage with in a capitalist system, even the state itself is an adversary… You WILL be spied on doing modern anything online, you basically need to do a cost/reward calculation about what you are willing to do. There are many reputable online privacy guides, there are communities here on Lemmy, but sadly there’s no good one size fits all solution here in the modern chaotic landscape.
(Glossary: FOSS is FREE open source software, like Linux, among a galaxy of great projects run by humans for humans and not for capital, and all free as in speech, not beer)
Stay off the internet
Watch videos from Naomi Brockwell. She covers many privacy topics and makes it easy to understand
