It’s not absurd at all. They know the IPs, they know those devices use the same network, and they also know where they are located pretty accurately: the Google Street View cars also scan for WiFi networks and map them to their location.

2 devices consistently connected to the same router, to the same network, in the same place… must belong to the same person or to 2 people sharing a home. If cookies set by other websites and seen by Google show similar browsing habits, it’s probably the same person.

You just mentioned 2 different Google accounts: if your devices are connected to Google accounts they are already getting a lot of information from you that way, and Google knows that those 2 accounts are related.

Good to know. Thanks. I have my music in my server, which runs Jellyfin and Navidrome on Docker…

Would it make sense to install it on Docker too or would it be OK install it on my computer and then have it check the music oh my server over NFS?

I guess this isn’t what you want to hear… but like others here I’d recommend you organise and tag your music properly. Then software like Jellyfin or Navidrome should work properly.

I use MusicBrainz Picard and have seen people recommend https://beets.io/, which I still haven’t looked into.

+1 for Finamp beta. It is great and under active development.

You can get the latest version here: https://github.com/jmshrv/finamp/releases/tag/0.9.11-beta

Mmmm, did you try the latest beta or the stable version?

The stable version is quite outdated and download doesn’t work great there. With the beta version (0.9.11) I’m able to download full albums, full artists or individual songs. I’m very happy with it. I’d recommend you give it another a try if you have time.

If you’re interested in an alternative to Gelli, check Finamp (https://github.com/jmshrv/finamp): it is a Jellyfin client for Android that can also download music to play offline. Try the latest beta version, it is way ahead the stable version and works perfectly for me as a daily driver.

Glad that I could help. If you need help with setting the custom DNS or choosing which domains to block feel free to ask me here.

The app has not been updated in long time, but the database is still updating daily for me, and the app still works on Android 14. Can’t tell it will continue working in the future…

Google is not killing uBlock Origin, it is making its Chrome browser even less user friendly. Just use Firefox or a Firefox fork.

I’m not the person you replied to, but I think my experience could be relevant.

I have a MiBox TV S 4K, which as far as I know runs pretty pure AndroidTV (but I might be wrong). This is still going to try to connect to Google and Xiaomi servers for tracking and ads… but I have set up a custom DNS blocking trackers and ads.

I found this Reddit post and followed the instructions to change the DNS server on the MiBox to NextDNS, where I could later activate relevant blocklists (SmartTV, Xiaomi, Google). I also perform monitoring of the domains the MiBox connects to and have blocked a couple manually.

Finally, for AndroidTV forget about NewPipe and use SmartTube. It’s the same idea, but optimised for the AndroidTV experience where you have a remote and not a touchscreen.

Librewolf + uBlock Origin on desktop. Mull + uBlock Origin on mobile.

I feel like I have to tell you about the fabulous, most groovy… Bellbottoms (by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion).

Unfortunately it’s just less than 2 minutes on the intro of one song. I wish they had done some more like it, because it’s a great combination in my opinion.

I’ve experienced the same. Contacted them and no solution was given. I quit using it because it’s useless to navigate around my city.

I had to contact them 3 times in 3 months to get a reply, and this is what they said:

we’ve checked and it’s a quite difficult case.

There is a roadblock (data coming from our traffic data provider) which refers to a bridge in construction.

OpenStreetMap does not have this bridge. So the roadblock data is decoded as if it was referring to the nearby streets. (check attachment) We cannot disable the roadblock data individually. I’ll add the bridge to the OSM data and it should hopefully fix the issue.

Fortunately, they also attached a screenshot showing the closed bridge drawn on top of what I assumed is the software they use, next to Google Maps where the bridge is mapped and marked as closed. I quickly checked OpenStreetMap and… the bridge was mapped and marked as closed. It just seems the software they use doesn’t download closed ways and they just mark as closed whatever road is nearby what has been reported by their traffic data provider. I quickly replied to advice against editing the correct data on OpenStreetMap. It’s been more than one year and the issue is still there. They don’t seem to care.

If anyone is interested, this seems to be the original article from Süddeutsche Zeitung that the English article mentions several times but doesn’t link:

A great song. Don’t forget to check the original version from the ‘Nothing Has Changed’ compilation to see how the industrial influences change to orchestral and jazz frenzy:

https://youtu.be/nFX1y62l9C4

I always thought that MC stood for music cassette (as opposed to the videocassette tapes back in the day), but I never looked it up and you make a very good point…

I have a setup which is not ideal, but I believe improves privacy while preserving convenience: I never connected my TV to the internet, and instead use a MiBox TV S 4K for all my streaming with custom DNS blocking trackers and ads.

I guess there might be other Android TV boxes that allow you to change the DNS server. It might be worth checking a bit around if you decide to go down this route.

In my case, I found this Reddit post and was able to change the DNS server on the MiBox to NextDNS, where I could later activate relevant blocklists (SmartTV, Xiaomi, Google). I also perform monitoring of the domains the MiBox connects to and have blocked a couple manually.

This way I have an AndroidTV experience with the streaming services that I want, and with the domains I don’t want blocked.

There are several degoogled OS options for the Fairphone models, with different levels of degoogling and privacy: LineageOS, CalyxOS, DivestOS, iodéOS and /e/OS.

Most of these are based on LineageOS (I understand that CalyxOS isn’t, but I might be wrong). I personally use iodéOS and I like the helpful developers, the ability to remove / replace any of the apps preinstalled with the system, and the iodé blocker which blocks trackers, adds and any connection you want to at a system level.