Picture posting sites

With Meta changing their policies recently and the fact that everything Google has gone to hell, I sat back and tried to understand what I wanted from these online businesses.

Regarding saving images online, it's clear what I require - a safe place to store and share pictures with likeminded people. I don't expect them to be stolen or used in AI learning. This is not traditional social media you understand.

Years ago it used to be Flikr, but quickly you ran out of space with a free account, then I ran a blog on Blogger (Google based) for many years, mostly for family and friends. There is also this site, which I'm ashamed to say, I hardly keep up. Years ago, I joined Instagram, lots of family, living around the world, were using it to keep each other up to date with their lives. It also worked as a photo sharing site. That was until the algorithm was changed, you could never see anyone you wanted. The latest changes by Meta, have really put it in the same category as other useless programs. I did try Vero a few years ago, you can upload huge image files but this makes it slow and clunky and there are very few bird/nature photographers on the site. Pictures can be downloaded from Vero, another thing I didn't like. I have never used Facebook (another Meta product) and don't like anything about it. It feels creepy.

Recently I had been seeing photographers and artists talking about Foto. It is an app for sharing, much like Insta was originally and without the followers count. Purely somewhere to see great work. The biggest issue with it currently, is you need the app to be able to see anyones work and there is no web version either. But the standard of images on there is excellent. I have started an account and will see how it goes.

Next, with regard to security of documentation and relocating email and affiliated services away from American companies, we in the EU we have a limited choice of good providers. It just shows how dominant the big companies are around the world. I have settled on using Infomaniak for email, calendar, file transfer and document storage (similar to Google Drive). They are based in Switzerland and privacy is paramount. Just what I need.

All I have to do now, is slowly change my email on hundreds of logins!! That's how you get tied in. For now, much of my email is being forwarded from several gmail accounts into one Kemail account and I have a separate couple of addresses for my business emails. They strip everything attached to the message, much like DuckDuckGo (which I also use) and if you want to see these, you can. So far so good! It's like moving house but more painful, I would know, we've lived in over 50 properties around the world. The pain is mostly caused by having a Gmail account since they first became publicly available, over twenty years ago. Ouch.

Do tell me what you are doing, if anything. Times certainly are changing and I for one am happy to get away from Meta, Google and the Amazons of this world.