The Privacy Diet James Patrick

Start Here · Android · Your path

Photos

Get your photo library out of Google Photos or iCloud. Work down the list — each step builds on the ones above it.

Pick a different goal · Change device

Start here

  1. Quick Win 3

    Audit and Lock Down Your App Permissions

    ⏱ 30 min    ★ Impact: High

    Check which apps can already see your photos.

  2. Replacements

    Photos: the private alternatives

    From the replacement table, kept up to date.

  3. In the book

    Photos

    De-Google Your Life · Chapter 12

    Moving the library, and checking it all arrived.

  4. In the book

    Photos on Proton Drive

    Proton Suite: The Definitive Guide · Chapter 10

    If you choose Proton Drive.

  5. On this site

    Takeout checklist

    Export everything from Google before you delete anything.

Run it yourself

Optional, and a bigger step: host it on a small server at home so the data never leaves your house. Do these in order — each one assumes the last.

  1. In the book

    Plan the server: threat model, hardware, networking

    Be Your Own Cloud · Chapters 1–4

    Decide whether self-hosting suits you before buying anything.

  2. Compare

    Self-Hosting Trade-offs

    What you gain against what you take on, stated plainly before you invest.

  3. Compare

    Homelab Hardware

    Six starting points by cost, power draw and what each is good for.

  4. Tutorial

    Installing Ubuntu Server for a Home Lab

    From USB stick to a headless, static-IP, auto-patching box you can SSH into — the machine every self-hosting guide assumes you already have.

    beginner⏱ 60 min

  5. Tutorial

    SSH: Key-Only Login and Sensible Hardening

    Turn off password authentication, lock down root, and stop the log noise — the twenty minutes that closes the most-attacked door on any server.

    beginner⏱ 25 min

  6. Tutorial

    Docker and Compose, Properly Installed

    The right repository, the docker group and what it actually grants, a Compose file you can read, and the update routine that keeps a homelab from rotting.

    intermediate⏱ 45 min

  7. In the book

    Storage

    Be Your Own Cloud · Chapter 7

  8. In the book

    Reverse proxy, HTTPS and local DNS

    Be Your Own Cloud · Chapter 8

  9. Tutorial

    Reverse Proxy and HTTPS, Set Up Once

    Chapter 8's Nginx Proxy Manager from empty folder to a trusted padlock: the shared proxy network, a DNS-only API token, one wildcard certificate for every service, and a way to test it all before Pi-hole exists.

    Every service page assumes this is done.

    intermediate⏱ 45 min

  10. In the book

    Secrets and .env files

    Be Your Own Cloud · Chapter 9

  11. In the book

    Immich

    Be Your Own Cloud · Chapter 13

  12. Tutorial

    Immich: Going Deeper

    Chapter 13's photo library deployed step by step: a database password Immich will accept, proxy settings that survive large video uploads, the phone app, and moving between Immich versions safely.

    intermediate⏱ 60 min

  13. Tutorial

    Google Photos to Immich, Dates and Albums Intact

    Move a whole Google Photos library into your own Immich server: a Photos-only Takeout, one merged folder, immich-go with a dry run first, and the checks to make before you delete anything from Google.

    Bring your existing Google Photos library across.

    intermediate⏱ 45 min