I have a Linux (Mint) laptop and a non-rooted Android (13) phone which I take to college, and also have a personal and a college Google account, both of which are essential. The emails of both the accounts are nearly identical, only differing by their domain name, and I am afraid I may mistake one for another and end up storing data in or using the incorrect account for a task. What measures can I take to keep both accounts isolated and ensure I am aware of which account I am currently using without resorting to purchasing separate devices for each account or rooting my devices?
Do note that this post only addresses the issue of keeping separation between the two accounts, and not directly the issue of invasion of privacy of use of these Google services, which is why I didn’t ask this question in c/privacy.
For Android: Use a “work profile” for the college account.
There aare many apps to do it, I use one called “Shelter” that’s available on Fdroid.
Edit: Link: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/net.typeblog.shelter
Edit 2: You basically just install the apk then follow the prompts. Use the normal profile for personal stuff, the work profile for college stuff. Google still can figure out that its both you, but to your college, they can’t access your stuff on your personal profile.
Create another user account on Linux, and associate each google account to each linux user account?
You could ask to borrow a school laptop
Depends how separate you want these.
One option is to make a second user in Mint, the OS level. This would isolate the Firefox settings for each username from each other. But this would also create separate home folders, so if you’re regularly using the same files in your personal stuff and college stuff I could see that being annoying.
Second option is to install a second browser, and just use that browser for your college account. Personal logins in Firefox, and only the college account in Chrome or whatever.