January 19th, 2021 Posted in Privacy
Privacy Focused Apps
Here are some alternatives to common privacy invading apps and services, and references as to why switching is a good idea. More ideas at https://www.privacytools.io/
If you still need to use any of these services for whatever reason, using it in a browser is better than giving Meta/X/Google apps free access to your phone location/contacts/etc.
Why? Delete Facebook
Why? Delete WhatsApp
Twitter/X
Why? Because it’s turned into racist trollfest used to undermine democracy and let right wingers run riot
Google Services
Google Drive/Dropbox > Tresorit or Proton Drive
Google Analytics > Plausible.io or Matomo
Gmail > Proton Mail
Google search – Duckduckgo or Ecosia
Web Browser
Google Chrome has a monopoly but not because it’s better, just because of Google’s huge ad budget. Switching to Firefox or Brave is really easy and stops Google hoovering up so much of your data and browsing habits.
Windows
Depending on what you use Windows for, there are options;
Many games work fine on Ubuntu Linux, so you could dual boot your PC with Windows and Ubuntu and use Linux for at least some of your gaming. It’s not difficult to download, burn to a USB stick and install on a computer. I’ve got Ubuntu on my PC and found I can play a lot of my games on it.
If you really need to use Windows, like I do for testing websites, apps like Shutup can turn off annoying apps and data grabbing ‘features’ for you. Use a different browser to Edge no matter how much it cries and begs to be your default.