Alternatives to Google, Facebook and reclaiming privacy.
I was asked to post this information here for the privacy and security aspects.
My use of alternative software & services started when I stopped using as many Google products & services as I could over ten years ago.
Between the actions of various governments, their officials, the EU, Google, Twitter, & Facebook over the last two years we now know who can't be trusted. FYI, just to be clear hosting data outside the US will not protect it from the NSA. Like they're foreign counterparts these groups go after everything on a global scale.
So if you own your own router when was the last time you updated it? ISP routers are niece & convenient but they have limited security. Buying your own or better yet building your own network firewall are far more secure options.
Facebook and Google track everything we do. The Facebook apps & Chrome shouldn't be running on your systems & devices. Many of Chrome's extensions also track you. If you must use Facebook than consider having a browser installed just for Facebook use.
Use Revo's free option to uninstall Chrome. Firefox is barely any better as the company is full of SJWs. Meanwhile Opera was bought out by the Chinese, so if you use this browser do not use their built in password manager.
At the time when I decided I didn't want Google or my ISP's email option that left Hotmail as the only service with comparable features to Google. So I used Microsoft/Hotmail for everything standard and Hushmail for stuff I wanted to keep private. Now I still use Microsoft but I use Virtru for encryption and Telegram for private communication.
So far Microsoft has been agnostic not interfering with auto complete or their searches. So for the time being I will have some of their services listed.
I have also kept Cyanogen OS listed and added the Cyanogen Mod fork.
So here is my big list of alternatives. If anyone has more suggestions hit me with a reply.
Email:
- Scryptmail - Free, based in US, end-to-end encryption.
- Protonmail - A fully encrypted email service, hosted in Switzerland.
- Tutanota - A fully encrypted email service, hosted in Germany.
- Mailfence - Based in Belgium, end-to-end encryption with Digital Signatures.
- Privacy-Conscious Email Services List
- VFEmail - Since 2001, providing businesses and end-users a quick and convenient way to ensure their own security when it comes to email.
- Unseen.is - Private and Secure. Messaging, Calling, Email and Hosting from Iceland.
- Outlook - The only full service gmail competitor.
- virtru - Free for personal use, outlook encryption plug-in.
- TorBirdy - an extension for Mozilla Thunderbird that configures it to make connections over the Tor network.
Encrypted Messenger Software:
- Telegram (My pick) - Similar to What's App only independent, secure, & on all major platforms including the desktop.
- Signal - Encrypted FOSS messenger, only on iOS & Android.
- Threema - Designed to generate as little data on servers as possible, end to end encryption.
- BBM - Old school with a big user base, fully encrypted, & a feed/channel system.
- wire - Simple, secure, private—always end-to-end.
- Ricochet - Anonymous instant messaging for privacy through the TOR network.
- Tox.chat - Tox is easy-to-use software that connects you with friends and family without anyone else listening in.
- Unseen.is - Private and Secure. Messaging, Calling, Email and Hosting from Iceland.
- Matrix - Matrix is an open standard for decentralised communication.
Browsers:
- Brave (Blink) - by former Mozilla CEO, in beta limited extensions. (My pick)
- Vivaldi (Blink) - by former Opera CEO, full access to Chrome web store. (My runner up.)
- Waterfox - 64bit, Firefox based.
- Pale Moon (Goanna) - Firefox fork.
- Midori (WebKit)
- Light - A minimalist browser based on Mozilla source code.
Mobile Browsers:
Password Managers:
Search Engines:
- DuckDuckGo - privately uses Yahoo (Bing). Has "bang" options.
- StartPage - privately uses Google.
- Bing - A full array of features and a rewards system you can sign up for.
Youtube Alternatives:
Alernate DNS:
Mobile OS Alternatives:
OS Alternatives:
- Qubes OS - A reasonably secure operating system.
- Haiku - Inspired by the BeOS, Haiku is fast, simple to use, easy to learn and yet very powerful.
Social Media alternatives:
- Diaspora.com - My pick while waiting on Gab.ai.
- Gab.ai - Twitter alternative, waiting list to join.
- Steemit - a blockchain-based social media platform where anyone can earn rewards.
- BBM - Old school with a big user base, fully encrypted, & a feed/channel system.
- seenlife - Privacy concious Facebook competitor.
- Movim
- GNU social
- Grassfire - a fully featured social environment that includes user profiles, chat, instant messaging, user groups, user news feeds, media uploading/sharing, discussion forums and much more!
- Voat.co - Reddit alternative.
VPN:
Alternate/Developing web technology:
- I2P - The invisible internet project, similar to TOR.
- Dark Mail Technical Alliance - developing a unique end-to-end encrypted protocol and architecture that is the 'next-generation' of private and secure email.
- LEAP - a non-profit dedicated to giving all internet users access to secure encrypted communication.
- ZeroNet - Peer to Peer, Open, free and uncensorable websites.
- IPFS - A peer-to-peer hypermedia protocol.
- Matrix - Matrix is an open standard for decentralised communication.
Miscellaneous:
- We Are The New Media <- List of alternative media & news sites.
- Infogalactic - A wikipedia alternative
- Greycoder - Privacy information & tech including VPNs.
- Prism Break - Privacy information & software.
- Muckety - Shows relationships between people, businesses, organizations, and governemnts.
- Zcubes - Z is the first omni-functional platform for the next generation that brings the digital experience closer to you in the real world.
- privacytools.io - provides knowledge and tools to protect your privacy against global mass surveillance.
- Whonix - "offers you the most secure way to surf the web."
Edit 01: corrected error on Protonmail being hosted in Switzerland, not Sweden.
Edit 02: ok several new additions and some minor updates.
Edit 03: last round of updates for awhile.
Edit 04: Some brief updates, hopefully this is good for awhile. Jan 31, 2017
Edit 04.5: Some more brief updates and reorganizing. Feb 08, 2017
Edit 04.6: Added Grassfire to social media. Feb 10, 2017
Sort: Top
[–] redditfuckingsucksyo 1 points 18 points 19 points (+19|-1) ago
Fantastic post, forcing old social media that has betrayed the people to die by embracing new social media will be how we win this war.
[–] Picard 0 points 10 points 10 points (+10|-0) ago
As long as you have family, friends, and can a manage your business without social media of any kind I suggest doing so. At this point I'm calling a social media a failure of technology as it simplifies life in such a way that makes us stupid by default.
[–] TheTrigger 0 points 5 points 5 points (+5|-0) ago (edited ago)
It really is, though (a failure). We've tried and tested it so many times, and each and every single time it's ended in the exact same demise. Facebook had the luck of growing to a worldwide entity (read: astronomical profits, compared to every similar business before them) and it STILL succumbed to the same forces that wrecked all of its predecessors. Albeit, delayed b y their massive cash reserves, they're still going to fail. All the signs are there.
We're all numb to this cycle, by now. Hell, it's the reason most of us are on voat— hands up: who started on Slashdot, or even SA (I'm sure there's older sites out there, that I've since-forgotten because it was so long ago), before ending up here?
Let's face it: people were meant to interact in person. Maybe that's why FB's pushing so hard in the VR market; because, they know no one's going to subsist on anonymous text, alone. That way, if they can get "online friends" to at least get interactive, VR avatars talking to each other, they might be able to survive for at least a couple more decades before they inevitably crash-and-burn.
[–] B3nder 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
social media free since 2012 and happy with it
[–] fiddleheader 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
Also Qubes OS, the OS that Snowden uses: https://www.qubes-os.org/
[–] Dark_Shroud [S] 0 points 1 points 1 points (+1|-0) ago
At the moment I was just listing mobile but I guess its time for desktop OSs now.
[–] roundhouse1776 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
This is a really great post. I've already been using startpage as my default search engine, but now I'm going to use Brave as my main web browser as well. Time to cut Google and the other traitors out completely.
[–] Raps1 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
I'd add that https://unseen.is/ is another alternative for secure messaging and email. They operate out of Iceland.
I use both Palemoon, and the Light browser. It's a Firefox fork without any of the overhead contained within Firefox. It supports most of the FF addons, but it is truly light and you do have to configure it with ffmpeg to play media.
May as well throw in some addons that are useful. uMatrix because it allows for more control than NoScript, and uBlock because, while there is some overlap with uBlock, they work beautifully together and replace a host of other addons.
Decentralize is another important addon. It redirects requests to all of Google's "free" stuff like jQuery, web fonts, etc., locally to your computer.
Adding lists to your host file is another method of blocking unwanted sites. You can also do this with OpenDNS. If you do own your router, you can block sites for the household. People are surprised when they access your wifi and discover that ads are non-existent in apps ;)
[–] fiddleheader 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Palemoon rocks on any machine, but especially on older machines. Running on a 7yo netbook and it's as snappy as any browser on any new computer. Everything that's good about firefox w/o the bloat.
[–] TheTrigger 0 points 0 points 0 points (+0|-0) ago (edited ago)
I've been running Pale Moon for months. Sometimes, I just leave it running for weeks on end; without actually closing out of the browser (just minimizing it, when not in use) and right now it's at ~350MBs with a bunch of tabs open. It's been running non-stop for a few days. I remember having to restart Firefox every few hours, during heavy use, 'cause it would sometimes end up using almost all of my RAM. To the point that even the OS UI would lag.
Basically: it's everything FF should have been.
[–] Dark_Shroud [S] 0 points 0 points 0 points (+0|-0) ago
I literally just gave someone a link to µMatrix over on edit.
I was already thinking that I'll probably have to write a guide for the browsers.
[–] caprep 0 points 3 points 3 points (+3|-0) ago
Keep in mind, National Security Letters and warrants can be served to any US company. Smaller companies may be less likely to be involved in dragnet surveillance, but it isn't perfect.
[–] S3m8o 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Any advice for a good mobile browser? Ghostery / Brave /..
[–] Dark_Shroud [S] 0 points 1 points 1 points (+1|-0) ago (edited ago)
I have no idea because each of the mobile platforms work differently.
I used to recommend Opera but they're owned by the Chinese now. So that leaves Firefox and third party groups.
Edit:
Ok I looked into this just a little bit because I received a few questions like this. For Android & iOS: Firefox or Ghostery.
There are a few others out there that look interesting. But I have no idea about the companies or how the browsers handle privacy.
[–] queen_laqueefa 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
Thanks for this, it's really interesting. I have to start updating my knowledge on computer security, it's not up to snuff.
[–] Rigg5 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago (edited ago)
Hear me out- Our government was ALWAYS tracking us and feeding us lies. So, with that in mind, making it a LAW is similar to the first step in AA. Acceptance. The establishment has Accepted and Admitted that they want full censorship. This essentially legitimizes the conversation. I will choose to look at this as a win, because SO many people have been red-pilled already. This will force people to go offline and spread Truth in the level of personability that in many ways is much more powerful than a messageboard on the internet and can carry real movement. Make fliers, billboards, posters, graffiti... They can't make us forget what we already know. Now is the time for the information to spread at a community level.