A little over a year ago I started evaluating all of the digital tools I use to run my life. The goal was to use the most secure, non big tech tools that I could find. I have a background in cyber security so that helped. Would like to catalog suggestions and make available so everyone can see. Generally, you get what you pay for, if it is free, you are the product. Once you get beyond the automatic desire for free tools, it makes your choices easier. Another goal is to deprive Big-Tech of my data which with “free” tools and sites is how they make their money.
Email: Difficult to totally drop Gmail especially if you have websites to run, but at least you can relegate gmail to administrative traffic.
- ProtonMail, Even ProtonMail cannot read your emails (like Google does BTW) They have added their own calendar, VPN, and a beta for online cloud storage.
Messaging
- Signal Messaging. I have used this for a year and it works really well. Peer to Peer encryption (Signal cannot read any traffic), and a disappearing messaging feature provides a great way to send account numbers and passwords. They added a call feature that works great, talked to my brother in Nigeria with better connection than Apple FaceTime. This one is free though, still trying to figure out how they make money. Looks like some kind of donation thing.
Web Browser
- Brave Browser, www.brave.com Blocks all ads and trackers, speeds up your mobile browsing massively. Up to 35% of the data you pay for on your phone is ads. Works well, they have password saving, payment saving. I do run into an occasional website that does not work correctly so I have to jump over to Safari or Firefox. They also have a unique “Brave Rewards” function that allows you to compensate websites for the time you spend on their sites vs the ads you see.
Social Media
- I have played with Locals.com (Dave Rubin’s tool) a bit. Appears like a good option especially for more local/tighter groups. And it is based on a membership fee, so they don’t mine your data.
Web Hosting
- www.HostingMatters.com Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit, promotes these guys.
3 replies on “Digital Tools to Use? Deprive Big-Tech of Data”
I can vouch for the usefulness of Signal, and its good call quality.
Thank you for this Steve.
I’m not a cyber expert and really appreciate the information. I will check out what you posted!
My pleasure, I used to work in a classified environment and the crazy thing is that normal citizens are now having to put into place the same level of security awareness as those of us working behind the curtain.