Messaging
Signal and Signal Groups
johnk’s haha, a meme and humor group – https://signal.group/#CjQKICj66MMGy-SZzQAflDFLUvPTZex7Hih49TtaEjbq8_5lEhBpaXvFlKR2DFKDw-ph7Thn
Signal – a messaging app similar to Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS, Telegram, Line, KakaoTalk. Nonprofit based in the US.
Telegram – business based in Russia.
Others
Matrix / Element – similar to Slack or Discord, but not as smooth.
Alternatives to Google Docs
CryptPad.fr – collaborative editing based in France
Proton Drive, Proton Calendar – file sharing and calendaring, based in Switzerland.
LibreOffice – this runs on your computer, not on the internet.
Surveillance Reduction
Ad Blockers: AdBlock Extension, Brave Browser
VPNs: I have no advice, as I do not use them. I have one included with my Proton suite.
(Personally, I still use Firefox.)
Search
(Personally, I use Bing, which is Microsoft. It’s not exiting big tech, but spreading my information away from Google.)
ProtonMail: the legendary one. They also have file sharing and calendaring. Based in Switzerland.
Thunderbird with PGP – a desktop email client from Mozilla, the nonprofit that produces Firefox, based in the US
ZohoMail – part of the Zoho suite, based in India.
Shopping
Craigslist – classified ads, and you can do things like porch dropoffs.
PaperBackSwap – a “credits” based system where you can get books by paying a small fee per sale, and the postage for outgoing books. The site has a ton of ads, and you are not anoymous.
Social Media and Sharing
All social media inherently provides surveillance data, particularly about the cloud of influence a person has. Avoid using it for all your social sharing desires.
Find alternative methods that use other technologies, like messengers, mail, and file sharing.
| Activity | Alternative Method |
|---|---|
| Photo sharing | Messaging groups, email lists, even websites. |
| Music playlist sharing | File sharing |
| Home videos | File sharing |
| Social blogging | A private instance of WordPress, and a feed reader like InnoReader. Or just send a mass email. |
| Dating | ???? niche apps? |
| Reading News | Feed readers apps. RSS aggregator sites like this one. |
| Events | Just put the event in your calendar. |
More Intensive Advice
https://hackernoon.com/how-to-migrate-out-of-the-big-tech-ecosystem-j4233494
Surveillance critic Yasha Levine, author of Surveillance Valley, is lukewarm to Signal, Tor, and other US tech, because some of it took some funding from the US DoD, or is somehow connected with the NSA. I think these are legitimate concerns.
What are some big gaps in privacy/security?
| Product or Service | What’s bad about it? |
|---|---|
| SMS texting | Every message is archived by the phone company. |
| WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Instagram chat | Meta gets the metadata about who you contact. |
| iMessage, iOS Message | Apple gets your data if you back up to iCloud. |
| Google Chrome | Google reserves the right to know what you are browsing. |
| Google Search, Gmail, Google Workspace | Obviously, they know you, and know what you are searching for, know your emails, etc. |
| Outlook.com, Office 365 | They know you, and know what you are working on. |
