Are you tired of the Big Tech companies – Alphabet (Google), Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and others – collecting data about every aspect of your life? Are you tired of them tracking where you go, where you shop, what you buy, what websites you visit, what information you searched for, who you communicate with, and more? Are you tired of them deciding what you can and can’t read or see, or even worse, what you can say without them censoring or “shadow banning” you?
If you are, then it’s time to follow Nancy Reagan’s advice and “Just Say No” to Big Tech. Stop using their products or patronizing their websites. Stop financially supporting them and most importantly stop ALLOWING them to collect data about you without your permission.
My recommendation is to start by deleting everything Google off of your computer or smart phone. It may take a little effort on your part, but it will be worth it.
Following are a few alternatives you may want to consider using:
- INTERNET BROWSER
Mozilla Firefox (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/new/). Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. Firefox uses the Gecko layout engine to render web pages, which implements current and anticipated web standards.
I have been using Firefox for several years and have found it to be an excellent web browser without all of the issues associated with Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge.
- SEARCH ENGINE
DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.com/). DuckDuckGo is an internet search engine that emphasizes protecting searchers’ privacy and avoiding the filter bubble of personalized search results. DuckDuckGo distinguishes itself from other search engines by not profiling its users and by showing all users the same search results for a given search term.
Like Firefox, I have been using DuckDuckGo for years on both my computer and my iPhone and have found it to be ever bit as good as Google without all of the underlying issues.
- SOCIAL MEDIA
Parler (https://parler.com/auth/access). Parler is a United States-based microblogging and social networking service launched in August 2018, promoted as an alternative to Twitter and particularly marketed to political conservatives in the United States. If you can’t live without posting everything about your life that isn’t already known by just about the whole world anyway, then consider switching from Twitter or Facebook to Parler.
I don’t have a Twitter or a Facebook account (and for the life of me can’t understand why anyone would want either) so I can’t comment on the quality of Parler, but it does advertise that it doesn’t censure or ban accounts, and a large number of conservatives have recently opened up Parler accounts, so it may be worth checking out.
Mail.com (https://www.mail.com/). Mail.com is a web portal and web-based email service provider owned by the German internet company United Internet. It offers news articles and videos and a free webmail application with unlimited storage. Each email account can have up to 10 sub-accounts.
I used to have several G-Mail accounts, a couple of which are still active, but switched to Mail.com about a year ago for my personal e-mail accounts and highly recommend it. It also integrates seamlessly with Outlook on my computer and Mail on my iPhone.
ProtonMail (https://protonmail.com/). ProtonMail is an end-to-end encrypted email service founded in 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland by scientists who met at the CERN research facility. ProtonMail uses client-side encryption to protect email content and user data before they are sent to ProtonMail servers, unlike other common email providers such as Gmail and Outlook.com.
I recently opened a ProtonMail account and it seem to work well. I will continue to use my Mail.com account for most e-mail communication but do like the option of having an encrypted account.
Finally, if you are concerned about Apple or Samsung tracking you via your smart phone, then consider some of the options I posted in my blog “Thoughts on Contact Tracing” on June 23rd.
The above options won’t make you invisible to the world, but they will make it a whole lot harder for Big Tech to “see” you. And it may just hurt their bottom line if enough people “Just Say NO” to their illicit activities, which might be what it takes to make them change their evil ways (although I doubt it).