You can use privacy-respecting software in place of:
- Gmail / Yahoo Mail
- Dropbox / Google Drive
- Google Chrome / Internet Explorer
- Lastpass / 1Password
- Adblocker Plus
I use many of these services on a daily basis. I’ve also chosen apps that doesn’t require technical knowledge to set up. For example, Nextcloud is a great app, but it requires some technical installation, so pClould gets listed here instead.
- Fastmail: An independent company providing email service last 19 years. You have knowledge that your email isn’t being scanned/sold. They offer good spam filters and great mobile apps.
- A private Dropbox replacement is Sync. It is a
“zero-knowledge” cloud — your files are encrypted before they leave your computer. - Firefox: The latest version of Firefox (Quantum) is one of the fastest browsers out there. The parent company Mozilla is a privacy advocate despite a couple of missteps lately.
- Bitwarden: A nice open-source password manager that works better than Lastpass and 1Password.
- DuckDuckGo: A search engine replacement for Google — produces better results for many searches. Qwant is technically more private and hosted in Europe.
- ExpressVPN and iVPN: With more VPN providers found to be logging things (see list below), these reliable providers continue to respect your privacy.
- Signal: A privacy-respecting messenger app.
- MPV: A sophisticated open source video player.
- Apache OpenOffice: A great replacement for MS Office.
- AdGuard DNS: Adlbocking DNS that “just works”.
VPN providers that appear to in fact log some your information:
- PureVPN
- HideMyAss
- HotSpot Shield
- VPN Unlimited
- VyprVPN
- Astrill
- ZoogVPN
- Buffered
- TigerVPN
- Boleh VPN
- Anonymizer
- IPinator
- Seed4.me
- AnonVPN
- FlyVPN
- SunVPN
- iPredator
- HideIP VPN
- VPN Gate
- HolaVPN
- Faceless.me
- Betternet
- Ace VPN
- IronSocket
First of all, thank you very much for this wonderful blog.
Like the most, I’ve recently become aware of the importance of internet privacy as many “information companies” are profiting from people’s personal information and misleading or misinforming both private and public sectors on what people need, want, and dislike, based on a lot of BS metadata analysis.
I think this poses a lot of risks to the people in general as they could end up being collateral damage through illogical business practices, needless and unnecessary consumer product designs, and heartless political campaigns that focus on “metadata analysis” instead of the actual people.
I just would like to request an article from you that could help me out and hopefully many others as well.
It would be great if you could write a comprehensive article on how exactly the popular electronic devices could leak our privacy data through the proprietary OSs and 3rd party applications in terms of hardware and software functionalities.
Many articles I’ve encountered so far just use many words that scare people but don’t quite get into how we can be compromised from hardware and software perspectives. I think this way, a lot of anxiety could be subsided and we can better protect ourselves from those who believe metadata analysis can successfully describe and profile people. I strongly believe they are not contributing anything valuable to the society but only demonstrating arrogance, born out of their ignorance in life.
Again, thank you very much for you blog. I’ve learned a lot and would love to learn more.