Decentralizing Your Digital Life

#notes

Last Updated:

under construction This post is a work in progress, and may be updated at some point in the potentially distant future!

This page is a reference of alternatives to mainstream products / products run by mega-corporations

  • DuckDuckGo

    DuckDuckGo aggregates it’s results from over 400 sources across the net. I’ve found the results aren’t quite the same as Google, but still good enough.

  • Startpage

    StartPage uses Google’s search index, so results are similar to Google’s but there’s been questions about the company’s ownership recently. 1

Browsers

Now that the browser wars may have returned,2 you may want to switch from chrome to another browser.

  • Firefox

    Firefox is a good option for a browser that isn’t chromium-based (the chromium project is run by Google, but is Open Source).

Domain Name Registration

Email

  • ProtonMail

    ProtonMail is an email service run out of Switzerland, and has robust end-to-end encryption support. 3

Source Control

Operating Systems

There’s never been a better time to switch to linux - which is free, open source, and doesn’t respects your privacy much more and doesn’t phone home like macOS4 and Windows5 for everything you do.

I’d recommend Ubuntu for first-timers as the installer is pretty helpful and the OS is configured for use right out of the box.

NOTE: Take extreme care when installing new operating systems on your computer, as you can easily erase all your data if you pick the wrong option. Do your research!

Footnotes

  1. https://support.startpage.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/1275/0/what-is-startpages-relationship-with-privacy-onesystem1-and-what-does-this-mean-for-my-privacy-protections

  2. https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/16/21068387/browser-wars-microsoft-edge-google-chrome-apple-safari-chromium-webkit-goat-rodeo

  3. https://proton.me/mail/security

  4. https://sigpipe.macromates.com/2020/macos-catalina-slow-by-design/

  5. https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-10-telemetry-secrets/

Change Log

  • 5/27/2020 - Initial Revision
  • 7/18/2022 - update links to protonmail and remove dead link

Found a typo or technical problem? file an issue!