Privacy Alternatives to Big Tech

You may listen to the podcast version of this essay here.

Dear privacy seekers,

It’s no secret that Big Tech companies—by which I mean Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon—don’t care about your privacy. In fact, they actively subvert it and opaquely profit from the data you give them. Think about it for a moment. How does Google make money? Facebook? These companies have market capitalizations of a trillion dollars or more. Have you ever paid Google, Facebook, or Twitter anything? I know I haven’t. Alas, I’m afraid that you are not the customer of these companies. The advertisers are the customers and you are the product.

Now, you might not be afraid that Amazon knows where you live and what your politics are, or that Facebook knows you have mental health issues. However, you might be more worried if a private investigator, hired by a health insurance company or prospective employer, were to find out that information by gaining access to these accounts through various open source intelligence techniques. You might be concerned when YouTube gives you the news that they want you to see as opposed to the news that you need to see. You might be concerned when Google gives your account and location data to the police who are investigating a crime scene that you unknowingly rode your bike through with your Android phone. You might be concerned that Apple is helping to support censorship in China, or that companies from Spotify to Skype actively censor people, ideas, and even language.

Now instead of bashing these companies for offering a free service that we’re starting to find out has a serious cost, I’m going to tell you something you might not like to hear. You can quit. You can opt out. There are alternatives. And that’s what we’ll discuss today.

YouTube

To replace YouTube you have a few options, though nothing unfortunately that matches its convenience, quantity, and sheer search power. There is BitChute, LBRY (its browser version is known as Odysee), Rumble, and D.Tube, among a variety of other up-and-comers. Not only do some of these sites promise less tracking—keeping in mind that YouTube can connect to your other Google accounts—but they have more transparent profit models and are less inclined to censor. I upload my podcast to many of these websites, so if you’re watching this on YouTube, consider switching over.

What are you giving up? A few things. First, these websites simply don’t have the same breadth as YouTube. You’re not guaranteed to find the latest golf tournament highlights or that video game soundtrack that you listen to while working. Second, they’re not amazing at searching. Though to be fair, YouTube is arguably the best funded search engine on the planet. They also don’t have a few of the conveniences and in many cases are missing a number of regular features that we have come to expect. Instead, you should use these video alternatives for channels such as my own that you follow regularly and that you know are on alternative media.

I’ll be honest. These YouTube alternatives can be rough. But they’re improving. If you’re having trouble and getting frustrated, make one or two of these websites a bookmark on your browser and try to use them as a replacement for YouTube just once per day. You don’t have to go all-in. The main thing here is to set up a new habit. When you want to watch something, resist the urge to type in YouTube and instead type in BitChute. Or Odysee. You’ll also find that there are a lot of interesting channels these days that simply aren’t on YouTube and only exist on Rumble or D.Tube.

With a bit of collective effort these alternatives can rival YouTube. Consider contributing in some way. Maybe you’ll be the person to upload more popular videos onto these channels. Maybe you can email your favorite YouTuber and tell them to get on BitChute because that is where you watch videos. If we want a replacement to Big Tech—which prospered based on our laziness—we’re going to have to start doing a bit of work. So go out and give one of the following a try: BitChute, Rumble, D.Tube, and Odysee. Or find another that you prefer.

Google Search

Switching search engines will be the easiest Big Tech alternative for most people. To be honest I don’t use Google search that much these days. Instead I rely on DuckDuckGo as a default search engine. DuckDuckGo does well enough and it gets me most of the stuff I need. Other searches include Startpage, which replicates Google results without the tracking, and Qwant. Occasionally I’ll also use Bing search—owned by Microsoft—to get some different results or Yandex, which is Russian. There’s nothing particularly magical about search engines. Find one that works for you and make it your default.

Will you get some different and possibly subpar results by moving away from Google? Sure. But in some cases that can be good, since Google tracks you and tailors your results based on your search history. It also feeds you information based on your perceived location, and censors or shadow-bans certain websites and ideas that the Google overlords dislike. The Wall Street Journal has done a lot of work on Google’s methods. One such study is titled “How Google Interferes With Its Search Algorithms and Changes Your Results.” Any tool you use often is well worth an occasional investigation. Privacy techniques can literally be the difference between seeing the world as it is or not. Use DuckDuckGo. Use Startpage. Use Qwant. Give up the Google search engine today.

Gmail

First, ask yourself what you need email for. If you’re just staying in touch with people you know, you are better served using a private messenger such as Wire, Signal, or Element. Or even WhatsApp and iMessage if you really must: at least those are end-to-end encrypted. Gmail is not end-to-end encrypted—Google and its employees can see and store all this information—and email as a whole is fairly insecure and archaic. Use private messengers for most of your messaging.

Still, we must use email sometimes. The easiest alternative to Gmail is ProtonMail. Everyone is talking about ProtonMail and that’s because it’s pretty good. At least as good as email can be. It’s a zero knowledge service, which means that ProtonMail employees—and anyone else who doesn’t have your password—cannot see what is in your inbox. And if you send emails to other ProtonMail users, then those messages are end-to-end encrypted. That’s about where it ends though: ProtonMail is not a magical privacy bullet. If you send ProtonMail emails to a Gmail address, for example, then Google will have a record of that conversation. Still, there’s some value in using an email service from an outspoken privacy company that cannot see the totality of your account and that is headquartered outside of the Fourteen Eyes spy nation network.

ProtonMail is free to set up a basic account with paid tiers for more storage capacity. You may as well give it a try. For some people who use elaborate business emailing with multiple users, ProtonMail might not be the solution. For everyone else, ProtonMail will do precisely what you want from an email service: send and receive text.

Amazon

Now here’s a tricky one. Amazon has the market cornered more than anyone on this list. Let me explain. I haven’t used Google search in years and frankly have barely noticed. Facebook I gave up overnight and my life has markedly improved, and YouTube I’m weaning myself off of. But Amazon—they just have a cornerstone in our lives, don’t they? It’s an all-in-one marketplace with extraordinarily great logistics and access to products that in many cases you cannot find elsewhere. Amazon has a strong hold on the Internet and the physical world.

Before addressing Amazon marketplace I should note that Amazon has services more than just selling and shipping. You should know by now to avoid Kindle ebook readers and go with a Kobo reader or physical books instead. Avoid Amazon Web Services for hosting, and cut your Alexas and other surveillance toys into pieces. Those have no place in a privacy-seeker’s house. Go back to Episode 5 of this Substack for a fuller breakdown on Amazon’s myriad services and why you should be afraid to give this company too much information.

What I’m most concerned with right now is Amazon’s marketplace. I wish I had a nice easy answer for an alternative, but there is nowhere else that replicates the convenience of Amazon. I’ll admit that. You’re going to have to do a bit of work—especially initially—and form some new habits.

First of all, get off of Amazon Prime. That is a yoke around your neck. Next, commit to buy more things in physical stores. In addition to starving the beast, you’ll be ensuring that brick-and-mortar stores have a future. In such shops you can also use cash, which is great for privacy and the future of private transactions. Put a sticky note on your computer screen that says “Instead of Amazon, go to a shop!” Start to get to know the shops in your area again and plan trips around them. I think you’ll find it rewarding and, as an added benefit, you probably won’t spend as much money as you do impulsively adding objects to your Amazon cart.

Now assuming that you’re not actually going to leave your house, recognize that many of the sellers on Amazon have their own website. The Faraday bag company Silent Pocket, whom I have sometimes recommended, sell their items on Amazon to reach a wide audience, but they also have their own excellent website. Especially after visiting a coupon site to get a small discount—a process you can do for most online shops—the price is often the same or less than Amazon, especially when you factor in Amazon Prime costs. Sure, you’ll have to whip out your credit card and punch in your billing details as usual—hopefully fake ones using a masking debit card service such as Privacy.com or a prepaid VISA—but if you put those details into your password manager things will get easier. And if there is an item you buy often, you may as well create an account on that store’s website for added convenience.

We can and should get into the habit of visiting websites other than Amazon. If you’re buying a Lenovo computer or a Samsung phone you can get these directly from Lenovo and Samsung websites and be sure that they are genuine: which is not always the case with Amazon. Similarly, for tennis equipment you can try Tennis Express. For makeup, try Sephora, and for mid-tier furniture go with IKEA. Wrist watches have their own websites and physical retailers, which I’m told are better at guaranteeing genuine product. Spend a bit of time on these websites and get familiar with what they have on offer. Some companies such as Best Buy also have an Amazon price match guarantee as they compete with the online juggernaut. The benefits of supporting companies directly online include better warranties, sometimes better customer support, guarantee of authenticity, and, of course, you’ll be making sure Amazon knows one less thing about you.

Some direct competitors to Amazon for sheer variety include the websites of Target and Wal-Mart, eBay, and in the UK online shops such as Tesco. For electronics you have a number of options such as Best Buy, B & H, Newegg, Box, and Currys. You can even try a website such as SlickDeals or—yes—Google Shopping in a locked-down browser to see what other shops sell a particular product.

Books are more complicated. A huge percentage of all book sales funnel through Amazon, and Amazon is able to keep their prices much lower than competitors by strong-arming publishers. I’m not going to blame Amazon for this, because we all support this process by buying cheap books on Amazon as opposed to other venues. I should note that book purchases can be particularly important for privacy-seekers because they reveal our politics, health problems, finances, and a variety of other personal things about us.

The most simply solution is to buy more books in physical stores. Websites such as indiebound.org will help you find local bookstores, and you can also patronise the bigger chains. Simply commit to visiting these stores and expect to pay more for your books. You can in many cases join a membership program to get discounts. You can and should also strike up a relationship with the shop owner, hear their take on the Amazon book situation, and ask them to have particular books on their shelves that you might like. I know, it’s some work, and maybe it’s not for everyone, but it certainly is a very good thing to do.

For home shopping and more variety, Amazon-alternative websites exist. The bigger book chains have their own online shops, as do websites such as Powells in the US. There are a few options out there—you simply have to make the time to explore, set up an account, and create a new habit.

Finally, there are some books out there that you simply won’t be able to find in shops. Such books can sometimes be found online on peer-to-peer sharing services. I won’t list the sites now and you should make yourself aware of the laws in your area before proceeding.

Facebook/Instagram/TikTok

The only real innovation of Facebook and its more youthful successors is that they draw people together. The value of Facebook and Instagram is that your friends are there. I would encourage you first to question your need for Facebook. I got off of Facebook years ago and since then I have become more social and more informed about the world. Most people hold on to Facebook because of fear of missing out. You are indeed missing out: missing out on life as you watch fiction scroll by. And yes, I understand that you want to keep in touch with Betty from Edinburgh who you kind of knew—not really—from your university days—but just momentarily. Just ask her for an email address and say good bye for now.

If you feel so inclined to find a privacy-respecting Facebook alternative, you might be in trouble. Any social media of this kind either requires information about you or will get it pretty quickly when you hook up with you friends and family who mostly reside in the area in which you live. And when you reveal your life details, which is what these services are all about it. These services cannot be private, I’m afraid. And yet, if you insist, you can try sites such as Rumble, Mastodon, Minds, Gab, and Parler. Mastodon and Minds market themselves as being anti-Facebook; that is, they suggest that they don’t sell your data. That’s good, but you’re still revealing a lot on such websites, and both that company and any investigators and hackers could also gain access to that information. So while you might give these Facebook alternatives a try, recognize that anything you put online can and likely will be revealed at some point. That is inescapable.

Your best truly safe alternative for social media is to make a compilation of the important people in your life. Start messaging them through private messengers or send them regular emails on ProtonMail from time to time. Heck, you can even start up a physical mail correspondence. This is how we used to do it. Set up calls with them and meet them in person. And if you can’t imagine doing any of this with these people, maybe its best that you’re not connected.

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is the most popular web browser of the last few years, and as a Google product is to be avoided whenever you can. A good alternative is Firefox. It comes from a decently outspoken privacy company and, well, it isn’t the product of the biggest data accumulator in the history of the world. Firefox is the preferred browser of many cybersecurity specialists—a very good sign—and is the default browser for many Linux operating systems. Firefox could really use your support right now, and you could do a lot worse than switching to this browser today.

Another Chrome and Safari alternative is Brave Browser. Its an offshoot of Chrome with an overt privacy focus. If you are interested in Brave, you should spend some time in the settings area—there are a lot of settings—and to understand its modus operandi. Basically, Brave tries to solve the online advertising-tracking problem by paying websites that you visit with a cryptocurrency that you generate. It’s an interesting concept that I’m not particularly enamored with—I would much rather use an adblocker such as uBlock Origin on a Firefox browser and call it a day. Still, in the arena of browsers there are not many options, so you should play around with Brave and see what it can do for you.

Windows 10/11 and MacOS

Windows 10/11 and MacOS are the operating systems that most people use. An operating system is the larger program that hosts all of your other programs. To put it frankly: you’re only as private as your operating system. Unfortunately Windows 10 has various tracking features, which means it sends some of your activities back to Microsoft. These cannot be fully shut off. And, since Windows is closed source—we cannot see its code—for all we know that’s every keystroke that you type. As for MacOS, it is also closed source and should not be considered a great alternative.

This is where I advocate switching to Linux. Linux describes a number of free open-source operating systems that work just as well as Windows and your MacOS for most things. I recommend Linux Mint and I have instructions for how to install it in my book. There are also numerous tutorials online. The basic concept is to go to Linuxmint.com, download the file, download a program called Balena Etcher, perform the installation onto a USB drive, and restart your computer loading the new operating system and installing it. You’ll want to take care to back up your current files before making this change. Refer to my first two podcasts for advice about getting your digital life in order.

Linux Mint will be familiar in most ways. You can surf the Internet with no problem and type up documents with LibreOffice. Some things will be different, such as downloading programs, but with a bit of effort you will have done one of the most important things you can do for your privacy: switching from a Big Tech operating system to one of the best creations of the digital privacy movement.

Yours in peace and privacy,

Gabriel Custodiet
https://watchmanprivacy.com