Privacy and Security Tips

Alternatives to Google:

When it comes to privacy, using Google search is not a good idea. When you use their
search engine, Google is recording your IP address, search terms, user agent, and
often a unique identifier, which is stored in cookies.

Here are 9 alternatives to Google search:

1. Searx – A privacy-friendly and versatile metasearch engine that’s also open
source.
2. MetaGer – An open source metasearch engine with good features, based in
Germany.
3. SwissCows – A zero-tracking private search engine based in Switzerland, hosted
on secure Swiss infrastructure.
4. Qwant – A private search engine based in France.
5. DuckDuckGo – A private search engine based in the US.
6. Mojeek – The only true search engine (rather than metasearch engine) that has
its own crawler and index (based in the UK).
7. YaCy – A decentralized, open source, peer-to-peer search engine.
8. Givero – Based in Denmark, Givero offers more privacy than Google and
combines search with charitable donations.
9. Ecosia – Ecosia is based in Germany and donates a part of revenues to planting
trees.

*Note: With the exception of Mojeek, all of the private search engines above are
technically metasearch engines, since they source their results from other search
engines, such as Bing and Google.

Gmail alternatives

Gmail may be convenient and popular, but there are three major problems:

1. Your inbox is used as a data collection tool. (Did you know Google is tracking
your purchasing history from the receipts in your inbox?)
2. Rather than seeing just emails, your email inbox is also used for ads and
marketing.
3. The contents of your inbox are being shared with Google and other random third
parties.

Here are ten alternatives to Gmail that do well in terms of privacy:
1. Tutanota – based in Germany; very secure and private; free accounts up to 1 GB

2. Mailfence – based in Belgium; lots of features; free accounts up to 500 MB

3. Posteo – based in Germany; €1/mo with 14 day refund window

4. StartMail – based in Netherlands; $5.00/mo with 7 day free trial

5. Runbox – based in Norway; lots of storage and features; $1.66/mo with 30 day
free trial

6. Mailbox.org – based in Germany; €1/mo with 30 day free trial

7. CounterMail – based in Sweden; $4.00/mo with 7 day free trial

8. Kolab Now – based in Switzerland; €4.41/mo with 30 day money-back guarantee

9. ProtonMail – based in Switzerland; free accounts up to 500 MB

10. Thexyz – based in Canada; $1.95/mo with 30 day refund window

Chrome alternatives

Google Chrome is a popular browser, but it’s also a data collection tool – and many
people are taking notice. Just a few days ago, the Washington Post asserted that
“Google’s web browser has become spy software,” with 11,000 tracker cookies
observed in a single week.

Here are seven alternatives for more privacy:

1. Firefox browser – Firefox is a very customizable, open-source browser that is
popular in privacy circles. There are also many different Firefox modifications
Create PDF in your applications with the Pdfcrowd HTML to PDF API
PDFCROWDand tweaks that will give you more privacy and security. (Also check out Firefox
Focus, a privacy-focused version for mobile users.)

2. Iridium – Based on open source Chromium, Iridium offers numerous privacy and
security enhancements over Chrome, source code here.

3. GNU IceCat – A fork of Firefox from the Free Software Foundation.

4. Tor browser – A hardened and secured version of Firefox that runs on the Tor
network by default. (It also does a good job against browser fingerprinting.)

5. Ungoogled Chromium – Just as the name says, this is an open source version of
Chromium that has been “ungoogled” and modified for more privacy.

6. Brave – Brave is another Chromium-based browser that is rather popular. It
blocks trackers and ads by default (except for “approved” ads that are part of the
“Brave Ads” network).

7. Waterfox – This is a fork of Firefox that is configured for more privacy by default,
with Mozilla telemetry stripped out of the code.

Google Drive alternatives

If you’re looking for a secure cloud storage option, you can check out these Google
Drive alternatives:

1. Tresorit – A user-friendly cloud storage option based in Switzerland.

2. ownCloud – An open source and self-hosted cloud platform developed in
Germany.

3. Nextcloud – Nextcloud is also an open source, self-hosted file sharing and
collaboration platform, based in Germany.

4. Sync – Based in Canada, Sync offers a secure, encrypted cloud storage solution
for businesses and individuals.

5. Syncthing – Here we have a decentralized, open source, peer-to-peer cloud
storage platform.

Google Calendar alternative

Here are some Google Calendar alternatives:

1. Lightening Calendar is an open source calendar option developed by Mozilla, and
it’s compatible with Thunderbird and Seamonkey.

2. Etar, an open source, basic calendar option.

3. Fruux, an open source calendar with good features and support for many
operating systems.

Google Docs / Sheets / Slides alternative

There are many solid Google Docs alternatives available. The largest offline
document editing suite is, of course, Microsoft Office. As most people know, however,
Microsoft is not the best company for privacy. Nonetheless, there are a few other

good Google Docs alternatives:

1. CryptPad – CryptPad is a privacy-focused alternative with strong encryption, and
it’s free.

2. Etherpad – A self-hosted collaborative online editor that’s also open source.

3. Mailfence Documents – From the Mailfence team, this is a secure file sharing,
storage, and collaboration tool.

4. Zoho Docs – This is another good Google Docs alternative with a clean interface
and good functionality, although it may not be the best for privacy.

5. OnlyOffice – OnlyOffice feels a bit more restricted than some of the other options
in terms of features.

6. Cryptee – This is a privacy-focused platform for photo and document storage
and editing. It’s open source and based in Estonia.

7. LibreOffice (offline) – You can use LibreOffice which is free and open source.

8. Apache OpenOffice (offline) – Another good open source office suite.

Google Photos alternative

Here are a few good Google Photos alternatives:

Piwigo – Piwigo is a great option that you can self-host. It is also free and open
source.

Lychee – Lychee is another self-hosted, open source photo management
platform.

Cryptee – Mentioned already above, Cyrptee is also a great option for securely
storing photos.

YouTube alternatives

1. Peertube

2. DTube

3. Bitchute

4. invidio.us

5. Vimeo

6. Bit.tube

7. Dailymotion

8. Hooktube

Tip: Invidio.us is a great Youtube proxy that allows you to watch any Youtube video
without logging in, even if the video is somehow restricted. To do this, simply replace
[www.youtube.com] with [invidio.us] in the URL you want to view.

Google translate alternative

Here are a few Google translate alternatives

1. DeepL – DeepL is a solid Google Translate alternative that seems to give great
results. Like Google Translate, DeepL allows you to post up to 5,000 characters
at a time (but the pro version is unlimited). The user interface is good and there
is also a built-in dictionary feature.

2. Linguee – Linguee does not allow you to post large blocks of text like DeepL.
However, Linguee will give you very accurate translations for single words or
phrases, along with context examples.

3. dict.cc – This Google Translate alternative seems to do a decent job on single-
world lookups, but it also feels a bit outdated.

4. Swisscows Translate – A good translation service supporting many languages.
If you want to translate blocks of text, check out DeepL. If you want in-depth
translations for single words or phrases, then Linguee is a good choice.

Google analytics alternative

For website admins, there are many reasons to use an alternative to Google
analytics. Aside from privacy concerns, there are also faster and more user-friendly
alternatives that also respect your visitors’ privacy.

1. Clicky is a great alternative to Google Analytics that truncates and anonymizes
visitor IP addresses by default. It is lightweight, user-friendly, and fully compliant
with GDPR regulations, while also being certified by Privacy Shield.

2. Matomo (formerly Piwik) is an open-source analytics platform that respects the
privacy of visitors by anonymizing and truncating visitor IP addresses (if enabled
by the website admin). It is also certified to respect user privacy.

3. Fathom Analytics is an open source alternative to Google Analytics that’s
available on Github here. It’s minimal, fast, and lightweight.

4. Get Insights – Another privacy-focused analytics platform, with a full analytics
suite. The front-end client is open source and available here.

5. AT Internet is a France-based analytics provider that is fully GDPR compliant,
with all data stored on French servers, and a good track record going back to
1996.
Many websites host Google Analytics because they run Google Adsense campaigns.
Without Google Analytics, tracking performance of these campaigns would be
difficult. Nonetheless, there are still better options for privacy.

Google Maps alternative

A map alternative for PCs is OpenStreetMap.
A few Google Maps alternatives for mobile devices include:

1. OsmAnd is a free and open-source mobile maps app for both Android and iOS
(based on OpenStreetMap data).

2. Maps (F Droid) uses OpenStreetMap data (offline).

3. Here WeGo provides good mapping solutions for both PCs and mobile devices
with their app.

4. Maps.Me is another option that is free on both Android and iOS, but there is a fair
amount of data collection with this alternative, as explained in their privacy
policy.

5. MapHub is also based on OpenStreeMap data and it does not collect locations
or user IP addresses.

Google Play Store alternative

Currently the best Google Play Store alternative is to use F-Droid and then go through
the Yalp store.
F-Droid is an installable catalog of
FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform.
See the F-Droid website or the official GitHub page for more info. Other alternatives to
the Google Play Store include:

Aptoide – An independent marketplace for Android apps.

APKMirror – This is a large library of APK files uploaded by different users (be
careful).

Aurora Store – A fork of the Yalp Store.

Google Chrome OS alternative

Want to ditch the Chromebook and Chrome OS? Here are a few alternatives:

1. Linux – Of course, Linux is arguably the best alternative, being a free, open-
source operating system with lots of different flavors. With some adjustments,
Linux Ubuntu can be run on Chromebooks.

2. Tails – Tails is a free, privacy-focused operating system based on Linux that
routes all traffic through the Tor network.

3. QubesOS – Recommended by Snowden, free, and also open source

Android alternatives

1. LineageOS – A free and open-source operating system for phones and tablets
based on Android.

2. Ubuntu Touch – A mobile version of the Ubuntu operating system.

3. Plasma Mobile – An open source, Linux-based operating system with active
development.

4. Sailfish OS – Another open source, Linux-based mobile OS.

5. Replicant – A fully free Android distribution with an emphasis on freedom,
privacy, and security.

Google Hangouts alternatives

Here are some alternatives to Google Hangouts:

1. Wire – A great all-around secure messenger, video, and chat app, but somewhat
limited on the number of people who can chat together in a group conversation
via voice or video.

2. Signal – A good secure messenger platform from Open Whisper Systems.

3. Telegram – A longtime secure messenger app, formerly based in Russia, now in
Dubai.

4. Riot – A privacy-focused encrypted chat service that is also open source.