Privacy Respecting

Curated List of Privacy Respecting Services and Software

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Contents

• What?
• Search Engines
• Social Networks
• Messengers
• Cloud Storage
• Email
• Operating Systems
• Browsers
• AI Assistants
• Related

What?

This is a list of various 'free' services whose business models are to collect as much personal data about you as possible and alternatives you can use to them if you care about not losing control of your data and your privacy.

For reasons why you may want to care about this, you can read this article.

The list is separated into topics and each service or software stated gives support for why you may want to stop using the service. As well as show alternatives to these services and why you may want to switch to them.

Search Engines

⚠️ You are the product:

• Google - By 2030, You’ll Be Living in a World That’s Run by Google.
• Bing - Owned by Microsoft.
• Yandex - Russia's version of Google.

🔏 Alternatives:

• DuckDuckGo - DuckDuckGo privacy policy.
• StartPage - How we protect you.
• Searx - Why use Searx?.

Social Networks

⚠️ You are the product:

• Facebook - What should you think about when using Facebook?
• Instagram - Owned by Facebook.

🔏 Alternatives:

• Scuttlebutt - Scuttlebutt principles.
• Mastodon - What is mastodon.social?.
• Diaspora - What is Diaspora.

Messengers

⚠️ You are the product:

• WhatsApp - WhatsApp design feature means some encrypted messages could be read by third party.
• Facebook Messenger - Owned by Facebook.

🔏 Alternatives:

• Signal - Uses Signal Protocol.
• Riot - Secure decentralised chat powered by Matrix protocol.
• Threema
• Ring
• Conversations - Built on XMPP/Jabber.
• Ricochet - Anonymous instant messaging.
• Briar - Peer-to-peer encrypted messaging and forums.

Cloud Storage

⚠️ You are the product:

• Google Drive - Centralised and owned by Google.
• Dropbox - Centralised and US based.

🔏 Alternatives:

• Syncthing - Open source.
• Seafile - About Seafile.
• Nextcloud - About Nextcloud. Self hosted.

Email

⚠️ You are the product:

• Gmail - Owned by Google.

🔏 Alternatives:

• ProtonMail - Security of ProtonMail.
• Tutanota
• Posteo - About Posteo. Transparency Report

Operating Systems

⚠️ You are the product:

• Windows - Microsoft shares Windows 10 telemetry data with third parties.
• Chrome OS - Owned by Google.
• Android (preinstalled) - Google collects meta data (phone calls, SMS) from Android phones.

🔏 Alternatives:

• Linux - Open source kernel.
• iOS - iOS 10 security white paper.
• Android with LineageOS
• Tails OS
• Qubes OS

Browsers

⚠️ You are the product:

• Google Chrome - Owned by Google.
• Edge Browser - Owned by Microsoft.

🔏 Alternatives:

• Firefox Browser - Firefox privacy.
• Brave Browser - About Brave.
• Tor Browser - Tor (anonymity network) wiki

AI Assistants

⚠️ You are the product:

• Amazon Alexa
• Google Home
• IBM Watson
• Apple Siri and HomePod

🔏 Alternatives:

• Snips - AI assistant platform.

Related

• Privacy tools
• Prism Break
• List of best privacy practices
• Privacy awesome list
• Adversaries and Anonymity Systems: The Basics
• Will a VPN Protect Me? Defining Your Threat Model
• Bring Privacy Back

Contributing

See contribution guidelines.

License

To the extent possible under law, Nikita Voloboev has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.