Today we launch the Privacy Cookbook on decentralize.today
Our primary objective is to understand the trackers around you i.e. those invading your privacy and how to eliminate, or at least restrict them, as many as possible.
We will also run a series of complimentary articles surrounding standalone issues or companies that will link back into the findings & recommendations of the Privacy Cookbook. One recent example was an article we just published on Cloudflare and believe us, it’s the first of many.
Unfortunately, the simple truth is that if you have a cellphone, you will never be entirely safe, so if your goal is to have absolute privacy then get rid of your cellphone!
The better news is that there a few things you can do to improve your personal privacy situation. And these we will lay out over the coming days and weeks in a series to ‘easy to action’ guides.
So let’s start today with an easy, first step.......Remove Google!
Google’s main strategy is to give you great and easy to use products for free and at the same time have you pay with your data!
In an Interview with James Bennet, the former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt stated:
Derek Thompson
With your permission, you give us more information about you, about your friends, and we can improve the quality of our searches. We don’t need you to type at all. We know where you are. We know where you’ve been. We can more or less know what you’re thinking about.
Eric Schmidt - former Google CEO
This interview is from 2010 so as you can imagine that by today Google probably knows what colour your dog’s favourite ball is (or what they are thinking!)
If you would like to get away from Google and get away from having them you and your life then here are some simple recommendations when it comes to alternatives and replacements:
Browsers
(PC, MacOS, Linux)
TOR-Browser
Brave (although it is based on Chromium!)
Firefox is probably the best choice but needs some tweaks
Browsers (iOS)
DuckDuckGo Browser
OnionBrowser
Brave
Browsers (Android)
Fennec (f-droid)
Bromite (Chromium based, Google removed)
(via f-droid)
Tor-Browser
Search Engines
Searx
Qwant
MetaGer
DuckDuckGo (US based)
Google Docs / Sheets / Slides (office)
Framacalc
Collabora + Nextcloud
Etherpad
EtherCalc
YouTube (this is the only tricky one)
PeerTube
Invidious (YouTube Frontend)
Youtube (Android)
NewPipe
Google Maps
OpenStreetMap
OSMAnd
Maps
Metager
Maps
Google Play (Android)
F-droid
Aurora Store (downloads app from Google Play)
Google Drive
Nextcloud
Seafile
Syncthing
Google Translate
DeepL (you will need to use a browser addition that blocks Google services, we will provide guidance on how to do this shortly)
Google Hangouts
Signal
(APK) (iOS) (Desktop) - (Signal - A secure messenger?)
Telegram
(APK) (iOS) (Desktop) - (Telegram - Secure or not so secure)
Threema (not 100% open source, but audited)
(APK - via BTC) (iOS) (Desktop)- (Threema - A secure messenger?)
Nextcloud Talk
Riot/Matrix
(APK) (iOS) (Desktop) - (Riot- Secure or not so secure?)
Wire
(US Based ownership!)
Jitsi
Gmail
TutaNota (APK) (iOS)
ProtonMail
(iOS)
Mailbox.org
Posteo
mailfence
disroot.org
kolabnow
Google Services for website owners and developers
Google Analytics
Open Web Analytics
Matomo
GoAccess
Google reCAPTCHA
TextCaptcha
Securimage
Google Maps
Leaflet (on websites)
Google Fonts Font
Squirrel
Google-Webfonts
Helper (download locally and integrate via CSS)
Android Developers
Google Crashlytics
Sentry
(Self-Hosted)
Google Firebase
Kuzzle
Google DNS
This is a biggie so much so that the next chapter in The Privacy Cookbook focus will focus solely on DNS or the Domain Naming System....... So as you can see there are a myriad of alternative and replacements apps and services available for easy download and adoption......help is always on hand!
Footnote & preview:
Android, yes we hear you! The entire OS is Google (Well kinda)!
And that’s why we will devote one of our next chapters to how you can make your OS as private and Google free as possible.
Starting with managing the DNS through manually removing Google services on your phones and ending with android replacements, it’s an intense topic...........and there is no time like the present, so let’s start by jumping into DNS next.
