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:


Google’s CEO: ‘The Laws Are Written by Lobbyists’
Eric Schmidt on the power of lobbyists, a Google “implant”, and how China resembles a big business
The AtlanticDerek 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.