How do I stop using Big Tech products?

"But I use those products all the time, I rely on them. Are there really alternatives?"

Yes! And many of the changes are really easy to make. In the ALTERNATIVES section of this website we'll show you the best options. Explore the 'Alternatives' submenus.

But their products are so good!

Indeed the free shiny toys are how they got us. Their products are generally reliable, addictive by design, and have constant exciting updates.

Over the years as we provided free raw material for their advertising business, the massive profits paid for yet shinier toys, and soon everyone was trapped in walled gardens.

As you've seen in the Learn section of this site, however, the true price we pay for those toys is not worth it. And when companies have 'users' trapped, they are no longer incentivised to provide a user-centric product that works in your interests. They begin the process of Enshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/30/go-nuts-meine-kerle/

But on top of all that it's just so CREEPY 🤢

What's the alternative?

1. Say NO to cookies!

This is the first habit to get into, and it's really easy. Under GDPR cookie settings default to off, so you just need get in the habit of clicking SAVE SETTINGS or DECLINE every time you see a cookie popup. There is no reason why you should volunteer your personal behavioual data.

2. Turn off app permissions and Advertising ID in your phone

The most important permissions for data leakage are Location, Microphone and Contacts. But check them all in the Permissions Manager in your phone's settings. Only allow an app if really necessary, and even then set it to 'only when using the app'.

You can delete the Advertising ID in Android phones by going to 'Settings / Security and Privacy / More privacy settings / Ads' and delete your advertising ID.

Phones vary so here are some instuctions for Android and iPhone: https://ingenuitydisplay.com/how-to-disable-the-identification-for-advertising.html

3. Switch to non-creepy software

Explore the drop-down menus in the ALTERNATIVES SECTION to find alternative tech.

There are two options for alternative sofware that is not creepy:

1. FOSS - Free Open Source Software
2. Proprietary software with privacy-by-design features such as E2EE

FOSS - Free Open Source Software

Free means 'freedom', not 'free of charge', and refers to the licences that they release the software to you under. Even though it doesn't mean free of charge, a large majority of this kind of software is offered for free. In these cases they rely on donations to keep the lights on.

Open Source means that the code is available publically so anyone can study it to see how it works. This provides much needed transparency on the privacy side of things.

Open Source also means that members of the public can contribute to the software, either pointing out bugs, fixing bugs, helping with queries or coding new features

Proprietary software with privacy features

These products are not open source - their code is secret - but they have strong privacy features, for example Zero Knowledge Encryption (E2EE) and Zero logs policies.

Much of these proprietary products are also free, and rely on donations. Many are 'freemium' - they have a free entry tier and then you pay for advanced features. Some freemium products are the consumer version of a business product, in which case the business customers are subsidising the consumer customers. Lastly some of these products are fully paid services.

Next➡️ explore non-creepy options in the Alternatives submenus of the Change tab ☝🏼 e.g. start with Ad & Tracker Blockers

💡 If you would like to suggest a tech alternative for our lists, or provide a correction, please add it to our Wiki in Codeberg: https://codeberg.org/Rebel_Tech_Alliance/RTA_Static_Site/wiki/Big-Tech-Alts

Want to skip straight to hardcore mode? ➡️ Learn about self-hosting