degooglizzazione/README.md

90 KiB
Raw Blame History

Cutting Google out of your life

I don't have anything to hide, but I don't have anything to show you either.

Updated

GitHub GitHub stars GitHub issues GitHub pull requests

Index

  1. Contributing
  2. Browser extensions
  3. Replacements/alternatives
    1. Disclaimer
    2. Web-based products
    3. Operating systems
    4. Desktop applications
    5. Mobile applications
    6. Hardware
  4. Useful links, tools, and advice
    1. Resources
    2. Books
    3. Blog posts
    4. News articles
  5. The lighter side
  6. Closing remarks

Contributing

If you want to help out with the project, here are some ideas (submit Issues & Pull Requests on the GitHub page):

  • iOS app alternatives! I don't have an iOS device to find alternatives with. I would highly appreciate any help with this.
  • Clean up/improve the Markdown.
  • Provide more information on services with little info or where help requested! is shown.
  • Suggest new services or provide info for removing existing services.
  • Host a mirror or clone the repo. If you host a mirror, let me know and I can add it to the mirrors list.
  • Anything else relating to any part of this guide, whether it's Google related or not.

When contributing, please try to follow the rules outlined in CONTRIBUTING.md.

Hacktoberfest

Any PR's opened from October 1st 2020 to October 31st 2020 can be eligile for Hacktoberfest. To be eligible, you must follow CONTRIBUTING.md. If you wish to use your PR for Hacktoberfest, make sure you remember to add the Hacktoberfest label.

Browser extensions

Name Description
uBlock Origin Mozilla Add-on uBlock Origin is not an "ad blocker", it's a wide-spectrum content blocker with CPU and memory efficiency as a primary feature.
Privacy Badger Mozilla Add-on Privacy Badger automatically learns to block invisible trackers. Instead of keeping lists of what to block, Privacy Badger learns by watching which domains appear to be tracking you as you browse the Web.
Decentraleyes Mozilla Add-on Protects you against tracking through "free", centralized, content delivery. It prevents a lot of requests from reaching networks like Google Hosted Libraries, and serves local files to keep sites from breaking. Complements regular content blockers.
HTTPS Everywhere Mozilla Add-on Many sites on the web offer some limited support for encryption over HTTPS, but make it difficult to use. For instance, they may default to unencrypted HTTP, or fill encrypted pages with links that go back to the unencrypted site. The HTTPS Everywhere extension fixes these problems by rewriting all requests to these sites to HTTPS.
Cookie AutoDelete Mozilla Add-on Control your cookies! This WebExtension is inspired by Self Destructing Cookies. When a tab closes, any cookies not being used are automatically deleted. Whitelist the ones you trust while deleting the rest. Support for Container Tabs.
DDG Privacy Essentials Mozilla Add-on Privacy, simplified. Our add-on provides the privacy essentials you need to seamlessly take control of your personal information, no matter where the internet takes you: tracker blocking, smarter encryption, DuckDuckGo private search, and more.
I don't care about cookies Mozilla Add-on This add-on will remove cookie warnings from almost all websites! You can report any website which still warns you about cookies: make a right click and choose 'Report a cookie warning' from the menu.
minerBlock Mozilla Add-on MinerBlock is an efficient browser extension that focuses on blocking browser-based cryptocurrency miners all over the web. This extension uses two different approaches to block miners. The first one is based on blocking requests/scripts loaded from a blacklist, this is the traditional approach adopted by most ad-blockers and other mining blockers. The other approach which makes MinerBlock more efficient against cryptojacking is detecting potential mining behavior inside loaded scripts and kills them immediately. This makes the extension able to block inline scripts as well as miners running through proxies. Source code available on GitHub.
Terms of Service; Didn't Read Mozilla Add-on “I have read and agree to the Terms” is the biggest lie on the web. We aim to fix that. “Terms of Service; Didn't Read” is a user rights initiative to rate and label website terms & privacy policies, from very good (class A) to very bad (class E). This extension informs you instantly of your rights online by showing an unintrusive icon in the toolbar. You can click on this icon to get summaries from the Terms of Service; Didn't Read initiative.
ClearURLS Mozilla Add-on This extension will automatically remove tracking elements from URLs to help protect your privacy when browse through the Internet.
Cloud Firewall Mozilla Add-on Block connections to pages and web resources hosted in major cloud services if the user wishes to do so. Supports blocking Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Cloudflare.
CSS Exfil Protection Mozilla Add-on CSS Exfil is a method attackers can use to steal data from web pages using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). This plugin sanitizes and blocks any CSS rules which may be designed to steal data.
Disconnect Mozilla Add-on Visualize and block the otherwise invisible websites that track your search and browsing history.
Don't touch my tabs! (rel=noopener Mozilla Add-on Prevent tabs opened by a hyperlink from hijacking the previous tab by adding the rel=noopener attribute to all hyperlinks (excluding same-domain hyperlinks).
Firefox Multi-Account Containers Mozilla Add-on Firefox Multi-Account Containers lets you keep parts of your online life separated into color-coded tabs that preserve your privacy. Cookies are separated by container, allowing you to use the web with multiple identities or accounts simultaneously.
Google search link fix (also Yandex) Mozilla Add-on This extension prevents Google and Yandex search pages from modifying search result links when you click them. This is useful when copying links but it also helps privacy by preventing the search engines from recording your clicks.
HTTPZ Mozilla Add-on HTTPZ is meant to be unobtrusive and lightweight, it respects your privacy, and is free of trans fats. Additionally, it is very configurable, and should be slightly more secure than some of the alternatives out there, since it has a couple of built-in defenses against SSL-stripping attacks.
Link Cleaner Mozilla Add-on Clean URLs that are about to be visited: removes utm_* parameters; on item pages of aliexpress and amazon, removes tracking parameters; skip redirect pages of facebook, steam and reddit
Neat URL Mozilla Add-on Remove garbage from URLs.
Privacy-Oriented Origin Policy Mozilla Add-on Prevent Firefox from sending Origin headers when they are least likely to be necessary, to protect your privacy.
Skip Redirect Mozilla Add-on Some web pages use intermediary pages before redirecting to a final page. This add-on tries to extract the final url from the intermediary url and goes there straight away if successful.
Temporary Containers Mozilla Add-on Open tabs, websites, and links in automatically managed disposable containers. Containers isolate data websites store (cookies, storage, and more) from each other, enhancing your privacy and security while you browse.
uMatrix Mozilla Add-on Point & click to forbid/allow any class of requests made by your browser. Use it to block scripts, iframes, ads, facebook, etc.
TrackMeNot Mozilla Add-on An artware browser add-on to protect privacy in web-search. By issuing randomized queries to common search-engines, TrackMeNot obfuscates your search profile and registers your discontent with surreptitious tracking.
Redirect AMP to HTML Mozilla Add-on This web extension enables users to choose to opt-out of using Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and choose to use the standard web instead.
ghacks-user.js This is not an extension, instead it is a Firefox user.js config file. This file is a template which aims to provide as much privacy and enhanced security as possible, and to reduce tracking and fingerprinting as much as possible - while minimizing any loss of functionality and breakage (but it will happen).

Replacements/alternatives

Disclaimer

  1. Only privacy/security focused alternatives will be suggested.
  2. Many replacements are based off this Wikipedia article (List of Google products)
  3. Products from companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Amazon, etc. will not be recommended unless there is a very good reason to. This includes companies/apps/services they own.
  4. Controversial services will have a disclaimer attached if needed.
  5. 5-eyes, 9-eyes, and 14-eyes services will be listed and marked as such. Both the location the company is registered and the server IP are taken into consideration.
    Eyes Countries
    5 Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, USA
    9 Denmark, France, Netherlands, Norway
    14 Germany, Belgium, Italy, Sweden, Spain

Web-based products

Back to top

Search (Web & Images)

Name Eyes Description
DuckDuckGo 5-eyes One of the best privacy-focused search engines. Domain is hosted in USA which could potentially be problematic for some.
Startpage 9-eyes Another privacy search engine that claims to not track any of your data. They operate servers in both USA and Europe. Note: Startpage was recently acquired. See Issue #12. Thanks @pydo, @ThijsRay, and @DatAres37. Also see this comment in Issue #99 from @danarel on Startpage.
searx.me Open-source (thanks for clarification u/Sheezdudeln) privacy search engine. Domain hosted in Germany.
MetaGer 14-eyes MetaGer is the search engine project from the registered nonprofit organization SUMA E.V. in Germany.
Qwant 9-eyes Major improvements since 2018's guide. would prefer better info other than an outdated reference
Swisscows A Swiss search engine that offers a unique search experience for the web, images, videos, music, and more. They are currently funding a mail service. Read through their datacenter about page, it's really interesting.
Mojeek 5-eyes Unlike other privacy search engines which act as a "middle man" between you and Google/Bing/Yahoo, Mojeek has their own crawler and index. The results aren't as complete as some of the others, but it is still impressive and they are actively building their index to include more results with better accuracy.
Ekoru Privacy focused search engine that also aims to clean up the oceans. Thanks @mynamesleon
Cyberd Decentralized Google. A web 3 alternative for the Google search engine. In Beta testing mode. Uses IPFS and Tendermint consensus for security and economic incentives. Please see their ELI-5 FAQ for more info.
Infinity Search 5-eyes Infinity Search is a privacy metasearch engine that does not log any information about its users. In terms of privacy, it works the same way as DuckDuckGo. It is free to use and is funded by non-tracking advertisements and affiliate links. It is also completely open-source.
Runnaroo 5-eyes "Runnaroo was built from the ground up to provide an all around better search experience." Thanks @codingepaduli

YouTube

Name Eyes Description
PeerTube Decentralized, federated video hosting network. Still quite small, but is growing and has a dedicated community. Although there is no central database/server, all the separate instances can still talk to one another. This allows for data exchange and a way to view anyone's videos while only associating with one instance. Thanks @kdkasad for clarifying federation.
BitChute 5-eyes Also P2P, but not decentralized. Due to it being proprietary, if BitChute goes down then the whole thing goes down (unlike PeerTube). (thanks u/up-sky-7)
DTube Looks very similar to YouTube. Advertised as "first crypt-decentralized video-platform". Built on Steemit and IPFS.
Bit.tube Appears to be a crypto-powered decentralized video sharing service. (thanks u/rudolf323)
Invidious An open-source front-end alternative to YouTube. Seems to work pretty well from my experience so far, and it hasn't triggered anything on my adblocker/privacy extensions. Also offers downloads in many formats for videos (including .vtt subtitles).
Hooktube A slightly better way to use actual YouTube. (Use as a "last resort")
LBRY A decentralized platform for distributing and supporting creators's work. It aims to be Open, Community driven "digital marketplace". It can be used in a similar way to YouTube: browsing, subscribing to channels, there is a mechanism to send "tips" to creators. Looks up videos based on a blockchain and is open-source and uncensored. It already has some "larger" creators like Minutephysics, Veritasium, Barnacules and Lunduke.
US.TV PeerTube instance hosted by Epik.com.
FreeTube Open-source desktop YouTube client that uses the Invidio.us API to serve content.

News

Name Eyes Description
Local newspaper Support independent and qualitative journalism in your community.
AllSides Unbiased news source (primarily for US politics). Thanks @jeanofthedead
Miniflux Miniflux is a minimalist and opinionated feed reader. Completely open-source, along with automatically removing pixel trackers.

Groups

No known alternatives.

  • Use other forum sites relating to specific topics. This is a very broad service.

Translate

Name Eyes Description
DeepL 14-eyes DeepL is an artifical intelligence translation service. Please keep in mind DeepL tracks the text you translate unless you purchase Pro. See sections 4 & 5 of their privacy policy for more information. Thanks u/TheCy-FiJuggernaut
Apertium A free, open-source translation system. Source repo has some useful CLI tools.

Google Ads/AdMob/AdSense

Name Eyes Description
EthicalAds A developer-focused, privacy-obsessed ad network from the fine folks at Read the Docs. Source code can be on GitHub.

Google Alerts

Name Eyes Description
F5Bot 5-eyes Emails you when your selected keywords are mentioned on Reddit, Hacker News, or Lobsters.

G Suite (enterprise cloud)

Name Eyes Description
Nextcloud Nextcloud 19 now has Community Document Server and ONLYOFFICE apps integrated which allows self-hosted instances of docs/sheets/slides. Users are able to edit documents in real time. Thanks @k3tan172 and @plutocrat

Blogger/Sites

Name Eyes Description
Joomla Self-hosted and open-source content management system (CMS).
Write.as Self-advertised as privacy-focused.
WordPress self-hosted The open-source version of WordPress. A very popular tool and a recognized name.
concrete5 5-eyes Open-source CMS.
Noblogs 9-eyes A privacy/security focused blogging platform.
Ghost Open-source modern CMS. Boasts "over 19x faster than WordPress". Thanks @peterge1998
Bear 5-eyes Free, no-nonsense, super-fast blogging. No javascript, no stylesheets, no trackers. Just your words.
Simpleblogs FLOSS blogging platform with a focus on privacy. Easy to self-host (standard rails app, ships with AWS deployment scripts. AWS is not required). Access restricted to accounts which you create and hand out. Good for private blogs but not for commercial/public blogging.

Analytics

Name Eyes Description
Matomo 9/14-eyes (Matomo/parent company) - Open-source analytics platform. (thanks u/Newblik)
Fathom 5-eyes Simple analytics for bloggers & businesses
Plausible 5-eyes Open-source, privacy-focused web analytics.
GoatCounter 14-eyes Simple web statistics. No tracking of personal data. Open-source and may be self-hosted. Free for non-commercial use; paid plans available.
Simple Analytics 9-eyes Great analytics with privacy and simplicity in mind. Paid plans only (with free trials).
Toasted Analytics 5-eyes Simple, privacy friendly analytics with event tracking. Paid only (with free trial)
Shynet Shynet is a self-hosted analytics tool that doesn't make use of cookies. It is privacy focused and fully open-source. Thanks @woutfeys
Supabase Supabase is an opensource alternative to Firebase. As of right now you can use their hosting plan for free as it's in alpha, or you can self host (note on self hosting). Thanks @woutfeys
GoAccess An open-source web server analysis tool. Installs on your web server (ideally), but works just as well if you download your logs someplace else. Interactive; cursor around in the report and see what's going on. Can generate HTML reports. Can also generate realtime interactive HTML reports if you run it in server mode. Lightweight, only requires UTF-8 support and ncurses (ncursesw, if you want a UTF-8 enabled console). Available in the default package repositories of multiple Linux distros. Thanks @virtadpt
Offen Open-source and self-hosted, Offen is a fair and lightweight web analytics alternative that treats operators and users as equal parties.
Umami A simple, easy to use, open-source/self-hosted web analytics solution.

Photos

Name Eyes Description
Photoprism Self-hosted and open-source Personal Photo Management powered by Go and Google TensorFlow.
ownPhotos Self-hosted and open-source Google Photos alternative.
Piwigo 9-eyes (self-hosted) - Self-hosted and open-source cloud photo manager. You can also sign up for an "as a service" account.
JottaCloud 9-eyes Norway based cloud storage provider with free and paid plans. Thanks @mynamesleon
Cryptee Encrypted photo storage in a simple solution similar to Google Photos.
PhotoStructure Self-hosted photo and video manager. Cross-platform (macOS, Windows, Linux, Docker). Scales to millions of assets, with automatic organization, auto-transcoding, and advanced de-duplication.
Lychee An open-source self-hosted photo-management tool that includes built-in support for videos. Thanks @m0yP

Calendar

Name Eyes Description
Lightning Calendar (Thunderbird) Developed by Mozilla Foundation and open-source. Integrates into Thunderbird and SeaMonkey.
Tutanota Calendar 14-eyes Developed by Tutanota. Free cross-platform encrypted calendar. Allows importing of other Calendar files. Can't be synced to other calendar software.
Fruux 14-eyes Open-source calendar using "sabre/dav" (open-source WebDAV, CardDAV, and CalDAV). They mention privacy quite a bit on their site. Very large number of features, and supports nearly every device: Windows, iOS, Linux, Android, BlackBerry, SailFish, and also a webapp for browsers.
EteSync Secure, end-to-end encrypted, and open-source sync for your contacts, calendars and tasks.
Baïkal a lightweight CalDAV+CardDAV server. It offers an extensive web interface with easy management of users, address books and calendars. It is fast and simple to install and only needs a basic php capable server. The data can be stored in a MySQL or a SQLite database. Thanks @mahdi1234
Nextcloud Nextcloud also offers a calendar solution using CalDAV and CardDAV. Thanks @mahdi1234 for pointing this out.
Radicale Self-hosted calendar server written in Python. WebUI for desktop, CalDav/CardDav for mobile sync. Can use a reverse proxy with Nginx for HTTPS.

Docs/Sheets/Slides (cloud)

Name Eyes Description
CryptPad 9-eyes Open-source "zero knowledge" collaborative cloud editor. They offer Rich Text, Code, Presentation, Sheet (beta), Poll, Kanban, Whiteboard, and CryptDrive. 100% Client side encryption. Tons of useful features.
Etherpad Self-hosted collaborative editor. Does not use the browser. Not the greatest interface, but it's open-source and you have full control over who can see your data.
Cryptee Open-source and privacy focused photo and document storage/editing. Based in Estonia, so your files are outside the reach of any 14-eyes country. They don't even require an email address to sign up.
LibreOffice Online 14-eyes Self-hosted instance of LibreOffice that you can run in your browser. Thanks @flubberding
ONLYOFFICE Open-source private cloud replacement for Google Docs'suite and Office 360. Also available as a self contained rich application.
Arcane Office A decentralized office suite with high-security and zero-knowledge on your data. With Arcane Office, you have maximum control on your personal stuff. Full-featured online document and spreadsheet editor. Secure storage to save your photos. All free for personal use. Thanks @taraletti

Docs/Sheets/Slides (offline)

Name Eyes Description
LibreOffice Open-source offline document suites.
LyX It's an open-source (and offline) document processor using TeX/LaTeX. It's different than Docs or Word but amazing, once you get used to it. Thanks @Glitchy-Tozier
ONLYOFFICE Offline version of ONLYOFFICE, an open-source private cloud replacement for Google Docs'suite and Office 360. Also available as a self contained rich application. Thanks @PalmoliveDev
Cryptee Offline version of Cryptee for web. Runs as a progressive web app. Works most modern phone browsers (Chrome, Opera or Firefox on Android; Safari on iOS). Also works in desktop browsers that support PWA (the website lists that only Chrome works, but others will work too.
Calligra Calligra Suite is an office and graphic art suite by KDE. It is available for desktop PCs, tablet computers, and smartphones. It contains applications for word processing, spreadsheets, presentation, vector graphics, and editing databases. (Free and Open-source Software)

Domains

Name Eyes Description
Njalla 14-eyes Privacy-focused domain registration. Competitive pricing and a large list of available domain extensions. They also offer VPS hosting. Built by people who built The Pirate Bay among others. (thanks u/brais33 and u/HumbleBasis6). Note: some users may have issues with them legally owning your domain.
Porkbun 5-eyes Domain registration with free WHOIS privacy.
Orangewebsite An Iceland-based freedom of speech web hosting provider. They never actually ask for your name, at least when you pay in Bitcoin.

Drive

Name Eyes Description
ownCloud Open-source and self-hosted. Provide your own storage.
Nextcloud Also self-hosted. Spin-off of ownCloud. Also offers Calendar and Contacts (thanks @chribre)
Syncthing 9-eyes An interesting take on cloud storage: decentralized. Peer-to-peer between only your devices. Software is open-source and available on GitHub.
Sia Fully decentralized cloud storage.
Tresorit Primarily meant for businesses, but offers a free version for individuals as well. (thanks u/xNick26)
Sync 5-eyes End-to-end encrypted Google Drive/Dropbox replacement.
JottaCloud 9-eyes Norway based cloud storage provider with free and paid plans. Thanks @mynamesleon
Armored 9-eyes Nextcloud instance hosted by Epik.com. Paid plans with 30-day trial. Servers in a "secure bunker" in Norway. Supports other Nextcloud features such as Nextcloud Talk.
seafile Open-source and self-hosted file sync&share solution.
Cozy Cloud 9-eyes French based cloud storage provider with free and paid plans. Can also be self-hosted. Open-Source. And it also offers a collaborative notes editor.

Hangouts (text/video messaging)

Name Eyes Description
Signal 5-eyes Whistleblower and privacy advocate Edward Snowden recommends Signal.
Tox Tox is unique as it uses P2P technology to ensure the network never goes down, as long as there are users to keep it alive. They specifically say on the website "Tox has no central servers that can be raided, shut down, or forced to turn over data".
Wire 5-eyes Uses end-to-end encryption. Looks to be more of a corporate service with tiered plans.
Element 5-eyes Open-source privacy-focused chat service with end-to-end encryption. They offer webapps, desktop apps, iOS, and Android (Play Store and F-Droid). Uses the "Matrix" protocol for decentralized communication. It is 100% free and open-source with no paid plans.
Threema Swiss-based GDPR-compliant instant messenger. Has apps for both iOS and Android. Unlike Signal, no phone number is required (nor is an email) to sign up. End-to-end encrypted. Thanks to @nathanvogel
Keybase 5-eyes encrypted chat like Signal with features like Slack. Does not require a phone number to sign up. Also has file storage. Note: Keybase was acquired by Zoom, Inc. in May 2020 (Keybase blog, Zoom blog). Thanks @notpushkin & @multimob.
Jitsi 5-eyes Jitsi is an open-source secure video conferencing platform. No account is needed to use it, simply enter a Room Name to join or host a meeting. The host is able to kick rogue users from the call. Works directly in your browser, with apps available for iOS and Android. It is not necessary to self-host, but self-hosting is an option for those who wish to. Very low latency and easy to set up. A free public server is available at meet.jit.si. (5-eyes server)
  • See this article for why I didn't include WhatsApp and why you should NOT use it (if someone has a better Outline link, that would be much appreciated).
  • I have also removed Telegram. See Issue #29 from @arsv.

Gmail (mail service)

Name Eyes Description
Forward Email Forward Email is a free and open-source email forwarding service focused on a user's right to privacy.
Protonmail One of the top privacy-focused email providers. Servers are in Switzerland in an underground guarded bunker that they claim can "survive a nuclear attack".
Tutanota 14-eyes Open-source. Also one of the top privacy-focused email providers. Located in Germany.
Posteo 14-eyes Completely anonymous mail provider located in Germany.
mailbox.org 14-eyes Paid email provider, also located in Germany.
Disroot 9-eyes Decentralized email service.
StartMail 9-eyes Operated by the same people who run StartPage.
SimpleLogin Open-source, self-hosted, and privacy focused email forwarding service.
Migadu Paid email provider, located in Switzerland. Focus on privacy.
Fastmail 5-eyes Paid email provider, located in Australia and US.
Runbox 9-eyes Privacy focusued email provider. Thanks @petertorelli
nextCloud Now also provides an email service (self-hosted). Thanks @je-vv
Anonymize.com Email Paid secure email service provided by Epik.com.
Thexyz 5-eyes Thexyz is a Canadian company offering privacy-conscious business email. Premium webmail costs USD $2.95 per month.
Mailfence 14-eyes A secure and private email provider much like Protonmail and Tutanota. There are no google analytics nor hidden cookies. There are options to pay anonymously via cryptocurrency. It features a wide array of collaboration tools, such as groups, calendar, contacts, documents with editing space. Offers free, paid, and freemium plans. Can pay with cryptocurrency and has a warrant canary. Thanks @resto1231
  • This is just for the Gmail service, not a client

Keep

Name Eyes Description
Joplin Open-source notes/todo app. Available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, and iOS. Also offers a terminal version. It can import Evernote .enex files if you use that. It can also sync with Nextcloud (mentioned above).
Standard Notes F-Droid Encrypted note storage with loads of features. Offers a web app as well as downloads for most operating systems. Has a paid plan, but the free tier has many useful features as well.
Turtl Encrypted collaborative notebook with possibility of running your own server.
QOwnNotes Open-source file editor with Markdown support. (thanks u/maqp2)
EteSync Secure, end-to-end encrypted, and open-source sync for your contacts, calendars and tasks.
GitJournal Your Markdown notes stores in any Git Repo. Available for both Android (Play Store) and iOS.

Play Music, Movies, & TV

Name Eyes Description
Jellyfin Open-source alternative to the Play media services. You do need to provide your own content, however. In active development with frequent updates (to the source, that is).
Funkwhale Self-hosted, decentralized music service. Provide your own audio. (thanks u/DashEquals)
Airsonic Self-hosted open-source media streamer. Has features for transcoding audio on-the-fly for "virtually any audio format". You can also set bandwidth limits if you need to. Looks very powerful.
Music Player Daemon A "flexible, powerful, server-side application for playing music".
Popcorn Time Open-source software for desktop and mobile that let you easily stream movie/TV torrents. Be careful if your country or ISP has policies against torrenting, a VPN is recommended. Thanks @je-vv
Nuclear Music Player Streaming music player that finds music from free sources automatically.
  • I can no longer recommend Emby as they are no longer open-source.
  • Thanks to u/eA8KESARaW6iqCpHsbE4 for suggesting Jellyfin and pointing out that Emby isn't open-source.

Fonts

Name Eyes Description
Open Font Library 5-eyes Lots of Serif and Sans-Serif fonts that can be directly embedded into a website.
google webfonts helper 5-eyes Hassle-free way for webmasters to self-host open-source fonts from Google Fonts
Brick 9-eyes Open-source fonts that work in a very similar way to Google fonts. Most of the fonts render nicer than Google Fonts.

Classroom

Name Eyes Description
Moodle Self-hosted Classroom software for schools. Very powerful. Thanks @jankapunkt
ILIAS Another self-hosted open-source classroom software. Thanks again to @jankapunkt
Canvas Paid service by Instructure. Also available as a self-hosted, open-source option. To ensure privacy, use the self-hosted option.

Maps/Street View

Name Eyes Description
OpenStreetMap 9-eyes Collaborative project to create a free, editable map of the world (from Wikipedia). Completely crowdsourced. Very strong alternative to Maps.
Qwant Maps Maps from the makers of Qwant search engine. Thanks @mynamesleon
Benmaps Another maps alternative based on OpenStreetMap. Thanks @dimqua

Transit

Name Eyes Description
Transportr An open-source Transit app on Android that takes information from several providers (e.g Deutsche Bahn in Germany) and enables you to use them in the app. Visualises the routes on an online OpenStreetMap map. Works in most of Western-Europe, as well as the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Brazil, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the UAE and Ghana. Beware: most information-providers only have beta or alpha support, it may be a good idea to keep a second app as a fallback option

No known alternatives.

Forms

Name Eyes Description
BlockSurvey BlockSurvey enables digital rights (identity and data ownership) to users using Blockstack's blockchain. Users truly own their data with BlockSurvey. All your data is protected using your key and only you can access it. There are no trackers, cookies, or fingerprints on the forms of data providers. Thanks @compressstudio

Operating systems

Back to top

Android/Fuchsia

Name Eyes Description
Ubuntu Touch Ubuntu, but for phones.
LineageOS 5-eyes Open-source and based on Android, but without the crap.
SailfishOS Privacy-focused mobile OS by Jolla with a proprietary UI and Android compatibility layer on top of an open-source Mer GNU/Linux base.
GrapheneOS Open-source Android-based OS with an emphasis on security and privacy. Features advanced hardening and privacy protections throughout the system. Continuation of CopperheadOS.
postmarketOS Open-source mobile Linux OS. Can install different user interfaces such as Plasma Mobile. Thanks @okias
Replicant 5-eyes Free Android distribution. Puts the emphasis on "freedom and privacy/security".
  • You'll either need a rooted device with an unlocked bootloader, or a specific device depending on which OS you like.
  • Please see Issue #55 for details on /e/.

Chrome OS

Name Eyes Description
Qubes OS "A reasonably secure operating system", at least according to their website. Edward Snowden recommends it.
Subgraph OS A desktop computing and communications platform that is designed to be resistant to network-borne exploit and malware attacks.
Tails For the uber-paranoid. Runs live and the entire OS is routed through Tor right from boot. Built on Debian.
Knoppix Another Live OS, runs from CD/DVD/USB. Can also be installed if desired.
Parrot OS Debian-based and privacy focused. Fully sandboxed. (thanks u/Safe_Airport)
PureOS 5-eyes The OS of Purism Laptops (mentioned in the Hardware section). Very clean UI. Editor note: I could not get this working on a UEFI Dell laptop. The group behind PureOS does not provide any UEFI support.
GhostBSD This is a secure open-source OS based on FreeBSD, preconfigured to be a sane desktop environment for all users.
Any other form of Linux Ubuntu; Debian; Mint; Fedora; Arch or Manjaro (Manjaro is objectively much easier to get running than Arch); Trisquel; Gentoo; Alpine (thanks u/privacyfreak555); etc etc etc

Wear OS

Name Eyes Description
AsteroidOS 14-eyes The cleanest (and only) open-source alternative for Wear OS. Make sure you buy a watch that supports it!

Android Auto

No known alternatives.

Android TV

Name Eyes Description
Kodi It's incredibly powerful and backed by one of the strongest communities around. Tons of plugins to do nearly anything you want. Software installs on nearly any platform.
OSMC Free, open-source media center OS. Kodi is pre-installed. Thanks to @g4rret and @lgiard for clarifying the difference between Kodi and OSMC!

Desktop apps

Back to top

Chrome

Name Eyes Description
Ungoogled Chromium Chromium (which Chrome and countless other browsers are built on top of) is one of the cleanest and light-weight browsers available. This version cuts out all the Google crap.
Firefox Built by Mozilla, "The Privacy Company". Huge extension library; great for privacy.
Waterfox 5-eyes Based on Firefox, but 64-bit only with an emphasis on speed and privacy. Has a "classic" version built off older Firefox for legacy extension support and also an "alpha" version built off Quantum. It doesn't collect any telemetry and also removes Pocket from the alpha release. Project is run by Alex Kontos and is constantly in active development. Looks very clean and fast. Android versions are in the works too. UPDATE: @Nudin pointed out in Issue #85 that Waterfox is now apart of System1.
Vivaldi Privacy-focused browser. Appears to be very customizable and feature-rich.
Tor Browser Firefox-based browser routed through the Tor network. Automatically has a few privacy extensions installed (such as HTTPS Everywhere). Read this article for more info on how it works and the benefits of using Tor. Available for Windows, Linux, macOS, and Android.

Earth

Name Eyes Description
KDE Marble Strong alternative for G Earth. Currently only on Linux, but is being ported to other platforms. Thanks to @PopeRigby

Android Studio (not specifically for Android development, just in general)

Name Eyes Description
VSCodium VSCodium is Visual Studio Code but without all the Microsoft telemetry and branding.
Vim Open-source text editor. Thanks @moon-chilled
Emacs Another open-source text editor. Thanks @moon-chilled
Atom Atom is a free and open-source text and source code editor for macOS, Linux, and Microsoft Windows with support for plug-ins written in Node.js, and embedded Git Control, developed by GitHub. Atom is a desktop application built using web technologies. (From Wikipedia) Thanks @woutfeys

Mobile apps

Back to top

Play Store

Name Eyes Description
F-Droid Catalogue of FOSS apps for Android. Easy to install and keeps track of updates. Also has a browser version if you don't want to install the app.
Yalp Store (fork) F-Droid Yalp downloads Play Store apps as APK files. Helpful if you want to stay away from the Play Store, but require an app that is only available there. This version is a fork of the original project that is no longer active. Thank @onlyjob
APKMirror An online library of user-uploaded APK files. Helpful if you need a specific older version of an app or don't want to download it through Google Play.
Aurora Store F-Droid Aurora Store is simply a fork of the Yalp Store no longer a fork of Yalp, but is now its own project (see their readme). Update: Removed note on using microG as Aurora Store does not use it. Thanks @notpushkin
Fossdroid Uses the same library as F-Droid, but with a modern UI similar to that of the Play Store and the ability to view apps by popularity.
G-Droid Also uses the F-Droid repo but with a different UI.
APKGrabber Fork of APKUpdater. Both are great tools for avoiding app stores (on Android).
Aurora Droid Yet another F-Droid client, potentially has a few bugs (thanks u/OfficialJohnGL4)
  • When searching for replacements, check the alternative stores (such as F-Droid) before checking the Play Store.

Chrome (Android)

Name Eyes Description
Fennec F-Droid F-Droid A privacy-focused version of Firefox Android available on F-Droid. It's focused on removing any proprietary bits found in official Mozilla's builds. (thanks u/SupremeLisper)
Bromite Privacy-focused/open-source build of Chromium with built-in ad blocking. (thanks u/SupremeLisper)

Calculator

Name Eyes Description
Simple Calculator F-Droid Also part of the SMT project. Available on F-Droid.
Calculator N+ or NCalc+ Open-source feature-rich calculator. App itself is no longer in development, but the developer does encourage pull requests. I've used it frequently and it works great. Not on F-Droid, but a 3rd party play store can probably find it; or the APK's are available as releases on GitHub. You can also compile from source.
Calculator++ F-Droid Open-source calculator packed with features. Thanks @ghost

Calendar

Name Eyes Description
DAVx⁵ F-Droid DAVx⁵ is an open-source CalDAV/CardDAV suite and sync app for Android.
ICSx⁵ F-Droid ICSx⁵ is an Android app to subscribe to remote (“Webcal”) or local iCalendar files (like time tables of your school/university or event files of your sports team). Thanks @je-vv
Fruux (mobile app) Same service from above provides an Android app.
Etar F-Droid Open-source material design Calendar that integrates with the Android Calendar API. Can integrate with CalDAV/CardDAV servers.
Simple Calendar F-Droid Open-source. Part of the Simple Mobile Tools project.

Camera

Name Eyes Description
Open Camera F-Droid Open-source camera for Android. Thanks @je-vv

Clock

Name Eyes Description
Clock + F-Droid Open-source Alarm clock, timer, and stop watch.
Simple Alarm Clock Exactly as it's name says; simple alarm clock yet adds many improvements over other apps. No dock mode or world clock.
Insane Alarm! Developer states that he had "spent a night out with the boys and drank a bit too much but needed to be up in the morning". So, he made the loudest alarm clock possible based off an emergency alarm from when he was in the military. This app doesn't mess around, use it wisely.

Contacts

Name Eyes Description
Fruux (mobile app) Fruux also provides a contacts app.
Simple Contacts F-Droid Open-source. Part of the Simple Mobile Tools project.
Open Contacts F-Droid Open-source contacts. (thanks u/consentio)
EteSync F-Droid Secure, end-to-end encrypted, and open-source sync for your contacts, calendars and tasks.

Android Messages (specifically SMS/MMS, not IM)

Name Eyes Description
QKSMS F-Droid Open-source. Very clean and feature rich SMS app. Available on F-Droid.
Silence.im F-Droid Open-source and utilizes Signal's encryption protocol. Seamlessly works with SMS. End-to-end encryption with other Silence users. Available on F-Droid.
Signal Signal possesses SMS/MMS capabilities on Android. Using it as your default SMS app has the advantage of having your SMS and your online-messaging-service integrated within one app. Doing so will also show stats within the app of how many messages you send are encrypted, and offers to send invites to your contacts. Thanks @Glitchy-Tozier for suggesting it be listing as SMS/MMS alternative.

Gboard (Google Keyboard)

Name Eyes Description
AnySoftKeyboard F-Droid Open-source keyboard. Available on F-Droid.
Hacker's Keyboard F-Droid Also open-source. Very useful for developers or sysadmins on the go.
kboard F-Droid Open-source. Has features for phrases, "lenny faces", macros and more. Note: Project appears to be abandoned.
Simple Keyboard F-Droid Open-source keyboard.
Indic Keyboard Open-source keyboard that supports many languages that other keyboards sometimes don't support. Not on F-Droid, but can be built from source or possibly through a Play Store alternative.
OpenBoard F-Droid New 100% FOSS keyboard, based on AOSP. Similar to "Simple Keyboard". Thanks @Glitchy-Tozier

Drive

Name Eyes Description
ownCloud Android F-Droid ownCloud Android client. Available on F-Droid.
Nextcloud Android F-Droid Nextcloud Android client. Available on F-Droid.
Syncthing Android F-Droid Wrapper of Syncthing for Android. Available on F-Droid. Also consider Syncthing-Fork which uses a native Android UI rather than the default web UI.

Gmail (smartphone app)

Name Eyes Description
Protonmail Can be downloaded from the Play Store, but may work with one of the store replacements above (such as Yalp).
Tutanota F-Droid 14-eyes Client available from F-Droid.
Disroot F-Droid Available from F-Droid.
K-9 Mail F-Droid Available on F-Droid.
FairEmail F-Droid Available on F-Droid.
DeltaChat F-Droid An email app with a chat-based UI and privacy support with autocrypt.
Mailbox.org 14-eyes Mailbox.org provides IMAP settings for Android/iOS and an iOS profile. Thanks @avasts Issue #45

Keep (or any stock note-taking app)

Name Eyes Description
Notepad F-Droid Open-source. Supports Markdown and HTML. Very clean and feature-rich. Offline only.
Joplin Scroll down on the GitHub page until you reach the Android download links. No F-Droid repo, but you can download the APK directly instead of using the Play Store.
Standard Notes Encrypted note storage with loads of features.
Omni Notes F-Droid Very feature rich, open-source, material design notes app. Very active development. Available on F-Droid.
Carnet F-Droid I had some trouble finding info on this one. Looks like it has pretty seamless/painless ownCloud and NextCloud integration. Also available on F-Droid.
Markor F-Droid Open-source notes/to-do app for Android. Supports Markdown editing. Available on F-Droid. App is 100% offline, as stated on the GitHub README.
Orgzly F-Droid Open-source. Notes are stored in the plain-text Org mode format. Supports searching, metadata, and manual sync with Dropbox or local directory, which can be synced using e.g. Syncthing.
Notally A beautiful, light and minimalistic notes app with no trackers, ads or analytics of any kind. Not on F-Droid, but available from this alternative market.

Maps/Waze

Name Eyes Description
Maps F-Droid Open-source navigation app based on MAPS.ME. Searching for addresses doesn't always work and finding businesses can be a slight hassle, but overall one of the better apps I've used.
OsmAnd F-Droid OpenStreetMap for Android. (thanks u/masao77). As OsmAnd is primarily crowdsourced, many regions may not be totally accurate. If you would like to help improve OpenStreetMap and OsmAnd, check out StreetComplete (available from F-Droid.
Transportr Primarily European, this is an open-source public transport app. Thanks to @lgiard
Offi or Oeffi Another recommendation from @lgiard, this app is also for public transport.

News

Name Eyes Description
Flym F-Droid Open-source Material Design RSS reader.
Feeder F-Droid Use good old-fashioned RSS feeds with Feeder

Photos

Name Eyes Description
Piwigo Android You need to have Piwigo set up first.

Pay

No known alternatives.

  • Realistically, there most likely is not a privacy friendly alternative to Google Pay. Get a wallet with RFID protection and keep your cards with you.

YouTube

Name Eyes Description
NewPipe F-Droid Powerful open-source YouTube alternative. Supports audio only; background playback; picture-in-picture; no ads.
YouTube Vanced Please read the XDA post before deciding to use this.

Authenticator

Name Eyes Description
andOTP F-Droid Open-source 2FA app.
FreeOTP+ F-Droid FreeOTP is no longer in development so this fork should be used instead as it is currently in development.
Aegis F-Droid Open-source 2FA for Android. Available on F-Droid.
Authenticator iOS - Open-source 2FA for iOS. (thanks u/SomeoneWannaBe)
Tofu iOS - Open-source 2FA for iOS.

Play Music/Play Movies & TV

Name Eyes Description
Audinaut F-Droid An open-source Airsonic client for Android.
MALP F-Droid An open-source Android client for MPD. Available on F-Droid.

Hangouts

Name Eyes Description
Keybase 5-eyes encrypted chat like Signal with features like Slack. Does not require a phone number to sign up. Also has file storage. Note: Keybase was acquired by Zoom, Inc. in May 2020 (Keybase blog, Zoom blog). Thanks @notpushkin & @multimob.
Conversations F-Droid 14-eyes An open-source Android Jabber/XMPP client. It's a paid app on Google Play, but you can also build it from source for free if you want to.
Element F-Droid 5-eyes Android app - The open-source Android client for Element.
Jitsi Meet (F-Droid) F-Droid Jitsi is an open-source secure video conferencing platform. No account is needed to use it, simply enter a Room Name to join or host a meeting. The host is able to kick rogue users from the call. Works directly in your browser, with apps available for iOS and Android. It is not necessary to self-host, but self-hosting is an option for those who wish to. Very low latency and easy to set up. A free public server is available at meet.jit.si. (5-eyes server)

Duo (video calls)

Name Eyes Description
Jitsi Meet (F-Droid) F-Droid Jitsi is an open-source secure video conferencing platform. No account is needed to use it, simply enter a Room Name to join or host a meeting. The host is able to kick rogue users from the call. Works directly in your browser, with apps available for iOS and Android. It is not necessary to self-host, but self-hosting is an option for those who wish to. Very low latency and easy to set up. A free public server is available at meet.jit.si. (5-eyes server)

Assistant

Name Eyes Description
Mycroft Android Android client for Mycroft. Must be built in IDE; no pre-built binaries are available.
Ara Open-source virtual assistant for Android. Can replace Google Assistant (home button functionality) on most devices. Either uses the authors server by default, or you can run your own server. Thanks @FultonBrowne (author of Ara)

Play Services Framework

Name Eyes Description
microG A re-implementation of Googles proprietary Android user space apps and libraries. It allows to use more precise navigation (which is proprietary in standard Android ROMs) and optionally receive push messages (requires connection to Google's servers, but also supports routing this connection through Tor). Thanks @notpushkin

Android home screen launchers

Name Eyes Description
Shade Launcher Open-source Android launcher styled after the Google Pixel launcher. Available to download from an alternative F-Droid, APK Mirror, or GitHub Releases.
Omega Open-source launcher. Active development with lots of nice features. Downloads available from GitHub. Previously known as ZimLX which has since been replaced by Omega.
Lawnchair F-Droid Another open-source launcher, also built to look similar to Google's launcher (it is built off AOSP Launcher3). Available from F-Droid and also APKMirror. (thanks u/droidonomy)
KISS Launcher F-Droid Fast, open-source and small launcher. KISS mainly relies on an app-search-bar, which makes it very easy to open up apps quickly. Thanks @Glitchy-Tozier

Other

Name Eyes Description
Blokada F-Droid From the website: "If you want to efficiently block ads, trackers, malware, save on your data plan, speed up your device and protect your privacy with just one application, then Blokada is for you. It is free, secure and open-source." Uses internal VPN on Android to block ads.
TrackerControl F-Droid From the GitHub README: Allows users to monitor and control the widespread, ongoing, hidden data collection in mobile apps about user behaviour ("tracking"). To detect tracking, TrackerControl checks all network traffic against the Disconnect blocklist, used and trusted by the Mozilla Firefox browser. Thanks @E5dZEUpc3BKaJrHnQVZd5zE

Hardware

Back to top

Nexus/Pixel

Name Eyes Description
This list Shows compatibility for rooting Android devices.
Purism Librem 5 5-eyes From the company that makes Purism laptops. Runs PureOS. Thanks @brandonnodnarb
PinePhone 5-eyes From the company that makes the Pine A64 Single Board Computer. Runs a variety of mainline Linux OSs with UIs adapted for mobile.

Chromebook

Name Eyes Description
TUXEDO 14-eyes Privacy-focused laptop maker out of Germany. Tech specs are very competent and can easily compete with other modern systems. Fully Linux compatible. They also offer desktops. (thanks u/itsec_ho)
Purism Laptops 5-eyes Privacy-focused laptop running PureOS. Good designs and decent hardware.
Pinebook Pro Mid-range Linux/FreeBSD alternative to Chromebook.

Chromecast

Name Eyes Description
Microsoft Wireless HDMI adapter 5-eyes The only reason I'm recommending this Microsoft product is because there is no possible way for it to extract any data and ship it off to Microsoft. If anyone is able to find proof that it can, I will remove it.

Google Home

Name Eyes Description
Mycroft 5-eyes Open-source virtual personal assistant. Can be run on a Raspberry Pi. (thanks u/Kentto7)
Home Assistant Open-source home automation. (thanks u/bilange)

FitBit

No known alternatives.

Useful links, tools, and advice

Resources

Everything you need to become a Privacy Wizard.

Books

Back to top

Title Published Author
Permanent Record Published Edward Snowden
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now Published Jaron Lanier
The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Published Shoshana Zuboff
The Attention Merchants Published Tim Wu
Zucked Published Roger McNamee

Blog posts

Back to top

Title Published Author
Google Chromes users take a back seat to its bottom line Published Bennett Cyphers and Mitch Stoltz - EFF
Quitting Facebook & Google Published J. Nathan Matias
How to fight back against Google AMP as a web user and a web developer Published Marko Saric

News articles

Back to top

Title Published Author
Google Can Survive Too Much Innovation. You Can't. Published Robert Sher - Forbes
The truth about Google's famous '20% time' policy Published Jillian D'Onfro - Business Insider
The Binge Breaker Published Bianca Bosker - The Atlantic
How Malware Keeps Sneaking Past Google Plays Defenses Published Lily Hay Newman - WIRED
Forget Killer Robots — Bias Is the Real AI Danger Published Will Knight - MIT Technology Review
Google managers kept blacklists of conservative employees and one manager considered holding 'trials,' a new lawsuit alleges Published Julie Bort - Business Insider
A longtime Google engineer quits, saying the company is 100% competitor-focused and can no longer innovate Published Jillian D'Onfro - CNBC
Facebook and Google are doomed, George Soros says Published Hamza Shaban - Washington Post
Google Isn't Listening, So Its Employees Are Suing Published Kate Conger - Gizmodo
Google sees major claims of harassment and discrimination as lawsuits proceed Published Sam Levin - The Guardian
How to stop Google from tracking everything you do online Published Todd Haselton - CNBC
Google will always do evil Published Jessica Conditt - Engadget
Googles new AI principles forbid its use in weapons and human rights violations Published Devin Coldewey - TechCrunch
Google Plans to Launch Censored Search Engine in China, Leaked Documents Reveal Published Ryan Gallagher - The Intercept
Googles China plan isnt just evil — its bad for business Published Josh Rogin - Washington Post
How Google Protected Andy Rubin, the Father of Android Published Daisuke Wakabayashi and Katie Benner - New York Times
A New Google+ Blunder Exposed Data From 52.5 Million Users Published Lily Hay Newman - WIRED
Three Years of Misery Inside Google, the Happiest Company in Tech Published Nitasha Tiku - WIRED
Googles latest user-hostile design change makes ads and search results look identical Published Natasha Lomas - TechCrunch
You Are Now Remotely Controlled Published Shoshana Zuboff - New York Times

The lighter side

  • Movies & TV:
    • Snowden (2016) - Based on the true story of Edward Snowden, the CIA/NSA/etc whistleblower. Directed by Oliver Stone.
    • Deep Web (2015) - Documentary (narrated by Keanu Reeves) about Ross Ulbricht aka. Dread Pirate Roberts and the infamous "Silk Road" dark market. Directed by Alex Winter.
    • The Great Hack (2019) - Documentary about the FacebookCambridge Analytica data scandal. Thanks @woutfeys
    • Mr. Robot - Hacker-drama starring Rami Malek. Producers hired actual hackers as consultants to ensure the show is as accurate as possible; real-world tools used in the show.
    • Silicon Valley - Satirical tech comedy about a compression startup struggling to take off in Silicon Valley, California.
    • Shoshana Zuboff on surveillance capitalism | VPRO Documentary - Invidious instance and Hooktube
  • Podcasts:
    • Darknet Diaries (by Jack Rhysider) - Highlights real-life hackers and their stories. Covers privacy topics a fair bit.
    • The WAN Show (Linus Tech Tips) - Not specifically privacy, but they cover all sorts of tech news.
    • The Privacy, Security, & OSINT Show - "This weekly podcast presents ideas to help you become digitally invisible, stay secure from cyber threats, and make you a better online investigator."
    • Security Now! - "TechTV's Leo Laporte and I spend somewhat shy of two hours each week to discuss important issues of personal computer security." (Thanks u/Abaddon182)
  • Other:
    • xkcd - They have comics for everything.
    • System32 Comics Instagram and Reddit - Comedic computer comics.

Closing remarks

It's a shame that Google, with their immense resources, power, and influence, don't see the benefits of helping people secure themselves online. Instead, they force people like us to scour the web for alternatives and convince our friends and family to do the same, while they sell off our data to the highest bidder.

Hopefully this guide can serve as a starting point for those new to privacy, or be a good refresher for the experts.

Good luck and stay safe!