Stephanie and I have been engaged in trying to reclaim some of our lives from the major corporate oligarchs of our age. It hasn’t been easy but it has been rewarding. I’ve made a number of changes, including:
I switched to Proton Mail, which offers end-to-end encryption with a focus on privacy. It can be free, but I got a paid version that comes with a bunch of other stuff. And because it costs money, that’s what I give Proton rather than access to my data, which is what free services like Gmail and others get in return for my use of their platforms. I’ve had my own email addresses for years, and it was easy to fold those into Proton Mail, too. And I have a bunch of them, which is part of why I paid for the upgraded Proton service.
STORAGE
I downloaded all my data from Google Photos, Drive, Keep and elsewhere (via https://takeout.google.com), and moved it all onto a hard drive. I then deleted all that data from Google. Proton offers a Drive feature of its own, again with a focus on privacy and encryption. I’m backing up my photos there, and also using it when I need to share files. And then I’ll keep local copies of those files on an external drive. As for sharing photos, I’m doing that more with messages to people, although I am making limited use of social media. (See below.)
CAMERA
I have a Google Pixel phone, which means all the standard apps on it are from Google and all are tracked and data-mined. I installed a different camera app on my phone because there was no way to stop Google from capturing those photos using its native camera app. Now I can back up those photos using Proton.
PASSWORD MANAGER
I’ve used Dashlane as a password manager for years, but since the Proton suite came with Proton Pass, I switched. It offers all the usual password manager services, plus some nice extras like the creation of email aliases, which make it easy to sign up for websites and newsletters using a fake email, and then to know which particular website or newsletter sold your data if one of those fake emails starts receiving spam. Proton Pass integrates with Firefox and works well on my phone, too.
BROWSER
This wasn’t a change for me, just something I wanted to mention. I’ve been using Firefox for years because of its privacy protections. I also use the Tor browser when privacy and anonymity are paramount. But I use Firefox in my everyday life. It’s oodles better than Edge or Chrome or Safari in terms of data protection and tracking. And I’ve added extensions that make it even more secure.
MESSAGING
I’ve been using Signal for a long time, but recently I’ve started asking everyone with whom I regularly text to switch. (Find me on Signal here.) I don’t know what’s coming next in our current dystopia, but it sure seems worth it to have security in messaging, even if what you’re sending seems innocuous. Signal is free and secure and it’s just as easy to use as whatever messaging app you’re using now. And yes, it’s more secure than WhatsApp. It’s also great if you have friends outside the US with whom you regularly chat. You can make audio and video calls via Signal, share photos and files, and create group chats. You should just assume that every message you send that isn’t on Signal is being read by someone other than the recipient, because that’s the amount of security provided by Android and iOs.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Yes, the ubiquitous and insidious and useful and awful bane of our collective existence. I’ve greatly curtailed my use of social media, and when I do post I either do it via a third-party app or via my browser, because I’ve removed the apps from my phone. I’ve installed a Firefox extension called SocialFocus to limit my time on the apps in the browser and also to limit what I’m able to see when I log in. Right now there’s no replacement for Instagram in our community as a source of activist news, and it’s also useful for the arts and for global news that media outlets don’t cover. (Al Jazeera is good for some things, and I also listen daily to Means Morning News and the headlines portion of Democracy Now.)
MAPS
I switched from Google Maps to Here We Go. That’s we used on our vacation a couple weeks back and it worked well, both when we had a data connection and when we didn’t.
NOTES
I used Google Keep for years as my note-taking app (very similar to Notes on an iPhone). When we started this process, I switched to UpNote. But then I watched a series of YouTube videos (1, 2, 3, 4) and decided to try paper note-taking again. I’ve done it many times over the years, but I always go back to the convenience of my ever-present phone. I’ve been using paper for about a week. I keep a small Field Notes notebook in my pocket for to-do items, and another for thoughts. It’s working well so far. If I have a more complex thing like a URL that I need access to in multiple places, I use UpNote.
MUSIC
I switched from Spotify to Tidal a while back because Tidal is better for artists. I also listen to a lot of music on vinyl, and buy music directly from artists on Bandcamp (the best digital platform for artists). Soon I’m going to get a portable audio player (akin to an iPod) so I can keep my music separate from my phone and also build an intentional collection on the device. Having access to everything ever recorded is amazing (and teenage me would have died of happiness), but it’s also the case that I know and connect to what I listen to now much less than I did when the records or tapes or cassettes I owned were all I had to listen to. I’ll still be using those digital services for music discovery and for things I can’t find any other way. Those numbered links in the previous item have a lot more on this.
BOOKS
I have a Kindle. Last week I canceled my Amazon account. My Kindle still works, largely because for years I’ve been getting my ebooks from other sources and putting them on my Kindle using a piece of software called Calibre. It’s also possible to transfer them directly without any software because your computer will see your Kindle as a hard drive. There are many places to get books online, both for money and for free. In this day and age, all we’re ever paying for is a license for ebooks anyway, not actual ownership. Those books (and that music) can be edited, or removed from your devices entirely, at any time without your consent or even knowledge. The other day I came across the line: “If buying isn’t owning, then piracy isn’t stealing.” Do with that what you will.
SHOPPING ONLINE VS BIG BOX STORES VS LOCAL
Part of deleting my Amazon account (in addition to ending my support of that awful company) was to bring my focus back to my community. I’m trying to shop local whenever possible, whether that means from actual people who live in my community and make things at a small scale, or whether that just means from physical stores in my community. I still buy groceries at Wegmans because my town doesn’t have a locally owned grocery store. But I also shop at the farmers markets. I buy records and books from local sellers. I eat at non-chain restaurants. And I’m going to try to stop shopping online as much as possible. It’s important to know that we live in capitalism (and most of you reading this live in the United States) so there are times when you can’t avoid the big players. And some folks live in food deserts or have no other store they can get to than a Walmart or Dollar General. So we all just have to do the best we can, and offer grace to folks who don’t have our luxuries.
CASH
I don’t think I’ve regularly used cash since I moved back from Japan in the 90s. I use a debit or credit card for everything. But moving forward, I’m going to pay in cash as much as possible. This reduces fees for merchants, removes tracking from your purchases, and also helps you stick to a budget (if you’re like me and bad with the little money you have).
CONCLUSION
I’m sure there are things I’m forgetting. If you want a good step-by-step guide to a lot of this stuff, this one is excellent. Corporations don’t care about us, except as big veins of data they can mine. Corporations rule everything around us, and that’s only getting worse and worse. Most of us can’t go off the grid, but we can limit our exposure. I hope some of this helps.
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