It’s been fun Google, but it’s time to say goodbye.
Have you noticed?
Google’s entire business model is based on you surrendering to their corporate surveillance. That’s it. All they do is repackage mass corporate surveillance into convenient, free, trendy applications that suck up all your data. Your private data helps Google dominate the online advertising market.
You are the product.
The other key issue to consider here is that Google is tracking and recording your activity in order to build a user profile, which can be used for various purposes. Google has many ways to track your activity, even if you are not logged into a Google account:
- Tracking through Google Adsense (all those annoying banner ads you see on most websites also function as tracking)
- Tracking through YouTube and other Google-owned platforms and products
- Tracking through websites that use Google Analytics (most websites use Google analytics – but not Restore Privacy)
All the data that Google collects about you is usually monitored through targeted advertising (Google is now the largest advertising company in the world). Your data may also be provided to government authorities (Google has been cooperating with governments for mass surveillance since 2009).
In other words, Google is working to track your every move online, even if you are working hard to avoid it.
The solution to this problem basically entails:
- Deleting your Google accounts and data
- Avoiding Google products and using alternatives (this guide)
- Using good privacy tools, such as a private browser and a good VPN service, which will help protect your data from third parties
Google search alternatives
When it comes to privacy, using Google search is not a good idea. When you use their search engine, Google is recording your IP address, search terms, user agent, and often a unique identifier, which is stored in cookies.
Here are a few Google search alternatives:
- Searx – A very privacy-friendly and versatile search engine.
- Qwant – A private search engine based in France.
- Metager – A private search engine based in Germany.
- DuckDuckGo – This is a great privacy-friendly Google alternative that doesn’t utilize tracking or targeted ads. They also have a zero-sharing policy with other features, but they do record search terms.
- StartPage – StartPage is basically Google, but without the tracking.
Check out the private search engine guide for additional information.
Gmail alternatives
Gmail is one of the worst products you can use if you’re concerned about privacy. Everything you do through Gmail is collected by the parent company – every email, attachment, and image… Using Gmail gives Google an intimate view of your private life and personal contacts.
When you remain logged in to your Gmail account, Google can easily track your activities online as you browse different websites, which may be hosting Google Analytics or Google ads (Adsense).
There are many different privacy email options, but here are a few popular choices:
- Mailfence – Based in Belgium – 500 MB free; 20 GB Pro
- Tutanota – Based in Germany – 1 GB free; 10 GB Pro
- Mailbox.org – Based in Germany – 2 GB storage
- Protonmail – Based in Switzerland – 500 MB free; 5 GB Pro
You can try any of the options above to find the best Gmail alternative for your situation.
Many providers, such as Mailfence and Tutanota offer completely free accounts up to a certain storage limit.
Chrome alternatives
Google Chrome is a popular browser, but it’s recording and tracking everything you do. So check out these alternatives instead:
- Firefox browser – This is a free, open-source internet browser that’s quite popular. You can also use a variety of privacy add-ons that can block ads and tracking (but beware of browser fingerprinting).
- Tor browser – This is simply a hardened, privacy-friendly version of Firefox. You won’t need any add-ons or extensions because it’s already configured for privacy and security. That being said, it may be overkill for most users, because it will break many of the websites you visit (thanks to NoScript).
- Brave browser – Brave is a good browser with build-in privacy protections and ad blocking. However, it is also based on Chromium and is affected by the WebRTC leak issue.
Check out the Firefox privacy guide, which explains different privacy and security modifications you can make with Firefox.
Google Drive alternatives
If you’re looking for a secure cloud storage option, you can check out these Google drive alternatives. They are more secure and better for protecting your privacy and data.
- TeamDrive – This is a business-oriented cloud backup and file synchronization option based in Germany.
- Tresorit – This is a user-friendly cloud storage option based in Switzerland. They offer client-side encryption, but also utilize Microsoft Windows servers, which is one drawback.
- Nextcloud – Nextcloud is an open source, self-hosted file share and communication platform. They are based in Germany.
YouTube alternatives
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be many popular YouTube alternatives, but here are a few:
- Vimeo
- Dailymotion
- Bitchute
- Hooktube
Hooktube – Hooktube is basically a YouTube proxy, which allows you to unblock YouTube videos, download videos, and get around YouTube censorship restrictions (unless YouTube deletes the video completely). This also helps to keep your data from Google.
How to use Hooktube: Just replace the domain in any YT link with hooktube.com and you get a light-weight page that loads YouTube’s media files (mp4, webm, etc) directly into your browser’s native media player. https://youtube.com/watch?v=S6bOkFLrsAc becomes https://hooktube.com/watch?v=S6bOkFLrsAc, etc. Supported parameters: start, end, loop (1 for on), speed (range: 0.01 to 4), autoplay (0 for off, default is 1).
And lastly, you can also check out the unblock YouTube guide for additional solutions.
Google analytics alternative
If you’re running a website, it’s important to see which content people like the most, so you can give your readers what they want. Otherwise publishing articles is like throwing darts blindfolded at a wall. Unfortunately, Google Analytics goes overboard with the tracking. Here are a few alternatives:
- Matomo (formerly Piwik) is a great open-source analytics program that respects the privacy of visitors by anonymizing and truncating visitor IP addresses. It’s the only analytics service that is certified to respect user privacy (and the only analytics used on this site).
- Clicky is another alternative, but does not have the built-in privacy protections of Matomo.
Many websites host Google Analytics because they run Google Adsense campaigns. Without Google Analytics, tracking performance of these campaigns would be difficult. Nonetheless, this is still bad for privacy.
Google Maps alternative
A map alternative for PCs is OpenStreetMap.
A few Google Maps alternatives for mobile devices include:
- Maps (F Droid) uses OpenStreetMap data (offline).
- Here WeGo provides good mapping solutions for both PCs and mobile devices with their app.
- Maps.Me is another option that is free on both Android and iOS, but there is a fair amount of data collection with this alternative, as explained in their privacy policy.
Google Play Store alternative
Currently the best Google Play Store alternative is to use F-Droid and then go through the Yalp store.
As explained on the official site, F-Droid is an installable catalog of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform.
After you have installed F-Droid, you can then download the Yalp store APK, which allows you to download apps from the Google Play Store directly as APK files.
You can learn more about Yalp and download it from the F-Droid website here. (See also the official GitHub page here for more info.)
Google Calendar alternative
The best Google Calendar alternative seems to be Etar, which is open source, simple, and respects your privacy.
Another good option is the aCalendar from TAPIRapps. This appears to be another good option that respects your privacy and it also has some good features. Check it out on the official site here.
Two other Google Calendar alternatives are Kin and Fruxx. However, if you read through the privacy policies, it looks like Etar or aCalendar would be the better options. This is because both Kin and Fruux collect user/calendar data.
Do you care about your privacy?
Most people looking for Google alternatives have woken up to the fact that Google is awful for privacy because they collect as much of your private data as possible.
But what about your internet service provider?
In the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, internet service providers are also recording your online activity. This information can be legally sold to third parties (in the US), or saved in government databases to be potentially used against you (UK, US, and Australia).
Aside from government surveillance agencies, there are many other third parties that are quietly tracking your online activity, such as Facebook.
One of the best tools for keeping your data out of the hands of third parties is to use a virtual private network. This will encrypt and anonymize your online activity, while also hiding your true IP address and location. Check out the best VPN service guide for the latest recommendations and test results.
The privacy tools guide discusses other solutions as well.
Stay safe!
I’ve noticed you recommend MAPS.ME, I would strongly disagree.
Even though their map are based on OpenStreetMap, they collect quite a bit of personal data, as it is stated in their Privacy Policy.
I would suggest Maps, which downloads the map you need from OpenStreetMap.
Wow, you are right about MAPS.ME and their privacy policy. I’m updating this guide now…
Thanks Josh.
Hello. I’ve been using Mailfence and OpenMailbox for years now and like them both. I’ve just discovered Mail2Tor recently and I like it and it’s easy to setup with no phone number required. I don’t know how much storage it has or how long before they delete inactive accounts. You need to have Tor to use Mail2Tor & can also email non-Tor email providers too.
http://mail2tor2zyjdctd.onion/
An alternative SWISS web search provider:
https://swisscows.com/about
Not keen on the layout…but…
Yep, I’m just about to publish a guide on privacy search engines, which includes Swisscows.
Hello Sven, brilliant website and one worth putting around! Please remember to tell all who are signing up for a Protonmail account to sign up for the protonmail.ch account and NOT the protonmail.com account, as this could be compromised in the future in the USA.
Please see Protonmail’s own review on this matter:
https://protonmail.com/support/knowledge-base/what-is-the-difference-between-protonmail-com-and-protonmail-ch/
Hi Tim, thanks for the feedback.
Hello…. I was looking for an alternative to Google photos..?? Any suggestions??
Hi Jedi, I don’t use any of these services, but there are some alternatives listed here that may be worth considering.
Hi,
after read your review about Proton VPN I’m more suspicious about Proton mail, all other alternatives from the 14 eye countries, is this important for a mail service?
Well it might depend on your situation, but I consider many of these providers in Europe to be good. I like Mailfence. And if you really want more privacy, you should just skip email altogether and go with a secure messaging with end-to-end encryption.
I’ve been using StartPage for years. I noticed shortly after the name change that the search results became much more limited, and has become progressively worse in more recent months. It’s now so bad that often times a search returns zero results, while google has plenty of valid hits. It’s to the point I deem StartPage useless. I’m curious, is this something ixquick is doing on purpose, or has Goggle figured out a way to limit results queried by 3rd party search engines as a way to force people back into the fold?
Yes, I have also noticed this with StartPage lately. I have no idea as to why, but searx.me seems to still be working well.
Hi Sven and markiteight,
Getting no results is highly unusual, so I’m wondering if something is amiss. You should alert the tech team: Support@StartPage.com
Note that as you scroll to the bottom of a search results page and click to see more search results, additional pages of options will display. So you may see 2 pages available initially, but as you click to new pages, more options should appear if there are more results available.
Hope this helps!
Hi Liz, thanks for the info.
Hello,
I am looking at e-mail alternatives and am confused about android integration on many services. It seems most of the secure e-mail services (such as mailfence which I had considered) are intended to be used with activesync which seems counter productive to me to use a secure service but access it through a Microsoft interface. Maybe I am missing something? I was hoping you could weigh in on this.
Also is the reason companies such as kolab and hushmail not on your recommendations because of their jurisdiction?
I had tried tutanota already but was a bit disappointed with the very slow speed and limited functions such as a poor search feature.
Thanks for the help.
Hi Jarrod, the list is not exhaustive, I just added a few providers that looked good, but I don’t spend too much time researching secure email options. I haven’t looked into the activesync issue to be honest. I think if you really want more security and privacy, an encrypted messaging app would be a better option than email. I like Keybase.
I use Threma for some years now. Very satisfied.
Hey Sven.
For e-mail services, what about Tutanota or SCRYPTmail?
Hi James, I like Tutanota, they’re also listed on the privacy tools page.
Hello Sven,
Thanks for that creating resotreprivacy. Great job!
I was reading about StartPage, which is now my default web search engine and I found that they also have a secure e-mail service called StartMail https://www.startmail.com
Maybe You will decide to add this one to Gmail alternatives.
Regards
Thanks Seweryn, I’ll check it out for the next update to this guide.
Hello,
I’m searchin for an app to sync my contacts, crossplatform (Mac, iOS, Android), any idea ? Thx
Not too sure on that one.
Kolab Now might be what @muhyidin is looking for? Not sure, but it is Swiss based, open and free software and it syncs stuff… https://kolabnow.com/
@Sven Thank you, I like many of your suggestions and you explain things well!
Why is Aptoid listed as a good Playstore alternative? That site requires people to use their app to download stuff, and their app requires access to Camera, Contacts, and Location. There is absolutely no justifiable reason for that kind of app to access those things!
Hi John, yep, looks like you are correct. It seems F-Droid is the only decent option from a privacy perspective at this point. I’ve removed Aptoid from the list.
an another email provider, RunBox which has calendar and contacts sync utility.
Very cool company.
I do NOT work or get any type of payment or credit from any VPN company. The people mentioning IVPN are right. I don’t know why you left them out.
After researching literally hundreds of VPN companies, I chose the company IVPN ($8.33 to $15.00 per month) for their statements on security and privacy and meeting the following criteria:
* You are allowed to use their VPN service on up to 3 devices at the same time
* Uses RSA-4096/AES-256 encryption with OpenVPN
* Client offers an advanced VPN firewall that blocks every type of IP leak possible including IPv6, DNS, network failures, WebRTC STUN, disconnection leaks, and more
* IVPN sponsers research on IPv6 leaks at VPNtesting.info
* Supports Windows, Mac, Android phones, iPhones, Linux, and routers (currently only Windows and Mac have clients with advanced VPN firewall)
* Uses a shared IP so your traffic is intermixed with all server traffic significantly mitigating against traffic analysis
* No restrictions or download caps
* No blocking of any kind
* One of the highest speed VPN services
* Extremely low latency when compared to other VPNs
* No data retension or logs are ever kept
* Fast customer support that responds within 24 hours
* In 2014, Privatus Limited decided to move the company from Malta to Gibraltar in light of the new 2015 EU VAT regulations which affect all VPN service providers based in the EU. The EU VAT regulations now require companies to collect two pieces of non-conflicting evidence about the location of a customer (at a minimum the customer’s physical address and IP address)
* Legal notices such as a DMCA for copyright materials are ignored and out of jurisdiction
* The only information the company keeps about you is your email address
* No 3rd party company is used for support or holding any customer information
* Multi-hop network allows for exit nodes in any country making the task of legally gaining access to servers significantly more difficult
* File sharing traffic is permitted and treated equally on all servers (they do encourage customers to use non-USA based exit servers for P2P)
* Accepts bitcoin, cash, Paypal, and credit cards
* Can cancel at any time. Refunds available within 7 days of signing up.
* When paying with PayPal or a credit card, only a token is stored that is used to process recurring payments
* Uses internal DNS servers that do not log any information or use forwarding DNS servers like OpenDNS or Google
* DNS servers do not use censorship of any kind
* Bare metal dedicated servers leased from 3rd party data centers in each country and setup by IVPN use full disk encrypted custom images and contain no logs (if a server is ever seized the data is worthless)
* Servers do not store any content or logs and are only used as a conduit for data
Other excellent VPN companies (in order) are:
Mullvad VPN
$6 per month
5 devices
No logs
Proxies for more secure BitTorrent
Based in Sweden
Blocks ports 25 (SMTP email), 137-139 (NetBIOS), and 445 (Windows shares)
NordVPN
$5.75 to $11.95 per month
6 devices
Based in Panama
No logs
Blocks some P2P
Trust.Zone
$3.33 to $6.99 per month
3 devices
Based in Seychelles
Logs bandwidth
No leak protection
hide.me
Free!
1 connection
Based in Malaysia
No logs
Slower speeds but minimum 3 MB per second
2 GB cap per month (nearly all free VPNs have a download cap or show ads)
And a lot of VPNs have terrible policies on privacy. You can look up any VPN and find out using this online database: thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-comparison-chart
There seems to be some contradictions in your description of IVPN. You state “no restrictions” yet they restrict you to 3 devices. And how are they implementing this exactly while still being “no logs”… Their multi-hop is with only two hops. IVPN seems like a decent choice, but every single benefit you listed for IVPN is available with Perfect Privacy, and then some. Perfect Privacy does not have any restrictions or connection limitations, because you can’t implement restrictions and be completely “no logs” at the same time (according to them). PP also offers better features, in my opinion, such as TrackStop, which filters thousands of domains at the VPN server level, including domains for tracking, ads, malware, social media, and even all Google-related domains. They recently rolled out NeuroRouting, which takes the “multi-hop” concept to a much more advanced level.
Seems like IVPN is somewhat similar to VPN.ac, however the “no logs” and only 3 devices seems contradictory. Moreover, VPN.ac is twice cheaper, seems to have more features, more allowed connections, they have more servers and they also have their own DNS servers… The only thing left to compare between them is the internet connection speed, but something tells me it would be somewhat the same. The only thing someone might reply to is that they keep daily connection logs for maintenance (which is acceptable)
I haven’t tested IVPN, but with a fast internet connection, I’ve hit speeds over 150 Mbps with VPN.ac.
well, with their US servers, with a connection of 100Mbps, using OpenVPN with AES-256 encryption the download speeds are between 8-15 Mbps, Upload sometimes hits around 40. (but I haven’t tested all of the servers thoroughly).
I’ve been testing via Ubuntu 17.10 with speedtest-cli from terminal.
Strange. I can connect to VPN.ac’s US servers from Europe with my standard 100 Mbps connection and usually get between 50 and 80 Mbps using OpenVPN AES-256 encryption [screenshot]. But as you probably know, there are many variables to VPN speed.
Maybe it has something to do with the fact that on Linux NetworkManager is the one who is handling the OpenVPN configuration (plus the fact that speedtest-cli might show different speeds).
I’m not sure if the router has some input to it or not (I’ve been lucky to test on somewhat OK router TP-Link Archer C7 v2), the Firmware installed on it (which was LEDE/OpenWrt), and the number of open connections to it(I think there were max of 8 devices connected to it: 1 through LAN port, and the rest through 5G WiFi).
I’m going to try to get some time on the same environment, though change the system to Windows and see the results I’d get.
Hello Sven!
What would be a good Google Calendar alternative?
Thanks
Hi James, here are a few options.
Basically it is a choice between:
1. Etar
2. aCalendar
3. Kin (somewhat acceptable privacy policy)
4. fruux (not a very privacy-friendly privacy policy)
I initially though mostly of calendar back-ups as with Google Calendar when I asked the question, but on the second though, calendar back-up is not privacy-friendly by design =)
Thanks for this. I added a new section on Google Calendar alternatives.
After analyzing aCalendar a bit, it seems to have a lot of adds, which is not very nice. It does have a nice design though =)
One more calendar to mention is Simple Calendar, which is open-source, has import/export to .ics file feature, CalDAV sync and event type setting.
Overall, I’d recommend it over Etar as well.
Mailfence which is mentioned under mail also offers Calendar, Contacts and Documents tools all integrated in a suite, making it an alternative for Google Calendar, Google Docs,… More info about the calendar here: https://blog.mailfence.com/secure-online-mailfence-calendar/
Great article, finally cutting out google on my phone and it feels good. Hopped on protonmail and searchx.
What about Playstore alternatives?
Hi John, good point. I’ll research that question and add it to the next article update.
1. F-DROID –> Only Open-Souce contents available
2. Via F-DROID you can download YALP Store which is Google PlayStore without the need to login with your Google-Account
Thanks for the recommendation! First I tried Amazon, but I couldn’t get their app to work. Then I tried apkmirror and Fdroid, but their selections were just too small. They didn’t have any of the apps I use on a daily basis. Then I tried Aptoid, but their app was too invasive. It wanted access to Camera, Contacts, and Location! So far, Yalp is what I’ve been looking for. Thank you!
As Duderino suggested above, if you install F-Droid, and then got install Yalp Store, this basically removes the need for Google Play.
The only drawback I see is that you wouldn’t be able to buy apps, however there is a workaround that as well.
Speaking of users that only use free apps this is a golden mine, as you can really remove Google account completely.
Yes this appears to be the best option. I just added it to the list.
For Chrome alternatives I highly recommend epic privacy browser, its open source and based off chromium, has its own privacy based search engine because “It dosen’t trust any other search engine,” built in proxy anti – tracking addons, disables all the data collecting and more, speeds are good, particularly if you do decide to use duck duck go instead of epicsearch.in (their search engine), if you want chrome without data collection (which you get anyway, even if you turn off all the addons), and you want privacy, I recommend epic. [link]
Hi Sven!
What’s your thoughts on Puffin browser?
Thanks!
Hi Gary, I have not heard of or tried out Puffin browser. As a general rule I like to stick with FireFox, however, for both mobile and desktop.
Hello Sven! Am very new to your site (brilliant BTW) and have a question re FireFox. When you say you like to stick to FF, which one do you mean? Seems to be various versions kicking around, e.g. FF Quantum, WaterFox, etc. (I’m on a Mac running macOS 10.12.6.) Thanks in advance!
Hi George, I just mean whatever is the latest version of the standard Firefox browser. The latest version as of now is Firefox Quantum.
The real question is if there is an alternative for Google Services. I mean for Android, there is Aptoide to use instead of Google Play Store but most of the Apps won’t work if you don’t have Google Services installed on your device. 🙁
There is a very time-expensive way.
It’s called Xposed Framework. I used it quite successfull on my Galaxy S4 several years ago. With that you can install a Google Service replacement. Also you can install several location services for GPS etc.
According to the developer you don’t even need to root your device for this.
Unfortunately I don’t know what’s the status of Xposed Framework these days.
Hello Sven,
Any thought on Synch.com for No-Knowledge cloud storage? They are based in Toronto which could be a drawback since Canada is part of five eyes. Then again Synch.com claims they do not have your key. They are a less expensive alternative to Tresorit.
I will probably get one of them, there doesn’t seem to be a perfect solution.
Hi TPaige, I haven’t looked into this area too closely, but will hopefully get a guide out after doing some research and testing the different providers.
Thank you in advance for the research. I’m sure there is something to this No-Knowledge approach like where is the key? What is the key? What happens if all of the uploads and downloads happens through the browser? Is it still Zero Knowledge and end to end encryption? There are quite a few questions to look into.
TPaige
How about ProtonMail as an alternative to Gmail?
Yep – also a good alternative.
Thank you for this article. It has been really educational
Happy to help, Nicolas.
Sven, here is one you need to add to the video section.
an alternative to youtube is “hooktube”.
Just copy the URL & replace it the youtube.com part with “hooktube.com” & it’ll do the same thing.
Of course, if you’re using something by a youtube content provider like VEVO (I imagine other major providers too), then it won’t work
Hi Richard, good suggestion – I have added it to the list.
Stop tracking me
Google doesn’t listen 🙂
Hi,
is Opera also considered as an Google alternative or it is near as good/secure/private as Firefox?
Cheers for that
Hi Tomtom, it is indeed an alternative, but not one that I would use. When I analyzed Opera’s Privacy Policy I found they collect vast amounts of user data – just like Google. Their “free VPN” is also not so good – see here.
A map alternative for PCs (Waze is only Android/iOS AFAIK) is openstreetmap.org. It’s more basic than Google Maps, but still.
Thanks Trond! It has been added to the list.
Didn’t Google acquire Waze?
Thanks for that information – you are correct. I removed it from the list.
OpenStreetMaps is also available for Android. The app is called OSMand