Privacy Tools
These are the tools I recommend in place of big tech privacy-invasive products. This is my very first draft, I haven't edited it yet. It's bound to have grammatical mistakes and typos. I will edit it soon.
Browser
I think browser is the first thing you should change. Even if you change to every alternative in this list, and you use Chrome to access those services, you are still fucked. Because Chrome is a data hungry monster, it tracks each and everything. So changing your browser should be your first priority. Changing to Brave would make your transition super easy, it has built-in adblock, and many other improvements. Now LibreWolf is the browser that I use on desktop, but on my phone I use Brave.
Search
Google Search is another data hungry monster. Switch to DuckDuck, it's tracking free and free from stupid garbage. Brave Search is also good. But I use DDG. And also it's not that you can't ever touch Google Search again. Even though the Google search is now heavily enshittified, I feel like it still gives better results for local searches related to your city or town.
Drive
Filen gives 15GB free end to end encryption. 20GB if you signup using a referral link. Try looking up online for referral. If you can't then contact me I will share mine. Proton Drive gives 5GB which is decent. Koofr 10GB. And as a last resort you can use Cryptomator with Google Drive which is a little inconvenient but solid privacy-wise.
Photos
Google Photos was one of the hardest service for me to leave. It had all my photos starting from 2013. On top of that Google make is super hard to export, so it was a pain in the butt. This is the hardest part, because Ente and Immich are so feature rich that you won't feel the need for Google Photos anyway. I recommend Ente, just because self-hosting is tricky even for technically sound people. Immich is supergood if you are using it on your local network, but don't expose it on the internt yourself. And the most important thing, always keep multiple backups of your most important stuff, that you don't want to lose ever. So definitely keep an offline backup, and apart from that on another cloud service apart from immich or Ente.
We all have grown up creating hotmail or gmail accounts as our first email accounts ( mine were surprisingly Nokia OVI mail and Yahoo Mail), and we have since used gmail accounts for all our services, it can be tricky to port fully to Proton or Tuta. So what I would recommend is that you create a Proton Mail account, and use that for furter places you sign up for instead of transferring everything all at once to Google. And please don't delete your Google account if an account has been with you for a long time, you can fuck up in massive ways. Keep your Google account as backup.
Messaging
WhatsApp says it is e2e encrypted but it's closed source so who knows what backdoor they have, on top of that. It's a crappy experience to use WhatsApp. Signal is the obvious choice, but not everybody is going to use Signal just because of you. So I also use Telegram, which doesn't have e2e encrption but the chats are encrypted but the keys remain with the Telegram, so yeah, if Telegram wants to it can read your chats. But it has had good track record of not doing that, and it has never shared personal chats even when demanded by authorities. It's not ideal but it's okay for the time being. It provides e2e encryption in Secret Chats, but most people don't even know that something like this exists in the Telegram.
Password Manager
I know most people dont even know what a password manager even is. So first educate yourself on this. I have written a post/guide on this, read that. And yes start using a password manager. I use Bitwarden, but if you would want a modern interface Proton Pass is also fine.
2FA
I think by this time almost all people have encountered some sort of 2FA, most common is SMS based, but it's not most secure. For 2FA, I would rank physical keys such as Yubikey as the top, but not everybody would want that. So TOTP based 2FA is close second. I use Ente Auth, using any of these is fine.
DNS
This is one of the first thing I do in my friends and families phone. I create a NextDNS account for them, and then turn on a bunch of filters, and set a custom private DNS in their phones. Not only it drastically reduce/remove ads in most of the apps, it also saves from malware and various phishing attempts. My go to is NextDNS. Supereasy to setup as well. And also your ISP can read all your queries and full urls if you don't use a encrypted DNS, but if you use for example NextDNS then all your ISP would know is what IP you connected to, to not specifically what you search or did there. If you want to hide even that, then VPN is the way to go.
VPN
As mentioned above, if you want to hide everything from your ISP then VPN is the way to go. ProtonVPN gives a very decent, must better speed and experience than any other spying free VPN. If you want really good performance use their paid version, but if you use a VPN just now and then, then free version is great. Mullvad VPN is another paid alternative that you can look for.
Notes
I would suggest you to use a totally offline notes app (that is available on F-droid it's called Another Notes App, will add link later maybe, idk), I use one. But if you want sync then Joplin and Notesnook either is fine. Obsidian is a good experience on Desktop but super sucks on mobiles.
Calendar
Use Proton Calendar. Will be weird in the beginning will get used to it later though.
Office
I rarely use an office suite because I mainly use Obsidian for my docs. Any of these alternatives is good, have used both in the past. Proton Docs is your closest alternative to Google Docs.
Maps
Another tricky app to lose. Almost impossible to not use if you need navigation. I also use it. But I first look up in Organic Maps (or OSMand or CoMaps), if I don't find it then in Google Maps. You can also use Magic Earth for nav, decent in India.
Translate
I don't usually use Translate, but putting it here for anybody who does. These are better alternatives.
Computer OS
I use Linux Mint. If you have never used Linux then you should also use Linux Mint. If you are already experience then you should also use Linux Mint, it's the best. But again, to each his own. Debian and Fedora are also good alternatives. macOS is also better than Microslop garbage. Not the best but still relatively better.
Phone OS
If you have a Pixel phone, then you use use GrapheneseOS, if you can afford a Pixel phone, then you should use Graphene os. CalyxOS is second best, check our list of supported devices. While LineageOS and e/OS are good for privacy but they are not so good for physical security. Unlocked bootloader is a big risk. So my last recommendation would be to use stock Android without a Google account, and most of Google's app disabled/removed using ADB or Canta.
App Store
Start using Droidify (a frontend for F-Droid). It has apps for all your use cases, but if an app is only availble on Play Store then use Aurora Store, it's a proxy for Play Store. Obtanium is good if you already know the sources of apps. I use all three on a daily basis.
Entertainment
First option is piracy all the way. But if you want to selfhost Jellyfin is awesome. NewPipe is a good frontend for accessing YouTube without ads, tracking and all other bullshit.
AI
Don't fucking talk to chatbots. But if you really need to use one then use Duck.ai or Le Chat. I would prefer Duck.ai.
Crypto Wallet
Nothing
Cake Wallet
These are not for everybody. But just wanted to put it out there. Monero is the cryptocurrency and Cake Wallet is way to go.
Last reviewed: August 2026.