Alternatives Pt. I - Messaging, Browsing, and Email
So you've heard about all the data harvesting, ad targeting and surveillance, algorithmic rage farming, and all sorts of other things you really didn't actually sign up for when all you wanted was an email address - and you don't like any of it.
The good news: Alternatives exist!1 They really are out there. And you can switch to them today. A great many of them are a lot lighter on the tracking, better in terms of privacy, and, as FOSS apps, slower to enshittify (or even generally more resistant to getting enshittified). I mean - how can you not want that!?
You may have heard that it is difficult to switch away from Big Tech. Yes, network effects exist, but those don't matter for things like browsers, web search, or email. And:
You do not need to be a rocket scientist or have a degree in computer science to switch a daily driver away from Big Tech. I am not a rocket scientist, nor do I have a degree in computer science, and I don't use Google search or Chrome for my browsing. I haven't had a Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp,...) account in over three years, a twitter account in over five (I think!? I don't really remember). My instant messaging app of choice is neither WhatsApp nor Instagram, and my main email provider is definitely not Gmail. And I do not feel like any of the above are making me have a socializing deficit, or miss critical emails, or bang my head against the wall due to missing functionality. This is all very doable.
This is part one of the Alternatives series, and we'll cover, very broadly:
- browsing the interwebs - browsers and search, and
- messaging - both the instant messenger kind, and the email kind.
Edited image based on original work by Mediamodifier on Unsplash.
An Important Note: On Trust and Safety
Links, as well as apps, can (and often do) change. While I have done my very best to only select apps that have a very good track record in terms of privacy, security, and trustworthiness, an app I recommend below may change course down the line.
As with all web links and downloads, do not blindly trust anyone's recommendation, or download something via a link that someone tells you to click, before checking the link. Cross-reference what you read here with other reputable sources (I'll put a few that I like at the end of this article, but I would encourage you to also use one of the privacy-friendly search engines to ~do your own research~).
Furthermore, especially if some time has elapsed since this article was published, always check what the developer of an app has been up to since. Orange flags that are worth getting more details on before you proceed can include:
- An app changing significantly in a few short weeks/months;
- the app being bought by a different company / directed by a new board;
- a slew of new AI features;
- new VC investments;
- a radically different roadmap;
- a changed maintainer;
- and other changes that make your Spidey senses tingle.
Always be on the lookout, do your due diligence, and only install apps or sign up for services that you have vetted, and/or that someone you know personally and who you really really trust has been using, and has recommended to you.
... Another Important Note: On the Perfect and the Good
This ties in, to an extent, with the note above:
Apps can, and do, change. All the time. This also means that apps may go from Great to Not So Great in just a few short weeks (things move fast in the big city.) This then can mean that apps and tools that have been amazing for decades suddenly aren't, or that software that wasn't on our radar is suddenly the top privacy dog and becomes everyone's pick.
Related to that, you will probably not find an app in this list that is 100% perfect, at all times, in all things, and in all contexts. Likely because that is a unicorn that doesn't exist.
But: Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. I see a lot of talk out there that says, "But that one time, SecureAppXYZ gave away someone's email address in court!!1!", which is taken to mean that SecureAppXYZ is 100% the same as insert big tech company here whose entire business it is to sell your data to ad brokers in terms of privacy. Not so. There are obvious differences and gradations at play here, between ecosystems whose entire business is to harvest and sell our data, and ecosystems that are not built on this premise and that have shown a commitment of privacy. Gosh, I do love me the smell of nuance in the morning!
I will do my best to call out current "disputes" that I am aware of where applicable, but: Do not let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
đŦ Instant Messaging / Chat Apps
If you're wanting to go privacy-conscious, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram may not be the way to go. I'm sure I don't need to recap why that is, but if you'd like a refresher, start here.
There are extremely capable alternatives out there that you can start using today:
- Signal. Signal is the gold standard of secure instant messaging.
- As an example of how little they know about its users: Signal recently had to respond to a US jury subpoena regarding 37 phone numbers. For six of those accounts, they were able to provide data: The account creation date and the timestamp for the most recent connection. That was all Signal was able to hand over - No messages, no contacts, no groups, no profile.
- It also ranks high in usability. This is anecdata, but: A number of my friends and family have made the switch years ago, and the verdict has been - even from less tech savvy folks - that Signal is very easy to switch to. It offers all the trimmings of what you expect from a chat app in 2026 - stickers, phone & video calls, gifs, emoji, tagging, group chats. If you're familiar with chat apps, you can do Signal!
- Session is a great alternative if you're spooked by the concept of having to provide a phone number to Signal to create an account.
- If you prefer your instant messaging to be decentralized, like the fediverse, Matrix may be worth exploring.
- As with e.g. Mastodon, you can pick from different clients, like Element X, to use with your Matrix account.
- Honourable mentions:
- Threema, which also comes highly recommended in terms of security.
- Delta Chat, as recommended to TG on Mastodon by user AdonM.
- Only thing is, I personally don't know anyone here in Canada that uses either of those - YMMV in other regions of the world, but at least 'round these parts, the network effects strike again. That said, you can be the first among your peers to start using a secure, private messenger app!
đ Browsers
Avoid Chrome, and consider instead:
- Firefox. And before my inbox explodes: No, it is not perfect. There are issues with Firefox, and I don't want to sweep them under the rug:
- Apparently a lot of former Facebook staffers are in high-ranking positions at Mozilla now. We will have to see how this shakes out.
- There is also a lot of online chatter regarding AI ""features"" making their way into Firefox (as they are making their way into a great many tools and apps at the moment.) If you are a 1000% purist, this may be a dealbreaker for you. However, I do want to mention here that Firefox has a literal killswitch for current and future (!) AI features that you can flip, which will disable all current and future (!) AI "enhancements." That's a thumbs-up for transparency and easy control from me. đ
- You can opt for a hardened Firefox fork, like Librewolf or Fennec, which remove some proprietary and/or AI features.
- There are also a ton of extensions ("add-ons") you can use to customize your experience. (Same goes here as for apps: Stick with the Staff Picks or Recommended Add-Ons, read the reviews, and read up on the extension from reputable sources before you install it.)
- Vivaldi is also a popular option, made in Europe.
- I tried it out for a few months, and it was ahead of Firefox in terms of QoL features (a To Read list, built-in RSS feed reader, stacked tabs, tiling, to name a few - functionality-wise Vivaldi was amazing), but I found its ad-blocking capabilities were always lagging behind those found in my Firefox + extensions setup.
- The deal-breaker for me though was that it literally does not do add-ons/extensions on Android - but if that doesn't bother you, Vivaldi can be a great choice.
- Honourable mentions: Brave and DuckDuckGo.
- They also are not perfect (sensing a theme here?) - Brave notably messed around with crypto, DDG does AI.
- A TG reader wrote in and brought Mullvad back to my attention, which is a great browser I have used on my desktop in the past.
- At time of writing, there is no Android version though, which may be a dealbreaker if you like to sync your browsers between desktop and mobile.
The above do not mean that all browsers are created equal, and you "might as well just stick with insert data harvesting machine here". Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
đ Web Search Engines
Much like Chrome in the browsers section, Google Search is probably best avoided. It's not really even that good anymore.
This is the category where I don't have a consistent "daily driver." My browsers of choice let me configure my search engines, and the ones I regularly go between are:
- DuckDuckGo
- Qwant
- StartPage, and
- Ecosia.
- Honourable mention: Kagi, which I hear is very very good, but beyond the trial period, this is a paid product. Not a dealbreaker in itself, but that does make it a bit different from all the other search engine options on this list.
âī¸ E-Mail
If you use a free email account with one of those companies whose main line of business is ads and ad tracking, it is extremely likely that your data - harvested from your emails, contacts, and calendar events - is used for ad targeting. From there, it is but a short trip for your data to land in the hands of data brokers, who sell that stuff to whoever pays for it.
As an example, Google itself may have stopped, or claimed that it stopped, scanning email content for ad targeting, but third-party apps are still allowed to do exactly that.2
- Commonly-cited popular private email alternatives are Proton and Tuta. Proton is my pick in this category, but you probably can't go wrong with either - both are strong on data privacy, and both are non-US based to boot.
- You may have recently come across Proton in the news - Yes, they did have to disclose payment data to law enforcement, and they did. But, reminder: Zero email content was supplied, as that is end to end encrypted. Don't let articles like this one make you think that "it's all just the same" and "there's no point in switching" to a more privacy-friendly email provider. This is not true.3
- I agree with Techlore's take here: Privacy and anonymity are different things, and if you don't want your payment data associated with a purchase or a subscription, then you likely shouldn't be using a credit card for payments. This goes for email providers as it goes for anything else.
- Honourable mentions: Fastmail, Posteo, and Startmail.
Other Guides
There are many other guides of this type out there. I would encourage you to give them a read - some of them list more options than I did here, others go into greater depth for a few options, and others have a set of suggested steps you can follow to get off of Big Tech incrementally.
- Techlore's Privacy & Security Resources page has an excellent overview of apps and tools.
- Paris Marx's "Getting off of US Tech" guide is a great read, and shows you with emoji flags where an app/tool is from. As it turns out, a lot of the big tech platforms that play fast and loose with user privacy are US-American. Who knew! Ergo, in a lot of cases, there is quite a bit of overlap between the privacy-conscious and non-US options.
- Check out the "DI.DAY" (Digital Independence Day) project, which started at 39C3 in Germany. On a recurring cadence, on the first Sunday of each month, folks get together (virtually and IRL) and ditch Big Tech. This is great if you want to work on this bit by bit, make a little bit of progress every month, and find like-minded folks online or in person.
- Beyond that, the ZeroG project has great guides on ditching google and other big tech platforms, all with practical tips and alternatives you can explore.
- EFF's Opt Out October guide has a number of small, achievable steps you can take to improve your online privacy.
- The "Alternatives" sidebar on r/degoogle has a ton of options in multiple categories.
There is, of course, a lot more to online privacy and deshittification than this. We'll cover more areas (social media, news, podcasts, your web presence,...) in the next parts of this series - and of course, you are always encouraged to follow the work of the great privacy thinkers & writers of our age, and see what else is out there!
Questions or thoughts - you know what to do. Just please don't blast my inbox with "but that one time, Proton/Firefox/DDG/Ecosia/... did xyz and NOBODY should EVER use it" Thank youuuu đ
Recent Posts
Side note, I've named the series thus because, well, these are alternatives and they do exist, but also because a lot of the current slop-related pushiness from on high makes us believe that there truly is no alternative. That AI is inevitable. Which itself is related to this political concept of yore.↩
Yes, this is a Proton article - they are, of course, providing a rival service to Google. However, I am linking it here as the article contains a number of great links where you can read more about Gmail and privacy. And this article is from 2018 - Imagine how much, uh, "better" the situation has gotten since then.↩
In my mind, the reporting on this - and on other, related privacy "incidents" - from a lot of large-scale outlets was disingenuous. Based on the reporting, a lot of people assumed that Proton was giving the contents of their communication away. No.↩