Divest from Big Tech - Transcript
Divesting from Big Tech
Mystic Tech Collective
Presented by Annie Thorburn (she/her)
Harm Reduction for Digital Privacy
- Perfectionism is the enemy of done
- It can be really easy to fall into rabbit holes trying to find the most ethical, perfect version of a tool. We do the best we can
- Any way you can take control of your data makes you safer than you were yesterday
- There is no way to be totally private on the internet - Opsec depends more on Operations
- Regularly delete sensitive data where possible, and consider hopping between accounts to reduce traceability
What to look for in an alternative
- Is it Open Source (Good)
- Is it GDPR Compliant (Good)
- Is it vibe-coded or does it accept Generative AI pull requests (Bad)
- Is it made by a team or by one person?
- Does it have documentation? (Good)
- Are there socials you can look at to get a vibe of the creators?
Email Hygeine
- You should have three different email accounts:
- Personal
- Work / Job Searching
- Spam
- Unsubscribe from ads and spam emails on your personal and work emails - these emails have cookies attached that track your activity
Email Notice
- In general, sensitive conversations should be done over Signal
- Even if you have an encrypted email server, the person you are emailing might not, meaning there is always at least once database that has the plain text of your email stored
- Because of the way email functions, even if your messages are encrypted, the server still receives a plain-text copy of your email before it is encrypted, which can be tracked
- Signal does not have this problem
Email Alternatives
- Tutamail - GDPR compliant, options for E2EE, has a calendar, search feature is buggy, use the desktop app if possible
Proton- GDPR compliant, options for E2EE, has calendar and Drive alternative, uses AI, is working with the US Government- Mailfence - GDPR compliant, options for E2EE, has calendar, drops emails
- Mailcow - self hosted
- Murena Workspace - GDPR compliant, has Drive alternative, not personally tested yet
Setting up your new email
- Forward your gmail account to your new email
- Every time you get an email from your old gmail account, choose whether to change your email on that account or unsubscribe
- Delete email once you are no longer receiving forwarded email.
Drive Alternatives
- Cryptpad - Open source, GDPR, Encrypted, you can set documents to delete after a time period, slow, self hostable
- Ellipsus - Docs alternative that never uses AI, beautiful interface
- Murena Workspace - all in one, GDPR, built on open source
Backup Google Drive and Delete
Follow steps here to download your google drive data: https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/3024190?hl=en Delete all data on your drive after you confirm you have your backup.
Youtube
- Peertube - it's own video hosting platform. Limited in its options, still good to support
- Invidious - web alternative frontend to youtube that provides extra privacy
- Freetube - desktop alternative frontend to youtube that provides extra privacy
- Turn off AI filters: https://bsky.app/profile/condorsmask.bsky.social/post/3m2zgkhikls2s
- Art Community alternatives: https://alternativeto.net/lists/41259/anti-ai-art-communities/
- Self-hosted: https://www.linkace.org/
- Alternative Frontend: https://binternet.canine.tools/
Maps
- https://www.comaps.app/
- https://maps.me/
- https://www.sygic.com/
Spotify
- Freegal
- Qobuz
- https://www.funkwhale.audio/#get-started – make your own pod of tunes
Resources to find alternatives
- alternativeto.net
- r/degoogle