Hey all, sorry for an off topic post but I need help from someone more technologically inclined than myself. Honestly there’s no where else on the internet I can stand to be currently.
I’ve seen people post about moving completely off of google- how can I do that? What is the best email service? What should I replace google drive with? Can I have a YouTube account with a non gmail address? Anyone used proton mail? Can I have multiple accounts like I do with google? Is there anything else I’m forgetting as far as privacy?
Thanks for any info!
I second that. Where should I go that is not G00g?
Been using inbox.com for my email for 10 years now. Started out free, now just a small charge...no ads, clean, easy layout, folders easy to access, etc.
As you can see, multiple "free" gmail accounts aren't really free.
Stay off of Disqus for commenting as welll as Word Press. Basically, stay off of the web when to be there costs you your ID.
I started off using DuckDuckGo and whilst they swear they don't track/record your info I'm fairly certain they do. IIRC DDG was bought by a sub of Alphabet?
Brave browser is better, simply download it and use, it has a sort of built in Tor browser which is better than nothing.
Unless you are properly into code that's about it. You can and should try using a VPN but again be very careful don't always go for the most popular one or cheapest, research to find a service that does not log your history. Some claim not to log, then have handed over exactly that.
Protonmail is good. I believe (but you'd have to check to be sure) that you have to have a paid account for multiple mail accounts. There are more moving parts if you want to do more than just have multiple personas. For example, I have a domain for my ham radio account and it is hosted on the site that I have my web site on. To hook protonmail to that I need Protonmail Bridge (which decrypts the PM traffic to/from the ham radio POP account.)
As far as google drive, you could use dropbox or my favorite sink, Evernote. I also have a 10TB drive that I use a free web interface for so that I can link to it as if it were my own personal dropbox. And I can even host/share files on it with others.
Not sure about YT.
If you don't require "free" email, you can register your own domain and have your own email addresses. I own a number of websites, so I use ionos.com (used to be 1and1.com). They have small plans for $10 a month on up to large plans. Mine isn't the largest plan, but I have unlimited bandwidth, unlimited emails, and unlimited storage. You can make separate email addresses for everything, so that nobody but friends have your personal email address. You can also make addresses for your family.
Another thing you can do with your own domain is make your own private off-site backup. Make a lot of directories several levels deep, copy your files there, and no one will accidentally find them.
I use StartPage for searches. They aggregate all searches under their name and search Google for you, so you have the advantages of Google's search engine without having your name attached to the searches.
Duckduckgo is a good search engine BUT if you try to do an image search it takes you to Google anyway.