Simple Privacy in 2022
In a world of corporate conglomerates collecting and selling our personal information, people have given up on their human right to privacy claiming, "it doesn't matter anymore, they are going to track us no matter what" or "it is almost impossible to be private in today's age". Well, I am here to prove that there is, in fact, a way to get away from big tech, and still have access to everything you need and more! This is a list of applications that are meant to replace the apps and services that you use every single day, and this list can even save you money, as a lot of these projects are created with freedom in mind and are often times free!
Web
Everything involving web browsers, extensions, and useful websites.
Brave Browser is one of the simplest ways of protecting your privacy online currently. It is Chromium-based, meaning that the interface is familiar to most people, and is faster and lighter than Google Chrome. There is absolutely no reason why anyone should not be using Brave, there are no downsides whatsoever, and I suggest this browser to anyone who currently uses Chrome.
It is recommended to go into the Brave settings and set Trackers and ad blocking and Block fingerprinting to strict or aggressive respectivley.
Popular alternatives: Mozilla Firefox, Ungoogled Chromium, Bromite Popular Firefox forks: LibreWolf (pre-hardened Firefox), Waterfox (recently bought by the ad company System1)
Brave Search is the default search engine for Brave Browser. I prefer using Brave Search over other options such as DuckDuckGo or Startpage due to the design and, in my opinion, superior search results.
It is also important to point out the recent controversy with DuckDuckGo. They have started to remove specific search results involving "misinformation" regarding the recent events in Ukraine. This has deterred many privacy-minded individuals from DuckDuckGo, but there are other users who don't mind, and that is okay too!
Popular alternatives: DuckDuckGo, Searx, Startpage,
Privacy Badger is a browser-add on tool that analyzes sites to detect and disallow content that tracks you in an objectionable, non-consensual manner. When paired with Brave browser or Firefox/LibreWolf, it results in very intelligent ad and tracker blocking without breaking websites.
For more advanced users: uBlock Origin
While it is harder to install than most extensions, LibRedirect is worth going through the trouble for. LibRedirect is a fork of Privacy Redirect, and it automatically redirects you from certain websites to more privacy respecting alternatives. Visit LibRedirect to see which sites are affected, and know you can switch off the ones you don't like.
For an easier installation but less redirects: Privacy Redirect
This simple browser extension allows you to easily tell which country a website is based in. This can be important for deciding what websites you would like to visit to get away from the 14 Eyes, and to verify the claims of a website saying they're hosted in a particular part of the world. This extension changes its icon automatically to the flag of what country the site you are on is based in.
LanguageTool is an open-source alternative for Grammarly. LanguageTool also has created plugins for popular word processing programs, such as LibreOffice and Microsoft Word.
For more information on online privacy, this is a one-stop-shop for everything involved in it. This site shows you how to cut out big tech completely and why you should.
Another great website/community to check out: https://techlore.tech/
Communication
These apps are used to communicate with other users in a more private and secure way.
Signal is essentially iMessage, but cross-platform and end-to-end encrypted. The Signal protocol is much faster, more secure, and privacy respecting unlike MMS, RCS, and especially SMS, and is of course open-source. Signal also supports end-to-end encrypted voice and video calls!
To use Signal, both you and the recipient need to have Signal installed. Signal's Android app also doubles as your default messaging app, allowing you to send SMS messages within the Signal app.
For more extreme threat models: Session
MySudo allows users to create alias phone numbers and email addresses that are viewed and interacted with through the app. With the best plan, you can have up to 9 phone numbers to use across the internet and to compartmentalize your life. For example, you can have a work number, a phone number for your family and friends, and one for people you just met. These numbers do not expire, they are yours once you claim them.
ProtonMail is an open-source email service that respects your privacy and supports encrypted emails between ProtonMail users as well as PGP. You will find the normal email features you would find anywhere, but a few features that stand out are alias email addresses and sieve filters. IMAP and SMTP are also supported on all desktop platforms.
Element is a client for the Matrix protocol. Matrix is an open standard for, decentralized, real-time communication that supports encryption. Decentralization is important because it means that your messages are not stored on some random server across the world, and are instead stored on the physical server of which you connect to. Element allows you to use Matrix to enter chat rooms (similarly to Discord), direct message specific users, as well as initiate voice and video calls.
Element is a mere client for Matrix, there are many other clients to pick from if you don't like it, though Element is currently the most popular. It is important to note that no matter which client you choose, you can still communicate with anyone you wish over Matrix.
Here is a list of all of the supported clients you can pick from: https://matrix.org/clients/
Revolt is a new FOSS (Free and Open Source) alternative to Discord. The interface is almost identical, but provides better privacy and some exciting features such as user-created themes. This app is still in the very early stages of development, but is worth checking out!
Utility
Private alternatives to many useful apps you may use.
In my opinion, Bitwarden is the only password manager worth using in today's world. It has all the features you would expect from any other modern password manager such as autofill, password generation, biometric unlocking, and TOTP/OTP. Bitwarden is open-source, end-to-end encrypted, and synced between unlimited devices for less than $1.00 a month ($10 a year), which is stupid cheap.
While this service is not open-source, it is still an excellent way of protecting your payment information online. This service creates virtual pre-paid cards that you can set for subscription and one-time payments. Data breaches often times release payment information such as debit card numbers, expirations, and CVVs, but with Privacy.com that information is away from the hands of the internet.
It is important to note that there are some services that will not work with Privacy.com due to the cards being pre-paid.
Made by the creators of ProtonMail, Proton Calendar aims to be a Google Calendar alternative. Similar to ProtonMail, Proton Calendar is also open-source and end-to-end encrypted. For the average user, this is a very appealing calendar app with no ties to Google.
Keep in mind, I never use my calendar, so mileage may vary, but it works very well for my personal needs.
Alternative for Android users: Etar
Notesnook is a newer project that tries to give the user a safe place to store your notes. While Notesnook does sync your notes across platforms, everything is done locally on the device, including encryption and the creation/editing of notes. This app is meant to be extremely user-friendly and has a beautiful interface and editor. Notesnook is in very active development, and is updated very frequently with new features.
WARNING: Notesnook is not currently open-source, and is a freemium service. The developers are working very hard to get Notesnook open-sourced as quickly as possible, as is on their roadmap.
Popular alternatives: Joplin, Standard Notes, Simplenote
ente is a new open-source project dedicated to replacing Google Photos. While you do have to pay for this service, it provides an entirely end-to-end encrypted cloud-based solution for all of your photos and videos, and allows users to access their media from everywhere, including from the browser. As you take/download photos or video, they are uploaded to the cloud and keeps local copies until you delete them from the device, which can be automatically done from the app.
Online alternatives: Stingle Photos, Cryptee, Piwigo, TripUp
IVPN is the most transparent VPN service out there. The moment you go on their website, they explain how every VPN company is lying to you with empty promises, and they explain what a trusted VPN can achieve for the user. Both the Wireguard and OpenVPN networks are frequently audited by third parties, and includes many privacy and security features to protect the user as much as possible. Not to mention the speeds, IVPN has some of the fastest speeds you could ask for, and the apps look great. You can even host servers through it!
Popular alternatives: Proton VPN, Mullvad Don't trust anyone with your internet data? Orbot
Ultra VPN comparison chart: https://techlore.tech/vpn
Syncthing is a free alternative to proprietary sync and cloud services such as Dropbox with something open, trustworthy and decentralized. None of your data is ever stored anywhere else other than on your computers. There is no central server that might be compromised due to the fact that your files are never stored anywhere else except on the devices that are paired together with Syncthing.
This app can be used for many different things, such as syncing your photos from your desktop and mobile device to go into a specific folder on both devices.
Whenever you create an account for anything, you will most likely need an email address. SimpleLogin is a way of preventing your email address from being leaked online and stop spam easily by creating a unique email alias for every website. These aliases are directly tied to your real email address, and all emails that get sent to an alias are then forwarded to your inbox automatically. You can also disable and delete aliases effortlessly in case you want to stop receiving emails from a service you signed up for. When you wish to send an email using a SimpleLogin alias, you can do so directly from your main email service and SimpleLogin will do the rest!
Something else exciting is that SimpleLogin and Proton Mail have recently started working together to better integrate aliases into Proton Mail!
Popular alternative: AnonAddy
Mobile
Most privacy-respecting apps are only on Android, but there are plenty for iPhone as well. Keep in mind that iPhones, by default, have better privacy than Android, but Android has better privacy potential.
Aurora Store is an unofficial, FOSS client for Google Play Store with an elegant design. Aurora Store does not rely on Google Play Services, so this can be used on de-googled phones and can help prevent Google from seeing what apps you are installing.
The F-Droid Repository is an easily installable catalog of FOSS (free and open-source apps) for Android. F-Droid also allows you to add custom repositories of apps. You will need to install F-Droid to download some of the following applications, as they are only found on this platform.
For an overall better experience: Neo-Store
CalyxOS is a custom ROM of Android that removes Google completely from Android devices that support it (currently, only Google Pixel phones are supported). This is a great option for those that take their privacy seriously. Aurora Store allows you to download apps from the Google Play Store without having Google Play Services installed, and Google Play Services is replaced with microG to make apps and notifications work correctly.
For advanced users (sandboxed Google Play Services): GrapheneOS ROM available for more devices, but lacks in security: LineageOS
AltStore is a FOSS alternative to the Apple App Store for non-jailbroken iOS devices. Similarly to Aurora Store, AltStore allows you to browse and download apps you would find on the Apple App Store but in a more private way. AltStore does rely on a server that the user hosts, but they have made it a very simple process which you can find on their website.
This app allows the user to remove bloatware apps from their Android device without root privileges, and shows how many trackers are included with every app installed on the device, along with anything else you can think of.
WARNING: Removing bloatware apps may break your system if you are not careful, make sure to do a backup before trying anything!
Ruthless is a launcher for Android based on Shade Launcher. While Ruthless is not open-source, there are no tracking elements included in this app, and is the most feature rich launcher that does, in fact, value user privacy. It would be easily comparable to the Pixel Launcher, but has way more features.
NewPipe is a FOSS YouTube client that grants the features of YouTube Premium for free, and does not rely on Google Play Services. NewPipe is similar to the recently discontinued YouTube Vanced. NewPipe does not allow you to use a Google account whatsoever, so all of your subscriptions will be saved locally on the device and will not count towards the creator's subscriber count. Playlists are also saved locally.
Android app for streaming and downloading Movies, TV series and Anime from various online sources. No account required!
iPhone alternative: ZeniTevi
Infinity is a beautiful, feature-rich app that offers completely free and ad-less Reddit browsing and posting. Once you log in to your Reddit account, you will be able to create posts, comment, PM users, up/down vote posts and comments as normal. Infinity for Reddit also has other features such as Lazy Mode, which scrolls between posts for you for a customizable amount of time in between posts.
iPhone alternative: Slide for Reddit
Frost is a FOSS third-party Facebook wrapper geared towards design, functionality and privacy. Frost allows users to use every major feature of Facebook including Marketplace in a private and ad free way.
Twidere X is a FOSS Twitter client that aims to add features to your experience, as well as maintain your privacy. With this client, you can view and post on Twitter.
Alternate platform: Mastodon
This is a new FOSS file manager app for Android that allows users to create zip files and also encrypt files. This app also supports password/biometric unlocking as well.
Popular alternatives: Amaze File Manager, Simple File Manager, Material Files
A simple app for creating or managing your contacts from any source. The contacts can be stored on your device only, but also synchronized via Google, or other accounts. You can display your favorite contacts on a separate list. You can use it for managing user emails and events too. It can sort/filter by multiple parameters, optionally display surname as the first name. Contains no ads or unnecessary permissions. It is fully open source, provides customizable colors.
Check out the full suite of Simple Tools here: https://www.simplemobiletools.com
A lightweight app for handling your calls, no matter where are you. Comes with a handy call log for easy call initiation. There is a quick dial pad at your service too, with smart contact suggestions. It supports letters too. You can easily block phone numbers to avoid unwanted incoming calls. Supported Speed dialing makes calling your favorite contacts with this true phone a breeze. It comes with material design and dark theme by default, provides great user experience for easy usage. The lack of internet access gives you more privacy, security and stability than other apps. Contains no ads or unnecessary permissions. It is fully open source, provides customizable colors.
Check out the full suite of Simple Tools here: https://www.simplemobiletools.com
The app has multiple functions related to timing. At the clock, you can enable displaying times from other timezones, or use the simple, but customizable clock widget. The clock contains all the expected features as day selecting, vibration toggling, ringtone selecting, snooze, adding custom labels, stopwatch, and timers. Additional features include preventing the device from falling asleep while the app is in the foreground, or displaying some tabs in full-screen view. Contains no ads or unnecessary permissions. It is fully open source, provides customizable colors.
Check out the full suite of Simple Tools here: https://www.simplemobiletools.com
The app goes straight to the point, it contains no fancy features that you won't use. Just you and the voice recorder. It shows the current sound volume on a nice visualization that you can have a lot of fun with. Provides a really intuitive and clean user interface, not much can go wrong there. It offers a helpful player too so that you can listen to your recordings quickly, maybe rename or delete them. Contains no ads or unnecessary permissions. It is fully open source, provides customizable colors.
Check out the full suite of Simple Tools here: https://www.simplemobiletools.com
Unstoppable Wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet that allows you to store most types of currency in one app. Unstoppable also gives you analytics for each coin, can connect to Tor before entering the app, and can be locked with password or biometrics.
Popular alternative: Cake Wallet
Geometric Weather is a light and powerful weather app that provides you with real-time temperature, air quality, 15-days weather forecast, and accurate time-sharing trends. Geometry Weather can provide you Beautiful Material Design Interface, Global Weather Data from many sources, Automatic Dark Mode, 15 Days And 24 Hours Overview data, Powerful Desktop Widget, Weather Notification And Forecast, Alert Information, Multiple UI Styles and Live Weather Wallpaper.
FOSS alternative to Google Translate.
Tasks is libre open-source software, based on the original source code from the popular Astrid Tasks & To Do List! Tasks is easy-to-use, feature-packed, flexible and customizable, and synchronizes with a variety of services. Best of all it contains no advertisements and respects your privacy!
Cross-platform online alternative: Condution
This feature rich QR/barcode scanner allows you to of course scan and open QR and barcodes, but also allows users to create them as well.
OsmAnd is a Google Maps alternative with access to the free, worldwide, and high-quality OpenStreetMap data. Enjoy voice and optical navigator, viewing POIs (points of interest), creating and managing GPX tracks, using contour lines visualization and altitude info (through plugin), a choice between driving, cycling, pedestrian modes, OSM editing and much more.
For an app more focused on driving: Magic Earth
Desktop
FreeTube is an open-source desktop YouTube player built with privacy in mind. Use YouTube without advertisements and prevent Google tracking from you with their cookies and JavaScript. FreeTube also uses the beloved SponsorBlock add-on to automatically skip video intros, outros, sponsor segments, and anything else no one cares about! This is essentially NewPipe or Yattee for your desktop. Unfortunately, there is no way to sync your subscribers or playlists between these platforms, but it is the price you pay for great privacy!
OnionShare is a must-have application for Tor users. This app allows users to host a number of services through Tor for free, including the ability to share/receive files, chat anonymously, and even host your very own Tor website!
GIMP is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, and more. Basically, GIMP is the closest you are going to get to FOSS Adobe Photoshop.
Cider is a FOSS and community oriented Apple Music client for Windows, Linux, and macOS. For those that have not already sold their soul to Spotify, Cider allows Apple Music users to privately listen to music on the desktop, without compromising features. As a matter of fact, Cider gives the user more features than Apple Music does, for example Discord and Last.fm integration, audio spatialization, advanced equalizers, and even remote control from your phone!
Tron is a program for Windows 10 that removes all the bullshit from Windows. It utilizes popular apps such as ShutUp10++, Windows10Debloater, McAfee Labs Stinger, CCleaner, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Kaspersky AntiVirus, and Sophos Virus Removal Tool to scan the system for viruses/malware, debloat the system, and much, much more. This is a one-stop-shop for everything you would ever need for privacy and maintenance for Windows 10.
PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS INCLUDED WITH TRON (or watch a YouTube video)
Comments on 'Simple Privacy in 2022'
uBlock Origin also work for non technical users and Privacy Badger is no longer a required extension. uBlock does everything better.
I feel like uBlock Origin is more tailored to advanced users because often times you have to disable specific elements of websites manually, but I haven't really messed with it much so I could be wrong, if so please let me know!
As for Privacy Badger, it is definitely still useful. Even with Brave, Privacy Badger catches a lot of trackers that Brave doesn't catch and vise versa (even with strict tracker blocking in Brave)
uBlock without settings change have a powerfull tracking protection. You can do advanced blocking, with scripts and third parties but you are better protected with standard settings than Brave and/or Privacy Badger. Also the more extensions you have, the more vulnerable and the more fingerprintable you are.
Notesnook has gone open source so you might want to update your note on that. Thanks for this list!