Here's my post from February: lemmy.ml/post/42584169
Commenters mention questionable behaviour by Proton's and Brave's CEOs and Signals reliance on Big Tech infrastructure.

kjtrnc

2026-02-02 16:46:29

Website for Sustainable Alternatives to BigTech

Yesterday on Digital Independence Day I've launched a small website suggesting sustainable alternatives to BigTech products.

I've started with five categories: Email, Search, Maps, Browsers, Messaging.

There are some controversial picks in there like Proton Mail or Brave. They do have a pretty wide adoption but have severe downsides. I'll probably remove them again. What do you think?

Which categories would be the next most important ones to add? Which services did I miss on the existing ones? Feedback welcome.

#DIDit #DigitalIndependenceDay

Find Sustainable Alternatives to Widespread Big Tech Products on SustySubs.net

There are a lot of good reasons to get away from Big Tech. We show you some good substitutes!

^{Klaas Ole Jordan (www.sustysubs.net)}

In my opinion, we should only judge the product and not people surrounding it otherwise I bet we can find dirt on everybody.

But I would say even then Brave has done some shady things(the whole crypto facade).

Things like this drive me crazy, especially in light of a conversation I had yesterday, because I don’t think people realize how damaging it is to overall privacy.

I have a friend who has been all in on Google for years. Yesterday he mentioned to me that he started playing with Proton Mail and wanted to talk to me about it, as he knows I switched last year. He said he liked it but comments he’s been reading online have him skeptical about trusting them.

I went through the process I followed, and the 12 different providers I tested, before I chose Proton. We discussed the difference between privacy and anonymity and that there are avenues to do both with Proton should he want to. I also showed him the comment that the Proton CEO posted about supporting Trump’s choice for a cabinet member who has a history of preferring small businesses over large corporations with Proton's defense.

I also stopped simping for Proton and offered a number of other alternatives he could try like my second choice, Tuta, and the number of improvements they have done since I first tested them. I even suggested FastMail because it at least sets the stage to get off a more privacy-invasive vendor.

In the end, his comment was that this was all overwhelming and that it's best to stick with “the devil you know.” So now, he will remain with Google because there is too much controversy in the privacy world, and I suspect this is true for a lot of “normal” people who are just now starting to consider improving their overall privacy and security.

With every tool, someone is going to have a problem. We let perfection become the enemy of good, and this helps people feel comfortable in deciding to stay with large American tech.

I try to limit my Proton use to only their VPN, and after their comments I'm trying to decide between switching to AirVPN or doing my own VPN since I need portforwarding for torrenting. I switched from ProtonMail to Mailbox.org a while ago to not keep my eggs in one basket.

I think everyone highlighting the police is correct but also cherrypicking (for lack of a better statement). Like Tuta isn't gonna go to jail for you either lol. All companies have to cooperate with the government in some form. I do agree that Proton should stop advertising like it won't or that it's failproof though. If they really cared, they would make guides on how to use their services in a way that gives little to no information to the police if demanded. And emphasizing that the email isn't encrypted if the other user isn't a ProtonMail account or using PGP.

Court rules encrypted email provider Tutanota must monitor messages in blackmail case

The Federal Court of Justice (BGH) in Germany has ruled that Tutanota must monitor messages of accounts implicated in a blackmail case.

^{Shannon Vavra (CyberScoop)}

Ungoogled Chromium my love. I've been using them for years now, both on Windows and Linux and I basically have no complaints.

For Android, if on Graphene you already have Vanadium! If not, Cromite is also pretty good since it has built in Ad-blocking.