How to de-Google yourself

How to de-Google yourself

Google is everywhere, mostly because they're good at what they do, and their services are mostly free. Well, I say free - but you know that you're the product, and they use surveillance and data mining to figure out how to sell you stuff, a practice called an assault on privacy by Amnesty International.

And because they are so dominant - controlling more than 90% of all web searches - they have a lot of power. Too much power for a company which steals user data in violation of copyright laws, deletes incriminating evidence and lies to law enforcement, and spies on workers before illegally firing them.

So to keep the internet free we need to untangle ourselves from many of the Google services we use - right? For instance....

Ok, so first things first - it's going to be difficult to completely de-google yourself, so temper your expectations. Many Google-services are so ingrained in our day-to-day that you will find yourself at a disadvantage if you go completely cold turkey.

That said, you can do a lot!

Replacing Gmail

We'll start with the worst one - gmail.

There are plenty of reasons for wanting to replace gmail - e.g. that Google reserves the right to use your data for training AI. Whatever your reasons are, the main problem with changing your email is that so many people and services are tied to it. And you have to change all of them to use the new email. So that's a pain in the arse.

But the good thing is, you don't have to do it all at once! You can create a new email account, and then set up email forwarding from your gmail so you don't miss out on stuff and can migrate your accounts to the new email over a period of time.

  1. Create a new email account, e.g. a free Proton email account
  2. Download new apps for your devices, e.g. the Proton mail app for android or iphone
  3. Enable automatic email forwarding from your gmail to your new mail
  4. Time to switch emails - go through the following and make them use your new email:
    1. Social media & streaming accounts
    2. Public services
    3. Online banking
    4. Online shopping accounts
    5. Newsletters you want to keep receiving

And - that's all there really is to it, you're now in the process of migrating to your new email. It's not hard, but it is annoying and will take a bit of time - the good thing is that with automatic email forwarding you can make the switch gradually.

If you receive a lot of emails from Real People, consider setting up an auto-reply telling them about your new email.

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Since I wrote this, Proton has revealed themselves to be all-aboard the American swing to the right, so if that bothers you consider other european alternatives as listed here.

The process of switching to a new email is the same, though.

Google Search used to be great, which is at least partially the reason it grew to become so dominant that it occupies more than 90% of the search engine market. The other reasons, of course, being deals to become the default search engines with e.g. Apple.

But it's 2024, and Google doesn't realle deliver search results anymore - instead you're seeing a combination of ads ("sponsored links"), auto-generated AI-overviews, and other annoying things like SEO-spam sites.

Time to get off the ride!

Here are some alternatives:

  • Kagi is a premium search engine - meaning you pay for it - which delivers "No ads. No tracking. No compromise. Just deep, powerful search.". I haven't tried it, and so I cannot vouch for it - but I've only heard good things about it.
  • DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine. It uses a combination of over 400 sources - Bing!, Yahoo Search, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, etc. - as well as their own crawler to deliver search results. It does not use Google Search as a source.
  • Ecosia is a European search engine using renewable energy to power it's servers and invests all profits - it is ad-based - to plant trees. It aims to absorb more CO2 than it emits. Ecosia search results are based on the Bing! search engine but also includes results from Google.

Will these search engines be noticably better than Google Search? Well, that depends on your metric. You will definitely see fewer ads, and my personal and totally non-scientific opinion is that both DuckDuckGo and Ecosia are at least on par with Google Search. Give it a try!

Replacing Google Maps

Google Maps is super useful for a lot of tasks - navigation, finding out which shops are nearby, and so on. You could replace Google Maps with any number of other large map services - Apple Maps, Waze (owned by Google) - but what would be the point of replacing one privacy-invading service with another?

Instead I want to tell you about OpenStreeMap - a non-profit navigation platform created and maintained by a community of volunteers like you and me.

While it feels a little rough UX-wise, the service is used by more than 10 million people and is entirely non-profit and supported by donations.

OpenStreetMap
OpenStreetMap is a map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open license.

On your mobile devices you'll want to install Organic Maps - an app which does a pretty good job of replacing the Google Maps app for navigation and search purposes. A super-useful feature is also the ability to download maps for offline use; especially useful when traveling internationally.

Organic Maps: Offline Hike, Bike, Trails and Navigation
Fast detailed offline maps for travelers, tourists, drivers, hikers and cyclists created by MapsWithMe (Maps.Me) app founders.

And if you think something is off... why, you can help improve the platform by using the StreetComplete app to fill in missing details about the areas you're in. There's national and global rankings, achievement levels, and more.

StreetComplete
OpenStreetMap surveyor app

Replacing Google Drive and Docs

If you're ok with using Proton, Proton Drive provides you with the ability to create and edit end-to-end encrypted text files directly in the browser.

Proton Drive: Free secure cloud storage | Proton
End-to-end encrypted file storage from Switzerland that lets you securely back up your files on the cloud, access them anywhere, and share them with anyone.

There's a 5GB free tier limit - which should be enough for many people, and it's easy and cheap to upgrade to the next tier if necessary

If you'd rather avoid Proton here are some other European alternatives:

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After publishing this article, someone told med about Onlime - a Scandinavian cloud storage provider with photo backup capabilities and a 5GB free tier options. Check it out, my fellow scandis!

Replacing Google Photos

How you replace Google Photos depends largely on how you use it. If you're just using it to backup photos consider using Dropbox or another cloud backup service.

The best replacement, though, is Immich - an open source and free photo and video management solution with excellent phone apps to go with it:

Home | Immich
Self-hosted photo and video management solution

The only problem is - it's only available for self-hosting, at least afaik. If you're comfortable hosting your own stuff on your own server this is fine, but many people are not. Consider contacting your local friendly digital co-op and asking if they're interested in runnin an instance, maybe.

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After publishing this article, someone recommended I check out Ente and it looks really nice and much easier to use for most people than self-hosting. So check that out as a possible alternative!

Replacing Chrome

Google Chrome has a 70% market share worldwide - which is unhealthy - and is also taking active steps to disable Adblockers. Obviously no one sane wants to see ads, so - time to switch it up.

Consider these alternatives:

  • Mozilla FireFox is the OG choice and also uses a non-Chromium engine which is independent from Google
  • The Zen browser is a fork of FireFox with a privacy focus
  • The LibreWolf browser is also a fork of FireFox with a privacy focus, specifically focused on increased protection against tracking and fingerprinting techniques

If you're OK with using something Chromium-based - the engine which Chrome runs on, and which is partially under the control of Google - here are some alternatives:

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Please note that Brave - while being a non-Google option - uses a fairly shady practice where they block ads on websites and then replaces them with their own ads where they collect all the profits. They also actively inject affiliate codes on some requests, which is... weird and scammy. So best avoid them.

Replacing YouTube

Youtube is a little difficult to replace - not a lot of ethical and free video services exist, and those that do probably don't have all the content you're used to.

But consider PeerTube - a FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) alternative to YouTube:

What is PeerTube? | JoinPeerTube
A free software to take back control of your videos! With more than 600,000 hosted videos, viewed more than 70 millions times and 150,000 users, PeerTube is the decentralized free software alternative to videos platforms developed by Framasoft

PeerTube is federated - this means that pretty much everyone can install an instance on their own server, and all these instances can communicated with each other and share videos between them. You can find a list of PeerTube instances here.

Replacing Android

Android - the linux-based mobile operating system - is the most widely used mobile OS in the world. The great news is that Android is free and open source (FOSS) and is developed by the Open Handset Alliance.

The bad news is that almost all phones use a proprietary Android version developed by Google which includes lots of closed-source proprietary software, e.g. Google Chrome, Google Play, Google Play Services, etc.

So what are your alternatives? Here are a few:

The first three options are deGoogled versions of Android, while Ubuntu Touch is its own thing. Please note that you can't always simply replace your phone OS with something you like better, as many devices are locked to a specific OS.

Ironically, your best bet is to buy a Google Pixel; only Pixel-phones support relocking the bootloader after replacing the OS, which is important for many apps & for security in general. Check on each OS which devices are supported.

Some vendors specialize in selling out-of-the-box deGoogled devices, here are a few:

  • Volla - a German smartphone manufacturer offering phones with Ubuntu Touch or their own Android-based OS
  • Murena - a European-based vendor delivering Pixel and Fairphone units with /e/OS installed