Free yourself from the Toxic Big Tech Ecosystem
I wrote this article to give people a guide to get away from Tech Ecosystems that prey on the users, while encouraging them to use tools that would respect them and their data, without using them as a means to profits. I have been passionate about this topic for some time, and implementing it into my daily life has been a slow but rewarding process. It has been a year or so since I started an experiment of living off the "grid", while still being connected to people. I am going to refrain from using any references to plugging out of the Matrix as there is an Open Protocol called Matrix which is definitely worth plugging into, which I shall elaborate on later. I find that, while I may not interact with as many people as before, the interactions I do have are a lot more deep and fulfilling.
I wrote this out before watching the The Social Dilemma, which focuses mainly on Facebook, and while it gets into the problems of the current Big Tech Ecosystem preying on its users, I want to focus on what we can do right now, you and me, to reclaim our digital selves, to take the power from these centralized data collection and interaction engines and give it back to the people it belongs to, the users (for I am Tron! and I fight for the user).
What is the Toxic Big Tech Ecosystem (TBTE)
These are companies that essentially use you as the product without telling you. They have a history of collecting and selling your private data, and it's about time we stop allowing them to do that.
The big 4 of TBTE are:
While these companies do provide essential services which we tend to use on the reg, there are better (read: don't sell your data) alternatives to them. I understand that it is hard to stop using these services if there isn't a viable alternative to them, which is why I shall be providing an alternative for each of them as I go in depth. This article is not about the damage they do by using you, there are many better sources for that. This is more about how you can stop using their services and a set of alternatives that better respect your data and privacy. All tools mentioned are Free and Open Source or at least Open Source.
Disclaimer: Growing up, I looked up to these companies and wanted to work with them. After waking up and smelling the coffee, I do not like how they conduct business, use their customers, and their complete lack of ethics and morals. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I assisted them in that endeavor. So, forgive me if I sound like a disgruntled ex.
The series
This guide is split into parts, one per company: