How I try to avoid all Big Tech Products

I want to practice what I preach by getting rid of all Big Tech Products in my digital use. In this continuously updated blog post I share how that’s going.

Below I list all the too many Big Tech products that I use(d). I want to get rid of all of them. Every product has one of four statuses:

The Products I'm trying to get away from

Click on the items below to get a description about the migration plan/status.

Amazon (Shop)

I don't buy from Amazon anymore nor do I have a Prime subscription. I did not get around to delete the account yet though, because someone uses a FireTV through my account.

Android

I've switched to a Shiftphone recently and used the opportunity to install a fresh iodéOS on it. iodéOS is an Android based deGoogled mobile operating system with alternative app stores such as F-Droid or Aurora.

I still have a tablet and a couple of old devices with Android on it that I will slowly phase out.

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AWS

I currently use OVH whenever I need to host web applications. Hetzner seems to be another great choice because of their commitment to green energy sources.

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ChatGPT

I try to not use (Gen)AI at all, because I think it's built on theft. But sometimes I shamefully try it to get a quick start on a task. I'm usually not super impressed with the results in general, but in terms of quality LeChat does not lag behind in quality compared to ChatGPT. In that sense I'm happy to have abandoned ChatGPT.

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Chess.com

I mainly use Lichess for online games, but sometimes the gamification attributes of Chess.com get me to start a few puzzles and play a couple of games. I'm also hesitant to delete my chess.com account, because I don't want to loose my game history. Which is stupid, objectively speaking, because games could easily be migrated to Lichess.

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GitHub

I happily switched to Codeberg for my personal projects such as this one. I didn't get around to move all my repositories yet. And on some work related projects I have to stick to Github for now, unfortunately.

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Google Authenticator

I've switched to Aegis Authenticator. Very happy with the alternative. Migration was very easy too with a simple QR code scan. It becomes a bit more tricky if both apps are on the same device, because you will have to cache the QR code somewhere save.

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Google Chrome

I use Firefox for private use and I'm happy with it. It lags behind on latest Web APIs, but on almost all websites everything works fine.

I still have to use Chrome (I feel like) because as a web developer I want to keep up-to-date with latest developments. I could use other Chromium based browsers like Vivaldi, but for development purposes I want to see the website how the majority of visitors will see what I develop.

Update: Deleted Chrome now anyway. I have Vivaldi and Brave as Chromium alternatives installed. LibreWolf and Firefox are my preferred choices for private use though.

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Google Docs/Drive

I currently use both CryptPad and Nextcloud for document-sharing and I'm very happy with the products at the moment. I didn't have to do online collaboration lately, but both platforms have such capabilities (with according add-ons).

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Google Mail (Gmail)

My Gmail account is still active because of legacy reasons and since I'm still using Android, it will take a while before I can delete the account completely. I've got a Mailbox account for about five year, which has been used for newly created online accounts since then. Happy with the result. I switched to the new address on most of my online accounts.

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Google Maps

I've switched to Organic Maps a while ago. I'm really happy with the app. One just has to keep in mind to download maps in advance before traveling. (Which I forgot a couple of times already.) But once downloading is done the experience is even nicer than on Google Maps.

Some downsides:

  • Opening Hours information for businesses does not seem to be as accurate as on Google Maps
  • Traffic information is not available.
  • Recently Organic Map was forked to CoMaps by some contributors because of governance concerns. I will probably check out CoMaps as well in the near future.

Update: I've switched to Comaps now. Works great!

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Google Search

I currently use DuckDuckGo. This is not the perfect solution maybe, since DDG uses some Big Tech Search Indexes (e.g. Bing), but it's definitely better for privacy than using Google Search or Bing directly. Once Ecosia has moved to its own Search Index, I will try out their service again. Good Search is also on my list. Its ad-free approach really resonates with me, I'd be willing to subscribe to its service for a few bugs a month.

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M365 Copilot

My M365 Copilot (is that what it's called now?) subscription ended with 2025. I switched to LibreOffice and didn't have any issues apart from minor font-related glitches.

For document-sharing I use Nextcloud and Cryptpad. I didn't have to do online collaboration lately, but both platforms have such capabilities (with according add-ons).

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PayPal

I try to use Wero for private transactions and on this website for potential donations. But honestly not a lot of people use it yet. I still have my PayPal account, because I'm yet to switch a few recurring payments to a new payment system.

UPDATE: Just deleted the account and requested all my data to be deleted beforehand.

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LastPass

I still use LastPass as my Password Manager. I set up a server for Vaultwarden (a Bitwarden fork) with Cloudron. I did not get around to configure it properly yet.

Update: I migrated all my passwords to Bitwarden. LastPass keeps running for family members who are using the subscription for the next few months. But My account is emptied.

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LinkedIn

LinkedIn is still on my TODO list. Most of the times I log in, I regret it, because of so much AI slop or AI shills. But sometimes I find useful information on there. My plan is to delete the account this year.

Reddit

I've moved to Lemmy for getting and posting information about tech related topics. I still peak into subreddits for more niche topics from time to time, but I don't post.

Samsung Galaxy

My broken Samsung mobile device will be switched for a Shiftphone soon. It's already ordered but will take a few more weeks month until it will be delivered. I still have a Samsung Tablet, which I will use until it doesn't work anymore.

Update: Shiftphone has finally been delivered. I installed iodéOS on it.

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Spotify

I moved to away from Spotify and I'm happy with the alternative Deezer. I'm not missing any bands yet. On the contrary, some bands have removed their content from Spotify but still have active accounts on Deezer (e.g. Deerhoof). Deezer is lagging behind only on Podcasts and Audio books. But I don't mind,since I didn't use Spotify for neither.

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Twitter/X

I moved away from Twitter in 2022. The bubbles I'm interested in have mostly migrated to Mastodon or Bluesky anyway. Only Chess content creators are still mainly on X. Luckily, at least Lichess is on Mastodon.

Update: I moved to the European instance of Bluesky: Eurosky which is hosted on European cloud and is governed by European law.

Google Meet / Zoom

Lately, I've always managed to convince people to try out the public instance of Jitsi when we wanted to video chat.

I want to try out a European alternative next time, because Jitsi's public instance forces meeting administrators to sign in with a Big Tech account (Github, Google or Facebook).

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WhatsApp

I got completely rid of WhatsApp. That keeps out of the loop of some group chats, but it works great without it. A lot of people in my bubble have moved to Signal or run both apps. Personally, I use Molly, a fork of Signal that works on the same data as Signal, but has slightly improves privacy settings.

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Windows

My Laptop still works well, Windows 11 does not support its hardware though. Great opportunity to switch to Ubuntu. Will do it soon.

Update: Just deleted Windows from my Laptop. This really feels like weights have been lifted off my shoulders. Highly recommend! I'm currently working with Ubuntu.

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YouTube

Some content I want to watch is nowhere to be found but on YouTube. That's why I still use the platform. My advice would be to NOT use the native app but the web app instead, with a good Ad/Privacy Plugin like UBlock Origin. This will save you time spent on watching spammy ads. I use a feed reader to get updated on channels that I used to follow. Here's a quick instruction: Chuck Carroll: How to Get the RSS Feed For Any YouTube Channel (2024). I was also made aware of proxy services such as PipePipe, which I will happily try out soon.