The best privacy friendly apps.
There is a spy pixel on almost every website you visit, every marketing email you open and every social media post you view.
Google and Facebook’s revenue model depends on highly targeted, personalised ads. Their primary business isn’t search, or keeping you in touch with friends. It is advertising.
They give you free access to their services in return for tracking your every click and recording your individual behaviour. They use your data to auction it to the highest bidder who then advertise back at you.
To maximise profits, these platforms need you to stay on their sites as long as possible. Google generated content dominates more and more of its search results. Facebook keeps you coming back with occasional dopamine hits.
98.5% of Facebook’s and 83% of Google’s turnover is from advertising.
So what?
Perhaps you think this isn’t something that effects you? Paul Jarvis explains why caring about your privacy is important even if you have nothing to hide.
I agree. We have to confront this.
As someone who has designed websites and helped businesses with their digital marketing for 14 years, I have seen the sheer volume of personal data that is available. It has got out of hand. It encourages businesses to make poor decisions with an over-reliance on data, to ignore their instincts and to forget that there are real people behind the numbers.
I believe there is a better way.
Firstly, I have compiled a handy list of apps and websites to help you as an individual protect your privacy online and have a better online experience.
In a future piece, I will be sharing ideas on how organisations can benefit their customers and build a more sustainable business by respecting people’s privacy.
This isn’t about boycotting Google, Facebook and Amazon. Their market dominance would make that near impossible. Moreover, they are in that position because they offer very good products.
But if enough of us reduce our usage or completely switch, perhaps we can encourage them to change their attitude to our privacy. Healthy competition is good. It challenges market leaders to improve their practices and improve our experience.
At the very least, you will be supporting smaller and more ethical businesses.
The list:
Search.
Instead of Google Search, try Duck Duck Go. They don’t store your personal information or track your individual behaviour.
Alternatively, Ecosia both protects your privacy and plants trees when you search.
Google pay £billions to Apple per annum to be its default search engine. Here are instructions on how to change this on your iMac or MacBook or your iPhone or iPad.
Web browser.
Duck Duck Go appears again as you can also use it as your web browser in place of Chrome or Safari.
Brave claims it’s privacy focused, but there are questions over its business model and the use of cryptocurrency.
Opera has built-in adblockers and also a VPN (Virtual Private Network).
Download any of the above and you will see a noticeable difference in speed when browsing the Internet. It makes you realise how hard those spy pixels must be working…
Additionally, these browsers will tell you exactly which spy pixels are being blocked.
Apple’s desktop Safari latest update now shows you who is tracking you and block trackers by default. Safari for iPhones and iPads will follow soon. I hope. This could have a major impact on how accurate your Google Analytics coverage and demographically targeted AdWords will be given Safari’s market share.
Adblocker apps.
If you would rather use Chrome or Safari as your default browser then an ad blocking extension will block irritating ads, speed up your browser and opt you out of dodgy marketing schemes.
Adblock works across various operating systems and web browsers,
Email.
If you don’t want to be tracked, please don’t use Gmail. It may be free but there’s a reason for that…
HEY was launched this summer and is what I use. One of the best features is that it blocks spy pixels when you open email newsletters. However, you cannot use your work email yet (this feature is being rolled out in Q1 2021).
Fastmail is also a popular choice. It combines your email, calendar and contacts into one app. It has no ads and protects your data.
Maps
This one is a tricky one. Google Maps is the best map software. Each day people send in millions of updates which improves the service. Each month over 1 billion people use it sharing their location and personal information...
But there are alternatives. If you use Apple, Apple Maps is the most privacy-friendly alternative. Your data isn’t linked to your Apple ID and information is connected to random identifiers which are regularly reset.
OpenStreetMap is run by a non-profit organisation. Like Wikipedia, it is built by the people who use it. Some limited data is collected (but you don’t have to log in to use it), there are no ads and it is free.
OsmAnd uses OpenStreetMap’s data but has extra options layer on top. There are no ads but it aggregates non-personal data (although it claims it cannot identify a user).
Messaging
This is another tricky one. A lot of friends regularly use What’s App. Group chat is the most common way of communicating for a lot of people.
Press reports suggest that they are looking to integrate their three messaging services (the others being Facebook Messenger and Instagram). What’s App makes a loss for Facebook. It’s only a matter of time before it will be monetised and inevitably spy pixels for adverts will follow.
Weaning people off What’s App is going to be very difficult. But if you can manage to do it, a very good alternative is Signal. There is also Telegram but I worry that the founder’s libertarian attitudes are similar to Mark Zuckerberg’s.
You could also use trusty text messages!… (remember them?)
Photography
As Instagram places less emphasis on photos and more on shopping, it’s time to revisit Flickr. It takes me back to the excitement of Web 2.0! However, over the years Instagram slowly seeped its way in and it became my default photo sharing platform. It’s where people were and Flickr was struggling with changes of ownership and befuddled thinking.
However, it seems to be returning to what made it good in the first place. A great way to share your photos and admire what others are doing.
Video
Vimeo is a slicker, more professional alternative to YouTube.
Books
An alternative to Amazon was launched this month (November 2020) called Bookshop.
They say “Bookshop.org is an online bookshop with a mission to financially support local, independent bookshops… By design, we give away over 75% of our profit margin to stores, publications, authors and others who make up the thriving, inspirational culture around books!”
You can select your local bookshop and they will receive the full profit from any purchases.
Finally, if you have your own website:
Google Analytics is installed on most websites. It’s free because it gains unparalleled access to the individual behaviour of your website visitors. Every website that has Google Analytics tracking code needs to have a cookie banner.
But if you want to stop annoying your website visitors with cookie banners, then the best and simplest alternative is Fathom Analytics. It’s what we use on this website. It does not track individual IP addresses and it is fully GDPR complaint.
Footnote: Governments are beginning to take action.
The US Department of Justice have filed an antitrust case against Google and the EU against Amazon.
“... companies that once were scrappy, underdog start-ups that challenged the status quo have become the kinds of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons.”
From a 449-page report that was presented by the House Judiciary Committee.
