People are more and more interested in their privacy and alternatives to free services. We start to wonder how come all those online services are actually free when in real life we have to pay for everything. That's why this article was created - it describes the most common alternatives to free services.
The general rule is that the less we pay for products, the more we are products ourselves. In practice, this means that we pay with our privacy. This also means that the more we are tracked and our activities are recorded for "further use". However, we can also get less upset when something is not to our liking. After all, we do not pay for this service. Then it is difficult to claim justice, privacy or anything else. The only thing we can do about it is to vote in the Crystal Magnifier in the anti-price category. That's about it. (https://kristalova.lupa.cz/2021/vysledky/, 5th - 7th place - Non-functional Facebook user support in the Czech Republic).
I met several people whose FB or Google account was deleted or temporarily blocked out of nowhere. If you have such an account just for fun, then nothing much is happening. But if it's your company's profile or you use gmail, google calendar and google drive to manage your business, then you probably won't enjoy it much. The frustration that you have nowhere to turn to and who to deal with is then devastating. As you already know from the text above, FB does not have functional user support in the Czech Republic. Google isn't much better. You can basically only contact both companies via a web form with a classic message that someone will get back to you. Sometimes.
The solution is to pay
Hand on heart - do you want to pay for e-mail for example 4 euros per month? No? So you see. Here is a buried dog. I know, I do There is no charge for email these days. It's such an automatic thing. Gmail is for free! And if you book, for example, accommodation, it will be written directly into your calendar. Well, isn't it divine? Maybe you don't care about privacy that much. There are people who deal with it and there are people who don't. We all have our own opinion and perspective. And that's okay. Perhaps you take one of the frequent approaches – let Google do the math, I don't have anything secret there anyway, that's your business too. Feel free to continue using the options you have. Why not.
However, if you want to pay, you care about online privacy and you don't mind spying on your inbox (yes, Google reads your emails and you gave it explicit permission to do so during registration), then Proton mail will be an obvious choice. It also has a calendar and a VPN. All encrypted. You will only have to pay the 4 euros per month. You can find it here: https://protonmail.com/cs/
Encryption is great and secure. It means no one can access your content. But it also means that if you forget the password, you won't be able to access the content either. The customer line will make the mailbox available to you after verifying account ownership, but you will no longer be able to access historical data (emails, etc.).
We are starting to care about privacy
Privacy and data collection companies are also beginning to solve and invent various solutions for anonymity. It's about providing it for you or at least showing what kind of information is stored about you. Most often, you can find similar things, for example, in iOS from Apple. Specifically, for example, as a security label in the AppStore. The one for you reveals what data and information about you a particular application collects. Below is an example of how much information Gmail collects about you and how much Spark collects. You may notice that Gmail "listens" quite a lot and does not need all the details to receive and send emails. Spark can also receive and send emails like Gmail, but it "needs" much less information about you and your behavior.
Another example of the fight against the collection of data about our activities can be the "Request not to track applications" in iOS 15 on Apple products. When you open the application, you can decide if you want to be tracked and thus receive tailored offers, or if you do not want to be tracked at all. But the price for this will be that the displayed advertisement may not be relevant. In short, you will see a yogurt promotion even if you don't eat yogurt at all.
If you're looking for alternatives to free services, below is an overview of the most common options for five services:
- Browser
- Search engine
- Communicator
- File storage
And that in up to four variants:
- Free Standard – You are registered in the service and all your activity is tracked and saved.
- Reasonable compromise - You pay something for the service, so you have a right to some level of privacy.
- Safe solution - You are anonymous and the service does not track you.
- For connoisseurs – Geek alternative for connoisseurs.
I wish you a lucky hand in choosing.
With email, you need to make a distinction if you are talking about an application in which you manage emails or a provider where you have a registered email box.
Free
Provider – Gmail, List
Application - Gmail
A reasonable compromise
Provider - Microsoft account for me can be such a golden middle ground if you want to leave Gmail. You pay something for the service, so you are guaranteed some privacy. You can also associate your own domain with your email (e.g. @lukasbarda.cz).
Applications - Outlook (https://www.microsoft.com/cs-cz/microsoft-365/outlook-mobile-for-android-and-ios)
A safe solution
Provider – Proton mail (https://protonmail.com/cs/) – You pay for email and Proton mail is based on security and encryption. You can also associate your own domain with your email (e.g. @lukasbarda.cz).
Application - Spark (https://sparkmailapp.com/)
Browser
Free
Chrome (https://www.google.com/intl/cs_CZ/chrome/)
A reasonable compromise
Edge (https://www.microsoft.com/cs-cz/edge)
Safari (https://www.apple.com/safari/)
Firefox (https://www.mozilla.org/cs/firefox/new/)
A safe solution
Vivaldi (https://vivaldi.com/cs/)
Brave (https://brave.com/)
For connoisseurs
Tor browser (https://www.torproject.org/)
Search engine
Free
Google (https://www.google.com/)
An alternative from Microsoft
Bing (https://www.bing.com/)
A safe solution
Duck Duck Go (https://duckduckgo.com/)
Communicator (Instant messaging)
Free
Google Chat (https://chat.google.com/)
WhatsApp (https://www.whatsapp.com/?lang=cs)
Facebook Messenger (https://messenger.com/)
Instagram Direct Messages (https://www.instagram.com/)
LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/)
Reasonable compromise (More for team / company communication)
Microsoft Teams (https://www.microsoft.com/cs-cz/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software)
Slack (https://slack.com/)
A safe solution
SMS and iMessages - Remember that technology called SMS? Your parents used it. It still works. And combined with iMessages (between iPhones), it can also transfer photos, audio messages and all the other things you're used to with WhatsApp.
Signal (https://signal.org/cs/) – For me, the obvious choice if you want to get away from WhatsApp and Messenger and don't want to buy yourself and everyone you communicate with an iPhone for iMessages.
Telegram (https://telegram.org/) – Alternative to Signal.
Data storage
Free
google drive (https://drive.google.com/)
A reasonable compromise
paid Google Drive (https://drive.google.com/)
A safe solution
One Drive (https://www.microsoft.com/cs-cz/microsoft-365/onedrive/online-cloud-storage)
Dropbox (https://www.dropbox.com/)
Mega.io (https://mega.io/)
Almost everyone collects data
But be careful. Even if you buy a license from Microsoft, it does not mean 100% anonymity. Basically everyone collects data. At least the anonymized and for analytical purposes. Whatever that means. In practice, the given company does not see the content of the messages and what you are writing to whom. They still see the fact that you are texting with someone.
Of course, there are many more options and providers. Missing something you use? Let me know at jsem@lukasbarda.cz
Do you enjoy this article? You can find more articles and guides to life with technology here: https://lukasbarda.cz/blog/
