I have been thinking more about just how much control Big Tech companies have over pretty much everything online. From search engines to social platforms to cloud storage, it feels such as there’s barely any digital space left untouched. I know this topic’s been around for a while but it’s been hitting me harder recently.
Also I have started digging into alternatives & I am also exploring more decentralized and privacy-respecting tools.
While I was researching, I stumbled on a lot of discussions around AI too such as What is Generative AI and how these models are being driven by or built for, Big Tech platforms. Makes you wonder who’s really steering the future of the internet.
I am on a similar search myself. I posted a related thread a few weeks ago. (Experiences with minimalist technology groups) I’d respond more but I’m leaving soon for the weekend. Best of luck on what you are able to find/discover!
i can certainly understand why you might see the problem of Big Tech as being kind of overwhelming
there’s at least several agendas in play and they are all linked - government surveillance, surveillance capitalism and the manipulation of social behavior are 3 of the problems most/many of see right off the bat
i think it’s crucial to understand that the problem is not limited to the technology sector however, rather the tech sector is being used as a tool to control what people think and how they behave and many of those wielding that tool have little or no technical background
in my case, i don’t use any mainstream social media, i no longer use cell phones, all the appliances in my home are “dumb”, my “network”, which consists of a desktop and a router basically, is hard-wired and in the not too distant future i plan on disconnecting from “the grid” as much as possible (cities will become places to avoid, if they’re not already)
as for my OS of choice, there is no choice other than to ditch Windows or any other proprietary OS and that leaves a Linux-based OS as the most viable choice in my opinion, though BSD seems to be the better choice if you can live with its technical requirements and limitations
i also administer my own website which gives me control over my content - i wish a lot more people did the same rather than relying on social media
there are of course inconveniences to my choices, but the advantages and piece of mind outweigh them, at least for me
there’s tons of resources for you to explore regarding Big Tech ecosystem alternatives, some of which i list in the altTech web directory (if you have any to suggest, feel free) - you may also find some helpful information in the tech category on 12bytes.org which will lead you to many other resources
What gets me is how many layers deep, especially Google goes. They control most of search, plus your browser, plus any web page with their ad network ads, plus Android which pinpoints your location, plus Gmail, plus maps and on and on. All reporting on you to the Google Mothership. It’s like trying to untie the Gordian Knot.
And that’s just Google. All the others, plus your cell phone ISP, your smart TV are doing it too just not quite as deep. Big Tech is endless.
glad you mentioned gmail - that’s a “service” that no one should be using and one that is easily replaced
it annoys me to no end that users of gmail, who don’t care about privacy, force me so sacrifice mine when they communicate with me
i use runbox.com, based in Norway, which i think is a good service - the price is dirt cheap ($30/yr.) and their service and support has been very good - there are better services out there depending on your threat profile, but runbox is a solid choice for general communications in my opinion
proton is hugely popular and does E2EE as long as you use their web interface, but i want control over my mail and so i need to store it locally and dump the copies on the server as i download mail
another one is lavabit which some folks might recall was used by Snowden and when the U.S. gov tried to force Levinson to turn over the encryption keys to grab Snowden’s mail, he nuked the service instead, so i got a lot of respect for the man - he’s since rebuilt lavabit and apparently made it so that he no longer has any keys to turn over, but again, i believe one must use the web UI to realize the full security of the system
riseup is the only service i’m aware of that claims to respect privacy and provides free mail, along with some other services, but personally i am very weary of this Seattle based collective with a strong political leaning
