Rod's Web Info: Privacy Resources

Naomi Brockwell is an expert on computer and online privacy. She has lots of Youtube videos on using various software and hardware tools to increase privacy in a world with increasing violations by governments and corporations. Start with her Privacy 101 video.. Liron Segev also has many useful videos on protecting your privacy.

Note that the one of the reasons stated below for not using a particular service or tool is because they "collect user data." The companies say that they do this for innocuous reasons like improving service, but they can also be collecting private data and possibly selling it.

SERVICE or TOOL	DON'T USE	REASON	DO USE
Operating System	Windows & MacOS	Collect user data	Linux
Browser	Chrome or Edge	Collect user data	Tor, Brave or Firefox
Search Engine	Google	Collect user data	Qwant
Email	Gmail or Hotmail	Collect user data	Proton
Calendar	Google	Collect user data	Proton
VPN	Nord, Express & *all* others	Collects user data	Proton
Off-site Storage	Google or Dropbox	Not encrypted	Proton or pCloud
Photo Backup	Google, Amazon or Dropbox	Not encrypted	Proton
Messaging	SMS, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat	Not encrypted & Collect user data	Signal*
Video Chat	Zoom or Skype	Not encrypted	Brave Talk
Map	Google Maps	Collect user data	Qwant Maps
Productivity Suite	Microsoft Office	Collect user data	LibreOffice

* - Signal is the best so far (Edward Snowden uses it) but a few more recent providers are Session, Theema and Wire. See Naomi Brockwell's video here discussing these options.

If you do use Windows, check out this page of mine outlining changes to Windows settings to increase privacy.