SPECIAL Informat.ro / How to bypass Google, Meta, Amazon (Big Tech): digital survival guide

Most of us use the same tools daily: Google for searches, Gmail, Instagram, and Facebook for socializing, Amazon for shopping, Apple or Android for phones. It seems normal, as they have become the de facto standard, but the invisible price is huge: personal data collected permanently, detailed profiling, and a dependence on a few giant companies that are far from European regulations.

A new wave of articles and projects – from The Guardian's guide on how to replace Amazon, Google, X, Meta, or Apple, to RESET.org analyses and lists of European services made by Plausible or European Purpose – are trying to translate this problem into concrete solutions, aimed at the average user. The underlying message is simple: you don’t have to break ties with Big Tech overnight, but you can start to gradually regain pieces of digital privacy, step by step.

Why should you care about where the services you use come from

For a long time, the discussion about "privacy" seemed abstract: complicated settings, legal terms, scandals we only encounter in the news. Recent articles change the perspective and translate it into a common-sense question: do you want your search history, location, contacts, and consumption habits to be used to build an extremely detailed profile about you, which can be sold or accessed by third parties?

"Free" services generally live off this data. European alternatives try to reverse the logic: they offer you services for which you pay a subscription or support indirectly (for example, through a donation model or environmental projects), in exchange for minimal data collection and strict rules imposed by GDPR.

RESET.org shows that the fact that a service is headquartered and has servers in Europe is not a technical detail, but a guarantee that you can call on authorities and that there are real penalties if the company abuses your data. European Purpose, a hub that gathers such alternatives, goes even further: it promises "European digital sovereignty", meaning services that comply with European law and do not fall under more aggressive surveillance rules, like those in the US.

First steps: email and search engine

If you want to make a real change without complicating your life, most guides recommend starting with two things: your email address and your search engine. Email is the key to almost all your online accounts, and search is your gateway to the rest of the internet.

In terms of email, The Guardian points to Proton Mail and Tuta as much more privacy-friendly alternatives than Gmail or Outlook. Proton, based in Switzerland, puts encryption at the center of its service and already offers simple migration tools, including message import and automatic redirect from your old address. Tuta, a German company, also focuses on strong encryption and a "zero ads, zero tracking" policy, which has earned it a good position in the rankings of a publication like Ethical Consumer.

A detailed guide published by Tuta – "DeGoogle list" – explains, in layman's terms, why it’s better for your email provider not to live off ads based on the content of messages and what it concretely means not to keep detailed logs of who, when, and where connected. Communities like r/degoogle complement this with lists of technical alternatives and practical tips on how to make the switch without losing contacts or archives.

At the search level, the list of European options is already rich: Qwant (France), Ecosia (Germany), or Mojeek (UK) promise not to create individual profiles and not to track users from site to site. An article by Proton summarizes the argument: results can be just as good in the vast majority of cases, but your history is not used to "know" you obsessively and serve you ultra-personalized ads.

Practically, the change can be gradual:

you keep your Gmail account as an "old address", but you create a new, more private one on Proton or Tuta; you set up forwarding and gradually tell your contacts to use the new address. You set Qwant, Ecosia, or another alternative search engine as the default in your browser and use Google only occasionally when you can’t find what you want.

The rest of the ecosystem: cloud, video conferencing, analytics

Once you’ve taken the first steps, you can continue with the services you use at work or for personal projects: cloud storage, documents, video conferencing, website traffic measurement tools.

An article by Plausible, a European analytics service, proposes a "handpicked" list of privacy-oriented tools designed for businesses but also useful for advanced users:

Nextcloud or Tresorit for cloud storage and collaboration, instead of Google Drive or Dropbox, with a focus on control over data and, in the case of Nextcloud, the possibility of self-hosting your server.

Whereby for video conferencing, instead of Zoom or Google Meet, with servers in Europe and strict privacy rules.

Plausible Analytics or Piwik PRO for website statistics, as an alternative to Google Analytics, without invasive cookies and without personal data collection.

Another practical guide, published by ClickMeeting, makes exactly this type of comparison: for each major American service, it proposes one or two European alternatives, from office suites to online forms and payment processors. The central idea is to reduce, over time, dependence on a single ecosystem, so that you can change providers when you are no longer satisfied with how they handle your data.

You don’t have to be a "tech nerd" to start the change

Perhaps the most important common conclusion of these materials is that a partial exit from the Big Tech ecosystem is not reserved for IT specialists. The guides are becoming increasingly accessible, the applications look familiar, and migration is often done with just a few clicks and a monthly subscription that costs as much as two coffees in a café.

Of course, there are limits: your phone may still run Android, even if you install more private applications; you won’t be able to convince all your friends to give up WhatsApp; and platforms like YouTube or Instagram still have a clear advantage in content and community. But that doesn’t mean you can’t regain control in pieces: email, search, cloud, and work tools can be gradually moved to providers that live off what you pay, not from what they know about you.

In the long run, as more consumers make these choices, the pressure on major platforms to change their practices increases, and the ecosystem of European alternatives strengthens. For the average person, the first step is not to "leave the internet", but to ask a simple question for each service used: do I really want to pay with my data, or do I prefer to pay transparently for my digital peace of mind?

Material created with the support of Perplexity