Submitted for your approval: an internet where your search results provide you with the information you requested, without propaganda or purchased ads skewing or polluting your results. On this internet, your email isn't scanned by algorithms that follow you around the web. Your browsing is secure and free of trackers. It is an internet where, one by one, revenue streams to hostile tech giants like Google reduce to a trickle before they finally dry up.
This is not "The Twilight Zone." This is something I have done as much as living in a connected world will allow — and you can do it, too.
Google is so big and so pervasive that your consumer veto no longer works. If you're on the internet, you are a source of revenue whether you choose to do business with them or not.
A few years ago, it was my sad duty to inform you that it's actually impossible to completely remove Google from your life. A tech writer named Kashmir Hill wanted to see what would happen if she completely blocked Google from all of her devices. So in addition to giving up all of Google's services and apps, she had a friend create a custom VPN that would block all of Google’s 8,699,648 (!) IP addresses.
It broke her internet. She couldn't hail an Uber (they rely on Google Maps), her smart devices stopped working (they use Google's backend), sites wouldn't load without Google Fonts or Google Pay, no photos on Airbnb — and so much more.
But just because we can't do every little thing doesn't mean we can't do a few big things.
The first step is giving up your Android phone, which is spyware dressed up in some shiny hardware. I know not everyone likes Apple — I have issues with them, believe me — but the company is serious about privacy. Digital investigators found some shocking data a while back. An Android phone uploads about a gigabyte of your private data — using the bandwidth you pay for! — to Google's servers each and every month. An iPhone uploads a tiny fraction of that — a few hundred kilobytes — which consists almost entirely of location data required to make your phone work, access weather data, and the like.
When it comes to software, fortunately, you have many more options.
The DuckDuckGo browser is built with privacy in mind, probably even more so than Apple's Safari browser — which already has tons of privacy control built in. Brave and Tor are also worth your consideration.
You're also going to have to give up your Gmail. I can't recommend highly enough using a hosting service like Hosting Matters to handle your email. Starting at $6 a month, you can own your own domain and get 30 email addresses — probably more than enough for your entire family. I have their most expensive plan — $11 a month — which includes unlimited bandwidth and 1,000 email addresses. By the way, they've charged me the same $11 since I first went with them 22 years ago.
If you want to go super-hardcore with protecting your email, Proton Mail is end-to-end encrypted. I've thought about signing up but the folks at Hosting Matters are so great that I doubt I'll ever leave.
No privacy regime is complete without a VPN to give you near-total protection from Google's everpresent trackers. I've been very happy for about six months now with AdGuard VPN. One subscription (at $2.99 for two years) will allow you to hook up ten devices (PC, Mac, Android, iPhone, whatever) with unlimited bandwidth and no speed throttling. They have enough servers around the world that I've always had a fast connection, no matter where I am. In addition to protecting you from Google's prying eyes, AdGuard does not keep any records of your internet usage.
If you're looking for something cheaper, Apple has a very good VPN service for iCloud customers called Private Relay. My only complaint is that it isn't compatible for some reason with my Starlink router, which is why I looked elsewhere and found AdGuard. At least in theory, Private Relay's double-blind system is even more private than a traditional VPN, assuming it works for you. It didn't for me, but your mileage may vary.
Stop using Google Drive and start using Nordlocker or Tresorit. For God's sake, don't use Google Photos. You've uploaded your entire life to them and, yes, they scan and analyze every single photo. The iCloud Photo Library comes with your iPhone or Mac and is private. It costs a little, but so do the other alternatives — all of which are preferable to Google.
I mean, not Facebook or Instagram — but you knew that already. Remember, if the product or service is free, then YOU are the product or service.
There are so many alternatives to Google's office apps that I couldn't begin to pick them out for you. Try a few out, stick with what you like.
Now we get to the biggie: search.
I've tried all the alternative search engines, and the best you can say about them is that at least they're anonymous. But a search engine like DuckDuckGo — which is just a private front-end for Microsoft's Bing — is still just as biased and cluttered with paid promotions as the engine it sits atop.
I was recently introduced to the Kagi search engine, and I think I'm in love. Search is private, fast, and ad-free — you get to choose its biases. You can tell it to block results from sites you don't trust and promote results from sites you do trust. Best for my purposes, there's a “Small Web” lens that limits results to smaller sites like blogs and forums that Google would rather you not even know exist.
Of course, there's a catch. Even limited searching requires you to create an account, and unlimited search costs $10 a month.
Here's the thing. We've gotten too used to all of these free services that Google provides, then we scream bloody murder — as we should — when Google abuses us precisely because they know they can get away with it. People will put up with a whole lot of gruff to get a little free stuff.
But we conservatives are supposed to believe in capitalism, aren't we? When somebody builds a better mousetrap, do we expect them to just give it to us?
So when my free trial period ends on Kagi, I'm going to pony up the $10 and make my divorce from Google as complete as can be. There are even extensions to make Kagi your default search engine, even though Google (and Apple, who is paid handsomely by Google to make it Apple's default) doesn't want you to.
Recommended: I Know How to Fix Our Political System. Hear Me Out.
P.S. Thank you for your continued VIP or VIP Gold membership. Becoming a PJ Media/Townhall member is one way to get out from under Big Tech's thumb and I hope I've provided you with some useful other ways.
