Ladies and Gentlemen,

BLUF: Produce a one-stop-shop for alternatives to our tech giant overlords. (the low hanging fruit). Keep the suggestions and modifications coming!

This thread is not about doing the heavy lifting and research on a particular platform (add to a thread that already exists or start a new thread).
If a particular alternative is in question, I will annotate it and possibly remove it (this is expected as things develop).
Nothing will provide 100% security or be free. I will try to make things as transparent as possible if a particular platform comes with caveats (ie. made in china, donated to XYZ organization, Supports XYZ cause).
This is not a guilt trip. You or your SO might not give up FB or Insta. That is ok; all I ask is to try.

What I need your help on:
1. Recommend major areas that should have focus (Phones, Browsers, VPN, Online ordering services, Social medial, Video hosting).
2. Reply with links to threads. I will update the OP accordingly. This will help members become knowledgeable about a particular platform. It will also assist in the vetting process.


Video Hosting and Sharing- Avoid: YouTube
Alternative:
a. Rumble
b. Full30
c. Odysee or Lbry.TV
d. DTube
e. Bitchute
f. Gab TV
g. Ugetube
***Use nitter.net and invidious (list of instances at https://github.com/iv-org/documentation/blob/master/Invidious-Instances.md) when you want to link to twitter or youtube content, without sending traffic to them.  You can get a browser plugin like yt2invido (https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/374833-yt2invidio/discussions/34656) to convert links in your browser automatically. (suggested on pg2 of this thread)



Smartphone- Avoid: Apple , Android
Alternative:
a. Pinephone (link)
b. Gab Phone (pending release) (link)
c. Librem phone

Smart Phone in general- Avoid:
Alternative: (link)
a. Signal Secure Messanger
b. Blockada 5 Add Blocker
c. Duck Duck Go app and firefox plugin
d. telegram.org Messenger for phones and computers.

iOS Specific (link)
a. Place holder  
b. Place holder  
c. Place holder  

Android Specific (link)
a. F-Droid
b. GrapheneOS More secure operating system* (video)
c. lineageOS

Social Medial- Avoid: Facebook (link), Twitter, Youtube
Alternative:
a. Parler ***
b. Gab
c. Diaspora
d. Minds
e. MeWe (link)
f. Connectzing
g. WIMKIN
h. Spreely
i. PixelFed
j. Retrica
k. YouMeU.com (Link) Owned by a ARF member?

Messenger apps (some work on both phone and desktop Mac/PC)
a. Telegram Messenger for phones and computers.
b. Element


Web Browser- Avoid: Google, Firefox
Alternative:
a. Brave
b. Privacy Browser
c. Fennec
d. Tor Browser
e. Dissenter Browser
f. opera.com ** has VPN built-in but might run slow. Might support shady organization. More DD needed.
g. Zero Net "for really decentralized services"... should the be its own category?

Search Engine- Avoid: Google
Alternative:
a. duckduckgo *** Might sell you data
b. Startpage (uses Google, but keeps the user anonymous, insulated from ads, tracking, and data mining)
c. Startpage
d. Qwant (need more info please


Email Provider- Avoid: Gmail
Alternative: (link)
a. ProtonMail
b. GMX
c. Tutanota
d. FastMail
e. PrivateMail
f. Posteo
g. Mailbox.org
h. Mailfence

Online Ordering Services- Avoid: Amazon (Link) (link)
Alternative:
a. Place holder
b. Place holder
c. Place holder

VPN
Alternative: (link) (Team link)
a. ProtonVPN
b. SurfShark
c. Nord VPN
d. ExpressVPN
e. Private I nternet Access

Maps/navigation- Avoid: Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze
Alternative:
a. PocketMaps
b. OsmAnd+
c. HEREwego
d. MapFactor Navigator

Streaming- Avoid: Netflix
Alternative:
a. Klowdtv ^Free
b. Roku Channel ^Free
c. Pluto.tv ^Free
d. Crackle ^Free
e. PopcornFlix ^Free
f. Fawsome.tv ^Free
g. Hoopla ^{Free with Library Card}

Photo Hosting- Avoid: Google Photo
Alternative:
a. Dropbox Not ideal?*
b. Onedrive Not ideal?*

Web Page Hosting Domains- Avoid: Godaddy, Enom, Namecheap, Google, Amazon
Alternative: (link)
a. Bluehost
b. Namecheap ** discussed in above link
c. Digitalocean
d. Joomla
e. Epik *might have caved to pressure in the past
f. Flywheel
g. Pair
h. Cloudflare
i. Enomcentral

Operating System- Avoid:
Alternative:
a. Linux/Unix

Calendar
a. GMX Organizer

Learning Resources:  
eff.org
Privacytools
Rob Braxman Tech
The Hated One



Thank you to @Cobalt-60 for doing a lot of the heavy lifting in this thread.

I encourage someone that is more crafty than I to assume responsibilities for this thread. I'll give it a shot for now and make it the "Unofficial" thread. With enough traction, it can be the Official thread.

This is needed right now

I received an email from Gab this morning that they will soon be releasing their very own "Gab Phone" as an alternative to Android and iOS devices.

You should point out what the purpose of this list is, if it's security then you could be leading people astray.  Telling people to use phone or browser X and then they'll be secure is dangerous.

Need to add Odysee for video

https://odysee.com/

Noted. Do you have a suggestion?( not being sarcastic) Right now this is more of a vote with your dollars while having a security mindset.

Subscribed

I don't, unfortunately, but a list for voting with your dollars is still important.  If nothing else, just state plainly somewhere that none of these things are a silver bullet and people need to act accordingly.

Thank you. That better articulates what I tried to say with “there is no 100% solution”.

I've gone down the de-Google path (albeit not fully de-Googled). I found this website to be helpful with alternatives.

https://privacytools.io/

I will say ProtonMail and ProtonVPN have been fantastic from my experience with them.

+1

And I'll add some more from the EFF

eff.org

Need to put duckduckgo.com under search engines

What about maps/navigation?

Am I "supporting" Apple if I use Apple Maps? Same question for Google Map.

Is Waze a better choice?

Tagged like a mo-fo

Can you pull elements out of that website that apply to the individual subcategory please? Provide the “so what” ... the “why”

We want to limit traffic/use from these places. 100% elimination is not a reasonable goal with any of this. I am looking for a better way to articulate that.


This thread is not here to promote a guilty conscious if you do use a resource that is marked as "avoided".

Edit- alternatives that are low hanging fruits. Is that a good way to put it?

You can find a list here.

Great! That does a lot of the heavy lifting for social media!!!

I've been happy with GMX mail.

Why? And do you have a link where  it has been discussed before?

(This is the content I will use for the Links that currently do not have hyperlinks)

Waze was purchased by Google.

Thank you for doing this!

Is it possible to pin this thread? I know we can all bookmark it but I want our opposition to see this when they come here.

Maps/Nav has been my biggest holdout.  If there's a mobile app that works well I'll happily ditch google.

I like it because it is free and not associated with Google or Apple.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMX_Mail

I'm willing to hear why it sucks though.

Making a lot of updates. I would like your input (links to threads) where members discuss a particular alternative.

I will also make edits to the main description.

bump

Need your support with recommended threads to link. This helps people make more informed decisions.

I switched to Brave with my home browser and duckduckgo for my iPhone browser. Both seem to work well and have been a seamless transition.

I may reorganize the list to put proven alternatives to the top. I will need additional input from the site to better curate, however.

Dissenter Browser

It's by the folks that made Gab.

Gab TV

YouTube alternative from the same Gab folks.

Added. Thank you!

These interest me.  Which is the best option for personal use?  Proton has piqued my interest but wonder if another is a better choice?

Email Provider- Avoid: Gmail(Link)
Alternative:
a. ProtonMail (link) (link)
b. GMX (link) (link)
c. Tutanota (link) (link)
d. FastMail (link) (link)
e. PrivateMail (link) (link)
f. Posteo (link) (link)
g. Mailbox.org (link) (link)

Duck duck go also has a browser.  It's what I am using.

Mobile browser yes.  Do they have a desktop browser as well?

Good question. I don't have a home PC.

I do not think so.



Making a few updates to the format. I want to provide links to aid people with their research on what platform might work best for them... the pros and cons. Input needed!

free bump for the OP

https://www.startpage.com/


Startpage as a seach engine alternative to Google.  It uses Google, but keeps the user anonymous, insulated from ads, tracking, and data mining.

I plan to do another update today. Make some links to threads that talk about the platform. Open to new/better/diffrent ideas.

I made the change away from Google Chrome and have been very happy thus far. Brave on my PC and duckduckgo as my iOS browser. Shocked to see how much more data it block... I even ran add blocker on chrome.

Tag

Thanks, OP

Is this not real yet, folks?

I welcome input so I can update the OP. Your clicks = data = money. Stop feeding the beast.

For Android Specific:

F-Droid

Android Apps that are free and open source.  No trackers, no Google.

A good place to start to de-Google your phone.

OST

Added. Thank you!

I think iOS is gonna be a little harder to flesh out.

Looking for an Amazon alternative. Anyone has success with a particular site that is not Wish.com?

Need suggestions for photo hosting. Added Dropbox and One Drive but I am not sure either is a good alternative.

doesnt waze app just piggyback off of googlemaps?

anybody know much about ungoogled chromium browser? i use it and like it so far, combined with uBlock extension to blocks ads.  has the appearance of chrome, but is it completely separate from google?

Need some help filtering domains/ web hosting list.

Does anyone know how secure Outlook email is? Should someone using Outlook make the switch to Proton?

I just closed my amazon account.

Smartphone:

Librem phone (non-google OS, hardware kill switches)

Search Engine:

Startpage

Video Hosting and Sharing:

Ugetube

Maps/Navigation:

MapFactor Navigator (no data connection needed after installing maps)

Operating System:

Linux/Unix

https://linuxmint.com/

IF YOU MUST RUN ANDROID/GOOGLE, Blockada 5 will get rid of a lot of the crap. Haven't seen an ad since installing it.

Blockada 5


(These are in addition to, not instead of, items in OP's list)

EDIT: Didn't see where you wanted links...fixt