You don’t have to be a computer expert, or give everything up, to reduce the amount of data you hand over to the big tech companies. It’s enough to swap a few everyday tools for ones that don’t make their money by tracking you. Below are four websites that take you by the hand, along with a short note about phones.

Where to start

privacytools.io is probably the best starting point for a non-expert. You pick an app you use today (Chrome, Gmail, Google Drive, WhatsApp), and the site shows you private replacements that actually work. There’s also a ready-made “starter kit”: a browser, a search engine, a messenger and a password manager. The editors have been reviewing tools since 2015 and favour open-source software that has been independently audited.

switching.software works in a similar way, only simpler and without the technical jargon. You click on a product (Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Adobe…) and get ethical, easy-to-use alternatives. Good for someone who just wants one particular replacement without digging into the details.

alternativeto.net is a broader database – not only about privacy, but about software replacements in general. You can filter the results by what’s free or open-source, and see what other users recommend. Handy when you’re looking for a replacement for a specific program that isn’t on the two previous lists.

veracrypt.io is a specific tool now, not a catalogue. It’s used to encrypt files and whole drives – the contents become unreadable without a password. Free, open-source, with no back doors, unlike Microsoft’s BitLocker, which is accused of having such loopholes. Worth a look if you keep something on your computer that should stay yours alone.

What about your phone?

The operating system on your phone can be the biggest source of data of all. Apple and Google have done heroic work to make sure your phone gives them access to your data (you can block some of it, but there are a mass of mechanisms that simply can’t be blocked).

On some Android devices you can install systems stripped of factory tracking – LineageOS (a cleaner Android without Google services) or GrapheneOS (heavily focused on security, runs on Pixel phones). To give the full picture: this isn’t something everyone can do, and besides, some apps (banking ones, for example) are built in such a way that they need Google services to run. There are ways around it, but it’s a fair bit of hassle.

Finally

The point isn’t full anonymity, because no such thing exists. The point is to swap one piece at a time and win back some of the control we gave away without thinking. Even changing just your browser (from Chrome or Edge to Firefox or Floorp) and your search engine (from Google or Bing to Startpage or Qwant) already makes a noticeable difference.