Divorcing Big Tech

TLDR

I’m ditching Facebook, Instagram, and other big tech platforms as much as possible. I’ll still check in there from time to time, but won’t be posting. If you want to keep in touch:

• Signal is the best place for personal, one-on-one messages.
• Social media style posts on Mastodon
• Longer posts on JesseReilly.com

The Problem

The internet is getting weirder. I mean, it’s always been a weird place - watching Salad Fingers and other creepy cartoons on NewGrounds as a teen. Or dumb memes on B3ta. The good kind of weird, where people with an idea can express themselves easily with few gatekeepers or censors. But that’s not the kind of weird I’m talking about. AI Botshit. Rampant conspiracy theories. Crypto scams. Social media that actively makes it harder to see the things my friends have posted. Websites so full of adverts and trackers that they barely pass as usable.

There are lots of names for what’s going on here. Cory Doctorow talks about enshitification - where companies are first good to their users and business customers, but slowly claw that value back as they increase profits for themselves, while making their platforms as barely usable as possible. It’s okay if the platform is shit, so long as it’s not quite shitty enough for you to leave. Or Ed Zitron talks about the Rot Economy - where companies scrape every last dollar from a their users, with little regard for whether their service is actually enjoyable to use or useful long-term.

Making the move

I’ve been switching out my digital services over the past 12 months. Sometimes easy, sometimes painful, but the results accumulate. I’m seeing less adverts. I’m exposed to less clickbait and misinformation and rage porn. I’m able to search the internet for the results I want, rather than the results most profitable to advertisers. And, beyond the tangible benefits, I enjoy knowing the money I spend is going to small companies and quality providers, rather than into the pockets of Zuck, Musk, Bezos et. al.

It’s not perfect. But like a divorce, you can’t always avoid spending time with someone who you were previously so enmeshed with.

What To Look For

Look for companies that use open protocols and open source software. It’s harder to lock you in when you have a blueprint with all the exits clearly marked. If things go bad, you can usually export your data from these services and migrate somewhere else easily.

Look for services run by non-profits, or at the very least are privately owned. Companies that are publicly traded, venture backed, or owned by private equity investors will more often than not chase short term profits over the interests of their users.

Pay for services directly, or use services supported by donations. There’s the saying “if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product”. When you use Facebook and Google and Gmail for free, the tradeoff is having your personal information harvested and sold to the highest bidder. When you pay for search or email, you get exactly what you pay for - nothing more, nothing less. This is a luxury for people who have the means to afford it. For a lot of people, this may not always be possible.

Use products and services with explicit commitments to privacy. Opt for those that cannot share your personal details or access your data, even if they wanted to.

Recommendations

Web Browser

Google Chrome is full of trackers. It regularly sends information about what you search for and the websites you visit back to Google, which uses that information to show you targeted adverts. Arc uses the same software under the hood, but without the tracking built in. It takes a little while to get used to the interface and some other features, like auto-archiving tabs that have been inactive for 24 hours. But after a while it feels much cleaner and more clutter free than Chrome.

Ad blocker

Using the internet without an ad blocker is insane. The difference is night and day - websites that are slow to load and full of distractions are suddenly usable again once you remove the bloat from adverts and trackers. uBlock Origin is the best ad blocker that I’ve come across. It’s free, only takes a few minutes to install, and works with most desktop web browsers. For mobile, Arc Search has an ad blocker built in.

Messaging

Signal is a messaging app similar to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Unlike these apps, the organisation is owned by a non-profit and has an impeccable record when it comes to user privacy.

Email, Calendar, File Storage

Proton is a privacy focused email and cloud service provider. This was probably the most painful thing to switch, and it’s an ongoing process - I’m still getting the occasional email to my old address. But, the pain of switching and the small monthly cost is worth it. Proton is an independent company that focuses on email, file storage, and privacy. Short of running your own email server, they’re the best privacy-focussed option if you’re concerned about your data being sold to advertisers, or handed over to law enforcement. They offer free 1GB email accounts, but most users will need to upgrade for extra storage.

Password Manager

Bitwarden is a free, open-source password manager. Websites and businesses are hacked regularly, and different websites have different password requirements. Re-using the same password is a bad idea, but it’s impossible to remember a different password for every website. But with Bitwarden, you only have to remember one strong, hard to guess password, and Bitwarden stores your other passwords and enters them automatically for the websites you visit. There are commercial password managers out there, but Bitwarden is free, robust, and works on most devices.

Social Media

Mastodon is a social network, similar to Twitter or Bluesky (i.e short text posts). But unlike these platforms, Mastodon is de-centralised, open-source, and volunteer-run. You see posts the posts that you want to see, rather than those chosen by an opaque algorithm. The de-centralised infrastructure means the service isn’t beholden to the interests of shareholders and investors. It also empowers moderators to create spaces worth spending time in. Don’t want to be flooded with conspiracy theories and bullshit? Find a server that actively blocks accounts and other servers known to spread misinformation.

Search

Kagi is a paid search engine. Rather than making money by showing you adverts, Kagi charges a flat monthly fee. Because you’re paying directly for the service, it’s in their best interest to show you search results most relevant and useful to you, rather than results that their sponsors want you to see. It is a luxury, but if you spend your working hours in front of a computer it’s one worth shelling out for.

Other bits

If you must keep using Facebook, browser extensions like F.B. Purity help remove the junk so you see more of your friends posts, without the adverts, sponsored content and other BS.