After using just about every Google product, I found it increasingly difficult to actually bring myself to move away over 10 years of my digital life from their proprietary ecosystem. Thinking about it, that really is an insane amount of data for one company to hold about you.

And, it's worth considering that age old idiom: If it's free, you are the product. So, with this in mind, I made the decision to migrate everything Google "had on me" to more privacy-focussed or open-source projects. Now, I'll acknowledge some services listed below are not 100% privacy focused, but, my experience so far has been more than enough for me.

Quick note, the only service I actively use by Google now is YouTube for obvious reasons.

“We must defend our own privacy if we expect to have any. We must come together and create systems which allow anonymous transactions to take place.” — Eric Hughes, A Cypherpunk’s Manifesto (1993)

#Google Mail → Fastmail

Arguably one of the most important services, at least to me, is my email. Now, if you're like me and have an Apple iPhone then you'll know that your phone came with a free iCloud mailbox, however, I simply didn't wish to use it, don't ask why. I don't know.

After looking around several email providers from Proton Mail to Tutanota, I eventually settled for Fastmail, mainly because of their expansive list of domains to choose from and the ability to add unlimited custom domains to one single account at no additional cost with as many Fastmail aliases and custom email aliases as you could ever need. Another reason I chose Fastmail as my email provider of choice is their seamless integration with 1Password allowing you to create unlimited privacy aliases for each account you save in 1Password at the click of a button. Having used 1Password for over 4 years now, it just added that extra little incentive to switch to Fastmail.

What really did it for me is that Fastmail isn't just your email - it also includes drive, contacts, and notes, all bundled into the same subscription. So not only did I replace my Gmail, but I also replaced Google Drive, Google Contacts, and Google Keep in one go.

I currently pay £5.40 for my Fastmail account on a 1-month recurring basis, however, I have every intention of switching to a yearly plan within the coming months. If you’re interested, you can claim 10% off for a year using my link below!

join.fastmail.com/f984c255

#Google Chrome → Helium

Before I actually decided to de-google myself, I shifted my browser from Google Chrome to Helium - an open-source Chromium based privacy-first browser created by Imput after being recommended to by one of my friends, pxseu. It comes built-in with uBlock Origin, an extension subsequently removed from Google's Chrome Web Store this last year or two. It features a built-in tracker blocker straight out of the box, with an incredibly beautiful design. Vertical tabs, bangs, and of course, open-sourced. I've been using Helium for a few months now, and I've loved the experience so far.

There's not a whole lot more to say about Helium, it does what it says on the tin, with built-in blocking for trackers, ads and more, and I'd happily recommend Helium to anyone looking for a better browsing experience.

#Google Photos → Ente

Ente is the newest addition to my stack. Ente is an open-source alternative to Google Photos, though, they also provide a subscription-based service to store your images, or "memories" as they often reference them on their servers. What I absolutely love about Ente is their end-to-end encryption and their open and honest approach to being a company. Ente publish their revenue on their website along with a few other stats that might be nice to know. When a company is this transparent with their customers, it's a great sign of trust and integrity and one of the main reasons I opted for Ente.

I did originally intend to self-host an Ente instance, but I decided against it in favor of the hosted service. Supporting open-source software is a great way to show your support for a company, and for the price, I see no issue in spending that small amount each month for their service. I'd happily recommend Ente to anyone looking for a better photo storage solution. And their branding is possibly the most adorable little duck I think I've ever seen.

At present, I currently pay £2.99 per month for my Ente subscription, giving me 50GB of memory storage on their website. If you go ahead with Ente (I highly recommend), you can claim an extra 10GB of storage completely FREE using code KIERAN

#Google Search → Kagi

This was one of my main switches. Searching is one of the things we all do on a daily basis, and we should always have a truly solid search engine that respects our privacy and gives us the results we need without any of the fluff or ads. Kagi does exactly that.

In addition to Kagi Search, you also get Kagi Translate, Kagi Assistant and Kagi Summarizer. So, when putting it all together, the price you pay for Kagi really isn't much. You might ask, well, why pay for search? and to answer your question, I'd recommend reading Kagi's answer to the question - but in my words, like I said at the beginning of this post - if it's free, you are the product. I have every intention of staying with Kagi for the foreseeable future.

I currently pay $9.99 a month for Kagi on their "Professional" plan, giving unlimited searches and $10 in Kagi Assistant credit.

#NordVPN → Obscura

NordVPN is one of the most renowned VPNs to ever surface the internet. Chances are you’ve probably been watching some of your favourite YouTubers just to hear “and this video is sponsored by NordVPN“ - I, like many others fell for this trap and signed up to Nord a while, while ago and have been using their service for over 2 years.

Now, it came as no surprise learning from friends and countless analysts that Nord wasn’t actually the best VPN on the market like it was hyped up to be and it wasn’t until my whole Degoogling fiasco that I sought to find alternatives.

I checked out a few different VPNs like Mullvad which was a very strong contender and was ultimately what I planned to switch to until Ente partnered with Obscura, a VPN which makes it literally impossible to see who you are. There’s no emails, no passwords, nothing. Just an account number and a subscription (which you can pay in crypto too for added anonymity).

What I especially like about Obscura is their double hop system - they forward your traffic via their own servers to Mullvad exit nodes (the VPN mentioned earlier) meaning they never see where your traffic goes and Mullvad never sees who you are, it’s literally built for absolute privacy and one of the main reasons I ultimately chose Obscura.

I intend to stick with them and currently pay £4.43 per month for Obscura, just a little less than Mullvad on its own.

If you’re interested in Obscura, I’d encourage you to signup using my referral link for an extra free month after your first payment 🙂

obscura.com/refer#u8yq8e

#Wrapping Up

Moving away from Google was originally something I never imagined I'd do, mainly because of how tied into their ecosystem I was, with years of my pictures and files all bundled under Google's roof.

That said, I'm not here to tell you to ditch Google entirely. Everyone's situation is different, and some of their products are great. But if you've ever felt uncomfortable about how much data one company holds about you, maybe it's worth branching out and shifting some services to different companies so you don't keep all of your eggs in one basket.

If you've made a similar switch yourself, I'd love to hear about it, let me know what you switched to, why and anything else. Be sure to contact me on any of my social media!