Privacidad Cinco redes sociales alternativas para escapar de los tentáculos de Facebook

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pilou12

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Montse Hidalgo Pérez
Son más pequeñas, no se ha hecho una peli sobre ellas y no se van a hacer de oro con tus datos

Poner cualquiera de estos datos directa o indirectamente al alcance de Facebook es como agitar un solomillo ante el hocico de un león. Por un lado, lo va a devorar. Por otro, si pilla chicha adicional la engullirá con tanto o más gusto.

Ubicación, edad, generación, género, idioma, nivel educativo, campo de estudios, colegio, afinidad étnica, sueldo, tipo de vivienda y régimen de tenencia, valor de la casa, composición del hogar, relaciones a distancia, cambios de empleo, compromisos, matrimonios, paternidades, marca y antigüedad de coches, sistema operativo, servicio de correo electrónico, navegador, tipo de tarjeta de crédito…

Y, ojo, estos 26 ejemplos son una pequeña muestra de los 98 campos que, según recopiló The Washington Post, forman parte de los bocaditos de privacidad que Facebook picotea de nuestras cuentas de usuario. ¿Te incomoda? No estás solo.

  • Ese vertedero que tan bien te conoce
Brian Bergstein citaba en MIT Technology Review el discurso del presidente de la Comisión Federal de Telecomunicaciones estadounidense, Newton Minow, en 1961 sobre los problemas de la televisión. Según él, este medio había pasado en pocos años de ser una novedad a un instrumento de abrumador impacto para el público. También lo describía como un “inmenso vertedero” cuyos problemas nacían de la falta de competencia: “Estoy profundamente preocupado por la concentración de poder en manos de estos canales”, reconocía.

Pues resulta que, si la solución es mudarse, hay vida más allá de Facebook. Vida social digital de esa que tanto nos gusta. Son rivales diminutos, en la mayoría de los casos están en vías de desarrollo, pero tienen una cosilla que el monstruo de Zuckerberg no tiene: cero interés en tus datos.

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  • Mastodon
Este espacio acoge -mientras se escriben estas líneas- a 124.753 usuarios que hasta el momento han publicado 4.233.077 estados. Aunque son una mota de polvo en el universo de 2.000 millones de usuarios activos al mes que maneja Facebook, tienen sus ventajas.

Los habitantes de Mastodon, pueden controlar quién ve sus posts de texto, fotos o vídeos, que, por cierto, conservan el orden cronológico y no aparecerán mezclados con publicidad sospechosamente similar a tus últimas búsquedas en Amazon. Además, incluye alertas de spoilers.

El funcionamiento de Mastodon se basa en servidores independientes que pueden estar operados por personas u organizaciones: los hay genéricos o centrados en temáticas determinadas, de modo que cada usuario puede acogerse al que prefiera y conectar desde ahí con el resto de sus contactos, sin importar que estos se alojen en otro servidor. En esencia, dicen, son "una red social descentralizada y de código abierto".

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  • Scuttlebutt
"Una red social genial con un montón de buena gente que ninguna compañía puede controlar y que además funciona offline". Así se presenta Scuttlebutt (del inglés, cotilleo o chisme), otra red social desentralizada.

Para entrar a este espacio solo es preciso instalar clientes como Patchwork -el más

sencillo- y registrarse. Cada usuario puede contactar con quienes conectados a una red local -como el wifi de una cafetería-, o bien puede conectar con personas en remoto a través de pubs: servidores que Scuttlebutt compara con bares, entras a pasar el rato con tus amigos, pero puedes marcharte cuando quieras. Y no necesitas estar registrado en ellos si solo quieres conversar con tus contactos locales.

Además, si te quedas sin acceso a internet, toda la red queda almacenada en una carpeta en tu ordenador, de modo que puedes navegar por ella cuando quieras. Los mensajes privados en Scuttlebutt están cifrados de extremo a extremo y cuando bloqueas a alguien, desaparece por completo: no tendrás que ver sus posts, aunque tus otros amigos los compartan.


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  • Ricochet
Si lo tuyo no es la red pública de Facebook, sino los mensajes instantáneos y absolutamente privados, asómate a Ricochet, el sistema que desconfía hasta de su madre. Los mensajes enviados aquí no tienen metadatos -información asociada-, de modo que nadie tiene que saber quién eres, con quién hablas ni mucho menos, qué dices.

En medio de la conversación no hay servidores que alguien pueda monitorizar, censurar o hackear. Utiliza la red de Tor, en la que pueden establecerse puntos de encuentro entre usuarios anónimos. Tu lista de contactos nunca saldrá de tu ordenador y todos los mensajes están encriptados.


  • Agorakit
Agorakit tiene tintes de foro y de herramienta de trabajo colaborativo. La pega es que su privacidad es de pago. Ofrece la posibilidad de crear grupos abiertos o cerrados (si pagas), permite establecer calendarios colaborativos y carpetas con documentos compartidos al estilo de Google e incluye la opción de geolocalizar grupos, personas o eventos.

En su parte más parecida a Facebook puedes ver un resumen de tus discusiones sin leer y eventos próximos. Eso sí, lo organizas tú, no hay ningún algoritmo detrás, decidiendo por ti qué es lo importante.

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  • Signal
Si Ricochet te resulta demasiado enrevesado y además quieres llevar la conversación al móvil, prueba Signal, la app de mensajería favorita de Edward Snowden: texto, imagen, voz, vídeo y documentos encriptados de extremo a extremo, de pies a cabeza y gratis.

Todos los datos vertidos en Signal pertenecen al teléfono que los contiene. Además, puedes fijar un intervalo de desaparición para tus conversaciones, de tal manera que los mensajes vertidos en ellas se vayan borrando cada cierto tiempo para todos los usuarios que toman parte.

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Extra de privacidad
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La de proteger la privacidad en la red no es una batalla que se esté librando exclusivamente contra Facebook.

  • DuckDuckGo. Es el adversario diminuto de Google que tampoco quiere saber nada de ti, ni perseguirte con anuncios. Nació en 2008 y ya registra 16.000 millones de búsquedas diarias.
  • IndieWeb. Esta alternativa a la "web corporativa" promete que todo lo que publiques en ella será tuyo por siempre jamás y que los contenidos que viertas no están siendo monitorizados.
https://retina.elpais.com/retina/2018/01/22/tendencias/1516612568_939080.html

 
https://restoreprivacy.com/google-alternatives/

Alternatives to Google Products – The Complete List

June 18, 2018 By Sven Taylor

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It’s been fun Google, but it’s time to say goodbye.

Have you noticed?

Google’s entire business model is based on you surrendering to their corporate surveillance. That’s it. All they do is repackage mass corporate surveillance into convenient, free, trendy applications that suck up all your data. Your private data helps Google dominate the online advertising market.

You are the product.

The other key issue to consider here is that Google is tracking and recording your activity in order to build a user profile, which can be used for various purposes. Google has many ways to track your activity, even if you are not logged into a Google account:

  • Tracking through Google Adsense (all those annoying banner ads you see on most websites also function as tracking)
  • Tracking through YouTube and other Google-owned platforms and products
  • Tracking through websites that use Google Analytics (most websites use Google analytics – but not Restore Privacy)
All the data that Google collects about you is usually monetized through targeted advertising (Google is now the largest advertising company in the world). Your data may also be provided to government authorities (Google has been cooperating with governments for mass surveillancesince 2009).

In other words, Google is working to track your every move online, even if you are working hard to avoid it.

The solution to this problem basically entails:

  1. Deleting your Google accounts and data
  2. Avoiding Google products and using alternatives (this guide)
  3. Using good privacy tools, such as a private browser and a good VPN service, which will help protect your data from third parties
Google search alternatives
When it comes to privacy, using Google search is not a good idea. When you use their search engine, Google is recording your IP address, search terms, user agent, and often a unique identifier, which is stored in cookies.

Here are a few Google search alternatives:

  • Searx – A very privacy-friendly and versatile metasearch engine.
  • Qwant – A private search engine based in France.
  • Metager – A private search engine based in Germany.
  • DuckDuckGo – This is a great privacy-friendly Google alternative that doesn’t utilize tracking or targeted ads. They also have a zero-sharing policy with other features, but they do record search terms.
  • StartPage – StartPage gives you Google search results, but without the tracking.
Check out the private search engine guide for additional information.

Gmail alternatives
Gmail is one of the worst products you can use if you’re concerned about privacy. Everything you do through Gmail is collected by the parent company – every email, attachment, and image… Using Gmail gives Google an intimate view of your private life and personal contacts.

When you remain logged in to your Gmail account, Google can easily track your activities online as you browse different websites, which may be hosting Google Analytics or Google ads (Adsense).

There are many different privacy email options; here are five great choices:

  • Mailfence – Based in Belgium – 500 MB free; 20 GB Pro
  • Tutanota – Based in Germany – 1 GB free; 10 GB Pro
  • Mailbox.org – Based in Germany – 2 GB storage
  • Protonmail – Based in Switzerland – 500 MB free; 5 GB Pro
  • Runbox – Based on Norway – 30 day free trial; 1 GB – 25 GB (paid plans)
You can try any of the options above to find the best Gmail alternative for your situation.

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Mailfence offers 500 MB of free storage and instant setup (no payment details required).
Some providers, such as Mailfence and Tutanota offer completely free accounts up to a certain storage limit.

Chrome alternatives
Google Chrome is a popular browser, but it’s recording and tracking everything you do.

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If you are a Chrome user, you may want to consider these alternatives instead:

  • Firefox browser – This is a free, open-source internet browser that’s quite popular. You can also use a variety of privacy add-ons that can block ads and tracking (but beware of browser fingerprinting).
  • Tor browser – This is simply a hardened, privacy-friendly version of Firefox. You won’t need any add-ons or extensions because it’s already configured for privacy and security. That being said, it may be overkill for most users, because it will break many of the websites you visit (thanks to NoScript).
  • Brave browser – Brave is a good browser with built-in privacy protections and ad blocking. However, it is also based on Chromium and is affected by the WebRTC leak issue.
  • Ungoogled Chromium – Available on Github, this makes “modifications to Google Chromium for removing Google integration and enhancing privacy, control, and transparency.”
Check out the Firefox privacy guide, which explains different privacy and security modifications you can make with Firefox.

Google Drive alternatives
If you’re looking for a secure cloud storage option, you can check out these Google drive alternatives. They are more secure and better for protecting your privacy and data.

  • TeamDrive – This is a business-oriented cloud backup and file synchronization option based in Germany.
  • Tresorit – This is a user-friendly cloud storage option based in Switzerland. They offer client-side encryption, but also utilize Microsoft Windows servers, which is one drawback.
  • Nextcloud – Nextcloud is an open source, self-hosted file share and communication platform. They are based in Germany.
  • Sync.com – Based in Canada, Sync.com offers a secure, encrypted cloud storage solution for businesses and individuals.
Google Calendar alternative
The best Google Calendar alternative seems to be Etar, which is open source, simple, and respects your privacy.

Another good option is the aCalendar from TAPIRapps. This appears to be another good option that respects your privacy and it also has some good features. Check it out on the official site here.

Two other Google Calendar alternatives are Kin and Fruxx. However, if you read through the privacy policies, it looks like Etar or aCalendar would be the better options. This is because both Kin and Fruux collect user/calendar data.

Some secure email providers also offer calendar options, such as Mailfence Calendar for example.

Google Docs alternative
There are many solid Google Docs alternatives available. The largest offline document editing suite is, of course, Microsoft Office. However, it is not recommended because… Microsoft and privacy. Nonetheless, there are a few other good Google Docs alternatives:

  • LibreOffice – You can use LibreOffice on Linux, Mac OS, Windows, Android and iOS. It is also free and open source.
  • CryptPad – CryptPad is a privacy-focused alternative with strong encryption and it’s free.
  • Zoho Docs – This is another good Google Docs alternative with a clean interface and good functionality. You may be able to create an account through Zoho.eu, which should have better privacy protections due to GDPR laws.
  • OnlyOffice – OnlyOffice feels a bit more restricted than some of the other options in terms of features, but it remains a decent alternative.
  • Nuclino – Another Google Docs alternative is Nuclino. Nuclino has tiered subscription plans depending on your needs.
Google Photos alternative
Here are a few good Google Photos alternatives:

  • Shoebox – Shoebox has both a free and Pro plan. It appears to be a good Google Photos alternative without any ads. The Shoebox app is available for Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android.
  • Piwigo – Piwigo is another great option that you can self-host. It is also free and open source.
Google Plus
Does anyone actually use Google Plus? I honestly don’t know.

But if so, here are three social media alternatives:

Of course, Facebook will not be recommended because it is a data-collection and surveillance service.

Google translate alternative
There are three Google translate alternatives I have come across:

  • DeepL – DeepL is a solid Google Translate alternative that seems to give great results. Like Google Translate, DeepL allows you to post up to 5,000 characters at a time (but the pro version is unlimited). The user interface is good and there is also a built-in dictionary feature.
  • Lingue – Linguee does not allow you to post large blocks of text like DeepL. However, Linguee will give you very accurate translations for single words or phrases, along with context examples.
  • dict.cc – This Google Translate alternative seems to do a decent job on single-world lookups, but it also feels a bit outdated.
If you want to translate blocks of text, check out DeepL. If you want in-depth translations for single words or phrases, then Linguee is the best choice.

YouTube alternatives
Unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be many popular YouTube alternatives, but here are a few alternatives:

  • Vimeo
  • Dailymotion
  • Bitchute
  • Hooktube
Hooktube – Hooktube is basically a YouTube proxy, which allows you to unblock YouTube videos, download videos, and get around YouTube censorship restrictions (unless YouTube deletes the video completely). This also helps to keep your data from Google.

How to use Hooktube: Just replace the domain in any YT link with hooktube.com and you get a light-weight page that loads YouTube’s media files (mp4, webm, etc) directly into your browser’s native media player. becomes https://hooktube.com/watch?v=S6bOkFLrsAc, etc. Supported parameters: start, end, loop (1 for on), speed (range: 0.01 to 4), autoplay (0 for off, default is 1).

And lastly, you can also check out the unblock YouTube guide for additional solutions.

Google analytics alternative
If you’re running a website, it’s important to see which content people like the most, so you can give your readers what they want. Otherwise publishing articles is like throwing darts blindfolded at a wall. Unfortunately, Google Analytics goes overboard with the tracking. Here are a few alternatives:

  • Matomo (formerly Piwik) is a great open-source analytics program that respects the privacy of visitors by anonymizing and truncating visitor IP addresses. It’s the only analytics service that is certified to respect user privacy (and the only analytics used on this site).
  • Fathom Analytics is an open source alternative to Google Analytics that’s available on Github here.
  • Clicky is another alternative, but it does not have the built-in privacy protections of Matomo.
Many websites host Google Analytics because they run Google Adsense campaigns. Without Google Analytics, tracking performance of these campaigns would be difficult. Nonetheless, this is still bad for privacy.

Google Maps alternative
A map alternative for PCs is OpenStreetMap.

A few Google Maps alternatives for mobile devices include:

  • OsmAnd is a free and open-source mobile maps app for both Android and iOS (based on OpenStreetMap data).
  • Maps (F Droid) uses OpenStreetMap data (offline).
  • Here WeGo provides good mapping solutions for both PCs and mobile devices with their app.
  • Maps.Me is another option that is free on both Android and iOS, but there is a fair amount of data collection with this alternative, as explained in their privacy policy.
  • MapHub is also based on OpenStreeMap data and it does not collect locations or user IP addresses.
Google Play Store alternative
Currently the best Google Play Store alternative is to use F-Droid and then go through the Yalp store.

As explained on the official site, F-Droid is an installable catalog of FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) applications for the Android platform.

After you have installed F-Droid, you can then download the Yalp store APK, which allows you to download apps from the Google Play Store directly as APK files.

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The Yalp Store is a good alternative to the Google Play Store.
You can learn more about Yalp and download it from the F-Droid website here. (See also the official GitHub page here for more info.)

Google Chrome operating system alternative
Want to ditch the Chromebook and Chrome OS? Here are a few alternatives:

  • Linux – Of course, Linux is arguably the best alternative, being a free, open-source operating system with lots of different flavors. With some adjustments, Linux Ubuntu can be run on Chromebooks.
  • Tails – Tails is a free, privacy-focused operating system based on Linux that routes all traffic through the Tor network.
  • QubesOS – Recommended by Snowden, free, and also open source.
Of course, the other two big operating system alternatives are Windows and Apple’s operating system for MacBooks – Mac OS. Windows – particularly Windows 10 – is a very bad option for privacy. While slightly better, Apple also collects user data and has partnered with the NSA for surveillance.

Android alternatives
The biggest alternative to Android is iOS from Apple. But we’ll just skip over that for reasons already mentioned. Here are a few Android OS alternatives:

  • LineageOS – A free and open-source operating system for phones and tablets based on Android.
  • CopperheadOS – The CopperheadOS project seems to have recently imploded, but it was previously a great alternative.
Purism is also working on a privacy-focused mobile phone called the Librem 5. It met the crowdfunding goals but it’s not clear when it will be available.

Other Google alternatives
Based on user feedback and additional research for this guide update, here are a few more Google alternatives to consider:

Google forms alternative – JotForm is a free online form builder.

Google Keep alternative – Here are two different Google Keep alternatives:

  • Standard Notes is a great alternative for a note-taking service. It is secure, encrypted, and free with apps for Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android (web-based also available).
  • Joplin is another great option that is open source and works on Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android.
Google Fonts alternative – Many websites load Google fonts through Google APIs. One alternative to this is to use Font Squirrel, which has a large selection of both Google and non-Google fonts which are free to download and use.

Google Voice alternative – JMP.chat (both free and paid)

Google Firebase alternative – Kuzzle (free and open source)

Do you care about your privacy?
Most people looking for Google alternatives have woken up to the fact that Google is awful for privacy because they collect as much of your private data as possible.

But what about your internet service provider?

In the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, internet service providers are also recording your online activity. This information can be legally sold to third parties (in the US), or saved in government databases to be potentially used against you (UK, US, and Australia).

Aside from government surveillance agencies, there are many other third parties that are quietly tracking your online activity, such as Facebook.

One of the best tools for keeping your data out of the hands of third parties is to use a virtual private network. This will encrypt and anonymize your online activity, while also hiding your true IP address and location. Check out the best VPN guide for the latest recommendations and test results.

The privacy tools guide discusses other solutions as well.

Do you have any other tips or suggestions for Google alternatives?

Feel free to drop a comment below. This guide will be regularly updated to reflect the latest information and user feedback.
 
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