How to Find Sites That Won’t Share Your Personal Information
Our personal information is available to the highest bidder these days. Collectors target us through advertisements in our inboxes and social media accounts. Even worse, sites like Facebook clearly affect people’s lives on and off our computers and phones (about those 2016 elections …).
But if you’re tired of getting ads for home insurance or grocery shopping and using your information against you, this platform can help you find “privacy-conscious” websites so you can worry a little less about whose data your data is collecting.
Here, to spare you your privacy nightmares, Switching Social offers alternatives to websites like Google, Facebook, and Instagram. On each platform, you can find a number of different solutions and their specialization in privacy settings (some websites are encrypted, some are ad-free).
Alternatives for users, so you can easily make the switch to a new email or account without fumbling around in technical directions (and if you have questions, you can contact Switching social creators who will help you transition).
Switching Social also has a Bubbles Under page so you can check out new privacy-conscious sites if you’re looking for sites that don’t annoy you with ads or compromise your privacy.
Looking for an email that doesn’t include targeted ads? Switching Social recommends ProtonMail , which is free and runs entirely through donations and subscriptions (so you don’t run into a single ad).
Worried that Google Maps isn’t just tracking your steps? OpenStreetMap is the Wikipedia of map sites: it is a map resource that anyone can edit and does not track its users. Instead of Instagram, try PixelFed , an open source social network with zero ads (watch out, influencers!).
Switching to alternative social media platforms like PixelFed is tricky because no one you know most likely uses them. It’s hard to compete with audiences and networks like Facebook and Twitter, so while privacy-conscious social networks are good in theory, they’re mostly useless at the moment.
However, Switching Social encourages you to refer other friends to these websites, so hopefully you won’t be left alone for long.
And if you’re wondering, no, Switching Social doesn’t collect any data, cookies, or tracking information when you browse its site, so don’t worry for now (though, can we ever trust anyone these days?)