Before I start, I have to mention that I am a CBP (Certified Bitcoin Professional) which is a certificate by the C4. Which means I am fully aware of how the blockchain and bitcoin works on an above average level.
I am also a developer and have worked on many apps before.
After reading all 330 pages of Zucked by Roger McNamee, and since it’s been a while since I’ve started to believe that Facebook is bad for me, my friend, and my family. I’ve decided to pull the plug.
In fact, I am about to pull the plug on all of the BIG 4 as they call them. As we progress with blockchain technology, there are multiple alternatives for all of these platforms, many of them already exist with blockchain technology that respects your privacy.
But I have my own twist:
In the book, the author suggest switching to apple products because they do respect your privacy. And I agree they do, however, all the other apps that’s on the iPhone with fully enabled permission does not respect that privacy and you’ll have to exhaust yourself trying to allow or disable permission every time you need to use that app.
Here is my idea instead:
Root an android phone and do not add Google apps (aka Gapps) not even the google services, install a privacy respectful rom (I choose lineageOS) and start installing the alternative apps instead.
For example: I am leaving facebook, and going for another blockchain based social network, but if you can’t leave facebook, there is an excellent android app called “Metal” that not only will respect your privacy, it doesn’t even have any background permissions. Not to mention it also allow you to use the facebook messenger within the same app. Just keep in mind that even though your privacy is completely protected with this app, whatever you type within your facebook account will be tracked, tagged, and added to your filter bubble.
For email, I have already switched to Protonmail and it’s freaking awesome, I even have the paid plan because end-to-end encrypted emails are worth that 16 cents a day.
For search... DuckDuckGo without a question.
For storage I have switched to Siacoin online storage system which have been extremely easy to use with no issues.
For amazon, I use purse.io and pay even less anonymously with BTC. There are also a growing number of decentralized marketplaces out there.
I haven’t used chrome in years. I use Firefox focus or Brave instead.
The list just goes on.
I’m curious to know what’s your favorite decentralized alternative for any of the BIG 4. Let me know in the comments.