There’s immense energy in being in command of your personal knowledge. As possession and governance of apps and on-line companies consolidate, it’s comprehensible if you wish to think about your choices relating to the place you retailer your non-public knowledge and information of your on a regular basis actions.
Thankfully, not each service out there’s making an attempt to monetize your private knowledge, and plenty of choices are simply nearly as good (if not usually higher) as their industrial or ad-supported rivals.
Take a minute to consider what you’d need to depart behind. Large Tech giants that hoard your knowledge? Subscription companies? Invasive advert monitoring? Authorities surveillance? Your wants and dangers are distinctive to you, however hopefully a number of of those suggestions assist to hit the spot.
Wallabag the tales you need to learn later
For those who ever needed to learn one thing later, like a information story, characteristic article, or anything with an online tackle, put it aside to your Wallabag. This read-later web-archiving service might not have the identical ring to it as its foremost industrial rival Pocket, however Wallabag is a powerful competitor with article-saving instruments and options nearly as good as what Pocket affords.
It can save you your must-reads for in a while a Wallabag server you can run for free on a community connected storage (NAS) server that you simply host someplace in a closet at dwelling, or hosted in the cloud for a low-cost subscription.
Why does this matter? Different read-later apps monitor utilization as a way to discover developments and suggest content material (usually sponsored) to you. Some need this, and that’s cool! However some don’t.
Sign is the encrypted messaging app to make use of
Sign is likely one of the most revered safe messaging apps for the straightforward purpose that, by design, it is aware of nothing about you. Once in a while, Sign will make this level by publishing the search warrants it sometimes receives, understanding that it may’t present to the authorities knowledge that it doesn’t preserve. Sign’s safety has been referred to as the “gold standard” of messaging apps by cryptography specialists. Sign is free to obtain and use however depends on donations as a nonprofit.
Why it is best to care: It’s not simply your non-public messages and calls that Sign retains encrypted from prying eyes and ears, however Sign additionally crucially scrambles who you contact and talk with, and when, which can be extremely revealing about an individual’s life.
Nextcloud is a self-hosted Dropbox various
Nextcloud is a Dropbox various that options the entire doc modifying and sharing options you’d count on from a file storage system. An enormous profit to Nextcloud is you can host a server yourself for free at home, the place you’ll be able to preserve it non-public and beneath your management, or have a Nextcloud server run for you by a specialized hosting provider.
Nextcloud is constructed with safety in thoughts and gives you end-to-end encrypted entry to your information out of your cellphone or some other machine you have got. Or, if merely having a self-hosted Dropbox-like various as a storage backup on your most delicate and private information appears like one thing you’d need, Nextcloud is a superb place to begin.
Why does this matter? Cloud storage is usually safe and personal in some methods, however the corporations that run them are beholden to legislation enforcement and may invisibly scan your information (for good purpose, however nonetheless) that may get you suddenly and permanently banned out of your on-line accounts. Internet hosting your personal doesn’t imply you’re free from police exhibiting up at your own home with a warrant, however a minimum of you’d concentrate on it.
Always remember your passwords once more with Bitwarden
Password managers are an incredible funding in your private safety; these apps securely retailer your passwords, passkeys, bank cards, and different secrets and techniques, so that you don’t have to recollect them. Bitwarden is a well-liked open supply password supervisor that helps you log in rapidly to your favourite websites and auto-fills your bank card particulars if you need to pay for one thing, and extra. You’ll be able to entry your Bitwarden password supervisor wherever, together with out of your cellphone. Bitwarden is free for anybody to make use of, however low-cost for extra options.
Why does this matter? In the case of safety of password managers, the extra eyeballs inspecting the supply code to make sure its reliability and integrity, the higher. And whereas different password managers are additionally good, open supply programs like Bitwarden are extra readily auditable and open about their software program growth course of.
Joplin and Notesnook preserve your notes and scribbles encrypted
For many who need to depart Google Docs or Microsoft 365 behind, there are many note-taking apps that preserve your whole notes, ideas, and scribbles in a single place you can entry anytime. Joplin is a well-liked doc and productiveness app that retains your information organized, encrypted, and in open codecs (like Markdown) so you’ll be able to take them with you wherever else. Notesnook is one other note-taking app that allows you to export your notes to make use of with different apps and is end-to-end encrypted in order that no one can learn your information. The identical can’t be stated for Google Docs!
For anybody in search of a downloadable and offline workplace suite that isn’t made by Microsoft, LibreOffice is the perfect Workplace various you’ll discover on the market. LibreOffice is non-public by design and free to make use of (although its macOS app within the Mac App Retailer isn’t), and works with all of the widespread file and doc codecs you often use.
Why does this matter? Large corporations like Google and Microsoft are more and more unifying their companies, which in the present day means exposing your notes, emails, and information to their AI programs. This may be helpful for certain, however for those who’d reasonably simply have a easy, cross-platform textual content syncing app, there are many choices that don’t do any sort of invasive evaluation in any respect.
Ente is an encrypted vault on your pictures
If you wish to depart behind Apple Images, Flickr, Google Images, YouTube, and the like, Ente.io payments itself as a privacy-focused photograph storage app designed merely to securely again up your whole pictures and movies to the cloud. Ente scrambles your knowledge with a password solely you recognize, defending your recollections from anybody else, and backs up your knowledge in a number of places all over the world for safekeeping. Plus, Ente affords the entire photograph administration and sharing options you want from a photograph app. Ente is free for primary accounts and fairly priced for extra storage choices.
Why does this matter? Very similar to notes and paperwork, photographs are an enormous goal for AI programs. Auto-tagging your mates may sound useful, however it requires consent. You need to need to decide in earlier than a machine studying mannequin scans each face you’ve ever taken an image of. That alone is an efficient purpose to have a look at an unbiased service that offers you slightly extra alternative.
Block adverts on most units with your personal Pi-hole
Adverts aren’t simply an invasive surveillance machine, able to monitoring your location and your web site histories as you browse the net. Adverts can depart anybody open to malware and scams — even authorities spyware and adware. Whereas an advert blocker connected to your pc’s browser or cellphone can assist shield that machine, a Pi-hole serves as an advert blocker on your total community, together with good units, televisions, and extra.
A Pi-hole might be run on any machine that you’ve got always-on and operating at dwelling, like a pc, an previous laptop computer, or a Raspberry Pi microcomputer. Level any of your machine’s DNS networking settings to your Pi-hole and you’ll seldom have to consider adverts once more. For a extra polished person expertise for freshmen, AdGuard Home can also be a high contender within the class of self-hosted network-level advert blocker.
Why does this matter? Advert blockers are good on your safety and privateness, however not all advert blockers work with each machine. A network-level ad-blocker solves this downside for a broader vary of units.
Arrange your personal encrypted VPN that solely you management
Hosted VPN suppliers usually declare to supply privateness and safety, however don’t be fooled. These corporations can see all of your internet shopping historical past as your web site visitors flows by way of their programs, usually beneath the guise of offering you safety, privateness, or anonymity in return.
However in our explainer of what VPNs are and what they do, we notice VPNs are solely useful in a handful of conditions, corresponding to accessing your units if you find yourself away from dwelling or the workplace. Even then, the perfect VPN is one that you simply’ve arrange your self and management in order that no one else can eavesdrop in.
Now we have a information on how you can arrange your personal encrypted VPN server in only a few minutes utilizing Tailscale, which makes it simple to create a digital community permitting you to attach your whole varied computer systems, telephones and different units to that community. You’ll be able to even arrange Tailscale on a house server in your closet, or an Apple TV that’s all the time plugged-in and operating.
Tailscale is constructed on high of the Wireguard open-source VPN protocol. There are plenty of other Wireguard-ready implementations to explore if you wish to experiment exterior of Tailscale.
Why does this matter? Most individuals don’t want a VPN exterior of particular use-cases. However for those who do, an encrypted VPN server that you’ve got arrange and function ensures that your web site visitors is encrypted utilizing a non-public key solely you have got, which means your internet knowledge can’t be seized, stolen, or sifted by way of.
House Assistant is the central hub for all your house’s good units
For anybody who’s dabbled with a sensible dwelling, this one is for you. House Assistant is, merely put, the hub that connects your whole good dwelling units and allows you to management all of them from one place. This open-source good dwelling server can combine with hundreds of good dwelling vendor units, starting from voice assistants to gentle bulbs and robotic vacuums and extra, permitting you to begin, cease, or in any other case management your units out of your browser (or a cellphone app). It’s also possible to automate your good dwelling units similar to you’ll be able to in Apple House or Google House.
House Assistant is native by design and can be self-hosted on a variety of devices, from a house server in a closet to some other machine that’s all the time on, like a desktop pc. And for anybody who desires to entry House Assistant from outside your home, you’ll be able to arrange distant entry by way of its cloud-based subscription service.
Why does this matter? Not each good dwelling vendor can preserve the lights on, and sudden closures or bankruptcies may end up in prospects equally unable to maintain entry to their lights. Initiatives like House Assistant can step in when smart home tech goes defunct, saving prospects from having to pay for pricey replacements.
Open Scanner is a quite simple document-scanning app
Doc scanning doesn’t need to be an advanced or convoluted course of. Open Scanner is an extremely easy point-and-click document-scanning app for iPhones, and its code is published online. That’s it. Typically that’s the true fantastic thing about disconnecting from profit-driven companies that bloat their apps with AI junk and options no one actually wants.
Open Scanner can snap receipts, notes, textbooks, or anything you’ll be able to level your cellphone at. For Android customers, OSS Document Scanner is a equally easy, open-source and free app for scanning paperwork.
Why does this matter? Until you really want knowledgeable scanner, your cellphone is greater than adequate and possibly higher than plenty of cheaper scanners on the market. Skip the necessity for any printer-brand {hardware} gear and use one thing easy and free.
RSS is a tremendous internet know-how that allows you to subscribe to feeds of data out of your favourite websites, blogs, information sources, and extra. Most information websites supply RSS feeds (TechCrunch does!) that ship the headlines to RSS-compatible apps, often known as RSS readers. There are a great deal of RSS readers to select from.
For greater than a decade, FreshRSS has been probably the most feature-packed RSS readers for its total simplicity. You’ll be able to self-host an occasion, or deploy a non-public server to a specializing cloud host. When you get your favourite feeds subscribed, the tip result’s like having your very personal self-updating digital newspaper.
Why does this matter? You’d be stunned how totally different the information feels if you see it this manner. And having your personal RSS setup skips the sort of sponsored posts and monitoring that you simply see on hosted companies, very like the read-it-later ones.
Personal your livestreams with Owncast
For many who broadcast their very own exhibits, gameplay, or something in between, Owncast is a self-hosted streaming system for organising and internet hosting livestreams. Owncast is wildly standard, because it’s free, pretty simple to make use of, and works together with your present livestreaming gear. You may not have considered livestreaming earlier than, however it is a good technique to wade into unfamiliar however pleasant waters.
Why does this matter? Websites like Twitch are definitely standard, however chances are you’ll not need to rely solely on the instruments of a large company for each step of a artistic course of (on this case, Amazon). Owncast and different open streaming apps are an effective way to hedge your bets whereas possibly opening up a brand new viewers.
Stirling PDF is a one-stop PDF modifying store
Dealing with and modifying PDF paperwork has by no means been constantly simple. For many who don’t need to pony up for Adobe’s software program or add their information to sketchy-looking file conversion web sites, Stirling PDF is the Swiss Military knife for PDF paperwork. Convert, edit, merge, break up, signal, and extra, with out having handy over your private or delicate information to a cloud big. Stirling PDF additionally enables you to self-host for those who favor to deal with paperwork with specific sensitivity.
Why does this matter? Frankly, any time there’s a practical various to Adobe, take it.
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First printed on November 24, 2024. Devin Coldewey contributed.