A process that started roughly a year ago with just changing browser and search engine, now feeling that I got somewhere. The journey ended up being more than just degoogle, but also demetaing and taking more control over my data and privacy.
Before and after picture with notes:
Chrome -> Zen browser (Firefox on iOS)
Google -> Qwant
Gmail -> Proton Mail
NordVPN -> Proton VPN (I don’t use VPN very often, but have NordVPN through another subscription, now replaced with Proton across my devices)
Google Drive / Photos -> Proton Drive
Google Password Manager -> Proton Pass
Google Authenticator -> Proton Pass / Ente (Ente Auth is only used to store my 2FA keys for the Proton account, other keys are stored in Proton Pass)
Google Translator -> DeepL
YouTube -> FreeTube (Unwatched on iOS)
Google Maps -> Magic Earth (OSM on desktop)
WhatsApp -> Signal
Notion -> Anytype
Keep / Notes -> Notesnook
X -> Mastodon / Bluesky
Reddit -> Lemmy (Voyager on iOS, dreaming of an eventual complete migration)
Instagram -> Pixelfed
Facebook -> stopped using
Windows 11 -> Ubuntu (Only personal laptop, work laptop still windows)
I don’t think a vpn and mail providers can relate in this scenario.
I have heard in the past that authorities have forced (possibly proton, but I forget) to basically wiretap incoming mail before proton can encrypt it for storage on the users account (because pretty much no one sends encrypted mail in a way that only the receiver can read it).
The only data other than that, that they store is ip logs (when forced to, I believe) and recovery email addresses. They are not able to present existing encrypted mail to authorities (from before a wiretap).
This seems overblown, I don’t think theres more they can do. Users have to start sending encrypted mail from their inbox, then the wiretapping won’t be an issue (proton address to proton address can work like this I think).