I use open-source applications that don’t require internet access for tasks that can be done perfectly offline, which is great not just for privacy but for many other reasons as well.

It’s not about what you use, it’s what you don’t.

• MullvadVPN, and a free and privacy respecting OS is another good idea.
• So is using privacy respecting apps: LibreOffice instead of MS Office, Codium instead of VSCode. And so on, with many FLOSS alternatives to the usual proprietary ones.
• Services also matter, imho: I’m using ProtonMail for my email (Tuta would be another clever choice, imho, and there are probably others). I’ve very recently switched from iCloud to filen.io for my cloud storage needs.
• Using one’s phone as little as possible. I’ve almost nothing on mine, I mean only stuff I’m required to have (banking and IDs, stuff like that), no email, no social, not even music or games (the game I enjoy the most play I also I enjoy it the most when I play it offline: chess ;))

And then… I also started using analog tools much more in the last two years. This helps a lot maintaining one’s privacy. Amazon can’t track my reading habits when I read a printed book (even less if I do not buy it from them), Goofle cant’" track my writings when I use pen and paper instead of their apps, Apple (or Google or Microsoft) can’t track my paper agenda or my paper notebook. And the NSA or whomever is playing that role in my country can’t ask any corporation to install backdoors in my IRL encounters with people so they could spy on me. At least, they cannot do that for now ;)

XMPP + OMEMO & Mumble for chat, offline maps from OSM, self-hosted feed aggregator

NixOS, OpenWRT, LineageOS for microG, but would like to remove Android from my line up.

Pi-Hole for home Wifi, Guest Wifi for IoT devices. For Desktop PC I use Linux, hardened Firefox, uBlock Origin extension. For the Phone I use NextDNS, work Profile for IoT apps, and F-Droid for some apps.

Freetube instead of youtube,

Thunderbird calendar instead of something like google calendar,

Signal instead of Discord or text,

Tellico for all media lists instead of something like goodreads or online movie or game lists,

Obsidian or Joplin for notes and organizing creative pursuits

Openwrt on my flint 2 With adgaurd/pihole I know its not technically an app, but lots of people forget there routers exist and are a very big security hole

You would not believe what my samsung tv pings

Tiktok (somehow came preinstalled)

Hulu(we dont have a hulu account)

Tubi(we dont use tubi)

Amazon(it seems to be for samsung tv plus)

I ended up blocking everything except amazon, samsung tv, and netflix on the dns level

Its also really good for stopping non power users (aka family member’s) from getting malware/phished

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Lots.

However I want to give FreeTube some love. Out of all the YT frontends, FreeTube has never failed me and always been a treat to use. I’ve used it on both Linux and Windows, and the experience is always reliable.

• Fossify mobile suite: It contains all basic tools from a launcher to a notes app
• Clipious: Open source youtube frontend
• Obtainium: Frontend to download apps
• FluffyChat: Matrix client
• Vanadium: Secure chromium fork
• Mull: Less secure then Vanadium but Firefox based
• Thunderbird: Lemmy client
• Termux: Android terminal
• Thunderbird: Open source email client (now on mobile)
• HeliBoard: Open source keyboard

I made my own list of software, and most of those listed are software I use daily.

Matrix messaging apps. It’s nice to have modern messaging features, end-to-end encrypted, with no single point of failure, no Google involvement, and no phone numbers. I expect to start recommending it widely when the 2.0 features land in the popular clients.

WireGuard VPN. It’s fast, even on low-power devices.

Self-hosted Mumble. Excellent low-latency voice quality for chatting or gaming with friends.

Radicale, DAVx⁵, and Thunderbird, for calendar and contact sync between mobile and desktop, without handing the data over to Google or anyone else.

Tubular (NewPipe + Sponsorblock), Fedora, Mastodon through Tusky, Lemmy through Eternity. Still waiting for LineageOS image for my phone (SM-A536B) tho.

• ProtonVPN – VPN
• LibreWolf – Browser
  • uBlock Origin
  • Skip Redirect
  • NoScript
  • Decentraleyes
  • CookieAutoDelete
  • DuckDuckGo Privacy Essentials (tbh I’m not sure if this isn’t redundant frankly what with the others I have installed; might get rid of it…)
• KeePassXC – Passwords
• FreeTube – YouTube

CommonSense 2024, the best antivirus solution I’ve ever tried. Highly recommend it. Compatible with phones, tablets, computers, potatoes etc.