Basic reccomendations about online privacy

Let's talk about online privacy

That's right, we're going to talk about a topic that basically everyone ignores, but which means the privacy you think you have has actually been non-existent for quite some time.

Google: the company that uses you as a product

Absolutely everyone knows Google, right? So much so that when we say we're going to search for something on the internet, we say we're "going to Google it." However, the truth is that its search engine is probably the worst option on the market in 2025. The same goes for its other products and services.
Google is a tech company that has repeatedly shown it couldn't care less about its users, as its business model is very different from what many believe: Google's customers are the advertisers who pay for Google to display their ads; the users (you) are the product that attracts those advertisers.
That's right, you are their product. I won't go into it too deeply, but it's the exact same situation with all the big tech companies (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft), known by the acronym 'GAFAM'.
Furthermore, this ad-focused business is extremely intrusive to user privacy. For example, have you ever felt like ads for something you searched for or saw online follow you across every website? Well, it's not just a feeling, they actually do. Google collects extensive behavioral data on you not only on its own services but also on all websites and apps that have any of its services incorporated (like Google Ads, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, etc.). These are integrated into approximately 85% of the world's websites and apps and are used by developers to analyze behavior and show ads; however, Google uses them to create extremely detailed digital profiles about you, so much so that they probably know your habits better than you do yourself. So none of those curiously similar ads you see online are a coincidence.
In short, big tech companies, especially Google, have been deceiving you for years into thinking you have privacy in what you do.

On another note, Google, as I write this, is facing 3 antitrust lawsuits from the United States and the European Union due to its anti-competitive behavior that prevents anyone from competing with them. No, Google Search isn't the most popular search engine because it's the best, but because Google tries, and usually succeeds, in making sure you don't even know that much better alternatives exist in every possible way.

What can I do about it?

Now that you've read the disgusting truth about the companies you've always considered trustworthy, what can you do to reclaim your right to privacy?
Well, you have to start with alternatives to the services you use in your daily life. Let's break them down into segments.
Note: All the services and products I mention here have been personally tested by me.

Browsers
If you're part of the 90% of the population, I'm sure you use and have always used Google Chrome. But that famous web browser is a glorified spyware that makes you believe incognito mode does something (surprise! they even got sued for that!). So here's a brief summary of my favorite privacy-focused alternatives, I've tested them all, so I'm not speaking blindly!

Brave: This browser is available for major operating systems like Android, iOS, and Windows. It's a privacy-focused browser that not only doesn't sell your browsing data to advertisers but also blocks ads and trackers on all web pages by default (yes, even on YouTube!). It has the ability to sync between devices. On Android and iOS, you can find it in the app stores, and on PC on its official website brave.com.

DuckDuckGo Browser: Better known for its privacy-focused search engine of the same name, DuckDuckGo Browser is a privacy-focused browser with a minimalist aesthetic and features that get the job done. It has a tracker blocker that blocks most ads due to the tracking elements embedded in them but allows ads that don't try to track you. It also offers interesting features like a free email alias service (we'll talk about what an email alias is later). It also allows syncing, but you can only use DuckDuckGo as your search engine. You can find it on major operating systems.

Search Engines
Here are alternatives so you can stop using Google's mediocre search.

Brave Search: From the same company as Brave Browser, Brave Search is a search engine with an independent index guided solely by the needs and opinions of users, not by which page pays more to be higher up. From experience, I can tell you that its search results are very relevant on most occasions and it offers features like automatic AI summaries and follow-up questions. They are supported by private ads that are not based on your browsing history.

DuckDuckGo: Probably the most famous in this sector, DuckDuckGo is a private search engine that has been in the search business for many years. Its results are usually considerably relevant; they are obtained anonymously from Bing (Microsoft's search engine), in addition to some of its own site indexing.

Startpage: Based in the Netherlands, Startpage is a search engine that uses Google Search results in an anonymized way. This isn't my favorite, as it lacks features like the optional AI summaries that the previous engines do have.

Kagi: A search engine that's paid. Its pricing starts at $5/month and it also include a lot of interesting features and additional services like "Universal Summarizer" that summarizes web pages or even videos. Zero tracking.

Cloud Services
So you can stop using the controversial Google Drive.

Proton Drive: It uses zero-knowledge encryption based on the AES-256-GCM encryption suite (very strong), which ensures that your data is safe even from Proton itself, as it is technically impossible to read your files or even associate them with you from their servers. Here, your files and photos are truly private. It offers a free plan with 5 gigabytes of storage, and the paid plans offer variable prices and considerable storage.

Email Services
Gmail and Outlook constantly scan your emails to personalize ads for you. Since I have only used and continue to use one option, I will only present that one:

Proton Mail: From Proton AG, this is an email service with zero-knowledge encryption at rest and that applies automatic encryption to emails between platform users via OpenPGP, an encryption standard primarily for communications that has shown no vulnerabilities in the more than 30 years it has existed. And don't worry about having to access multiple email apps, as Proton Mail allows you to easily set up forwarding for your Gmail and Outlook emails, so your inbox is organized and in a single client. It offers a paid version for those with very frequent email activity, but the free version is usually sufficient for everyone else. It allows you to have a Proton Mail address, which can be created directly when you open your Proton account.
You can find it on major operating systems or in its web version.

Things you should start using
Now you have alternatives for things you already used, but there are other things you should start using to protect your data even more. Let's begin.

Password Managers
In case you haven't been told, using the same password for everything is probably the biggest security risk that can exist, even worse than any computer virus. If you use the same password for all your accounts, you are exposed to a single data breach being enough for an attacker to access all your accounts. That's what a password manager is for. This tool will generate secure and completely different passwords for all your accounts, and save them so you don't have to remember them. It can even help you auto-fill your passwords!
Note: Never save passwords in your browser, as browsers store your passwords in a very insecure way.

Proton Pass: Also part of the Proton AG suite of services, Proton Pass is one of the best and most secure password managers, featuring military-grade encryption and several third-party security audits that are completely public for anyone who wants to see them. It's also worth mentioning that, like all Proton apps, it is open source, so anyone can review its code and verify that they aren't doing anything behind the scenes. It allows you to save unlimited passwords and sync them between devices. It also offers a paid version that includes unlimited email aliases so that all your accounts have a different and fully functional email that can be easily deactivated (the free version includes 10); it also includes additional premium features like saving and auto-filling payment cards, among others.

Bitwarden: Also completely open source and with state-of-the-art security, Bitwarden is a great option for managing your passwords, although its interface and ease of use are often inferior to others.

Encrypted DNS Services
DNS (Domain Name System) is one of the foundations for how the internet works, as it translates URLs (like amazon.com) into IP addresses that computers understand so they can load the content and web pages we see. However, its very nature has led many companies to use the DNS queries made by millions of people's devices to get a detailed view of their search history and sell that information to advertisers. This practice is mainly carried out by ISPs (Internet Service Providers), since, by default, all devices use the ISP's DNS. In fact, these practices are usually written in their privacy policies, but people have gotten into the bad habit of not reading those documents, although they certainly should.
It is for this reason, in addition to several security and even speed dangers, that you should encrypt your DNS queries and send them only to one of the providers I am going to mention. This configuration is very easy to implement on almost any operating system, whether mobile or PC, but it is much more effective if you follow a video to help you. Anyway, on Android, the most used system, you just have to go to the phone's settings and search for "Private DNS", enter the option that appears and there select "Custom provider" and insert one of the providers with TLS that I am going to mention (TLS at a glance is like a link, just look below for the link that I will mark in bold for each of the providers, copy it and paste it there), as Android only supports this type of encryption natively.
Note: All the DNS resolver providers I will mention have been thoroughly studied and personally tested by me so you don't have to worry about that. They are all secure.

Quad9: Based in the jurisdiction of Switzerland and controlled by a non-profit association, Quad9 is a DNS query resolver that, in addition to keeping your queries private, has a malware and phishing filter that prevents your device from contacting malicious domains or websites, this at the server level, which means your device is never involved. It has servers globally, so the speed is usually excellent, much better than your internet provider's. They have a zero-log policy for DNS queries. Here are their resolvers:
HTTPS: https://dns.quad9.net/dns-query
TLS (recommended for Android): dns.quad9.net
In case the device does not support encryption, such as a router, you can use these "Legacy" resolvers:
IPv4: Primary: 9.9.9.9 - Secondary: 149.112.112.112
IPv6: Primary: 2620:fe::fe - Secondary: 2620:fe::9

ControlD: Offers a very good paid DNS service for more in-depth use, but also offers different public resolvers, which include filters for ads, trackers, malware, among others. You can even customize it. They have a zero-log policy for DNS queries.
Due to their variety of public resolvers, it's best to look them up on their page: https://controld.com/free-dns

Cloudflare DNS: The one that has proven to be usually the fastest DNS resolver currently. It is based in the jurisdiction of the United States and is a public service from the web content delivery giant Cloudflare. This resolver does not block any type of domain or content, unlike the previous ones, so it is not my favorite; although there is a version that blocks malware, its effectiveness is far from that of the previous ones. It has a global network, which generally gives very low latency. These are its resolvers:
TLS: one.one.one.one
Legacy:
IPv4: Primary: 1.1.1.1 - Secondary: 1.0.0.1
IPv6: Primary: 2606:4700:4700::1111 - Secondary: 2606:4700:4700::1001
Cloudflare does not provide a resolver over HTTPS directly, but it can be used with their free 1.1.1.1 app, available for major operating systems.

VPN services
Because your browsing history shouldn't be sold.

ProtonVPN: A pretty good VPN service in almost everyway possible. It's my personal go-to service, so i hardly reccomend it. Its pricing starts at $4.49/month with its yearly plan.

Mullvad VPN: Based in Sweden, Mullvad is also an excellent VPN service, but it's meant only for those who only want a VPN for privacy and don't want to bypass geographic restrictions on streaming services. Its pricing is 5€/month, independently of how much time of use you pay for. Still, they have a 10% discount if you pay with crypto.

And well, this article ends here. While there are still many things that can be done to protect your privacy, I believe I have included the main ones here that sacrifice as little as possible in terms of usability. Because, yes, there are more extreme techniques, but they are made to be used by more advanced users.
If you would be interested in looking into anything mentioned here more deeply, I invite you to do your own research.
This article was written entirely based on my own judgment and was not influenced by anything or anyone. I am just trying to teach the reality of internet privacy to everyone who reads this and help them regain control of their data. Because privacy is a universal right necessary to exercise all other rights. Don't be afraid to protect yourself.
Thanks for reading.