Completely Free Privacy Guide

• Hello 🤭. In this guide, you will be informed about privacy while using your computer or mobile devices.
• Nowadays, many companies such as Microsoft and Google collect too much personal information, so you might want to have more privacy while using your devices.
• For 100% privacy, unfortunately you should either use one of your devices for hosting or pay for certain services.
  • What I mean by using a device for hosting can be using your own e-mail domain instead of using @gmail.com, @outlook.com etc. so your e-mails will be more secure and private
  • or using your own unlimited and encrypted cloud storage etc. This is a free way since you're hosting everything locally but you have to keep your device running all the time and not everyone has additional devices for hosting.
  • If you don't want to do local hosting, there are services that deliver 100% unlimited and private features but they are paid.
• However, I will show you completely free ways for privacy. So, let's begin!

For Computers

• For privacy on computers, I suggest you to use Linux. Linux distributions respect your privacy and they are free. Using computer for daily use is 100% possible on Linux, gaming is also possible (not 100%). So, if your concern about switching to Linux is it being not good enough for gaming, you can check my Linux Gaming Guide to feel relieved.
• However, you might not want to get out of your comfort zone. In this case:
  • If you're using MacOS, you can apply basic steps like explained in this article.
  • If you're using Windows, you can use Chris Titus' Windows Utility, the utility also has cool features that increase performance.

For Mobile Devices

• If you're using a device that has iOS, you can follow this guide
• If you're using a device that has Android, I definitely suggest you to install a custom ROM. However if you don't want to install a custom ROM, you can follow this guide basically and skip this step. If you will install a custom ROM, keep reading the step.
  • There are different kinds of custom roms. Those are:
    • AOSP - Android Open Source Project : This is the barebone android that Google shares the source code of. Those ROMs are generally lightweight. Some AOSP based ROM examples are:
      • LineageOS
      • CrDroid
      • ArrowOS
    • CAF - Code Aurora Forum : CAF ROMs are also AOSP based but they have specific optimizations for Qualcomm devices (Snapdragon CPUs) that deliver smoothness, better performance, better RAM management and better battery life. Some CAF based ROM examples are:
      • Paranoid Android
      • ReloadedOS
    • My personal suggestion is CrDroid since it is not too barebone that needs configuration and it has highly customizable tools and it has some of the CAF optimizations. Also from my personal experiences, my Xiaomi Redmi Note 8 runs perfectly in terms of smooth performance and good battery life only on CrDroid. Also, CrDroid ROM is maintained for lots of devices. Assuming you installed CrDroid, let's continue.
    • CrDroid and all other Vanilla custom ROMs don't have Google Play Services and Libraries installed which means you are unable to use location services, google play applications and push notifications. That's why, I suggest you to use MicroG. You can check my MicroG Guide if you're interested.
      • After installing MicroG, that's all you could do for an android experience with privacy.

Other Methods (Regardless of Operating Systems)

• Using a Private DNS: My suggestions are using either WARP or NextDNS
• Using a VPN: Free VPNs don't provide enough privacy, however ProtonVPN is an exception. You can use it comfortably.
• Using an E-Mail Client:. My suggestion is using Thunderbird.
• Using a 2FA (Two Factor Authenticator): My suggestion is using Ente Auth, it is open source and free.
• Using an Ad Blocker: If you're using Android, I suggest you to use AdAway. For your web browser, uBlock Origin is the only viable option.
  • However if you're using a Chromium based browser such as Chrome, Edge, Arc etc. installing an ad blocker from Google Web Store will not work! You should use a Firefox based browser for full functionality. For further information, visit uBlock Origin Wiki.

Some Privacy Focused and/or Open Source Alternatives

• Google Products
  • Google Search Engine - DuckDuckGo
  • Google Play Store - Aurora Store and F-Droid
  • Google Chrome or any other Chromium based browser - Firefox or any Firefox based browser
  • Gboard Keyboard - AOSP Keyboard but it can be hard to get used to AOSP keyboard, so you can keep using Gboard as it now lets you disable sending telemetry to Google.
  • Google Photos - Ente Photos
  • Google Drive - MEGA
  • Google Maps - Organic Maps but if you have issues with it (could be because you're in an unpopulous area), you can prefer Google Maps without logging in.
  • Google Password Manager - Bitwarden Password Manager
• Microsoft Office / WPS Office - OnlyOffice
• Adobe Products
  • Photoshop - GIMP or Photopea
  • Lightroom - Krita or Darktable
  • Illustrator - Inkscape
  • Premiere - Kdenlive or Shotcut
  • After Effects - Blender
  • Audition - Audacity
  • Acrobat Reader and Editor - Okular
  • Dreamweaver - Visual Studio Code or VSCodium
• Notion - Joplin
• YouTube Android App - YouTube ReVanced
• Discord Desktop App - Vesktop
• CCleaner - Bleachbit
• uTorrent - qBittorrent

Conclusion

This guide was about a completely free privacy guide. I hope it has been useful for you. Have a nice day! 🐧