Privacy, Security and Free Speech Focused Alternatives for 2019

Privacy, Security and Free Speech Focused Alternatives for 2019

Payment - cryptocurrency

In order to send/recieve payments over Internet it is usually required to provide all different types of personal information. Apps like Paypal, Venmo, Circle Pay, Revolut or Cash App all need some kind of personal information exchange between buyers and sellers (not to mention less privacy from third parties)

Cryptocurrency is by far the easiest and cheapest way to send/receive value anonymously and across countries. While most cryptocurreny is still not user friendly enough they are actually easy to use after the initial setup.

Different cryptos have advantages and disadvantages but the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero or Nano seem to be fit for this task. Stablecoins can be used if price fluctuation is to be avoided.

Browser alternative - Brave

Chrome is by far the most popular browser with around 60% of market share (both mobile and PC combined). Google - the developer of Chrome has raised multiple privacy concerns where they track and monitor what their users do and use that data for different purposes (mostly ads)

In 2008, Consumer Watchdog produced a video showing how Google Chrome records what a user types into the web address field and sends that information to Google servers to populate search suggestions.

Brave is a browser that is quickly gaining popularity due to built in adblock and the fact that is is faster than Chrome. On top of that in the futures users might be able to gain income through watching ads (BAT usage). On top of that Brave values privacy and anonymity.

Search Engine Alternative - DuckDuckGo

Google is even more dominating in the search engine where it owns over 90% of the traffic. Googles search engine has always raised several privacy concerns connected with usage and trade of personal data, personalized and aggressive ads, heavy censorship and ranking manipulation. Because Google is so dominant it can do all of that without significant repercussions since people are unlikely to switch.

DuckDuckGois an Internet search engine that emphasizes protecting searchers' privacy and avoiding the filter bubble of personalized search results. The filter bubble is based on information about the user, such as location, past click-behavior and search history. As a result, users become separated from information that disagrees with their viewpoints.

Email Alternative - Protonmail

Google, Apple and Microsoft are dominating the email market with their respective email clients. While I already mentioned Google controversies both Apple and Microsoft had their fair share of privacy concerns and since both are huge companies able to collect data it is something to be vary of.

ProtonMail is an end-to-end encrypted email service founded in 2014 at the CERN research facility with just under 5 million users. It concentrates on providing privacy, anonymity and secure encryption.

It's a good alternative to the popular mailboxes and it is also easy to use so definitely something to consider.

Social Networking Alternative - Gab.ai


Twitter is by far the most popular social networking service with over 335 million active users. Twitter had a far amount of their own controversies where several people were banned because of their opinions (mostly conservative or right leaning in terms of politics)

Gab was created in 2016 as an alternative that would allow users banned from Twitter to have their own social network. They currently have around 800k users and the platform seems to be growing.

While there are some controversies surrounding it because of racism and and alt-right focus but ultimately having an alternative and a platform standing for free speech is always good.

Forum alternative - Voat and Steemit


Just like Twitter is dominating one area of social networking Reddit is dominating area that concentrates on the discussions. There is unclear how many users there are but it is by far the most popular 'forum site' on the Internet.

Reddit has been a source of many controversies connected with censorship e