Update: added 2 Android OS, 2 phones, a search engine, a map app, 2 blog CMS, and a tool to delete Tweets to list.romainaubert.com

I maintain a list of products that respects people’s data, and are user-friendly. Generally, I add products that are a good alternative to Google’s tools, to help people switch.

I do not have specific requirements yet for products I add to the list. Some are open-source, some are Free/Libre and Open-Source (FLOSS); all products tend to be “user-friendly” so people switching from Google can adopt them.

I just added:

• Android OS: GrapheneOS, LineageOS
• phone: Librem 5, PinePhone
• map: OSMad
• blog: Ghost, Hugo
• other:
  • Semiphemeral, a tool to delete tweets
  • Signal, a MIDI Editor
• search engine: Ecosia*

https://list.romainaubert.com/

*This product is closed-source but they transferred ownership to a foundation. That means Ecosia’s CEO “made a legally binding commitment that: * Company shares can’t be sold at a profit or owned by people outside of the company. * No profits can be taken out of the company.”[^5]

For a product to be open-source is not the quintessential of taking care of people’s data.

Ownership and gouvernance matters.

Back in April 2020, Keybase, an open-source[^3] messaging and file-sharing application, got acquired by Zoom[^2], the video conference company with dire track-record on privacy and security. Here is a brief overview; Zoom[^1]:

• lied when it claimed it used end-to-end encryption,
• collects a tone of data: “including user name, physical address, email address, phone number, job information, Facebook profile information, computer or phone specs, IP address, and any other information you create or upload;”
• sends data to Facebook (even if you don’t have Facebook account);
• secretly displayed data from people’s LinkedIn profiles;
• and is prone to pressure from Chinese governement

NYC even banned its schools from using it for remote classes.[^4]

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