StartPagedeliversGooglesearchresults withoutcompromising
your privacy
42 11 -26December 2019
GMAIL
Thereare
plentyofobvious
replacementsforGmail,
suchasOutlook.com
(outlook.com)andthe
recentlyredesigned
YahooMail(uk.mail
.yahoo.com).Ifyou’d
prefertoavoidthe
biggertechcompanies,
thentheopen-source
ProtonMail(protonmail
.com)istheideal
solution.Itlooksnot
unlikeGmail–soyou
won’thavetospend
ageslearninghowto
useit–andit’savailable
fortheweb,AndroidandiOS.
ProtonMailisbasedinSwitzerland,
anditsfocusisverymuchonprivacy.
Itoffersend-to-endencryptionand
youdon’tneedtoprovideanypersonal
informationtocreateanaccount.
However,therearesomelimitations
withthefreeversiontobeawareof,
includingacapof1 50 messagesper
day,amaximumofthreefolders/labels,
andjust 5 00MBofonlinestorage.
UpgradingtothePlusplanfor€ 48
(£ 40 .48)ayeargivesyou 5 GBof
storage,1,0 00 messagesperdayand
20 0folders/labels.Seeourworkshop
onpage54tofindouthowtouse
ProtonMail.
Tutanota(tutanota.com)isanother
open-sourcesolutionwhichalso
providessecureemail,offeringend-to-
endencryptionandtwo-factor
authentication(2FA),sothatnobody
canreadthecontentofyourmessages.
Thefreeversiongivesyou 1 GBof
storageandupgradingtoPro for€ 60
(£50.60) ayearincreasesthis
to 10GBandunlock susefulfeatures
including20emailaliases,andacustom
logoandcolours.SEARCH
Googleisthemostpopular
searchengineintheworld(asofJuly
2019 ,ithadan88. 61 %marketshare)for
agoodreason:itdoesafantasticjobof
findingthesitesyou’relookingfor.
Rivals,suchasBing(4.98%)seemvery
poorincomparisonand,anyway,
Microsoftalsotracksandcollectsyour
searchdata.However,it’spossibleto
enjoythequalityofGoogle’sresults
withoutgoingthroughitssearchsite.
StartPage(www.startpage.com)
sourcesitsresultsfromGoogle,but
removesalltrackersandlogs,soyour
searchesremainanonymous.System1/
PrivacyOneGrouprecentlymadea
significantinvestmentinStartPage,but
thecompanyinsiststhatnothingwillbe
changingregardinguserprivacy
(bit.ly/startp 490 )anditwillremain
headquarteredinthe Netherlands.
There’salso thebrilliantDuckDuckGo(duckduckgo.com),whichdoesn’ttrack
you,storeyoursearchesorshareanyof
yourpersonalinformation.
AnotheroptionisQwant(qwant.com),
anexcellentEuropeansearchengine
withafocusonprivacyandneutrality–
itdoesn’tstorecookies,forexample,
oryoursearchhistory.Itsresultscome
fromBing,butarebolsteredwithones
sourcedusingitsownwebcrawlers.
AndroidandiOSuserscandownload
theQwantmobileapp(bit.ly/
qwantmobile4 90 ),whileyoungerweb
users(aged 6 -14)canuseQwantJunior.DOCS/DRIVE
SwappingGoogle’scloud-
storageserviceDriveforanalternative
isn’tdifficultbecausethereareplenty
ofoptionstochoosefrom,suchas
DropboxandBox.However,thosedon’t
comewiththeonlineofficecomponents
foundinDocs.NextCloud(nextcloud
.com)isabetteralternative–afree,
open-sourceservicethatletsyoustore
photos,videos,documents,calendar,
contactsandmoreviaeitheroneofthe
recommendedprovidersoronaserver
athome.Youcanaddonlineoffice
componentssuchasCollaboraOnline
(nextcloud.com/collaboraonline),
aLibreOffice-basedsuitewith
collaborativeediting,andOnlyoffice
(nextcloud.com/onlyoffice),which
offersfullsupportforMicrosoftOffice
formatssuchasDOCXandPPTX.
AnotheroptionisCryptPad
(cryptpad.fr),whichhasitsownoffice
applications–includingarichtext
editor,spreadsheetandpresentation
creator–alongsideencryptedstorage.
Youcanusetheserviceforfreeasan
anonymoususer,whichgivesyou
access to allthe main applications and
limitedaccess to CryptDrive stor age.SWITCHTOALTERNATIVE TOOLS
ProtonMailisanopen-sourcealternativetoGmailthat
encryptsyouremailsCryptPad isagoodoptionfor keepingyouronlinefiles
completely private