PERSONAL TECHTECH THAT CARES
OUR DIGITAL LIVES NEED NOT START AND END WITH
GOOGLE’S FAST-SPREADING TENTACLES. MEET GOOGLE
ALTERNATIVES WHICH PROTECT USER PRIVACY.By NIDHI SINGAL
Illustration by AJAY THAKURIIP address of your device with a virtual
one, making it more difficult for web-
sites to track a browser’s location and
identify. It even tries to block most of
the tracking cookies.CLOUD STORAGE:Degoo
We have embraced cloud storage as the
new technology eliminates the hassle
of storing data on physical drives or the
fear of losing data in case of hardware
failure. If you are on the Google net-
work, the chances are you have access
to 15 GB of free storage space on Google
Drive. But if you want to move away
from Google, try Degoo, a Sweden-
based cloud service that promises to
keep your files safe. Its ‘top secret’ fea-
ture is a secure, bank-like vault where
files are encrypted with a passphrase
known only to the user. These files are
encoded in chunks and kept at data
centres in different countries, and no
single data centre has enough data to
access the entire file. Degoo offers 100
GB of cloud space for free, but a user
must access her account at least once
in 90 days to keep the service activated.
For more storage, you can try Pro and
Ultimate plans starting at a monthly
rate of $2.99 and $9.99, respectively.E-MAIL:Tutanota
If Google’s tracking of Gmail messag-
es to monitor shopping, trips and bills
freak you out, consider switching to the
Tutanota e-mail client. Tutanota is onepreferences without user consent,
DuckDuckGo promises never to do
so; neither does it keep track of your
search history. This US-headquartered
Google rival guarantees a safe search
environment and promises to fetch
unbiased search results. You can make
DuckDuckGo your default search
engine on browsers such as Safari and
Opera. Plus, it has a dedicated browser
for iOS and Android devices. You may
not get as wide and extensive search
results as available on Google, but it
does an impressive job.BROWSER:Opera VPN
Norway-based Opera has taken user
privacy to the next level. This one is
available for desktop and mobiles, and
provides free, unlimited VPN (virtual
private networking) service, unlike
most companies. A quick toggle on the
top of the browser makes it easy to turn
on/off the VPN. This one replaces theTHE BREAKOUT ZONEO WE STILL TRUST
tech giants after the
massive privacy vio-
lation on Facebook?
Virtual assistants are
already under fire
as the likes of Alexa
have been eavesdropping on us all the
while. And the latest threat seems to
come from Google. Its parent compa-
ny Alphabet is reportedly planning to
develop a Toronto neighbourhood as an
epitome of a data-driven smart city and
experts are voicing their concerns about
how personal data can be used to create
mayhem. This is especially worrisome as
Google has masterminded the project.
From search, e-mail, maps and enter-
tainment to hardware and software and
connected technology, this ubiquitous
tech behemoth has rapidly become the
backbone of our digital existence. Now
that Google is planning to track your
every move (via smart city technolo-
gy), it can become a bigger threat than
the average data brokers. Of course,
the Mountain View company says it is
actively mending its ways by allowing
users to delete their location history and
change privacy settings. But in case you
are still worried about privacy breaches,
here is a list of alternative services where
user privacy is said to be sacrosanct.WHERE PRIVACY MATTERS
SEARCH: DuckDuckGo
While most companies store searchD
GOOGLE SAYS
IT IS ACTIVELY
MENDING
ITS WAYS BY
ALLOWING
USERS TO DELETE
THEIR LOCATION
HISTORY AND
CHANGE PRIVACY
SETTINGS