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 A suggested guide/checklist for the very annoying but necessary de-googling process! 



let me know if you would benefit from more explanation/support for anything

This is handled best one step at a time - if it feels overwhelming, you can parse it out!

"pro" tip: give yourself the pleasure of releasing emails and drive files that you don't need to be carrying around with you anymore!

not de-google related, but: turn off your Bluetooth at all times unless you are actively using it!!!
Suggested first steps:
1: switch maps/delete google maps.
2: switch browser and search engine.
3: Sign up for your new email.
→ From there, whatever order makes sense to your brain. For me, I mixed it up between archiving emails, drive, & switching email logins because I'm a bit chaotic 🤪
→ For android users, install Aurora (more below) on your phone before downloading any new apps.

🗺️ Maps → I'm using HERE WeGo, which isn't quite as secure as the other switches I am recommending, however the only alternative I have found that is more secure is OsmAnd (it is open-source*), but TBH I found the user interface and settings not to my liking. Try it out though if you're interested, I might give it a go again. But, HERE WeGo is a European product, and as such it adheres to the much stronger digital security laws in Europe. From what I gather, it is a solid alternative. Both of these apps offer offline map mode which is great too.

🌐 Browser/Search Engine → there are many decent options for browsers!
  • For your computer, I am suggesting LibreWolf as the browser to use because in all the research I've been doing, it feels like the best combo of digital security combined with a nice/easy (at least to me) user interface. LibreWolf is basically just Firefox (an open-source browser that is pretty secure on its own), but with enhanced protection, and a built in ad-blocker. On occasion, some sites will not work with it. I suggest having Brave browser installed as a less secure but still decent alternative for when sites give you trouble. I haven't encountered it much, but it'll come up every once and a while.

    • Search engine: DuckDuckGo comes as LibreWolf's default search engine. It seems to be the best search engine for digital security that also has decent search results. It has a maps feature as well which has reviews, business info & that kind of thing from Yelp. You will need to turn it's AI search result summary & chat OFF in settings - it also has a setting to select ON that filters out AI images (to the best of it's ability) in your search results - love that.

    • I recommend going into LibreWolf's settings, & under 'privacy & security' → 'cookies & site data', adding secure trusted websites into 'manage exceptions' that are 'always allowed'. I have Proton & DuckDuckGo enabled here because if you do not this, it might mean certain selected settings will reset every time the browser is closed. The 'clear browsing data' option should be on, at least for the cookies and site data & temporary cached files and pages.

    • Kind of silly tip: I have multiple times tried to get to DuckDuckGo's settings by pressing LibreWolf's settings, so - just a tip in case your brain does this too - the LibreWolf settings are the 3 lines in the top left hand of the main browser window, the DuckDuckGo settings are only accessible when you actively have search results up, also 3 lines in the top left corner - but the corner of the inner website window, rather than larger browser structure.

  • For your phone, I suggest using DuckDuckGo's browser (which doubles as a search engine also). To disable its AI features you will need to go to 'settings', then to 'AI features', and select OFF Duck.ai, click through to 'search assist settings' select 'never', and 'hide AI images' ON. I also suggest making sure that the "App Tracking Protection" setting is turned ON. It blocks attempts by 3rd party trackers (including Google) from tracking your use across many of your phone's apps. This browser has a built in VPN* if you enable the app tracking protection also, yay! For the first little while of using the browser, it will give you annoying (to me) tutorial kind of animations, but they’ll stop soon enough.

📌 Email/Drive/Docs/Sheets/Calendar → all of these can be switched over to Proton, a Swiss non-profit company with all it's data centers in Europe. Everything is end-to-end encrypted, and does not give or sell any of its user's data. They also have a free VPN. 

  • All of these services are accessible to a free Proton account (it looks confusing when you sign up, like you need a paid account for anything other than email, but you do not). There is much less storage than we are used to with the google machine. Proton funds their work through paid accounts - aka through the users themselves, rather than google who's paid for by using the users as their goods for sale. There is much more power in being the funder, rather than being the product.

    • I recommend saving more things to your computer/external hard drives. A tip I have to increase your storage capacity is to ZIP files you aren't actively using (such as folders of old projects zipped all together). External hard drives can be expensive, but you can buy used/refurbished external hard drives on ebay for some more accessible prices.

    • a different Drive alternative that is encrypted & open source is internxt - for $23/year, you get 1TB (1000GB) of storage!
 
✉️ SWITCHING YOUR EMAIL:
  • you can import your contacts, found in Proton's settings ("Import via Easy Switch" - you can also import your calendar this way!).

  • you can enable auto-forwarding from your gmail account/s ("Import via Easy Switch") to help with the transition before being ready to go 💪full-on deletion💪 of the old email.

  • you can save old emails you wish to keep (in groupings even)! In your gmail, select the emails you want to keep, and from the top menu bar, select "Forward as attachments" from the three-dot button - it will open them as files in a draft email, which you can then send to your new Proton account. Once they are sent, you can download them and then delete them from Proton if they are taking up too much space. These save as EML files, and to open them you will need an email program that can read this file. There is a free open source desktop email program Thunderbird that can read them (you don't need to connect an email to read them, just right click the EML file and open with Thunderbird).

  • Make a list of everywhere that you use your gmail to login to accounts so you can track your progress of switching over logins. I've provided a suggested list of common categories below to help you with this part.

📅 SWITCHING YOUR CALENDAR:
  • This one is easy-peasy. Go to Proton's settings "Import via Easy Switch", and follow the instructions therein!

🗃️ SWITCHING YOUR DRIVE:
  • You can save files and folders from your google drive either individually or as ZIP files in bulk. Left click on a folder, select "download", and it will automatically all be zipped and all it's contents downloaded as one file. To download only selected files, you can select all the files you want by pressing the CTRL button and clicking each file - then you can select "download", and it will auto zip those files together also (you could also SHIFT click to select a string of files that are in a row). I recommend doing this in groupings that feel relevant to one another and give the zip file a name that represents that!

  • If using Proton's drive - when you first open the drive, it will give you "ten minutes of unlimited uploads". I suggest you pull up some stuff before you open the page for the for the first time - it only has the unlimited uploads for files completed downloading in that time, so I suggest just adding them one or two at a time and seeing how much you can get it to upload.

  • if you want to pay for more storage, and don't need the paid Proton plan for other reasons, get internxt!

📑 SWITCHING DOCS/SHEETS:
  • They work very similarly to google's versions of these - but you can only collab with other Proton users on the files. Anyone you invite can view the document though, Proton or not. So far I've found some stuff in sheets to be a bit clunky - but it's newly released, and they are updating it often.

    • If you need to collab with non-proton people, try CryptPad - anyone can join in there (use the 'rich text' style document, because for some reason, the one simply labeled 'document' doesn't have spellcheck and that's silly).

    • I also reccomend LibreOffice as an alternative to Docs/Sheets - a rad, free, open source office suite computer program with some fun user interface customizing options (Tools → Options → Appearance) (my eyes are really grateful to be able to have a soft pink document background). This office suite also has a Slideshow creator. 

📺 Youtube → to access everything on YouTube without Google tracking you and playing ads, etc, there is an open source YouTube player you can use on your computer (both PC/Mac): FreeTube.


  • For Apple phone: Not really any simple and good apps for this. But you can just watch YouTube videos in the DuckDuckGo browser with their 'DuckPlayer' (turn it on in settings) - it's the most secure, but you can't access the comment section it seems. If you want the full YouTube experience, you could download the Brave Browser and use that as a YouTube player app - it blocks adds and is in general pretty secure.

  • But... YouTube alternatives! Even though we can access YouTube privately and and without giving it ad revenue - I think it's ultimately best if we try to put our attention on alternatives. More people using alternatives will support those alternatives to grow and stand a chance at taking down the monolith that is YouTube. Unfortunately, the options are currently fairly slim/lots of cons to the pros. PeerTube is an open source option that seems rather ideal from an ethical standpoint - but it's content right now is quite sparse, especially in English (as it is a French company), and uploading videos seems quite confusing. Vimeo is the choice I'm most recommending right now even though it's not ideal and open source - it does follow EU security practices which are much better than using YouTube for sure - its uploading storage for a free account is quite low however. I'm interested in Open.Video, which is open source, but I can't find many people talking about yet, and it seems to simply be a program for uploading videos which it then seeds to search engine results and lets you embed the videos in your own website.

📝Forms → Lot’s of options with varying pros/cons. CryptPad is encrypted & open source, and it’s free up to 1GB storage, but I don’t love how little design customization there is. Palform is encrypted; its free plan is abysmal in its design customizations, but at $32/yr you can have full customization options. Tally is encrypted and EU data compliant, it seems like the best combo as far as both security and also decent enough design options in its free version - its paid version has lots of customization but is significantly more expensive than Palform’s paid accounts. 


🎉 YOU CAN DO THIS I BELIEVE IN YOU! 🎉 It feels so freeing to be rid of not only that nasty corporation, but also all the old emails and stuff in my drive that I really did not need anymore.


...And now the time comes to DELETE YOUR GOOGLE ACCOUNTS! 😎️

  • Log into your email or drive → click on your profile pic in top left → ‘manage user account’ → ‘data & privacy’ → scroll alllll the way bottom, and….

  • DELETE!


📲 ANDROID USERS: So... Android is unfortunately a Google brand. While it's still best to de-google from all their services/apps, even if you continue to use android - they will still be able to access some of your data, but a VPN and tracking-blocking browser like DuckDuckGo will help mitigate that a lot.

There are, however, different secure and open source operating systems that you can install on your phone! I'm going to save a guide for that process for another time, as it's kind of it's own separate beast which I am still figuring out.

In the meantime, if you do feel compelled to get a phone with a secure OS and happen to be okay with spending a good chunk of change, Open Mobile sells refurbished phones with a secure OS preinstalled, ready to go.

If you continue to use the default Android OS, it doesn't seem to be a problem using it after deleting all your google accounts. And there is an alternative to Google Play:

  • Google Play → Aurora is really great open source play store dupe! It explicitly does not track your downloads/purchases and app usage as Google does, and it accesses all the same apps available to Google Play. I've heard some apps may only allow purchasing with Google Play if you make them from the app itself (but the transaction can go through Aurora, no need to keep Google Play). I have found though, that most apps have an option to do payments directly through them which you could look into on a web browser. Definitely cancel all subscriptions that are going through Google Play unless it's the only option.

    • download it under: Downloads → AuroraStore → Release → select newest file, download it,  & open the file to install!

✔️ ACCOUNT EMAIL SWITCHING LIST: (honestly there have been some places I forgot to change to my new email before deleting my Gmail accounts, and I was still able to switch them, so - it doesn't have to be perfect!)

  • Banks/Credit Cards/Paypal/Cashapp/Venmo, etc
  • Healthcare (healthcare portals/provider's offices, etc)
  • Your job/school
  • Social Media
  • Streaming services (audio/video/podcasts/gaming, etc)
  • Subscription services (Canva/Adobe/Patreon, etc)
  • Shopping accounts (Ebay/Poshmark, etc)
  • Website hosting/Linktree/Square, etc
  • Utilities/phone/internet/insurance


*Open source is a term used for software with its source code is made freely available to the public. It is a decentralized software development model that is non-proprietary, with complete transparent access to how it works and what it does with your data.

*VPN's! A VPN (virtual private network) runs when you are online, enhancing privacy by making your ISP (internet service provider) unable to access the data exchanged. Through encryption, VPNs enhance confidentiality and reduce the risk of successful data mining/tracking. If you encounter a website being broken/blocking you from access, I've found it's most likely to be the VPN, which you can easily toggle off for while you need to access that site. I suggest using Proton's free VPN, the desktop version on your computer rather than the browser one (so it runs independently of your browser, protecting you across programs you use). Another very highly reccomended VPN is Mulvad, which if you want to go the extra mile on digital security - I have read that switching between multiple VPN clients every so often is the strongest way to keep your computer unidentifiable.