Starbroken

The Digital Independence Toolkit

The tools you’ll need to free your life from tech oligarchy.

To help guide you in your journey towards digital independence, NEDII has compiled a list of alternatives to oligarch-controlled software and services in multiple categories. This is by no means an exhaustive list; you have more options than we cover here. If you have questions, concerns, or corrections, please email NEDII administrator Samantha Starbreaker at samantha@starbreaker.xyz.

In most categories, some options will be free software and others will simply be software not controlled by oligarchs. If NEDII has a recommendation in a particular category, we’ll provide that. Otherwise, we strongly recommend using free software when possible; the organizational structure and legalities of free software make it much less vulnerable to takeovers by oligarchs than non-free software.

Web browsers

Browsing the Web is an area where competition abounds, even though most people use Google Chrome. There are plenty of free-software and underdog options, though NEDII recommends Mozilla Firefox at this time.

Ad blockers

The modern Web runs on advertising, but more specifically, on surveillance-based advertising. The ads served on most websites can track you, surveil your online behaviour, and build psychological profiles on you to further target ads (or, to a government agent with a warrant, to target you in other ways). When browsing the Web, you should always use an ad blocker. NEDII recommends AdNauseam, as in addition to blocking ads, it also defangs the ad-tech surveillance network the ads are a part of.

Search Engines

You may have noticed, over the past few years, Google Search has gotten worse at giving you the thing you actually asked for. There are plenty of other search options for you to explore. NEDII recommends using Brave Search at the moment, though its use of “AI” may be a dealbreaker. If so, we recommend Stract, a free and open search engine. Other search engines such as DuckDuckGo and Ecosia exist also, but they use Google’s or Microsoft Bing’s search indices, rather than being truly independent like Stract and Brave.

Office software

Microsoft Office dominates the field, but there is a solid list of competitors not under the control of oligarchs. These options may not have all the features of Microsoft Office, or may have a slight learning curve. NEDII recommends LibreOffice, which has almost all the features of Microsoft Office and is free software.

Communications

Communications is a large category, and unfortunately, the networked nature of most communications software means there tend to be a few large players in the space, rather than a wide-ranging field of options. These are NEDII’s recommendations for online communications that aren’t social media.

Social Media

Social media is tricky at the best of times. Often, you won’t be able to fully leave a social media platform unless all the people you rely on that platform to communicate with leave, too. That said, NEDII strongly recommends against using any of the major oligarch-controlled social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, WhatsApp, Threads) whenever possible.

Operating Systems

If you know what an “operating system” is, you probably already know that NEDII’s recommendation is to switch to a version of Linux. For many people, that may not be feasible. If you’re a Windows user and you don’t believe you’ll be able to make the switch, we recommend using a “debloat” program to remove Microsoft’s spyware, advertising, and so-called “AI” features from your computer.

Laptops

When it comes to computers themselves, NEDII recommends avoiding Apple, Microsoft, Acer, and Dell-branded machines. Other manufacturers such as Lenovo, HP, and Framework Computer tend to produce more repairable computers, and having a repairable computer means you’re less dependent on the manufacturer when you have a hardware failure or an accident.

Smartphones

If you’re in the market for a new smartphone, there are too many options for us to summarize effectively. That said, we highly recommend Android phones over iPhones, and specifically, we recommend looking for phones with an unlocked bootloader. This will enable you to use a version of Android not packed to the gills with Google’s spyware. For a phone that’s already Google-free, we recommend the Fairphone 4: https://murena.com/america/shop/smartphones/brand-new/murena-fairphone-4/

Other “Smart” Tech

Whether it’s a “smart” washing machine or a “smart” lightbulb, NEDII recommends against using “smart” versions of most home appliances and furnishings. If the only options available to you are the “smart” options, we recommend not connecting such devices to the Internet. The computers in these “smart” devices are often highly vulnerable to hacking, and while hackers typically won’t hold your laundry ransom, they can certainly use your washing machine as a launching point for their attacks on other infrastructure.