💿 My Privacy-Focused, Algorithm-Lite Tech Stack

Amelia HrubyHello, and welcome to Off the Grid, a podcast about sharing your work and making money online without selling your soul to the algorithms or the big tech companies that surveil us and make billions of dollars by selling our data to advertisers? I'm your host, Amelia Hruby. And on this show, I talk about a lot of things, but mostly how to run a creative values aligned business with radical generosity and energetic sovereignty. I share stories, strategies, and experiments from my past decade of making content and being self employed on the internet. And I talked to a lot of really amazing guests who are finding their own ways down this path.

We're currently in season nine of the show and this season, every Wednesday, I share an interview with an amazing person. And on Fridays, I'm sharing these bonus mini sodes. And today's episode is a really fun one because I'm gonna be telling you all about my privacy focused algorithm light tech stack. Now, if you're just getting to know me, it's probably helpful to hear that I started my journey stepping back in a way from social media and big tech sometime back in 2020. That's when I first encountered Shoshana Zuboff's work on surveillance capitalism.

And I started to learn about the ways that the social media apps that I used and loved were tracking what I was doing online and using that information to manipulate my behavior to get me to buy stuff. And once I understood that process, I started to see it everywhere. And it started to bother me with so much of the tech that I used online. It wasn't just social media. It was also Google.

It was also Amazon. And over the course of the next few years, I decided to break up with all of those platforms to the extent that I could. So if you listen to last week's minisode, you heard me talk about the difference between a platform and a tool. I think tools are things that we use to solve a problem. So, you know, if I need to send some emails and I need an email address, Gmail is a tool for me.

Conversely, platforms are places we go to gather. For business owners, they like connect the business owner with the end user through the platform interface. So that'd be something more like Instagram. Instagram can solve a lot of problems, but there was no problem I had that made me go to Instagram. I went there because I wanted to see what other people were doing.

I wanted to connect. I wanted to be in the place that everybody was hanging out, right? So when I started to interrogate Google, Meta, Amazon, I started to think about the difference between a tool and a platform. And for the things that actually were tools that I was using in my everyday life, I started to find like swaps or alternate tools for those things. I first went through this process in 2021 when I left social media.

At that point in time, I wrote a piece about how I was leaving Instagram, Google, and Amazon. And in that, I explained like which tools I had been using and which alternates I was going to try out at the time. And that worked for a while. I got off of Instagram entirely and I haven't been on there for years. I stopped using Gmail and Google Drive.

I canceled my Amazon Prime account. I moved my stuff off Goodreads and I felt good about all those choices. But I definitely noticed over time that some of those tools started to sneak back into my workflows, particularly Google search, to be honest. Like when I initially was breaking up with Google, I was like, I'm gonna use DuckDuckGo. I'm gonna use Ecosia.

And I just found that time and time again, was going back to Google search to get like exactly the result that I wanted. I was able to stick with some of the switches. I still don't have an Amazon Prime account. I still don't use Google for my email. But with the ones that crept back in, there was a point last year where I wanted to recommit, and I wanted to reconsider.

What are the tools that I'm using? How do I feel as much alignment as possible between myself and the tools and platforms I use to do my work? So last summer, I taught a class called Opt Out. And in that class, I walked through a series of mindset shifts and commitments that you have to make to really go on this journey. I talked about all the different things that Meta, Google, and Amazon do and the tools that they run across the Internet because there's a lot of them, you know, like Google owns YouTube.

That's a really big, still sticky one for me. I taught a process for five steps to quit any tech and then provided resources and worksheets for actually moving through a tech swap. And as a group in the class, we curated a really extensive list of alternate tools. So if you didn't wanna use things by Meta, Google, or Amazon, but you needed, for example, a way to track your reading or a newsletter platform or an email inbox, what were other possibilities for you? So all of that is inside the opt out class.

You can actually still purchase that on the Off The Grid website. It's only $49. There's a lot of great stuff in there, and I'll link to it in the show notes. But in today's episode, what I wanted to do is just offer you a quick peek at my personal tech stack. What are the tools that I use and explain a little bit about why I picked the ones that I picked?

So I'm going to share my privacy focused algorithm like tech stack. I'm gonna talk about the different types of tools that I need in my work and the ones that I have chosen, particularly around an Internet browser, email, search, what I use for docs and dashboards, as well as messaging and music. And that's less about my work and just more about fun. So I'm gonna walk through those categories, what are the tools I use, and why I picked them. I will probably also say some reasons I didn't pick some of the other tools that are out there in case you're considering them yourself.

And as I head into this, I just wanna be clear that I care about privacy in all aspects of life, but particularly online. I do not want to be surveilled, and I no longer want to opt in to this like, if the service is free, you are the product mindset. I no longer want to just hand over so much of my data in order to use a service. And so as I've been choosing tools and realigning my tech stack, that has been my focus. At the same time, I am not a tech developer or coder.

So I need nontechnical software that's relatively easy to use. It's not gonna work for me if I have to run Linux to use it. It's not gonna work for me if I gotta go to GitHub. I don't actually know how to do that. I'm sure I could learn, but honestly, building even more online skills is not a super high priority for me right now.

I'm, like, trying to learn more in my garden, not more on my laptop. And so it is important to me that these tools be privacy focused, but also that they are really usable for a nontechnical person, at least someone who's nontechnical like me. I also really care about tech founder values, and I want to align with folks I respect. So as much as possible, I don't wanna have to use tools where I'm like, yeah, that person sucks, but I'm using it anyway. This is something I talked a lot about in my platforms episode last week, and there are certainly places where I still have to compromise.

Right? I talked about Riverside in that episode. I also always talk about how so much of the Internet is run on AWS or Amazon Web Services. So if I wanna use Squarespace, which I do, I'm gonna have to use Amazon Web Services. So I always wanna underscore that there is no moral purity in choosing these tools.

I just think there's no purity on the Internet. The same way people say there's no ethical consumption under capitalism. I think there's no pure experience of the Internet. And I'm willing to sit in that discomfort or sit with that misalignment. It's a part of being a human being and being a person online.

But again, the things that do matter to me privacy, our usability for nontechnical people, our tech founder values, and aligning with people I respect. And for that reason, that last reason, I also like don't wanna be flooded with AI in my tech stack. I'll be sharing more this year about like why I'm not interested in using generative AI and chatbots and GPTs. And as we see more and more and more tools integrate and foreground AI, including a lot of things they call AI that, like, aren't really AI. They're just algorithms, the same old things we've had for years.

Like, I understand that is happening, and I'm not willing to, like, get off the Internet to avoid it entirely. But I am trying to divest from some tools that are going all in on AI. I've really seen this with, some browsers and some email clients, and they're really pushing AI. Even Notion, my love, is really pushing AI. And I'm not interested in spending more time on tools that are doing that.

Like, I understand it's happening. I understand. I think to some degree it's unavoidable, but I'm trying to align with people who are still thinking of the Internet differently and who are being careful and thoughtful in their approach to AI, not just plastering it all over their software or services. So those are my priorities as I have built this tech stack. And I will say from the outset, again, like, those are my priorities.

You may have different priorities, desires, and needs. And this episode is just me sharing what I am using and what works for me. This is not a comprehensive list of, like, every possible option. So please don't come at me and be like, oh, you use this, but, like, have you heard of this, this, this, this, and that? It's quite likely I might have.

And in fact, inside of Opt Out, we have a list that includes a lot of this, this, this, this, and that. So if you're interested in that side of it, if you want a whole bunch of options, if you wanna learn many more frameworks for how to make these decisions, please go purchase Opt Out. That's a great affordable class where I walk through so much more than this. But for now, let's dive in to my personal privacy focused algorithm light tech stack. Okay.

Let's talk about web browsers first. So many, many years ago, I was a hardcore Google Chrome user. I loved it. I was all in on Google for a very long time. But when I made that switch in 2021 and I decided to break up with Google, I needed to find a new browser.

And at that point in time, I experimented with Firefox and Brave. Firefox is like a really amazing browser. It's owned by Mozilla, which I really respect their approach to the Internet. And I really wanted it to work for me, but honestly, it just didn't. Too many of the apps and services I use were becoming Chrome only, like my podcast recording software and other things.

And it was just really hard to get into Firefox. So I originally chose Brave as my browser, and I still use that for things that really rely on those Chrome apps because Brave is based off of Chromium, which is like the underlying, I don't even know, structure or code that Chrome uses. But Brave uses that without all of the tracking and that Google puts into Google Chrome. So I think Brave is a great browser if you just truly want a straight translation from, I don't wanna use Google Chrome, but I wanna use something that really feels like it. Over time, I started to feel like Brave was getting more interested in AI, and they also have a whole, like, crypto integration built in.

So Brave will serve you ads, and if you click on them or look at them, you can earn their, like, crypto token. And I did that for a few years. And I even traded those crypto tokens in for gift cards and things. And I thought that was novel for a while, but it just started to feel less and less interesting, less and less aligned. I also learned that one of the cofounders of Brave has some really questionable politics and has donated to some anti LGBTQIA plus campaigns.

And so I wanted to move away from Brave. Again, it is still a tool I use sometimes in my work, but the browser that I'm using more and more often now is called Orion. Orion is a browser created by a search company that I'm gonna talk about in a moment, and it's really privacy focused. It integrates that company's search engine, and I'm really enjoying it. So the current browser I'm using the most is Orion with some use of Brave as well.

A few other recommendations for browsers. Again, Firefox is a really great one. I have used Vivaldi in the past. I really like that Vivaldi has made statements that they're not going all in on AI, but the interface just isn't quite for me, I think, and that's why I prefer Orion. And then also, if you want a really privacy focused browser, you're probably gonna wanna use Tor, t o r.

So that's my browser tech stack. I realized I told you I was just gonna say what I'm using, not all the options, then I just gave a ton of options. But I'm currently using Orion, and these others are ones you could consider for your own needs if you want to step away from Google Chrome or what's the Microsoft one? Microsoft Edge? I don't know.

I'm a MacBook user, so I don't use any of the Microsoft stuff. Final note on browsers. When you are using a browser, I highly recommend also using a VPN. This will more thoroughly protect and hide your web traffic from anyone who may be surveilling like your Internet company. So I like the Proton VPN.

And I think that it's really important to be thoughtful when you choose a VPN because the VPN is the company that is like masking to some degree your web browsing. And some VPN companies collect all that data and they keep it and they even monetize it for themselves. So when you're choosing a VPN, you really need to choose one that you trust to either be maintaining or just deleting your data. And that's why I like Proton because they are consistently the most privacy focused company that I can find online or one of the most. And so I always recommend their VPN.

And I actually got it as part of my email plan. So I'll talk about email next. When I left Gmail, I needed another email client. I needed someone to give me an email address where I can send and receive emails. And so I chose ProtonMail.

This has consistently been my favorite email client. I use it for all of my personal stuff, and I love it. I even have an affiliate link for it in the show notes. So if you wanna try out ProtonMail, please head to the show notes, grab my link. I highly highly recommend it.

I also use Zoho mail. So this is not a privacy focused company, but it is what I use for my work email because it's incredibly inexpensive. If you want to leave Gmail, if you're stuck in there like business suite and you're tired of spending so much money and getting all of the AI suggestions in there, you can have an email address on Zoho mail with your website on it, a personal email address for less than $10 a year. It's so inexpensive, and that's why I picked it. Because I wanted a basic email client that I could set up my softer sounds email with.

Now I even have an off the grid email set up in there, and I will say that the thing I've had to do is get really good at using filters to move email into different places. There is no, like, promo folder or newsletter folder or thing that's automatically set up in Zoho, but I really like that. I don't want an algorithm deciding where my email goes. I wanna be able to use filters to send things where I want. So my email clients of choice are ProtonMail, which I use for all of my personal email, and Zoho, which I use for my business.

Again, it's not privacy focused, but it's very affordable. Up next, I wanna talk about search. So I have spent a long time trying to find search engines. And as I said before, when I stopped using Google, I tried to move to DuckDuckGo. And at the end of the day, I just didn't think the results were good enough.

And I ended up sliding back to Google. And I just used Google search for everything even in my more privacy focused browsers. But this year, I read Cory Doctorow's book, Incitification. And in that book, he talked about a search engine that he pays to use. And I was so curious.

I was so, so curious because he explained that this search engine was also largely built off of like Google search database. Like they, I guess, pay Google to be able to use that as well as integrate others. So they're using the same architecture of the Internet or they're searching the same architecture of the Internet. But when you pay $50 a year with this search engine, you don't see any ads. There's no AI pumped in.

You can get AI results if you end your search in a question mark. So if you ask it a question, they'll give you an AI response. But if you don't use a question mark, they won't put AI in it. And I am obsessed. So this search engine is called Kagi, k a g I.

I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly. Kagi, Kagi. And I love it. I got myself an account. My I use it.

My partner uses it. And now that I'm in there and I'm experiencing search again with no ads, when I have randomly accidentally googled something, I hate it. I'm like, this is so bad. There's so many ads pumped in. The AI results are horrible.

Like, I cannot say enough that having that stripped out has been so great for me. So I will link to that search engine in the show notes as well as an interview with the founder about why paying for search is worth it. I don't have an affiliate code or anything for this. I just want to highly highly recommend that you consider trying out and using Coggy. Alright.

Up next in my business tech stack is sort of the category of docs and dashboards. Like, where do I take notes? Where do I put databases? Like, how do I do my work day to day? And if you've listened to this podcast or been in my world at all, you probably know that I love Notion.

Notion is where I built out the entirety of Softer Sounds. My whole business lives in there. And it has been really unfun, frustrating for me that Notion has gone all in on AI and has integrated it so much in their platform into the tool. But I learned last year that you can if you have a Notion account, you can email them, reach out to their support team, and ask them to turn off AI in your account. And I finally did this in January.

I literally like watched the AI icon disappear from my Notion at home, and I was like, this is amazing. So I use Notion, and I love Notion. That said, Notion is not a privacy focused tool. I think their terms and conditions are pretty straightforward. They don't like train their stuff on your data unless you ask the AI to do that.

They're not invested. They're not like reading everything you do there. But I do think it's important to know that like this is not a privacy focused tool. And I don't use Notion for my personal life. I only use it for work.

So I am okay with that trade off. I'm okay with not having the most private tool for all the work stuff that I'm doing. I'm not tracking my cycle mood or anything like super personal in there. Don't have my financial information, at least personally in there. I don't have any my bank accounts in there or anything.

So I'm okay with having a not so privacy focused tool for my work dashboards and docs. But if you'd like something like Notion that is more privacy focused, I would recommend any type. Any type is private, end to end encrypted, and local. So it's stored on device. So if you want a sort of Notion alternate that is much more private or privacy focused, that's what I would recommend.

And, you know, honestly, I'm just using a lot more paper and planners and just, like, literally writing on the page again this year. When I did all of my close biz friends one on ones in January, I literally just got a stack of printer paper, and each person got one side of the page, and I did notes for everyone. And I have found it so much more useful to, like, flip back through those notes than to, like, build a personal database and try to find each person's notes inside of Notion. So I don't know. I guess I'm into writing by hand again.

I'm into paper again, and that's making this feel a little less like integral to my ecosystem. Alright. Two more categories before I go. The next one is messaging. So if I could get you to do one thing from listening to this episode, which I can't get you to do anything, you get to make your own choices.

But if I could get you to move all of your texting to Signal, I would consider that a huge win for all of our privacy. Signal is a privacy focused messaging app, and they talk often about how the way it's privacy focused is they don't store anything. So if they get subpoenaed, they have nothing to share because they are not storing your information. It is encrypted on device. They are not tracking you, and they are not storing it so that they can never hand it over to police or government surveillance.

I understand that a lot of us are just sending memes to our friends, but I think it's more and more important, especially as we see the rise of fascism or just the complete presence of fascism in The US, to be considering how we are talking to each other. Signal feels like any other texting app. You can truly use it like SMS or iMessage or anything, but it's fully encrypted. It also has stories. You can actually do video stories on Signal so you can use it as your close friends list.

If you're in the practice of like DMing people stuff and putting things on your story to tell your friends things, if you get everybody moved into Signal, then you can do that there. So I highly recommend Signal, use it, get your friends to use it. And I wanna say here, just wanna say, I do not think you should trust Telegram or WhatsApp. WhatsApp is literally owned by Meta, and there's been reporting this year that even though they claim it's encrypted, they still have access to your messages. So I don't trust them.

Why would we trust Meta? We know better than to trust Meta. So if you wanna use WhatsApp because you like it, cool. But I would not recommend trusting the privacy. Telegram has had similar issues.

They are not privacy focused. So I just recommend everybody get on over to Signal. And I'm also gonna link in the show notes an interview with Signal's it's not founder. It's like president or something, Meredith Whitaker. She is amazing.

She has really great thoughts about why Signal matters, concerns about AI, etcetera. So I'm gonna link an interview with her from the four zero four media podcast in the show notes so that you can tune in and learn more about this tool for yourself. And then my last category here is music. So So at the beginning of 2025, I decided that I wanted to stop using Spotify. I actually talked about this with my friend Taylor on our monthly podcast, and I went through the process of moving all my music listening over to Apple Music.

And I did that for all of last year. But at the end of last year, I realized I was just tired of paying for a streaming service. And so I spent some time moving things over to Kobuz, which is spelled k o b u z. It pays the best of the streaming apps. It's got a great experience.

The people who work there seem to really love music because the platform is very curated, like super thoughtfully. It does not feel like it's all algorithmically done nor like they are pushing AI music at you. I they definitely don't embrace AI music on the platform like Spotify does. So I do really like and highly recommend Kobuz. But for me at this point, I have mostly given up on streaming music, and I'm just listening to things that I've bought on Bandcamp.

I buy music from independent artists on Bandcamp. I have the app on my phone. I can download and stream things from there. And so I'm kind of just listening to like an album at a time. I'm doing much less of the like Spotify listening than I used to.

I do still have a Spotify account because I need it for some client stuff, softer sounds, but that could change over the course of this year. And I may fully cancel that by 2027. So we'll see. And that's it, my friends. That was my privacy focused algorithm light tech stack.

To very briefly recap, the web browser I use is Orion. The email client I use is ProtonMail, but also Zoho for work. For search, I use Kagi. For dashboards and daily workflows, I use Notion. For messaging, I use Signal.

And for music, I use Bandcamp. That's it. That is my personal privacy focused algorithm light tech stack. Now, of course, there are some other tools that I use in my business. This is not all of them.

I use Substack, but I'm moving to Ghost. I like to use Arena and sometimes Sublime to save and bookmark things. I currently use Dubsado for my invoicing. Although I think I may step out of that tool at the end of this year, I just don't need all of its functionality. I like TidyCal for an inexpensive calendar tool.

I use Tally for all of my forms and surveys. So like there's, I guess, much more to the tech stack itself. But in this episode, I really wanted to focus on the things where I think privacy matters, and I'm locating that through the things where I think we're most surveilled or in some instances like music where people are just really concerned with like what tool they're using right now. So I think that like I don't want people surveilling what I'm searching on the Internet, what's happening in my inbox, or the text I'm sending to friends. That's why I think it's really important to focus our privacy on browser, search, email, messaging.

The other pieces, docs and dashboards, music, like those I would say are like secondary level. That's where I go next. But if you can get your browser email search and messaging more tightened up, more privacy focused, you'll be doing a lot to remove surveillance and behavioral manipulation from your Internet experience. So I hope this episode was helpful. If you want more support, please go sign up for the opt out class.

That's where I'll walk you through everything. And if you take that class, you can also there's a form to reach out to me about other tech swaps if you want more support finding something else for you. So thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of Off The Grid. Thank you so much for supporting the show. I will be back next week with another amazing interview.