A tecnologia amigável à privacidade para substituir seu e-mail, navegador e busca baseados nos EUA
Matt Burgess [/author/matt-burgess/]
Security [/category/security]
May 27, 2025 6:30 AM
THE PRIVACY-FRIENDLY TECH TO REPLACE YOUR US-BASED EMAIL, BROWSER, AND SEARCH
Thanks to drastic policy changes in the US and Big Tech’s embrace of the second
Trump administration, many people are moving their digital lives abroad. Here
are a few options to get you started.
Image may contain Electronics Screen Computer Hardware Hardware and Monitor
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Photo-Illustration: Wired Staff/Getty Images
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From your email to your web browsing, it’s highly likely that your daily online
life is dominated by a small number of tech giants—namely Google, Microsoft, and
Apple. But since Big Tech has been cozying up to the second Trump
administration, which has taken an aggressive stance on foreign policy, and Elon
Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)
[https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-digital-coup-doge-data-ai/] has ravaged
through the government, some attitudes towards using US-based digital services
have been changing [https://www.wired.com/story/trump-era-digital-expat/].
While movements to shift from US digital services aren’t new, they’ve
intensified in recent months. Companies in Europe have started moving away from
some US cloud giants
[https://www.wired.com/story/trump-us-cloud-services-europe/] in favor of
services that handle data locally, and there have been efforts from officials in
Europe to shift to homegrown tech that has fewer perceived risks
[https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/16/european-tech-industry-coalition-calls-for-radical-action-on-digital-sovereignty-starting-with-buying-local/].
For example, the French and German governments have created their own Docs
[https://docs.numerique.gouv.fr/login/] word processor to rival Google Docs.
Meanwhile, one consumer poll released in March had 62 percent of people from
nine European countries
[https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/03/Barometre_de_lopinion_publique_europeenne_Cluster17_Le_Grand_Continent.pdf]
saying that large US tech companies were a threat to the continent’s
sovereignty. At the same time, lists
[https://github.com/anitwek/alternatives-to-us] of
[https://european-alternatives.eu/] non-US tech alternatives and European-based
tech options have seen a surge in visitors in recent months.
For three of the most widely used tech services—email, web browsers, and search
engines—we’ve been through some of the alternatives that are privacy-focused and
picked some options you may want to consider. Other options are available, but
these organizations and companies aim to minimize data they collect and often
put privacy first.
There are caveats, though. While many of the services on this list are based
outside of the US, there’s still the potential that some of them rely upon Big
Tech services themselves—for instance, some search engines can use results or
indexes provided by Big Tech, while companies may use software or services, such
as cloud hosting, that are created by US tech firms. So trying to distance
yourself entirely may not be as straightforward as it first looks.
WEB BROWSERS
Mullvad
Based in Sweden, Mullvad is perhaps best known for its VPN
[https://www.wired.com/story/best-vpn/], but in 2023 the organization teamed up
with digital anonymity service Tor
[https://www.wired.com/story/mullvad-browser-vpn-tor-project/] to create the
Mullvad Browser [https://mullvad.net/en/browser]. The open source browser, which
is available only on desktop, says it collects no user data
[https://mullvad.net/en/help/tag/mullvad-browser] and is focused on privacy. The
browser has been designed to stop people from tracking you via browser
fingerprinting
[https://www.wired.com/story/browser-fingerprinting-tracking-explained/] as you
move around the web, plus it has a “private mode” that isolates tracking cookies
enabled by default [https://mullvad.net/en/browser/mullvad-browser]. “The
underlying policy of Mullvad is that we never store any activity logs of any
kind,” its privacy policy says
[https://mullvad.net/en/help/no-logging-data-policy]. The browser is designed to
work with Mullvad’s VPN but is also compatible with any VPN that you might use.
Vivaldi
WIRED’s Scott Gilbertson swears
[https://www.wired.com/story/vivaldi-6-workspaces-tab-management/#:~:text=I’ve%20called%20Vivaldi%20the,of%20managing%20tabs%20dubbed%20Workspaces.]
by Vivaldi [https://vivaldi.com/] and has called it the web’s best browser
[https://www.wired.com/story/vivaldi-4-2021/]. Available on desktop and mobile,
the Norwegian-headquartered browser says it doesn’t profile your behavior. “The
sites you visit, what you type in the browser, your downloads, we have no access
to that data,” the company says [https://vivaldi.com/we-respect-your-privacy/].
“It either stays on your local machine or gets encrypted.” It also blocks
trackers and hosts data in Iceland, which has strong data protection laws
[https://www.government.is/topics/personal-law/]. Its privacy policy says
[https://vivaldi.com/privacy/browser/] it anonymizes IP addresses and doesn’t
share browsing data.
SEARCH ENGINES
Qwant French search engine Qwant [https://www.qwant.com/?l=en] has built its own
search index, crawling more than 20 billion pages to create its own records of
the web. Creating a search index is a hugely costly, laborious process, and as a
result, many alternative search engines will not create an extensive index and
instead use search results from Google or Microsoft’s Bing—enhancing them with
their own data and algorithms. Qwant says
[https://betterweb.qwant.com/en/2023/09/18/web-indexing-where-is-qwants-independence/]
it uses Bing to “supplement” search results that it hasn’t indexed. Beyond this,
Qwant says it does not use targeted advertising, or store people’s search
history. “Your data remains confidential, and the processing of your data
remains the same,” the company says in its privacy policy
[https://about.qwant.com/en/legal/confidentialite/#elementor-toc__heading-anchor-0].
Mojeek
Mojeek [https://www.mojeek.com], based out of the United Kingdom, has built its
own web crawler and index, saying [https://www.mojeek.com/about/why-mojeek] that
its search results are “100% independent.” The search engine does not track you,
it says in its privacy policy [http://www.mojeek.com/privacy.html], and only
keeps some specific logs of information. “Mojeek removes any possibility of
tracking or identifying any particular user,” its privacy policy says. It uses
its own algorithms to rank search results, not using click or personalization
data to create ranks, and says
[https://blog.mojeek.com/2024/08/about-ranking-on-mojeek.html] that this can
mean two people searching for the same thing while in different countries can
receive the same search results.
Startpage
Based in the Netherlands, Startpage [https://www.startpage.com] says that when
you make a search request, the first thing that happens is it removes your IP
address and personal data—it doesn’t use any tracking cookies, it says
[https://www.startpage.com/en/privacy-policy?]. The company uses Google and Bing
to provide its search results but says
[https://support.startpage.com/hc/en-us/articles/4522435533844-What-is-the-relationship-between-Startpage-and-your-search-partners-like-Google-and-Microsoft-Bing]
it acts as an “intermediary” between you and the providers. “Startpage submits
your query to Google and Bing anonymously on your behalf, then returns the
results to you, privately,” it says on its website
[https://support.startpage.com/hc/en-us/articles/4522435533844-What-is-the-relationship-between-Startpage-and-your-search-partners-like-Google-and-Microsoft-Bing].
“Google and Microsoft do not know who made the search request—instead, they only
see Startpage.”
Ecosia
Nonprofit search engine Ecosia [https://www.ecosia.org/] uses the money it makes
to help plant trees. The company also offers various privacy promises when you
search with it, too. Based in Germany, the company says it doesn’t collect
excessive data and doesn’t use search data to personalize ads. Like other search
alternatives, Ecosia uses Google’s and Bing’s search results
[https://support.ecosia.org/article/579-search-results-providers#H1-Where-do-Ecosia-search-results-come-from-Rt6l4]
(you can pick which one in the settings). “We only collect and process data that
is necessary to provide you with the best search results (which includes your IP
address, search terms and session behavioral data),” the company says on its
website [https://www.ecosia.org/privacy]. The information it collects is
gathered to provide search results from its Big Tech partners and detect fraud,
it says. (At the end of 2024, Ecosia partnered with Qwant to build more search
engine infrastructure in Europe [https://blog.ecosia.org/eusp/]).
EMAIL PROVIDERS
ProtonMail
Based in Switzerland, Proton [https://proton.me/mail] started with a
privacy-focused email service and has built out a series of apps
[https://www.wired.com/story/proton-docs-end-to-end-encryption-google-docs/],
including cloud storage, docs, and a VPN to rival Google. The company says it
cannot read any messages in people’s inboxes, and it offers end-to-end
encryption for emails sent
[https://proton.me/support/proton-mail-encryption-explained] to other Proton
Mail addresses, as well as a way to send password protected emails
[https://proton.me/support/password-protected-emails] to non Proton accounts. It
blocks trackers in emails and has multiple account options, including both free
and paid choices. Its privacy policy [https://proton.me/mail/privacy-policy]
describes what information the company has access to, which includes sender and
recipient email addresses, plus IP addresses where messages arrive from, message
subject lines, and when emails are sent. (Despite Switzerland’s strong privacy
laws, the government has recently announced it may require encrypted services to
keep user’s data, something that Proton has pushed back on
[https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/international-geneva/proposed-swiss-surveillance-law-identical-to-russia/89317770]).
Tuta
Tuta [https://tuta.com/], which used to be called Tutanota and is based in
Germany, says it encrypts [https://tuta.com/encryption] email content, subject
lines, calendars, address books, and other data in your inbox. “The only
unencrypted data are mail addresses of users as well as senders and recipients
of emails,” it says on its website [https://tuta.com/privacy-policy], adding
that users’ encryption keys cannot be accessed by developers. Like Proton,
emails sent between Tuta accounts are end-to-end encrypted, and you can send
password protected emails when messaging an account from another email provider.
The company also has an end-to-end encrypted calendar and offers both free and
paid plans.
