GrapheneOS is a derivative of Android which strips out all Google services by default, as no one company should be invasively integrated into a phone operating system. GrapheneOS lets you run Google apps in an isolated sandbox where they can't access anything on your phone. You gain control over every app's permissions, including whether it can access the network at all. Pair this with an app store like F-Droid, with only free and open source apps, and you'll truly own your device while avoiding the garbage on every other modern smartphone.

The installation is extremely simple with their provided guide. All you need is to purchase an unlocked Pixel phone, ideally a Pixel 8 or later.

I think some will prefer this phone over GrapheneOS. This phone indeed runs Linux and is definitely the most private device. You can even run Android apps on this phone if you wish, or leave it completely Linux-based. The phone runs on the SailfishOS Linux Operatiny System, developed openly by the community.

You get a 50MP camera, 12GB of RAM, 256GB internal storage with a micro sd card expansion slot, etc. Needless to say, this is much better than any Android (minus GrapheneOS) or iOS device. Similar to GrapheneOS, this avoids all of the garbage you get on modern phones. The specifications of the device fall a little short from Pixel phones, but are still very respectable.

Navigate to Settings and search for User Profiles. Create a new user and determine what apps and system permissions you want to give them. Disable app installation & update.

Use the Universal Android Debloater tool after entering the new user profile to remove the App Store, default browser, and other apps like Phone and Messaging.

Ensure the new profile is active when your child uses the phone. Look also to FMD in the Software section of this page to learn how to remotely keep track of them.

There's a lot of commands to enter, so I made a small script which creates a restricted user for your child. It allows you to select specific programs and lock down the browser. Once you run this, just have your child log into the system with their name and password you set for them. I also made a video going over this setup if that's easier for you.

You'll find parental controls in both operating systems. They will be generally straight forward, so I won't get into specifics. Again, it's not sensible to use these operating systems unless you absolutely have to. If you have to use Windows or macOS, you should be booting into Linux for everything else.

The downside of running AI locally is that it requires good hardware, really good hardware to get useful stuff done. The benefit, of course, is that your data is not being used maliciously. The only case that I would consider using a cloud-based AI like Claude would be for coding, only because a $1 billion AI datacenter is a lot more powerful than your own computer. Generally speaking, 80-90% of most people's AI work can be done locally. Another great benefit is that you can connect the model to camoufox to enable website searching. It is also possible to connect it to Hermes-Agent to have an AI agent that creates skills from experiences to become "smarter" over time.

I would be very careful with Agentic AI, and I am personally steering clear of it. I know how my system works, I don't want to have an algorithm change my system. I'm much more capable to make changes, especially where I care about the stability and security of my system.

I'll go out and say wholeheartedly that Ring cameras (among others) are some of the worst security cameras you can install. If you want the full deep dive so you understand yourself, watch this. The shortened story is that Ring and likely other "easy to install" security systems are connected to cloud services, providing mass surveillance for governments and companies they partner with. AI tools are masked as a benefit to finding lost dogs, among other terrible capabilities and vulnerabilities found.

The best thing you can do is to self host your own surveillance system. It's certainly requires more of you, but I seriously hope that you realize what the tradeoff is otherwise. This is where Frigate comes in, providing a local AI object detection and 24/7 recording. Hook up a security camera and never look back. Here's a video I made showing how to set this up.

One of the most unnerving things happening today is companies and governments protecting citizens through sole ownership or manufacturing of a piece of technology. It's wild that this is the solution to prevent national security and cybersecurity attacks. A better solution whether foreign made routers are suspicious or not is to run a libre system which is built to be secure and private, along with the ability to read each line of code openly!

It's not too difficult to get OpenWRT running, you just need to ensure your router or one you will purchase is compatible. I made a video going over the installation.

Home Assistant is the name of software which is the endgame smart home system. It's created to be run completely local, which is the only way to truly stay private and own your data. Home Assistant sells their own units to run the system, but you can also run it on a Linux computer. You can integrate this system with thousands of other services. However, you should still stay away from integrations such as Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, etc. By adding those, you are in a way not making a difference running Home Assistant.

Look to Home Assistant Voice, a locally run voice assistant, and even to the Software section of this page for good software which might have some integrations.

Firefox tried to do what Ladybird is doing. While Firefox pledged to not sell user data, they have since retracted this longterm promise. They are no longer the better alternative to the Chrome/Chromium Browser. Ladybird is being built by seven individuals full-time, and another 1,260+ volunteers. Seeing as the browser is one of the most important platforms in computing, it only makes sense to use the browser that values you over money, or anything else.

As of now, Ladybird is still in it's infancy, so the temporary workaround is using the next best alternative, Brave Browser.

Every app on F-Droid is open source and generally much safer than Google Play Store apps. In fact, many apps that exist on F-Droid don't exist on the Play Store.

Any privacy-promoting good app will exist on F-Droid which is what makes it the only good app store.

NewPipe is the best app if you still need to occasionally view a YouTube video or break a bad screen habit. It comes with a very customizable interface, and even allows you to disable the recommended videos which act as an endless feed.

You can also listen outside of the app, if you have a music playlist or podcast you often enjoy. Feel free to download any video you want in nearly any format you want. Say goodbye to YouTube Premium!

Spotube is found on F-Droid, as all good apps are. It interfaces with Spotify, YouTube Music, and others to provide you with the music and playlists you have already. It even has a section that shows your listening statistics! You can also play music from local files.

If all you do is listen to music offline, like me, consider Booming Music. It's a simpler solution.

Filebrowser runs off storage on the same machine you host this service on. So, you can host it on an always on computer at your home, or consider purchasing a VPS for a few dollars a month. It's a much better way to share files to others, have others upload files to you, or even view files remotely. The main reasons to use this over Google Drive are that it's privately managed and you have flexibility over your storage size.

I made a video going over the finer details of setting this up.

The holy grail of find my device apps. Some great features include remote ringing, gps location, and device wiping. You can configure the app to respond to a PIN or only trusted contacts. You can connect to an FMD server to have even more control through a website.

I made a video showing how you can host your own FMD server, which is what I do and would recommend for ultimate privacy.

Conversations is ideally the only app you need for messaging. It's certainly the most secure and extensible. You can run an XMPP server (in the next section) to ensure your chats are actually secure and owned by you.

Of course, you will still need a normal SMS messaging app like QUIK SMS for those individuals not yet on XMPP, which is most. That doesn't mean you can't invite them to join the superior messaging system!

The concept of social media is magical; it gives us the ability to connect with anyone from anywhere around the world. The problem is that the most popular social media platforms are designed to capture your attention, not foster genuine human connection. A paradox emerges: on one hand, there is a strong case for avoiding social media altogether, yet the sheer number of people on these platforms makes them simultaneously the most powerful tool for sharing something with the masses.

So use social media as a tool for direct interaction: respond to comments, start conversations, and engage with your audience deliberately. If staying connected with specific people is the goal, tools like RSS readers are worth exploring. RSS lets you subscribe to someone's content and have it delivered directly to you, without ever opening the app or touching the addictive feed.

RSS is has been around since 1999. It's a web feed that allows you to access updates to a website, social media feed, news, or even shopping website all from one app. This RSS app makes it much easier to keep track of people and sites without having to mess with the addicting modern web.

Many websites have icons such as which indicates a link ready for RSS. Simply copy it and add it to your feed reader. Other sites like YouTube, Instagram, and others have RSS links which can be obtained by using a rss feed uncover website, or by viewing the website's html code for the XML link.

Some of the best Feed Readers are Read You for Android and newsboat for Linux.

SearXNG is what's called a metasearch engine. It's purpose is to provide the most accurate results for your queries as possible. You can select as many search engines as you'd like, which will be used for your searches. Choose between General, Images, Videos, News, Map, Music, It, Science, Files, and Social Media after your initial search to target exactly what you want out.

You can either use a public SearXNG instance, or you can even run your own! It's fairly simple to set up a server from their documentation. Otherwise, here's a video going over setting it up.

This is ideally the only messaging system you should have to use. Of course, because the default of any phone is SMS, RCS, or iMessage, this will likely not be the case. Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is a federated communication protocol meaning that there are hundreds of different servers you can create an account on, or host your own. Similarly, you aren't forced to use one app or website to access your account.

One of the best features about XMPP is that you can send any file or video at its full quality. Not only that, but you can send any file you want. You can directly message people like normal texting, group chat, and voice/video call! Because XMPP is sadly not the standard, you will have to invite your family & friends to join you on XMPP. If you don't want to use another server for your XMPP account, I made this video showing how to set up your very own server.

The only email that is moderately private is one that you run yourself. Your data remains on your own computer, aside from the things you send out, of course. After setting this up, you have a custom email that you own which you can securely view and maintain. You can also use an email client like neomutt to have offline, extensible mail. You can also use the K-9 mail app for a graphical interface with your mail.

Setting up this server is fairly complex, all things considered. There are multiple ways to do it, so I made a video covering all that.

If you can think it, you can do it in Linux. About every program mentioned on this page runs best on linux, and so does your personal computing. You can make the most stable or flashy computer you want. It's also miles ahead of Windows and macOS with regard to privacy. There's no signing into a cloud account or sending your government ID to a private company. With each passing year, Linux is becoming the better Operating System for nearly every task. That's why, despite the huge market share of the two, I can't recommend using macOS or Windows.

Because of the flexibility of Linux, hundreds of "distributions" exist. They all are Linux but differ just in what is preinstalled, how you install packages, and how the system initializes. I chose Void Linux, as it seems to have the best defaults with a focus on system stability over the absolute latest software. I would honestly just use Void Linux and avoid (no pun intended) the so-called analysis paralysis.

I put together a video of installing Void Linux on a computer.