Quitting Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple

At least trying.

In an effort to be more directly pro-union, pro-worker, anti-capitalist, anti-monopoly, anti-billionaire, and anti-oligarch, I’ve been reducing my use of major tech services, specifically the “big five”: Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Apple, Meta (Facebook), and Microsoft.

Amazon proved easiest to leave. After my Prime membership expired, I haven’t purchased anything from Amazon, Audible, or their subsidiaries for almost a year. With the exception of a few things at work, I’m happy that I’ve been able to get my office to reduce Amazon use significantly and got them completely off ULINE.

I’ve shifted to local purchasing whenever possible and found eBay invaluable. This transition has prompted me to buy less, repair more, and question consumption habits that previously required just a few taps.

I switched from Goodreads (which is owned by Amazon now) to StoryGraph and now source books from the three NYC library systems, local bookstores, bookshop.org, and various small ebook and audiobook sellers.

Google presented greater challenges. As a writer who relied on Google Docs and has been a Gmail user since its beta phase, I was deeply embedded in their ecosystem. My first step was moving my primary email to Proton, which offers encryption and comes from a relatively small company. While their political record isn’t perfect, not putting all my digital eggs in one basket feels like a good step.

For writing, I initially transitioned to Notion, which revitalized my creative process with its design, feel, and customization options. But as I went along, they started pushing their AI much more, and I started testing lots of other things. I settled on LibreOffice for daily writing and, as always, I move things to Scrivener when projects get larger.

I’ve adopted the Brave browser and multiple search engines, primarily DuckDuckGo. Though Brave has cryptocurrency connections, most features can be disabled. Extensions and scripts, combined with Proton’s VPN, help eliminate ads and tracking.

With Apple, I’m keeping my iPhone until it fails, as purchasing another tech giant’s phone seems counterproductive. I’ve canceled Apple TV and all app subscriptions except two essential ones.

These changes feel empowering and provide greater flexibility. My old Gmail accounts remain active, forwarding to my Proton email. I’ve downloaded and archived all my Google data and am working to remove what I can from their servers.

Meta is next, though maintaining connections currently takes precedence over principle. Meanwhile, I avoid paying them, block ads, disable tracking settings, and turn off what AI features I can.

The reality is that avoiding tech giants means accepting some inconvenience and higher costs. These companies gain advantages by mistreating workers and busting unions. Billionaires destroy economies to control markets. Still, reclaiming my data and refusing to feed their algorithms and AI systems feels like a meaningful step.