Your full software kit for ditching Big Tech in 2026

Your full software kit for ditching Big Tech in 2026 Features (Image credit: Brave) (Image credit: Future) (Image credit: Proton) Krishi Chowdhary published Breakaway in the New Year The new year is just around the corner, and you know what that means? Resolutions and fresh starts! And while that usually applies to fitness or personal goals, it’s just as relevant to your digital life, especially your privacy. Considering the sheer number of shakeups and shocks we witnessed in 2025 - from age verification (particularly in the UK and US) to internet blackouts ( global internet freedoms deteriorated in 2025 ) - it’s understandable if you’re wondering how to level up your privacy in 2026. Luckily, the solution isn’t all that complicated. The bottom line is this: step away from Big Tech and reduce the amount of data it has on you. How do you do that? That’s exactly what this article will cover. We’ll walk you through some of the best tools to help you limit data harvesting, browse more privately, and protect your personal information. 1. Brave With over 3.8 billion active users, Google Chrome is undoubtedly the most widely used web browser in the world. And while it can be curated to better respect your privacy, it’s very data-hungry by default, which makes it worth looking at alternatives like Brave that are built from the ground up with privacy in mind. Brave’s privacy policy clearly states that it doesn’t track your online activities or collect your data - let alone sell it to third parties for profit. In fact, it comes tuned for privacy right out of the box. Without having to change a single setting, the Brave browser automatically blocks third-party ads, cross-site trackers, and third-party cookies. It also supports fingerprint randomization , which, simply put, makes you online presence appear different to different websites. As a result, ISPs and web services can’t easily build a detailed profile about you. For an extra layer of anonymity, the browser even integrates Tor . By default, it also uses Brave Search - the company’s privacy-centric search engine that doesn’t profile users in the same way Google and Bing do. Brave’s privacy-first approach doesn’t mean it skimps on usability features Brave’s privacy-first approach doesn’t mean it skimps on usability features. If anything, there are several here that you won’t find on Chrome or elsewhere. For example, it has a privacy-focused video conferencing feature called Brave Talk, which you can use to make unlimited free one-to-one video calls without having to create a separate account. There’s also a built-in web page translation function, and Brave’s integration with the Wayback Machine helps you dig up archived versions of missing web pages. Finally, to keep things forward-looking, Brave includes an AI assistant called Leo, which can summarize web pages, answer questions about on-page content, and more. Of course, you can also tinker with the browser’s colors and background to tailor it to your preferences. Also, since both Brave and Chrome are built on...

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