A collection of points / links against the multitude of commonly used proprietary web services. Should be accompanied by a short text for each one to send out or used in arguments. We should also offer alternatives, ideally one best alternative to not confuse. Could be merged into Convince Your Friends.
(For free web services, check CloudComputing and Libre Projects. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has more info on telecommunication safety.)
- is an advertising company
Alternatives
Search Seeks uses Google & Bing indexes but prevents them from tracking you, YaCy is a decentralized web of peers
Docs EtherPad makes it much easier to collaborate and has a lighter interface
Maps OpenStreetMap can be edited wiki-like
Reader NewsBlur, read the original page
prompts you to put in your email address & password, harvests your contacts
- uses your face for advertising
Alternative
Diaspora, other pods at Diasp.eu & Geraspora
- distributed
not primarily a replacement for Facebook but to consolidate services
can be connected to Facebook & Twitter for crossposting
Alternative
Identi.ca is distributed and can be connected to Twitter for crossposting
Dropbox
will remove own encryption for government & might give away your personal info (see 3.)
yes, it has to comply with the law. And that ''is the problem''
kills off an open source project that reveals a security flaw
Alternative
ownCloud can be set up on own server, computer or used from a provider, it only requires PHP and MySQL (or SQLite)