Leaving Big Tech might not always seem easy at first. Where do you begin, and what are actually good alternatives? To help you on your way, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide with alternatives. Here you can find all the steps.

For practically every website or app you need an account and therefore also a password. Often we tend to create passwords ourselves, or use the same password in multiple places. It's easy, but it's also dangerous. Passwords that you make up yourself are often easy to crack and this might mean your passwords will end up leaked. Leaked passwords are collected and sold by hackers. If you are using the same password for different accounts, they are all at risk after one of your passwords has been cracked. Variations on your password are not enough to protect you from this, because hackers are very good at mimicking those variations.

A password manager allows you to generate and save secure passwords. You could see it as a kind of safe where you can store passwords. Also good as an overview for all your accounts. To access your password manager, you use one master password. You have safe passwords for all your accounts, but you only have to remember one.

Also not an unnecessary luxury: choose a second verification tool next to your password. By combining two means of verification, it is more difficult for others to access your account. Even if someone guesses your password or a hacker takes your password, others still cannot enter your account.

You can enable two factor authentication with most services by going to the security settings of the service in question. Often you can use your phone number or an authentication app. For example, an authentication app generates a new code every 30 seconds and this code is valid for 30 seconds. You connect the authentication app to your account once, after which you can enter the code generated by the app when you log in to confirm it is you.

Apple has a standard password app built into MacOS, but that makes you dependent on Apple. We also advise against built-in password managers in browsers. They are usually less secure, device dependent or linked to a Big Tech account like Chrome through a Google account. You luckily do not have to rely on Big Tech to protect your accounts. We recommend the - safe and reliable - password managers and two factor authentication apps that we have listed below. You can install them on all devices to access your passwords anywhere.