the commenter mentioned e-mail (self-hosted, though i can't control recipients' copies), files (offline drives/tahoe-lafs if needed), and operating systems (mostly debian without binary blobs).

my choices don't necessarily make me feel more secure--just was pointing out that not everyone is already trusting major tech companies with all of their data all of the time.

alternatives that better respect my privacy/rights/autonomy really do exist and people really do have choices. these choices are getting easier to make all the time, too, e.g. owncloud.