Janet Vertesi, founder of the Opt Out Project

• Janet on Mastodon

• The Opt Out Project by Janet Vertesi

• 21-day Cyber-Cleanse, part of Janet’s Opt Out Project

• Data-Free Disney (2023 piece by Janet Vertesi) - see also companion post with the “why”

• Web browser: Firefox browser from Mozilla (do NOT use Chrome!) . . . alternatively, see the Vivaldi browser and the Duck Duck Go browser

• Email: Tutamail (see also their DeGoogle list), Fastmail, and Proton Mail (do NOT use Gmail!)

• Nextcloud for non-Big Tech cloud storage (do NOT use Google Drive or Microsoft 365!)

• Linux distributions: Zorin OS, which can imitate a Mac or Windows UI, elementary OS (simple UI, reminiscent of OSX), and Ubuntu (see also May 27, 2024 Techtonic on “why we should all switch to Linux”)

• Sailfish phone from Jolla running Sailfish OS. Janet also mentions these deGoogled mobile OS’s: /e/OS, LineageOS, and GrapheneOS (do NOT use a phone running Google Android!)

• Tech Reclaimers (scroll down for Introductory Resources)

• Disney Hit With Record Fine in California Privacy Settlement (Bloomberg Law, Feb. 11, 2026):

Walt Disney Co. will pay $2.75 million in penalties to California, marking the largest settlement under the state’s privacy law.

Disney didn’t fully stop sharing or selling the personal data of its consumers despite their requests to opt out, violating the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Wednesday.

“California’s nation-leading privacy law is clear: A consumer’s opt-out right applies wherever and however a business sells data—businesses can’t force people to go device-by-device or service-by-service,” said Bonta in a press release. “In California, asking a business to stop selling your data should not be complicated . . .”