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Privacy resources for the layperson. Highlights resources, tools, VPNs, search engines, articles, books, and dark patterns.

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Protect Your Privacy

Curated privacy resources for the layperson, by a software developer and computer forensics/infosec graduate. Highlights resources, tools, VPNs, search engines, articles, books, and dark patterns. Originally hosted on Tumblr, migrated to GitHub in 2015 to make it easier for others to contribute.

The table of contents is generated using gh-md-toc.

Table of Contents

ℹ️ Feedback

Feedback, issues, and pull requests welcome.

ℹ️ Explanation of the Table Column Titles

  • What: The title of the resource.
  • Where: The link to the resource. The full URL is shown for transparency and to avoid phishing.
  • Why: Why this is recommended as a legitimate tool for privacy.
  • Year Added: This is a quick way for you to see if the resource may be outdated, rather than having to use git blame.

⚠️ Disclaimer

The information and products below is for general information purposes only. Any reliance you place on such information is strictly at your own risk.

I am not affiliated with any of the organisations or products below, except where noted.

General Privacy Tooling Tips

  • Fully open source = peer review, no backdoors.
  • Look for fully open source tools, not just opened encryption implementation etc.
  • European data protection laws tend to be stronger.
  • Watch out for proprietary cores.
  • Before trying a new tool, check that it still exists, is secure (depending on your criteria), and has not been bought/taken over by another body which does not uphold high standards for security and privacy.

Privacy Resources

What Where Why Year Added
have i been pwned? https://haveibeenpwned.com/ "Check if you have an account that has been compromised in a data breach"
How to Make a Clean Break With the Clingiest Social Networks https://www.wired.com/story/how-to-delete-your-facebook-instagram-twitter-snapchat/
Decent Security http://decentsecurity.com/ Start somewhere. Start here.
The Not-Crazy Person’s Guide to Online Privacy www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-07-20/the-not-crazy-person-s-guide-to-online-privacy
Crypto Projects that Might not Suck https://github.com/sweis/crypto-might-not-suck/blob/master/README.md
DeleteMe https://www.abine.com/deleteme/landing.php Opt out of most people search/public background check sites (@SwiftOnSecurity).
Beefing up Privacy https://web.archive.org/web/20170809120204/https://hackernoon.com/beefing-up-privacy-7a749befea32 Why and how I’ve become more concerned about my privacy.
Mac user? Tips and tools to help you protect your data and communications. https://ssd.eff.org/en/playlist/mac-user
Famed Hacker Kevin Mitnick Shows You How to Go Invisible Online https://www.wired.com/2017/02/famed-hacker-kevin-mitnick-shows-go-invisible-online
Kids need to reclaim their data and security… especially at school https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/21/kids-need-to-reclaim-their-data-and-security-especially-at-school/
Adblocking for Internet Explorer without an extension: Enterprise deployment https://decentsecurity.com/adblocking-for-internet-explorer-deployment/ Block ads in IE at your company.
How to Keep Your Internet Browser History Private http://www.teenvogue.com/story/how-to-keep-your-internet-history-private
Request your consumer score and data from Sift https://web.archive.org/web/20191104102015/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/04/business/secret-consumer-score-access.html
PrivacyTools https://www.privacytools.io "PrivacyTools provides services, tools and knowledge to protect your privacy against global mass surveillance." 2020
Block List Project https://blocklist.site/ "We have lists to block ads, scams, porn, malware, ransomware & more..." 2021

General News / Info

What Where Why Year Added
The Intercept https://firstlook.org/theintercept/
Tech Worker Handbook https://techworkerhandbook.org/ "The Tech Worker Handbook is a collection of resources for tech workers who are looking to make more informed decisions about whether to speak out on issues that are in the public interest. " 2021
Enemies of the Internet https://web.archive.org/web/20171124081709/http://surveillance.rsf.org/en/
The 7 Privacy Tools Essential to Making Snowden Documentary CITIZENFOUR https://web.archive.org/web/20150929213238/http://www.angrysummit.com/the-7-privacy-tools-essential-to-making-snowden-documentary-citizenfour
Edward Snowden Explains How To Reclaim Your Privacy https://theintercept.com/2015/11/12/edward-snowden-explains-how-to-reclaim-your-privacy/
OpenSecrets.org http://www.opensecrets.org/ "The Center for Responsive Politics is the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy."
Vanessa Otero's chart about news sources https://twitter.com/vlotero/status/808696317174288387
The Markup https://themarkup.org/ "The Markup is an American nonprofit organization based in New York City, founded in 2018 with the goal of focusing on data-driven journalism, covering the ethics and impact of technology on society." 2020

Tools

AI

What Where Why Year Added
Have I Been Trained? https://haveibeentrained.com/ Upload an image and check if it's been used to train an AI art model.

IM / Messaging

What Where Why Year Added
Signal https://signal.org/ Open source, E2E encryption; desktop, iOS, and Android apps available. Used by Edward Snowden.
[⚠️ Experimental] Ricochet https://github.com/ricochet-im/ricochet "Ricochet is an experimental kind of instant messaging that doesn't trust anyone with your identity, your contact list, or your communications."

Email

What Where Why Year Added
ProtonMail https://protonmail.com/ "Secure email based in Switzerland"
Tutanota https://tutanota.com/ Open source encrypted mailbox.
Lavabit https://lavabit.com/ Back up with a limited release as of January 2017.

Browser

What Where Why Year Added
Tor Browser https://www.torproject.org/projects/torbrowser.html.en
Brave Browser https://brave.com/ "Brave aims to transform the online ad ecosystem with micropayments and a new revenue-sharing solution to give users and publishers a better deal, where fast, safe browsing is the path to a brighter future for the open web."

Browser Plugins

What Where Why Year Added
HTTPS Everywhere https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere "HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox, Chrome, and Opera extension that encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure."
Privacy Badger https://www.eff.org/privacybadger Blocks spying ads and invisible trackers; open source, created by the EFF. Focuses on privacy instead of solely ad-blocking.
uBlock Origin (not "uBlock") https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock Free and open source ad-blocker.

Search Engine (A - Z)

What Where Why Year Added
DuckDuckGo https://duckduckgo.com/ The search engine that doesn’t track you.
StartPage https://startpage.com/ The privacy of Ixquick combined with search results from Google.

Password Manager (A - Z)

What Where Why Year Added
Bitwarden https://bitwarden.com/ Open source password manager. 2023
KeePassX https://www.keepassx.org/ Offline password manager.

Meeting Software

What Where Why Year Added
Jitsi Meet https://meet.jit.si/ Free open-source video conferencing software for web & mobile; no account needed. 2023

Operating System (OS) (A - Z)

What Where Why Year Added
Tails OS https://tails.boum.org/ Portable amnesiac live operating system, aimed at protecting privacy; used by Edward Snowden.
Qubes OS https://www.qubes-os.org/ Uses Security by Compartmentalization approach.

Encryption

What Where Why Year Added
PGP http://philzimmermann.com/EN/findpgp/ Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) is a data encryption and decryption computer program that provides cryptographic privacy and authentication for data communication.

Phone

What Where Why Year Added
Murena https://murena.com/ "deGoogled and privacy by design smartphones and cloud services." 2023
Silent Circle https://silentcircle.com/ Check out their Silent Phone.

Translation

What Where Why Year Added
DeepL https://www.deepl.com/en/translator An alternative to Google Translate. Based in Europe. 2023

Video (A - Z)

What Where Why Year Added

FreeTube | https://freetubeapp.io/ | "FreeTube is a YouTube client for Windows, Mac, and Linux built around using YouTube more privately." | 2024 Invidious | https://invidious.poast.org/ | "An open source alternative front-end to YouTube" | 2024

VPN (A - Z)

What Where Why Year Added
NordVPN https://nordvpn.com/ "NordVPN encrypts your internet traffic and hides your IP and physical location. Works on 6 devices at once, on every major platform." 2020
ProtonVPN https://protonvpn.com/ By the creators of ProtonMail.
That One Privacy Site https://thatoneprivacysite.net/ Not a VPN, but a VPN comparison resource. 2020

Notes (A - Z)

What Where Why Year Added
Standard Notes https://standardnotes.com/ Standard Notes protects your notes and files with 4x-audited industry-leading end-to-end encryption, meaning only you have access to the keys required to decrypt your information. 2023

Networking (A - Z)

What Where Why Year Added
Pi-hole https://pi-hole.net/ "Network-wide ad blocking." 2021
Quad9 https://www.quad9.net/ "An open DNS recursive service for free security and high privacy." 2021

Disinformation (A - Z)

What Where Why Year Added
DISARM Disinformation TTP (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures) Framework https://pi-hole.net/ "DISARM is a framework designed for describing and understanding disinformation incidents. DISARM is part of work on adapting information security (infosec) practices to help track and counter disinformation and other information harms, and is designed to fit existing infosec practices and tools." 2023

Opinion and Entertainment

Opinion Pieces

What Where Why Year Added
CISA AMA with Fight for the Future, Senator Wyden, etc. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3qban2/oh_look_its_that_cisa_surveillance_bill_again/
The coming collapse of surveillance marketing, by Doc Searls http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/vrm/2015/08/03/the-coming-collapse-of-surveillance-marketing/ "It’s about the wanton and widespread harvesting of personal data without permission"
Hacking Team gets hacked http://www.csoonline.com/article/2943968/data-breach/hacking-team-hacked-attackers-claim-400gb-in-dumped-data.html
Ai Weiwei is Living in Our Future https://medium.com/@hansdezwart/ai-weiwei-is-living-in-our-future-474e5dd15e4f
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram sent feeds that helped police track minorities in Ferguson and Baltimore, report says https://web.archive.org/web/20161220193044/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/10/11/facebook-twitter-and-instagram-sent-feeds-that-helped-police-track-minorities-in-ferguson-and-baltimore-aclu-says/
What Yahoo’s NSA Surveillance Means for Email Privacy https://protonmail.com/blog/yahoo-us-intelligence/
Microsoft’s Top Lawyer Becomes a Civil Rights Crusader https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602311/microsofts-top-lawyer-becomes-a-civil-rights-crusader/
Edward Snowden’s New Research Aims to Keep Smartphones From Betraying Their Owners https://theintercept.com/2016/07/21/edward-snowdens-new-research-aims-to-keep-smartphones-from-betraying-their-owners/
How Hired Hackers Got “Complete Control” Of Palantir https://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/how-hired-hackers-got-complete-control-of-palantir "A piece of security software called Little Snitch — which regulates data sent out from a computer to the internet — was installed on one of the information security employees’ laptops, and it flagged the suspicious upload attempt, the report says."
Why I Hate Security, Computers, and the Entire Modern Banking System by Sarah Jeong https://web.archive.org/web/20200109084424/https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/jpg54g/why-i-hate-security-computers-and-the-entire-modern-banking-system
On WikiLeaks, Journalism, and Privacy: Reporting on the Podesta Archive Is an Easy Call https://theintercept.com/2016/10/13/on-wikileaks-journalism-and-privacy-reporting-on-the-podesta-archive-is-an-easy-call/

Comics

What Where Year Added
Into the Abyss: The NSA’s Global Internet Surveillance https://www.aclu.org/infographic/abyss-nsas-global-internet-surveillance

Movies (A - Z)

What Where Genre Year Added
Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry http://www.aiweiweineversorry.com/ Documentary
CITIZENFOUR https://citizenfourfilm.com/ Documentary 2014

Books (A - Z)

What Author Where Year Added
American Spies: Modern Surveillance, Why You Should Care, and What to Do About It Jennifer Granick
Astro Noise: A Survival Guide to Living Under Total Surveillance Laura Poitras 2020
Beyond Fear: Thinking Sensibly about Security in an Uncertain World Bruce Schneier https://www.schneier.com/books/beyond_fear/
Permanent Record Edward Snowden
The Cuckoo's Egg Cliff Stoll
The Smart Girl's Guide to Privacy Violet Blue https://www.nostarch.com/smartgirlsguide

Donate (A - Z)

What Where Why Year Added
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) https://action.aclu.org/secure/donate-to-aclu ACLU Accomplishments, The Successes of the American Civil Liberties Union
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) https://supporters.eff.org/donate/fcc-privacy-rules-s Timeline of Electronic Frontier Foundation actions (Wikipedia)

Dark Patterns

Google

What Where Why Year Added
Please Make Google AMP Optional https://www.alexkras.com/please-make-google-amp-optional/ "I was reading some articles on Hacker News about how we’ve lost the internet to big companies and how we are not doing anything about it and it got me thinking about Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) again."

Meta

What Where Why Year Added
Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/cambridge-analytica-facebook-influence-us-election 2018
Get your loved ones off Facebook., by SaintSal http://saintsal.com/facebook/
Reasons not to use (i.e., be used by) Facebook, by Richard Stallman https://stallman.org/facebook.html
Facebook patent application describes spying on users through their webcams https://www.dailydot.com/debug/facebook-spy-webcam-patent-ads/

Windows 10

What Where Why Year Added
WindowsLies / BlockWindows https://github.com/WindowsLies/BlockWindows "Stop Windows 10 Nagging and Spying. Works with Win7-10"
Windows 10 Is Spying On You: Here’s How To Stop It http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/07/30/windows-10-privacy-settings/
Even when told not to, Windows 10 just can’t stop talking to Microsoft http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/
Microsoft Releases Updates To Spy On Windows 7, 8 and 8.1 Users http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/even-when-told-not-to-windows-10-just-cant-stop-talking-to-microsoft/
Microsoft retroactively removes ability of companies to turn off Windows Store in Pro version of Windows 10 https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/3135657/can-t-disable-windows-store-in-windows-10-pro-through-group-policy