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A curated list of privacy & security-focused apps, software, and providers 🔐
Intro
Large data-hungry corporations dominate the digital world but with little, or no respect for your privacy.
Migrating to open-source applications with a strong emphasis on privacy and security will help stop
corporations, governments, and hackers from logging, storing or selling your personal data.
Bitwarden - Fully-featured, open source password manager with cloud-sync. Bitwarden is
easy-to-use with a clean UI and client apps for desktop, web and mobile. See
also Vaultwarden, a self-hosted,
Rust implementation of the Bitwarden server and compatible with upstream
Bitwarden clients.
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KeePass - Hardened, secure and offline password manager. Does not have cloud-sync baked
in, deemed to be gold standard for secure
password managers. KeePass clients: Strongbox(Mac & iOS), KeePassDX(Android), KeeWeb(Web-based/ self-hosted),
KeePassXC(Windows, Mac & Linux), see more KeePass
clients and extensions at awesome-keepass
by @lgg.
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LessPass - LessPass is a little different, since it generates your passwords using a hash
of the website name, your username and a single main-passphrase that you reuse.
It omits the need for you to ever need to store or sync your passwords. They
have apps for all the common platforms and a CLI, but you can also self-host it.
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Padloc - A modern, open source password manager for individuals and teams. Beautiful,
intuitive and dead simple to use. Apps available for all platforms and you can
self-host it as well.
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ProtonPass - From the creators of ProtonMail, ProtonPass is a new addition to their suite of
services. They have a full collection of user-friendly native mobile and desktop
apps. ProtonPass is one of the few "trustworthy" providers that also offers a
free plan.
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Password Safe - An offline, open source password manager designed by Bruce Schneier, with native applications for Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android and iOS, and support for YubiKey. The UI is a little dated, and there is no official browser extension, making is slightly less convenient to use compared with other options
PassBolt - A good option for teams. It is free, open source, self-hosted, extensible and OpenPGP based. It is specifically good for development and DevOps usage, with integrations for the terminal, browser and chat, and can be easily extended for custom usage, and deployed quickly with Docker
1Password - (proprietary) A fully-featured cross-platform password manager with sync. Free for self-hosted data (or $3/ month hosted). Be aware that 1Password is not fully open source, but they do regularly publish results of their independent security audits, and they have a solid reputation for transparently disclosing and fixing vulnerabilities
2FAS - Free, secure and open source authenticator app for both iOS and Android.
Supports creating encrypted backups and syncing between devices without the need for an account.
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Aegis - Free, secure and open source authenticator app for Android. Has a backup/
restore feature and a customisable UI with dark mode
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Authenticator Pro - Free and open-source two factor authentication app for Android. It features
encrypted backups, icons, categories and a high level of customisation. It
also has a Wear OS companion app
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Tofu - An easy-to-use, open-source two-factor authentication app designed specifically
for iOS
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Authenticator - Simple, native, open source 2-FA Client for iOS, which never connects to the
internet - built by @mattrubin.me
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WinAuth - Portable, encrypted desktop authenticator app for Microsoft Windows. With
useful features, like hotkeys and some additional security tools, WinAuth is a
great companion authenticator for desktop power-users. It's open source and
well-established (since mid-2010)
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Authenticator GNOME - Rust-based OTP authenticator. Has native With GNOME Shell integration. Also
available through flathub.
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Authenticator CC - Authenticator Extension is an in-browser One-Time Password (OTP) client,
supports both Time-Based One-Time Password (TOTP, specified in RFC 6238)
and HMAC-Based One-Time Password (HOTP, specified in RFC 4226).
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Ente Auth - Ente Auth is a free and open-source app which stores and generates TOTP tokens.
It can be used with an online account to backup and sync your tokens across your
devices (and access them via a web interface) in a secure, end-to-end encrypted
fashion. It can also be used offline on a single device with no account necessary.
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📦 Open Source ˙
✳️ Notable Mentions
OTPClient(Linux), gauth(Self-Hosted, Web-based), Etopa(Android) For KeePass users, TrayTop is a plugin for managing TOTP's - offline and compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux.
ℹ️ Further Info
Check which websites support multi-factor authentication: 2fa.directory
VeraCrypt - VeraCrypt is open source cross-platform disk encryption software. You can use
it to either encrypt a specific file or directory, or an entire disk or
partition. VeraCrypt is incredibly feature-rich, with comprehensive encryption
options, yet the GUI makes it easy to use. It has a CLI version, and a portable
edition. VeraCrypt is the successor of (the now deprecated) TrueCrypt.
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Cryptomator - Open source client-side encryption for cloud files - Cryptomator is geared
towards using alongside cloud-backup solutions, and hence preserves individual
file structure, so that they can be uploaded. It too is easy to use, but has
fewer technical customizations for how the data is encrypted, compared with
VeraCrypt. Cryptomator works on Windows, Linux and Mac - but also has excellent
mobile apps.
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age - age is a simple, modern and secure CLI file encryption tool and Go library.
It features small explicit keys, no config options, and UNIX-style composability
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Picocrypt - Picocrypt is a very small (hence Pico), very simple, yet very secure encryption tools
that you can use to protect your files. It's designed to be the go-to tool for encryption,
with a focus on security, simplicity, and reliability.
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⚠️Word of Warning
Where possible, choose a cross-platform and well established encryption method, so that you are never faced with not being able to access your files using your current system. Although well-established encryption methods are usually very secure, if the password is not strong, then an adversary may be able to gain access to your files, with a powerful enough GPU. If your system is compromised, then the password may also be able to be skimmed with a keylogger or other similar malware, so take care to follow good basic security practices
✳️ Notable Mentions
AES Crypt - A light-weight and easy file encryption utility. It includes applications for Windows, Mac OS, BSD and Linux, all of which can be interacted with either through the GUI, CLI or programatically though an API (available for Java, C, C# and Python). Although it is well established, with an overall positive reputation, there have been some security issues raised recently.
CryptSetup - is a convenient layer for use on top of dm-crypt. EncFS is a cross-platform file-based encryption module, for use within user local directories. geli is a disk encryption subsystem included with FreeBSD.
BitLocker - is popular among Microsoft Windows and enterprise users, and provides fast, efficient and (if correctly configured) reasonably secure full drive encryption. However it is not open source, has poor compatibility with other operating systems, and has some very dodgy defaults, which could lead to your system being compromised. Similarly, Apple's FileVault on MacOS is easy and secure, but again, the source code is proprietary.
DiskCryptor - Windows-only, open source, file and volume encryption solution,
that makes a good alternative to BitLocker.
LibreWolf - LibreWolf is an independent fork of Firefox that aims to provide better default
settings to improve on privacy, security and user freedom. Mozilla telemetry is
disabled, ties with Google (Safe Browsing) are severed, the content blocker
uBlock Origin is included and privacy
defaults are guided by research like the
Arkenfox project.
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📦 Open Source ˙
Brave Browser - Brave Browser, currently one of the most popular private browsers - it provides
speed, security, and privacy by blocking trackers with a clean, yet fully-featured
UI. It also pays you in BAT tokens for using it.
Brave also has Tor built-in, when you open up a private tab/ window.
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Firefox - Significantly more private, and offers some nifty privacy features than Chrome,
Internet Explorer and Safari. After installing, there are a couple of small tweaks
you will need to make, in order to secure Firefox. For a though config, see
@arkenfox's user.js. You can also follow
one of these guides by: Restore Privacy
or 12Bytes…
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📦 Open Source ˙
Tor Browser - Tor provides an extra layer of anonymity, by encrypting each of your requests, then
routing it through several nodes, making it near-impossible for you to be tracked by
your ISP/ provider. It does make every-day browsing a little slower, and some sites
may not work correctly. As with everything there are
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📦 Open Source ˙
Cromite - Cromite is a Chromium fork based on Bromite with built-in support for ad blocking and an eye for privacy.
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⚠️Word of Warning
New vulnerabilities are being discovered and patched all the time - use a browser that is being actively maintained, in order to receive these security-critical updates. Even privacy-respecting browsers, often do not have the best privacy options enabled by default. After installing, check the privacy & security settings, and update the configuration to something that you are comfortable with. 12Bytes maintains a comprehensive guide on Firefox Configuration for Privacy and Performance
DuckDuckGo - DuckDuckGo is a very user-friendly, fast and secure search engine. It's totally
private, with no trackers, cookies or ads. It's also highly customisable, with
dark-mode, many languages and features. They even have a .onion
URL, for use with Tor and a no Javascript version…
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📦 Open Source ˙
Qwant - French service that aggregates Bings results, with its own results. Qwant doesn't
plant any cookies, nor have any trackers or third-party advertising. It returns
non-biased search results, with no promotions. Qwant has a unique, but nice UI.
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Startpage - Dutch search engine that searches on Google and shows the results (slightly
rearranged). It has several configurations that improve privacy during use
(it is not open source)
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Brave Search - Brave Search is a privacy-focused search engine that does not track users or their searches, does not use secret algorithms or user profiling, and is based on its own search index.…
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📦 Open Source 🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Mojeek - British search engine providing independent and unbiased search results using
its own crawler. Has a zero tracking policy (it is not open source)
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Searx - Self-hostable search engines that use the results of multiple other engines (such as Google and Bing) at the same time. They're open source and self-hostable, although using a public instance has the benefit of not singling out your queries to the engines used. A fork of the original Searx.
Signal - Probably one of the most popular, secure private messaging apps that combines
strong encryption (see Signal Protocol)
with a simple UI and plenty of features. It's widely used across the world, and
easy-to-use, functioning similar to WhatsApp - with instant messaging, read-receipts,
support for media attachments and allows for high-quality voice and video calls.
It's cross-platform, open-source and totally free. Signal is
recommended
by Edward Snowden, and is a perfect solution for most users.
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📦 Open Source ˙
Session - Session is a fork of Signal, however unlike Signal it does not require a mobile
number (or any other personal data) to register, instead each user is identified
by a public key. It is also decentralized, with servers being run by the community
though Loki Net, messages are encrypted and routed through
several of these nodes. All communications are E2E encrypted, and there is no
meta data.
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📦 Open Source ˙
XMPP - XMPP, also known as Jabber, is an open standard for decentralized messaging that
has been widely used for decades. It has actually been the basis upon which
WhatsApp, Facebook's Chat and Google's Talk were built, but these companies
(eventually) chose to remove the interoperability with other servers. Prominent
XMPP clients support OMEMO end-to-end encryption,
which is based on the Double Ratchet Algorithm
that is used in Signal. For more hands-on information and to register an account
you can visit JoinJabber.
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📦 Open Source ˙
Matrix - Matrix is a decentralized open network for secure communications, with E2E
encryption with Olm and Megolm. Along with the Element
client, it supports VOIP + video calling and IM + group chats. Since Matrix has
an open specification and Simple pragmatic RESTful HTTP/JSON API it makes it easy
to integrates with existing 3rd party IDs to authenticate and discover users, as
well as to build apps on top of it.
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📦 Open Source ˙
⚠️Word of Warning
Many messaging apps claim to be secure, but if they are not open source, then this cannot be verified - and they should not be trusted. This applies to Telegram, Threema, Cypher, Wickr, Silent Phone and Viber, to name a few - these apps should not be used to communicate any sensitive data. Wire has also been removed, due to a recent acquisition
KeyBase - Allows encrypted real-time chat, group chats, and public and private file sharing. It also has some nice features around cryptographically proving social identities, and makes PGP signing, encrypting and decrypting messages easy. However, since it was acquired by Zoom in 2020, it has no longer been receiving regular updates.
OpenPGP - can be used over existing chat networks (such as email or message boards). It provides cryptographic privacy and authentication, PGP is used to encrypt messages. Note/ Issues with PGP PGP is not easy to use for beginners, and could lead to human error/ mistakes being made, which would be overall much worse than if an alternate, simpler system was used. Do not use 32-bit key IDs - they are too short to be secure. There have also been vulnerabilities found in the OpenPGP and S/MIME, defined in EFAIL, so although it still considered secure for general purpose use, for general chat, it may be better to use an encrypted messaging or email app instead.
With Peer-to-Peer networks, there are no central server, so there is nothing that can be raided, shut-down or forced to turn over data. There are P2P networks available that are open source, E2E encrypted, routed through Tor services, totally anonymous and operate without the collection of metadata.
Oxen - Oxen (previously Loki) is an open source set of tools that allow users to transact
and communicate anonymously and privately, through a decentralised, encrypted,
onion-based network.
Session is a desktop and mobile app that uses these private routing protocols to
secure messages, media and metadata.
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Briar - Tor-based Android app for P2P encrypted messaging and forums. Where content is
stored securely on your device (not in the cloud). It also allows you to connect
directly with nearby contacts, without internet access (using Bluetooth or WiFi).
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📦 Open Source ˙
Ricochet Refresh - Desktop instant messenger, that uses the Tor network to rendezvous with your
contacts without revealing your identity, location/ IP or meta data. There are
no servers to monitor, censor, or hack so Ricochet is secure, automatic and easy
to use.
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📦 Open Source ˙
Jami - P2P encrypted chat network with cross-platform GNU client apps. Jami supports
audio and video calls, screen sharing, conference hosting and instant messaging.
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Tox & qTox client - Open source, encrypted, distributed chat network, with clients for desktop and
mobile - see supported clients. Clearly documented
code and multiple language bindings make it easy for developers to integrate with
Tox.
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Email is not secure - your messages can be easily intercepted and read. Corporations scan the content of your mail, to build up a profile of you, either to show you targeted ads or to sell onto third-parties. Through the Prism Program, the government also has full access to your emails (if not end-to-end encrypted) - this applies to Gmail, Outlook Mail, Yahoo Mail, GMX, ZoHo, iCloud, AOL and more.
ProtonMail - An end-to-end encrypted anonymous email service. ProtonMail has a
modern easy-to-use and customizable UI, as well as fast, secure native mobile
apps. ProtonMail has all the features that you'd expect from a modern email
service and is based on simplicity without sacrificing security. It has a free
plan or a premium option for using custom domains (starting at $5/month).
ProtonMail requires no personally identifiable information for signup, they have
a .onion server, for access via Tor, and they
accept anonymous payment: BTC and cash (as well as the normal credit card and PayPal).
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Tuta - Free and open source email service based in Germany. It has a basic intuitive UI,
secure native mobile apps and desktop email clients, anonymous signup, and an encrypted calendar. Tuta has a
full-featured free plan and premium subscription plans allowing for
custom domains (starting at $3/month). Tuta
does not use OpenPGP
like other encrypted mail providers, instead they use a standardized, hybrid method
consisting of symmetrical and asymmetrical algorithms (with AES256, and RSA 2048
or ECC (x25519) and Kyber-1024). This causes compatibility issues when communicating with contacts
using PGP. But it does allow them to encrypt much more of the header data (body,
attachments, subject lines, and sender names etc) which PGP mail providers cannot do. The recent upgrades
to Tuta's encryption algorithm makes data stored and sent with their service safe against attacks
posed by quantum computers.
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📦 Open Source ˙
Forward Email - An open source, privacy-focused, encrypted email service supporting SMTP, IMAP, and API access
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📦 Open Source ˙
Mailfence - Mailfence supports OpenPGP so that you can manually exchange encryption keys
independently from the Mailfence servers, putting you in full control. Mailfence
has a simple UI, similar to that of Outlook, and it comes with bundled with
calendar, address book, and files. All mail settings are highly customizable,
yet still clear and easy to use. Sign up is not anonymous, since your name, and
prior email address is required. There is a fully-featured free plan, or you can
pay for premium, and use a custom domain ($2.50/ month, or $7.50/ month for 5
domains), where Bitcoin, LiteCoin or credit card is accepted.
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MailBox.org - A Berlin-based, eco-friendly secure mail provider. There is no free plan, the
standard service costs €12/year. You can use your own domain, with the option of
a catch-all alias.
They provide good account security and email encryption, with OpenPGP, as well as
encrypted storage. There is no dedicated app, but it works well with any standard
mail client with SSL. There's also currently no anonymous payment option.
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⚠️Word of Warning
When using an end-to-end encryption technology like OpenPGP, some metadata
in the email header will not be encrypted.
OpenPGP also does not support Forward secrecy, which means if either
your or the recipient's private key is ever stolen, all previous messages
encrypted with it will be exposed. You should take great care to keep your
private keys safe.
Email clients are the programs used to interact with the mail server. For hosted email, then the web and mobile clients provided by your email service are usually adequate, and may be the most secure option. For self-hosted email, you will need to install and configure mail clients for web, desktop or mobile. A benefit of using an IMAP client, is that you will always have an offline backup of all email messages (which can then be encrypted and archived), and many applications let you aggregate multiple mailboxes for convenience. Desktop mail clients are not vulnerable to the common browser attacks, that their web app counterparts are.
Mozilla Thunderbird - Free and open source email application developed and backed by Mozilla -it's secure,
private easy and customizable. As of V 78.2.1 encryption is built in, and the
TorBirdy extension routes
all traffic through the Tor network. Forks, such as
Betterbird may add additional features.
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📦 Open Source ˙
eM Client - Productivity-based email client, for Windows and MacOS. eM Client has a clean user
interface, snappy performance and good compatibility. There is a paid version, with
some handy features, including snoozing incoming emails, watching for replies for a
specific thread, message translation, send later, and built-in Calendar, Tasks,
Contacts and Notes. Note, eM Client is proprietary, and not open source.
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RoundCube - Browser-based multilingual IMAP client with an application-like user interface. It
provides full functionality you expect from an email client, including MIME support,
address book, folder manipulation, message searching and spell checking.
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FairEmail - Open source, fully-featured and easy mail client for Android. Supports unlimited
accounts and email addresses with the option for a unified inbox. Clean user
interface, with a dark mode option, it is also very lightweight and consumes minimal
data usage.
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K-9 Mail - K-9 (or Thunderbird for Android) is open source,
very well supported and trusted - k9 has been around for nearly
as long as Android itself! It supports multiple accounts, search, IMAP push email,
multi-folder sync, flagging, filing, signatures, BCC-self, PGP/MIME & more. Install
OpenKeychain along side it, in order to encrypt/ decrypt emails using OpenPGP.
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⚠️Word of Warning
One disadvantage of mail clients, is that many of them do not support 2FA, so it is important to keep your device secured and encrypted
Revealing your real email address online can put you at risk. Email aliasing allows messages to be sent to [anything]@my-domain.com and still land in your primary inbox. This protects your real email address from being revealed. Aliases are generated automatically, the first time they are used. This approach lets you identify which provider leaked your email address, and block an alias with 1-click.
Addy - An open source anonymous email forwarding service, allowing you to
create unlimited email aliases. Has a free plan.
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33Mail - A long-standing aliasing service. As well as receiving, 33Mail also lets you reply
to forwarded addresses anonymously. Free plan, as well as Premium plan ($1/ month)
if you'd like to use a custom domain. Note that 33Mail usese Google Analytics.
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SimpleLogin - Fully open source (view on GitHub) alias service
with many additional features. Can be self-hosted, or the managed version has a free
plan, as well as hosted premium option ($2.99/ month) for using custom domains.
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📦 Open Source ˙
Firefox Private Relay - Developed and managed by Mozilla, Relay is a Firefox addon, that lets you make an
email alias with 1 click, and have all messages forwarded onto your personal email.
Relay is totally free to use, and very accessible to less experienced users, but also
open source, and able to me self-hosted
for advanced usage.
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📦 Open Source ˙
ForwardEmail - Simple open source catch-all email forwarding service. Easy to self-host (see on
GitHub), or the hosted version
has a free plan as well as a ($3/month) premium plan.
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ProtonMail - If you already have ProtonMail's Professional (€8/month) or Visionary (€30/month) package,
then an implementation of this feature is available via the Catch-All Email feature.
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Enigmail - Mail client add-on, enabling the use of OpenPGP to easily encrypt, decrypt,
verify and sign emails. Free and open source, Enigmail is compatible with Interlink
Mail & News and Postbox. Their website contains thorough documentation and
quick-start guides, once set up it is extremely convenient to use.
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Email Privacy Tester - Quick tool, that enables you to test whether your mail client "reads" your emails
before you've opened them, and also checks what analytics, read-receipts or other
tracking data your mail client allows to be sent back to the sender. The system is
open source (on GitLab), developed by
Mike Cardwell and trusted, but if you do not want to
use your real email, creating a second account with the same provider, should yield
identical results.
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📦 Open Source ˙
DKIM Verifier - Verifies DKIM signatures and shows the result in the e-mail header, in order to help
spot spoofed emails (which do not come from the domain that they claim to).
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✳️ Notable Mentions
If you are using ProtonMail, then the ProtonMail Bridge enables you to sync & backup your emails to your own desktop mail client. It works well with Thunderbird, Microsoft Outlook and others
Mumble - Open source, low-latency, high quality voice chat software. You can host your
own server, or use a hosted instance, there are client applications for Windows,
MacOS and Linux as well as third-party apps for Android and iOS.
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Linphone - Open source audio, video and IM groups with E2E encryption and built-in media
server. SIP-based
evolving to RCS.
Native apps for Android, iOS, Windows, GNU/Linux and MacOS.
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📦 Open Source ˙
✳️ Notable Mentions
SpoofCard - Lets you make anonymous phone calls + voicemail, but not open source and limited information on security (avoid sending any secure info).
MicroSip - An open source portable SIP softphone for Windows based on PJSIP stack
SMSPool - Don't feel comfortable giving out your phone number? Protect your online identity by using our one-time-use non-VoIP phone numbers.
We support over 50+ countries and support over 300+ services.
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💰 Accepts Anonymous Payment ˙
Silent.link - Anonymous eSIM for sending / receiving SMS, incoming calls and 4G / 5G internet
world-wide roaming. No data is required at sign-up. Affordable pricing, with
payments and top-ups accepted in BTC. Requires an eSim-compatible device.
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Crypton.sh - Physical SIM card in the cloud, for sending + receiving SMS messages. Messages
are encrypted using your chosen private key. Includes a web interface, as well
as an API for interacting with it from any device. Pricing is around €7.00/month,
and payment is accepted in BTC, XMR or credit card.
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Jmp.chat - Phone number for incoming + outgoing calls and messages, provided by Soprani.
Works with Jabber, Matrix, Snikket, XMPP or any SIP client. Pricing starts at
$4.99 / month. Only available in the US and Canada (as of 2024).
See alternate instances at soprani.ca…
MoneroSMS - Anonymous SMS service able to activate accounts. Accessible over web, CLI, or
email. Pricing starts at $3.60 / month. The service is in beta as of 2022.
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Now more than ever we are relying on software to help with team collaboration. Unfortunately many popular options, such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google for Work and Discord all come with some serious privacy implications. Typical features of team collaboration software includes: instant messaging, closed and open group messaging, voice and video conference calling, file sharing/ file drop, and some level or scheduling functionality.
Rocket.Chat - Easy-to-deploy, self-hosted team collaboration platform with stable, feature-rich
cross-platform client apps. The UI is fast, good looking and intuitive, so very
little technical experience is needed for users of the platform. Rocket.Chat's
feature set is similar to Slack's, making it a good replacement for any team
looking to have greater control over their data.
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📦 Open Source ˙
RetroShare - Secure group communications, with the option to be used over Tor or I2P. Fast
intuitive group and 1-to-1 chats with text and rich media using decentralized
chat rooms, with a mail feature for delivering messages to offline contacts.
A channels feature makes it possible for members of different teams to stay
up-to-date with each other, and to share files. Also includes built-in forums,
link aggregations, file sharing and voice and video calling. RetroShare is a
bit more complex to use than some alternatives, and the UI is quite retro,
so may not be appropriate for a non-technical team.
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📦 Open Source ˙
Element - Privacy-focused messenger using the Matrix protocol. The Element client allows
for group chat rooms, media sharing voice and video group calls.
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Internet Relay Chat - An IRC-based solution is another option, being decentralized there is no point
of failure, and it's easy to self-host. However it's important to keep security
in mind while configuring your IRC instance and ensure that channels are properly
encrypted - IRC tends to be better for open communications. There's a variety of
clients to choose from - popular options include: The Longe (Web-based), HexChat
(Linux), Pidgin (Linux), WeeChat (Linux, terminal-based), IceChat (Windows),
XChat Aqua (MacOS), Palaver (iOS) and Revolution (Android).
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Mattermost - Mattermost has an open source edition, which can be self-hosted. It makes a good
Slack alternative, with native desktop, mobile and web apps and a wide variety of
integrations.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
Some chat platforms allow for cross-platform group chats, voice and video conferencing, but without the additional collaboration features. For example, Tox, Session, Ricochet, Mumble and Jami. For Conferences, OSEM is an open source all-in-one conference management tool, providing Registration, Schedules, Live and Recorded Sessions, Paper Submissions, Marketing Pages and Administration.
The following browser add-ons give you better control over what content is able to be loaded and executed while your browsing. Before installing anything, you should read the Word of Warning section below.
Privacy Badger - Blocks invisible trackers, in order to stop advertisers and other third-parties
from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at. Download:
Chrome -
Firefox…
ScriptSafe - Allows you to block the execution of certain scripts. Download:
Chrome -
Opera…
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Firefox Multi-Account Containers - Firefox Multi-Account Containers lets you keep parts of your online life separated into
color-coded tabs that preserve your privacy. Cookies are separated by container, allowing
you to use the web with multiple identities or accounts simultaneously. Download:
Firefox…
Canvas Fingerprint Blocker - Block fingerprint without removing access to HTML5 Canvas element. Canvas fingerprinting is
commonly used for tracking, this extension helps to mitigate this through disallowing the browser
to generate a true unique key Download: Chrome -
Firefox -
Edge…
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ClearURLs - This extension will automatically remove tracking elements from the GET parameters of URLs to
help protect some privacy Download: Chrome -
Firefox / Source…
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📦 Open Source ˙
CSS Exfil Protection - Sanitizes and blocks any CSS rules which may be designed to steal data, in order to guard against
Exfil attacks Download: Chrome -
Firefox - Source…
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First Party Isolation - Enables the First Party isolation preference (Clicking the Fishbowl icon temporarily disables it)
Download: Firefox…
LocalCDN - Emulates remote frameworks (e.g. jQuery, Bootstrap, Angular) and delivers them as local resource.
Prevents unnecessary 3rd party requests to tracking CDNs Download: Firefox…
Decentraleyes - Similar to LocalCDN, Serves up local versions of common scripts instead of calling to 3rd-party CDN.
Improves privacy and load times. Works out-of-the-box and plays nicely with regular content blockers.
Download: Chrome -
Firefox -
Opera -
Pale Moon -
Source…
Privacy Redirect - A simple web extension that redirects Twitter, YouTube, Instagram & Google Maps requests to privacy friendly alternatives
Download: Firefox - Chrome…
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User Agent Switcher - Spoofs browser's User-Agent string, making it appear that you are on a different device, browser and version to
what you are actually using. This alone does very little for privacy, but combined with other tools, can allow you
to keep your fingerprint changing, and feed fake info to sites tracking you. Some websites show different content,
depending on your user agent. Download:
Chrome -
Firefox -
Edge -
Opera -
Source…
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PrivacySpy - The companion extension for PrivacySpy.org - an open project that rates, annotates, and archives privacy policies.
The extension shows a score for the privacy policy of the current website. Download:
Chrome -
Firefox…
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HTTPZ - Simplified HTTPS upgrades for Firefox (lightweight alternative to HTTPS-Everywhere) Download:
Firefox…
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Skip Redirect - Some web pages use intermediary pages before redirecting to a final page. This add-on tries to extract the final url
from the intermediary url and goes there straight away if successful Download:
Firefox -
Source…
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Web Archives - View archived and cached versions of web pages on 10+ search engines, such as the Wayback Machine, Archive.is, Google etc
Useful for checking legitimacy of websites, and viewing change logs Download:
Firefox -
Chrome -
Edge -
Source…
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Flagfox - Displays a country flag depicting the location of the current website's server, which can be useful to know at a glance.
Click icon for more tools such as site safety checks, whois, validation etc Download:
Firefox…
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Lightbeam - Visualize in detail the servers you are contacting when you are surfing on the Internet. Created by Gary Kovacs (former CEO of Mozilla), presented in his TED Talk. Download: Firefox - Source…
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Track Me Not - Helps protect web searchers from surveillance and data-profiling, through creating meaningless noise and obfuscation, outlined in their whitepaper. Controversial whether or not this is a good approach Download: Firefox - Source…
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AmIUnique Timeline - Enables you to better understand the evolution of browser fingerprints (which is what websites use to uniquely identify and track you). Download: Chrome - Firefox…
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Netcraft Extension - Notifies you when visiting a known or potential phishing site, and detects suspicious JavaScript (including skimmers and miners). Also provides a simple rating for a given site's legitimacy and security. Great for less technical users. Netcraft also has a handy online tool: Site Report for checking what any given website is running. Download: Chrome \ Firefox \ Opera \ Edge…
HTTPS Everywhere - NOTE On modern browsers, this is no longer needed
Forces sites to load in HTTPS, in order to encrypt your communications with websites,
making your browsing more secure (Similar to Smart HTTPS).
Note this functionality is now included by default in most modern browsers. Download:
Chrome Firefox…
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⚠️Word of Warning
Having many extensions installed raises entropy, causing your fingerprint to be more unique, hence making tracking easier.
Much of the functionality of the above addons can be applied without installing anything, by configuring browser settings yourself. For Firefox this is done in the user.js
Be careful when installing unfamiliar browser add-ons, since some can compromise your security and privacy. At the time of writing, the above list were all open source, verified and 'safe' extensions.
In most situations, only a few of the above extensions will be needed in combination.
See the arkenfox wiki for more information on the obsolescence and purposelessness of many popular extensions, and why you may only need a very limited set.
✳️ Notable Mentions
Extension source viewer - A handy extension for viewing the source code of another browser extension, which is a useful tool for verifying the code does what it says
Orbot - System-wide Tor proxy, which encrypts your connection through multiple nodes.
You can also use it alongside Tor Browser to access .onion sites.
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NetGuard - A firewall app for Android, which does not require root. NetGuard provides simple
and advanced ways to block access to the internet, where applications and addresses
can individually be allowed or denied access to your Wi-Fi and/or mobile connection.
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Island - A sandbox environment, allowing you to clone selected apps and run them in an isolated
box, preventing it from accessing your personal data, or device information.
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Insular - An actively-maintained fork of the Island project with additional enhancements
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Exodus - Shows which trackers, each of your installed apps is using, so that you can better
understand how your data is being collected. Uses data from the Exodus database of scanned APKs.
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Bouncer - Gives you the ability to grant permissions temporarily, so that you could for example
use the camera to take a profile picture, but when you close the given app, those permissions
will be revoked.
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XPrivacyLua - Simple to use privacy manager for Android, that enables you to feed apps fake data when
they request intimate permissions. Solves the problem caused by apps malfunctioning when
you revoke permissions, and protects your real data by only sharing fake information. Enables
you to hide call log, calendar, SMS messages, location, installed apps, photos, clipboard,
network data plus more. And prevents access to camera, microphone, telemetry, GPS and other sensors.
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SuperFreezZ - Makes it possible to entirely freeze all background activities on a per-app basis.
Intended purpose is to speed up your phone, and prolong battery life, but this app is
also a great utility to stop certain apps from collecting data and tracking your actions
while running in the background. See on F-Droid…
Haven - Allows you to protect yourself, your personal space and your possessions - without
compromising on security. Leveraging device sensors to monitor nearby space, Haven was
developed by The Guardian Project, in partnership with Edward Snowden.
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Secure Task - Triggers actions, when certain security conditions are met, such as multiple failed login
attempts or monitor settings changed. It does require Tasker, and needs to be set up with
ADB, device does not need to be rooted.
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Cryptomator - Encrypts files and folders client-side, before uploading them to cloud storage (such as Google
Drive, One Drive or Dropbox), meaning none of your personal documents leave your device in plain text.
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1.1.1.1 - Lets you use CloudFlares fast and secure 1.1.1.1 DNS, with DNS over HTTPS, and also has the option
to enable CloudFlares WARP+ VPN.
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Fing App - A network scanner to help you monitor and secure your WiFi network. The app is totally free,
but to use the advanced controls, you will need a Fing Box.
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DPI Tunnel - An application for Android that uses various techniques to bypass DPI (Deep Packet Inspection)
systems, which are used to block some sites (not available on Play store).
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Blokada - This application blocks ads and trackers, doesn't require root and works for all the apps on your
Android phone. Check out how it works here.
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SnoopSnitch - Collects and analyzes mobile radio data to make you aware of your mobile network security and to
warn you about threats like fake base stations (IMSI catchers), user tracking and over-the-air updates.
Get from F-Droid…
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TrackerControl - Monitor and control hidden data collection in mobile apps about user behavior/ tracking.
Get from F-Droid…
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Greentooth - Auto-disable Bluetooth, then it is not being used. Saves battery, and prevent some security risks.
Get from F-Droid…
CamWings - Prevent background processes gaining unauthorized access to your devices camera. Better still,
use a webcam sticker.
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ScreenWings - Prevent background processes taking unauthorized screenshots, which could expose sensitive data.
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AFWall+ - Android Firewall+ (AFWall+) is an advanced iptables editor (GUI) for rooted Android devices,
which provides very fine-grained control over which Android apps are allowed to access the network.
Get from F-Droid…
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Catch the Man-in-the-Middle - Simple tool, that compares SHA-1 fingerprints of the the SSL certificates seen from your device,
and the certificate seen from an external network. If they do not match, this may indicate a
man-in-the-middle modifying requests.
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RethinkDNS & Firewall - An open-source ad-blocker and firewall app for Android 6+ (does not require root).
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F-Droid - F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS applications for Android. The client enables you
to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device.
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📦 Open Source ˙
⚠️Word of Warning
Too many installed apps will increase your attack surface - only install applications that you need.
Be sure to check the permissions, and what data an app has access to prior to installation.
Only install from official sources.
For offensive and defensive security, see
The Kali Nethunter Catalogue of apps
For advanced users, the following tools can be used to closely monitor
your devise and networks, in order to detect any unusual activity.
[PortDroid] for network analysis, [Packet Capture] to monitor network
traffic, [SysLog] for viewing system logs, [Dexplorer] to read .dex or .apk files
for your installed apps, and [Check and Test] to check status and details of devices hardware.
A selection of free online tools and utilities, to check, test and protect your security
Have i been pwned - Checks if your credentials (Email address or Password) have been compromised in a data breach.
See also Firefox Monitor.
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εxodus - Checks how many, and which trackers any Android app has. Useful to understand how data is being
collected before you install a certain APK, it also shows which permissions the app asks for.
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Am I Unique? - Show how identifiable you are on the Internet by generating a fingerprint based on device information.
This is how many websites track you (even without cookies enabled), so the aim is to not be unique.
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Panopticlick - Check if your browser safe against tracking. Analyzes how well your browser and add-ons protect you
against online tracking techniques, and if your system is uniquely configured—and thus identifiable.
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Phish.ly - Analyzes emails, checking the URLs and creating a SHA256 and MD5 hash of attachments, with a link to VirusTotal.
To use the service, just forward a potentially malicious or suspicious email to [email protected], and an automated
reply will include the results. They claim that all email data is purged after analysis, but it would be wise to
not include any sensitive information, and to use a forwarding address.
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Browser Leak Test - Shows which of personal identity data is being leaked through your browser, so you can better protect yourself
against fingerprinting.
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IP Leak Test - Shows your IP address, and other associated details (location, ISP, WebRTC check, DNS, and lots more).
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EXIF Remove - Displays, and removes Meta and EXIF data from an uploaded photo or document.
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Redirect Detective - Check where a suspicious URL redirects to (without having to click it). Lets you avoid being tracked by not being
redirected via adware/tracking sites, or see if a shortened link actually resolves a legitimate site, or see if
link is an affiliate ad.
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Blocked.org - Checks if a given website is blocked by filters applied by your mobile and broadband Internet Service Providers (ISP).
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Virus Total - Analyses a potentially-suspicious web resources (by URL, IP, domain or file hash) to detect types of malware
(note: files are scanned publicly).
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Hardenize - Scan websites and shows a security overview, relating to factors such as HTTPS, domain info, email data, www protocols
and so on.
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Is Legit? - Checks if a website or business is a scam, before buying something from it.
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Should I Remove It? - Ever been uninstalling programs from your Windows PC and been unsure of what something is? Should I Remove It is a
database of Windows software, detailing whether it is essential, harmless or dangerous.
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10 Minute Mail - Generates temporary disposable email address, to avoid giving your real details.
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MXToolBox Mail Headers - Tool for analyzing email headers, useful for checking the authenticity of messages, as well as knowing what info
you are revealing in your outbound messages.
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Am I FloCed? - Google testing out a new tracking feature called Federated Learning of Cohorts (aka "FLoC"). It currently effects
0.5% of Chrome users, this tool developed by the EFF will detect if you are affected, and provide additional info
on how to stay protected.
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Site Report - A tool from Netcraft, for analysing what any given website is running, where it's located and information about its
host, registrar, IP and SSL certificates.
…
⚠️Word of Warning
Browsers are inherently insecure, be careful when uploading, or entering personal details.
Mullvad - Mullvad is one of the best for privacy, they have a totally anonymous sign up process,
you don't need to provide any details at all, you can choose to pay anonymously too
(with Monero, BTC or cash).
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🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Azire - Azire is a Swedish VPN provider, who owns their own hardware with physically removed
storage and a no logging policy. Pricing starts at €3.25/mo, with crypto (including XMR)
supported. Note that they've not yet been audited, and client applications are not open
source, for more info, see #140.
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IVPN - Independently Security Audited VPN with anonymous signup, no logs, no cloud or customer
data stored, open-source apps and website. Strong ethics: no trackers, no false promises,
no surveillance ads. Accepts various payment methods including cryptocurrencies.
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📦 Open Source 🛡️ Security Audited ˙
ProtonVPN - From the creators of ProtonMail, ProtonVPN has a solid reputation. They have a full suite
of user-friendly native mobile and desktop apps. ProtonVPN is one of the few "trustworthy"
providers that also offer a free plan.
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🛡️ Security Audited ˙
OVPN - A court-proven VPN service with support for Wireguard and OpenVPN support, and optional
ad-blocking. Running on dedicated hardware, with no hard drives.
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⚠️Word of Warning
A VPN does not make you anonymous - it merely changes your public IP address to that of your VPN provider, instead of your ISP. Your browsing session can still be linked back to your real identity either through your system details (such as user agent, screen resolution even typing patterns), cookies / session storage, or by the identifiable data that you enter. Read more about fingerprinting
Logging - If you choose to use a VPN because you do not agree with your ISP logging your full browsing history, then it is important to keep in mind that your VPN provider can see (and mess with) all your traffic. Many VPNs claim not to keep logs, but you cannot be certain of this (VPN leaks). See this article for more
IP Leaks - If configured incorrectly, your IP may be exposed through a DNS leak. This usually happens when your system is unknowingly accessing default DNS servers rather than the anonymous DNS servers assigned by an anonymity network or VPN. Read more: What is a DNS leak, DNS Leak Test, How to Fix a DNS Leak
Stealth - It will be visible to your adversary that you are using a VPN (usually from the IP address), but other system and browser data, can still reveal information about you and your device (such as your local time-zone, indicating which region you are operating from)
Many reviews are sponsored, and hence biased. Do your own research, or go with one of the above options
Using Tor (or another Mix Network) may be a better option for anonimity
✳️ Notable Mentions
If you don't trust a VPN provider not to keep logs, then you could self-host your own VPN. This gives you you total control, but at the cost of anonymity (since your cloud provider, will require your billing info). See Streisand, to learn more, and get started with running a VPN. Digital Ocean provides flexible, secure and easy Linux VMs, (from $0.007/hour or $5/month), Here is a 1-click install scriptfor on Digital Ocean, by Carl Friess.
Recently distributed self-hosted solutions for running your own VPNs have become more popular, with services like Outline letting you spin up your own instance and share it with friends and family. Since it's distributed, it is very resistant to blocking, and gives you world-wide access to the free and open internet. And since you have full control over the server, you can be confident that there is no logging or monitoring happening. However it comes at the cost of anonymity, especially if it's only you using your instance.
ℹ️ Further Info
While choosing a VPN, consider the following: Logging policy (logs are bad),
Jurisdiction (avoid 5-eyes), Number of servers, availability and average load.
Payment method (anonymous methods such as BTC, Monero or cash are better),
Leak protection (1st-party DNS servers = good, and check if IPv6 is supported),
protocols (OpenVPN and WireGuard = good). Finally, usability of their apps,
user reviews and download speeds.
Fun little projects that you can run on a Raspberry Pi, or other low-powered computer. In order to help detect and prevent threats, monitor network and filter content
Pi-Hole - Network-level advertisement and Internet tracker blocking application which acts as a DNS
sinkhole. Pi-Hole can significantly speed up your internet, remove ads and block malware.
It comes with a nice web interface and a mobile app with monitoring features, it's open
source, easy to install and very widely used.
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Technitium - Another DNS server for blocking privacy-invasive content at its source. Technitium doesn't
require much of a setup, and basically works straight out of the box, it supports a wide
range of systems (and can even run as a portable app on Windows). It allows you to do some
additional tasks, such as add local DNS addresses and zones with specific DNS records.
Compared to Pi-Hole, Technitium is very lightweight, but lacks the deep insights that
Pi-Hole provides, and has a significantly smaller community behind it.
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IPFire - A hardened, versatile, state-of-the-art open source firewall based on Linux. Its ease of
use, high performance and extensibility make it usable for everyone.
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PiVPN - A simple way to set up a home VPN on any Debian server. Supports OpenVPN and WireGuard
with elliptic curve encryption keys up to 512 bit. Supports multiple DNS providers and
custom DNS providers - works nicely along-side PiHole.
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E2guardian - Powerful open source web content filter.
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PF Sense - Widely used, open source firewall/router.
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Zeek - Detect if you have a malware-infected computer on your network, and powerful network
analysis framework and monitor.
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Firezone - Open-source self-hosted VPN and firewall built on WireGuard®.
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Tor - Tor provides robust anonymity, allowing you to defend against surveillance, circumvent
censorship and reduce tracking. It blocks trackers, resists fingerprinting and implements
multi-layered encryption by default, meaning you can browse freely. Tor also allows access
to OnionLand: hidden services.
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I2P - I2P offers great generic transports, it is well geared towards accessing hidden services,
and has a couple of technical benefits over Tor: P2P friendly with unidirectional short-lived
tunnels, it is packet-switched (instead of circuit-switched) with TCP and UDP, and continuously
profiles peers, in order to select the best performing ones.
I2P is less mature, but fully-distributed and self-organising, its smaller size means that it
hasn't yet been blocked or DOSed much.
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Freenet - Freenet is easy to setup, provides excellent friend To Friend Sharing vs I2P, and is great for
publishing content anonymously. It's quite large in size, and very slow so not the best choice
for casual browsing.
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⚠️Word of Warning
To provide low-latency browsing, Tor does not mix packets or generate cover traffic.
If an adversary is powerful enough, theoretically they could either observe the entire network,
or just the victims entry and exit nodes. It's worth mentioning, that even though your ISP
can not see what you are doing, they will be able determine that you are using a mix net,
to hide this - a VPN could be used as well.
If you are doing anything which could put you at risk, then good OpSec is essential,
as the authorities have traced criminals through the Tor network before,
and made arrests.
Don't let Tor provide you a false sense of security - be aware of information leaks through DNS, other programs or human error.
Tor-supported browsers may might lag behind their upstream forks, and include exploitable unpatched issues.
See #19
Note: The Tor network is run by the community.
If you benefit from using it and would like to help sustain uncensored internet access for all,
consider running a Tor relay
Tor, I2P and Freenet are all anonymity networks - but they work very differently and each is good for specific purposes.
So a good and viable solution would be to use all of them, for different tasks.
You can read more about how I2P compares to Tor, here
A proxy acts as a gateway between you and the internet, it can be used to
act as a firewall or web filter, improves privacy and can also be used to
provide shared network connections and cache data to speed up common requests.
Never use a free proxy.
ShadowSocks - Secure socks5 proxy, designed to protect your Internet traffic. Open source, superfast,
cross-platform and easy to deploy, see GitHub repo.
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Privoxy - Non-caching web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for enhancing privacy,
modifying web page data and HTTP headers, controlling access, and removing ads and
other obnoxious Internet junk.
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⚠️Word of Warning
Malicious Proxies are all too common.
Always use open source software, host it yourself or pay for a reputable cloud service.
Never use a free proxy; it can monitor your connection, steal cookies and contain malware.
VPNs are a better option, better still - use the Tor network.
✳️ Notable Mentions
V2ray-core is a platform for building
proxies to bypass network restrictions and protect your privacy.
See more
Without using a secure, privacy-centric DNS all your web requests can be
seen in the clear. You should configure your DNS queries to be managed by
a service that respects privacy and supports DNS-over-TLS, DNS-over-HTTPS or DNSCrypt.
CloudFlare - One of the most performant options, Cloudflare's DNS supports DoH and DoT, and has a Tor
implementation, providing world-class protection. They have native cross-platform apps,
for easy set-up.
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🛡️ Security Audited ˙
AdGuard - Open-source DNS provider, specialising in the blocking of ads, trackers and malicious domains.
They have been independently audited and do not keep logs.
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NextDNS - An ad-blocking, privacy-protecting, censorship-bypassing DNS. Also comes with analytics, and
the ability to shield kids from adult content.
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⚠️Word of Warning
Using an encrypted DNS resolver will not make you anonymous, it just makes
it harder for third-partied to discover your domain history.
If you are using a VPN, take a DNS leak test,
to ensure that some requests are not being exposed.
✳️ Notable Mentions
Quad9 - A well-funded, performant DNS with a strong focus on privacy and security and easy set-up, however questions have been raised about the motivation of some of the financial backers.
BlahDNS - (Japan, Finland or Germany) is an excellent security-focused DNS> - OpenNIC - NixNet DNS and UncensoredDNS are open source and democratic, privacy-focused DNS
Unbound - A validating, recursive, caching DNS resolver, designed to be fast and lean. Incorporates modern features and based on open standards
Clean Browsing - A good option for protecting kids, they offer comprehensive DNS-based Content Filtering
Mullvad - Mullvads public DNS with QNAME minimization and basic ad blocking. It has been audited by the security experts at Assured. You can use this privacy-enhancing service even if you don't use Mullvad.
ℹ️ Further Info
DNS Protocols
DNS-over-TLS was proposed in RTC-7858
by the IETF, then 2 years later, the DNS-over-HTTPS specification was outlined
in RFC8484 in October '18.
DNSCrypt, is a protocol that authenticates communications
between a DNS client and a DNS resolver. It prevents DNS spoofing, through
using cryptographic signatures to verify that responses originate from the
chosen DNS resolver, and haven't been tampered with. DNSCrypt is a well
battle-tested protocol, that has been in use since 2013, and is still widely used.
DNScrypt-proxy 2 - A flexible DNS proxy, with support for modern encrypted DNS protocols including DNSCrypt V2,
DNS-over-HTTPS and Anonymized DNSCrypt. Also allows for advanced monitoring, filtering, caching
and client IP protection through Tor, SOCKS proxies or Anonymized DNS relays.
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Unbound - Validating, recursive, caching DNS resolve with support for DNS-over-TLS. Designed to be fast,
lean, and secure Unbound incorporates modern features based on open standards. It's fully open
source, and recently audited. (For an in-depth tutorial, see this article by DNSWatch.)
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Nebulo - Non-root, small-sized DNS changer utilizing DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS. (Note, since this
uses Android's VPN API, it is not possible to run a VPN while using Nebulo.)
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📦 Open Source ˙
RethinkDNS & Firewall - Free and open source DNS changer with support for DNS-over-HTTPS, DNS-over-Tor, and DNSCrypt v3
with Anonymized Relays. (Note, since this uses Android's VPN API, it is not possible to run a
VPN while using RethinkDNS + Firewall.)
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DNS Cloak - Simple all that allows for the use for dnscrypt-proxy 2 on an iPhone.
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Stubby - Acts as a local DNS Privacy stub resolver (using DNS-over-TLS). Stubby encrypts DNS queries sent
from a client machine (desktop or laptop) to a DNS Privacy resolver increasing end user privacy.
Stubby can be used in combination with Unbound - Unbound provides a local cache and Stubby manages
the upstream TLS connections (since Unbound cannot yet re-use TCP/TLS connections),
see example configuration.
…
A firewall is a program which monitors the incoming and outgoing traffic
on your network, and blocks requests based on rules set during its configuration.
Properly configured, a firewall can help protect against attempts to
remotely access your computer, as well as control which applications
can access which IPs.
NetGuard - Provides simple and advanced ways to block access to the internet. Applications and addresses
can individually be allowed or denied access to Wi-Fi and/or mobile connection.
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NoRoot Firewall - Notifies you when an app is trying to access the Internet, so all you need to do is just Allow
or Deny. Allows you to create filter rules based on IP address, host name or domain name, and
you can allow or deny only specific connections of an app.
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AFWall+ - Android Firewall+ (AFWall+) is an advanced iptables editor (GUI) for rooted Android devices,
which provides very fine-grained control over which Android apps are allowed to access the network.
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RethinkDNS & Firewall - An open-source ad-blocker and firewall app for Android 6+ (does not require root).
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Lockdown - Firewall app for iPhone, allowing you to block any connection to any domain.
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SimpleWall - Tool to control Windows Filtering Platform (WFP), in order to configure detailed network activity on your PC.
(Windows)
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LuLu - Free, open source macOS firewall. It aims to block unknown outgoing connections, unless explicitly approved by the user.
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Little Snitch - A very polished application firewall, allowing you to easily manage internet connections on a per-app basis.
(Mac OS)
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OpenSnitch - Makes internet connections from all apps visible, allowing you to block or manage traffic on a per-app basis.
GNU/Linux port of the Little Snitch application firewall.
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Gufw - Open source GUI firewall for Linux, allowing you to block internet access for certain applications.
Supports both simple and advanced mode, GUI and CLI options, very easy to use, lightweight/ low-overhead,
under active maintenance and backed by a strong community.
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📦 Open Source ˙
Uncomplicated Firewall - The ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) is a GUI application and CLI, that allows you to configure a firewall
using iptables much more easily.
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IPFire - IPFire is a hardened, versatile, state-of-the-art Open Source firewall based on Linux. Easy to install
on a raspberry Pi, since it is lightweight and heavily customizable.
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Shorewall - An open source firewall tool for Linux that builds upon the Netfilter system built into the Linux kernel,
making it easier to manage more complex configuration schemes with iptables.
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OPNSense - Enterprise firewall and router for protecting networks, built on the FreeBSD system.
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⚠️Word of Warning
There are different types
of firewalls, that are used in different circumstances.
This does not omit the need to configure your operating systems defences.
Follow these instructions to enable your firewall in
Windows,
Mac OS, Ubuntu
and other Linux distros.
Even when properly configured, having a firewall enabled does not guarantee
bad network traffic can not get through and especially during boot if you
don't have root privileges.
There are a few different ways to block ads - browser-based ad-blockers,
router-based / device blockers or VPN ad-blockers.
Typically they work by taking a maintained list of hosts,
and filtering each domain/ IP through it. Some also have other methods to
detect certain content based on pattern matching
Pi-Hole - Incredibly powerful, network-wide ad-blocker. Works out-of-the-box, light-weight with an intuitive
web interface, but still allows for a lot of advanced configuration for power users. As well as
blocking ads and trackers, Pi-Hole speeds up your network speeds quite significantly. The dashboard
has detailed statistics, and makes it easy to pause/ resume Pi-Hole if needed.
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Diversion - A shell script application to manage ad-blocking, Dnsmasq logging, Entware and pixelserv-tls installations
and more on supported routers running Asuswrt-Merlin firmware, including its forks.
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BlockParty - Native Apple (Swift) apps, for system-wide ad-blocking. Can be customized with custom host lists,
primarily aimed for just ad-blocking.
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hBlock - A POSIX-compliant shell script, designed for Unix-like systems, that gets a list of domains that serve ads,
tracking scripts and malware from multiple sources and creates a hosts file (alternative formats are also supported)
that prevents your system from connecting to them. Aimed at improving security and privacy through blocking advert,
tracking and malware associated domains.
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Blokada - Open source mobile ad-blocker that acts like a firewall. Since it's device-wide, once connected all apps will
have ads/ trackers blocked, and the blacklist can be edited. The app is free, but there is a premium option,
which has a built-in VPN.
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RethinkDNS & Firewall - Free and open source ad-blocker and a firewall for Android 6+ (no root required).
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Ad Block Radio - Python script that uses machine learning to block adverts in live audio streams, such as Radio, Podcasts,
Audio Books, and music platforms such as Spotify. See live demo.
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uBlock Origin - Light-weight, fast browser extension for Firefox and Chromium (Chrome, Edge, Brave Opera etc), that blocks
tracking, ads and known malware. uBlock is easy-to-use out-of-the-box, but also has a highly customisable
advanced mode, with a point-and-click firewall which can be configured on a per-site basis.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
AdGuardHome is a cross-platform DNS Ad Blocker,
similar to Pi Hole, but with some additional features, like parental controls,
per-device configuration and the option to force safe search.
This may be a good solution for families with young children.
SomeoneWhoCares/ Hosts - An up-to-date host list, maintained by Dan Pollock - to make the internet not suck (as much).
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Hosts by StevenBlack - Open source, community-maintained consolidated and extending hosts files from several well-curated
sources. You can optionally pick extensions to block p0rn, Social Media, gambling, fake news and other categories.
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No Google - Totally block all direct and indirect content from Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft (or just some).
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EasyList - Comprehensive list of domains for blocking tracking, social scripts, bad cookies and annoying stuff.
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iBlockList - Variety of lists (free and paid-for) for blocking content based on certain topics, inducing: spam, abuse,
political, illegal, hijacked, bad peers and more.
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Installing a custom firmware on your Wi-Fi router gives you greater
control over security, privacy and performance
OpenWRT - Plenty of scope for customization and a ton of supported addons. Stateful firewall, NAT, and dynamically-configured
port forwarding protocols (UPnP, NAT-PMP + upnpd, etc), Load balancing, IP tunneling, IPv4 & IPv6 support.
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DD-WRT - Easy and powerful user interface. Great access control, bandwidth monitoring and quality of service.
IPTables is built-in for firewall, and there's great VPN support as well as additional plug-and-play
and wake-on-lan features.
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⚠️Word of Warning
Flashing custom firmware may void your warranty.
If power is interrupted mid-way through a firmware install/ upgrade it
is possible for your device to become bricked. So long as you follow a
guide, and use a well supported system, on a supported router, than it
should be safe
Whether you live in a country behind a firewall, or accessing the internet
through a proxy - these tools will help you better understand the extent
of blocking, deep packet inspection and what data is being analysed
OONI - Open Observatory of Network Interference - A free tool and global observation network, for detecting censorship,
surveillance and traffic manipulation on the internet. Developed by The Tor Project, and available for Android,
iOS, and Linux.
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Goodbye DPI - Passive Deep Packet Inspection blocker and Active DPI circumvention utility, for Windows.
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DPITunnel - An Android app to bypass deep packet inspection.
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Proxy Checker - You can quickly check if a given IP is using a proxy, this can also be done through the command line.
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An IDS is an application that monitors a network or computer system for
malicious activity or policy violations, and notifies you of any unusual
or unexpected events. If you are running a server, then it's essential to
know about an incident as soon as possible, in order to minimize damage.
Zeek - Zeek (formally Bro) Passively monitors network traffic and looks for suspicious activity.
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OSSEC - OSSEC is an Open Source host-based intrusion detection system, that performs log analysis, integrity checking,
monitoring, rootkit detection, real-time alerting and active response.
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Kismet - An 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system.
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Snare - SNARE (System iNtrusion Analysis and Reporting Environment) is a series of log collection agents that facilitate
centralized analysis of audit log data. Logs from the OS are collected and audited. Full remote access, through
a web interface easy to use manually, or by an automated process.
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picosnitch - picosnitch helps protect your security and privacy by "snitching" on anything that connects to the internet,
letting you know when, how much data was transferred, and to where. It uses BPF to monitor network traffic per
application, and per parent to cover those that just call others. It also hashes every executable, and will
complain if some mischievous program is giving it trouble.
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Whether you are hosting a website and want to keep your users data safe,
or if you are hosting your own file backup, cloud productivity suite or
VP - then choosing a provider that respects your privacy and allows you
to sign up anonymously, and will keep your files and data safe is be
important.
Njalla - Njalla is a privacy and security-focused domain registrar and VPN hosting provider. They own and manage all their
own servers, which are based in Sweden. They accept crypto, for anonymous payments, and allow you to sign up with
OTR XMPP if you do not want to provide an email address. Both VPS and domain name pricing is reasonable, with
packages starting at $15/ month.
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💰 Accepts Anonymous Payment ˙
Private Layer - Offers enterprise-grade, high-speed offshore dedicated servers, they own their own data centres, have a solid
privacy policy and accept anonymous payment.
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Servers Guru - Servers Guru provides affordable and anonymous VPS and cloud servers with dedicated cpu resources. They accept
crypto-currencies (Bitcoin, Monero, Ethereum etc..) and don't require any personal informations. They resell from
reputable providers.
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💰 Accepts Anonymous Payment ˙
⚠️Word of Warning
The country that your data is hosted in, will be subject to local laws and regulations.
It is therefore important to avoid a jurisdiction that is part of the
5 eyes (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, US and UK)
and other international cooperatives
who have legal right to view your data.
✳️ Notable Mentions
See also: 1984 based in Iceland.
Shinjiru, which offers off-shore dedicated servers.
Orange Website specialises in protecting online privacy and free speech, hosted in Iceland.
RackBone (previously DataCell) provides secure and ethical hosting, based in Switzerland.
And Bahnhof offers high-security and ethical hosting, with their data centres locates in Sweden.
Finally Simafri has a range of packages, that support Tor out of the box
Mail-in-a-box - Easy-to-deploy fully-featured and pre-configured SMTP mail server. It includes everything from
webmail, to spam filtering and backups.
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Docker Mailserver - A full-stack but simple mailserver (smtp, imap, antispam, antivirus, ssl...) using Docker. Very
complete, with everything you will need, customizable and very easy to deploy with docker.
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mailcow - A mail server with everything you need (SMTP, IMAP, webmail, NextCloud support..) using Docker.
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⚠️Word of Warning
Self-hosting your own mail server is not recommended for everyone, it can
be time consuming to setup and maintain and securing it correctly is critical
Standard Notes - S.Notes is a free, open-source, and completely encrypted private notes app. It has a simple UI,
yet packs in a lot of features, thanks to the Extensions Store, allowing for: To-Do lists, Spreadsheets,
Rich Text, Markdown, Math Editor, Code Editor and many more. You can choose between a number of themes
(yay, dark mode!), and it features built-in secure file store, tags/ folders, fast search and more.
Standard Notes is actively developed, and fully open-source.
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📦 Open Source 🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Turtle - A secure, collaborative notebook. Self-host it yourself, or use their hosted plan (free edition
or $3/ month for premium).
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🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Notable - An offline markdown-based note editor for desktop, with a simple, yet feature-rich UI.
All notes are saved individually as .md files, making them easy to manage.
No mobile app, built-in cloud-sync, encryption or web UI. But due to the structure of the files,
it is easy to use your own cloud sync provider, and additional features are provided through extensions.
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Joplin - Cross-platform desktop and mobile note-taking and todo app. Easy organisation into notebooks and
sections, revision history and a simple UI. Allows for easy import and export of notes to or from
other services. Supports synchronisation with cloud services, implemented with E2EE.
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🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Logseq - Privacy-first, open-source knowledge base that works on top of local plain-text Markdown and
Org-mode files.
Supports lots of different note modes, including task management,
PDF annotation, flashcards, whiteboards strong markdown support and more.
Includes themes and extensions, backed by a strong community
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Obsidian - A powerful knowledge base that works on top of local plain-text Markdown files. It has a strong
community, and a lot of plugins and themes. Generally privacy-respecting, but no
encryption out of the box, and some of the code is obfuscated or not fully open source
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🛡️ Security Audited ˙
AFFiNE - Privacy first, open-source alternative to Notion, monday.com and Miro.
It is a knowledge management tool that allows you to create, organize and share your knowledge.
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Cryptee - Private & encrypted rich-text documents. Cryptee has encryption and anonymity at its core,
it also has a beautiful and minimalistic UI. You can use Cryptee from the browser, or download
native apps. Comes with many additional features, such as support for photo albums and file storage.
The disadvantage is that only the frontend is open source. Pricing is free for starter plan, $3/
month for 10GB, additional plans go up-to 2TB.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
If you are already tied into Evernote, One Note etc, then SafeRoom
is a utility that encrypts your entire notebook, before it is uploaded to the cloud.
Org Mode is a mode for GNU Emacs
dedicated to working with the Org markup format. Org can be thought of as
a more featureful Markdown alternative, with support for keeping notes,
maintaining todo lists, planning projects, managing spreadsheets, and
authoring documents -all in plaintext.
For a simple plain text note taking app, with strong encryption, see
Protected Text, which works well with the
Safe Notes Android app.
Laverna is a cross-platform secure notes app,
where all entries are formatted with markdown.
SeaFile - An open source cloud storage and sync solution.
Files are grouped into Libraries, which can be individually encrypted,
shared of synced. Docker image available for easy deployment, and native
clients for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS.
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Syncthing - Continuous file synchronization between 2 or more clients. It is simple,
yet powerful, and fully-encrypted and private.
Syncthing can be deployed with Docker, and there are native clients
for Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD and Android.
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NextCloud - Feature-rich productivity platform, that can be used to backup and
selectively sync encrypted files and folders between 1 or more clients.
A key benefit the wide range of plug-ins in the NextCloud App Store,
maintained by the community. NextCloud was a hard fork off OwnCloud.
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⚠️Word of Warning
You should always ensure that any data stored in the cloud is encrypted.
If you are hosting your own server, then take the necessary precautions
to secure the server.
For hosted solutions - use a strong password, keep your credentials safe and enable 2FA.
✳️ Notable Mentions
Alternatively, consider a headless utility such as Duplicacy
or Duplicity.
Both of offer an encrypted and efficient sync between 2 or more locations,
using the rsync algorithm.
SpiderOak, Tresorit and
Resilio
are good enterprise solutions, all with solid encryption baked-in
FileRun and Pydio
are self-hosted file explorers, with cross-platform sync capabilities.
CryptPad - A zero knowledge cloud productivity suite. Provides Rich Text,
Presentations, Spreadsheets, Kanban, Paint a code editor and file drive.
All notes and user content, are encrypted by default, and can only be
accessed with specific URL. The main disadvantage, is a lack of Android,
iOS and desktop apps - CryptPad is entirely web-based. You can use their
web service, or you can host your own instance. Price for hosted: free
for 50mb or $5/ month for premium.
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NextCloud - A complete self-hosted productivity platform, with a strong community
and growing app store. NextCloud is similar to (but arguably more complete
than) Google Drive, Office 365 and Dropbox. Clear UI and stable native
apps across all platforms, and also supports file sync. Supports encrypted
files, but you need to configure this yourself. Fully open source.
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Disroot - A platform providing online services based on principles of freedom,
privacy, federation and decentralization. It is an implementation of
NextCloud, with strong encryption configured - it is widely used by
journalists, activists and whistle-blowers. It is free to use, but
there have been reported reliability issues of the cloud services.
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Sandstorm - An open source platform for self-hosting web apps. Once you've set it up,
you can install items from the Sandstorm App Market with -click,
similar to NextCloud in terms of flexibility.
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Vikunja - Vikunja is an open-source to-do application. It is suitable for a wide
variety of projects, supporting List, Gantt, Table and Kanban views to
visualize all tasks in different contexts. For collaboration, it has
sharing support via private teams or public links. It can be self-hosted
or used as a managed service for a small fee.
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Backing up important files is essential, and keeping an off-site copy is recommended.
But many free providers do not respect your privacy, and are not secure enough for
sensitive documents.
Avoid free mainstream providers, such as Google Drive, cloud, Microsoft Overdrive, Dropbox.
It is recommended to encrypt files on your client machine, before syncing to the cloud.
Cryptomator is a cross-platform, open source encryption app, designed for just this.
Tresorit - End-to-end encrypted zero knowledge file storage, syncing and sharing provider, based in Switzerland.
The app is cross-platform, user-friendly client and with all expected features. £6.49/month for 500 GB.
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IceDrive - Very affordable encrypted storage provider, with cross-platform apps. Starts as £1.50/month for 150 GB
or £3.33/month for 1 TB.
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Sync.com - Secure file sync, sharing, collaboration and backup for individuals, small businesses and sole practitioners.
Starts at $8/month for 2 TB.
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pCloud - Secure and simple to use cloud storage, with cross-platform client apps. £3.99/month for 500 GB.
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Peergos - A peer-to-peer end-to-end encrypted global filesystem with fine grained access control. Provides a secure
and private space online where you can store, share and view your photos, videos, music and documents.
Also includes a calendar, news feed, task lists, chat and email client. Fully open source and self-hostable
(or use hosted solution, from £5/month for 100 GB).
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Internxt - Store your files in total privacy. Internxt Drive is a zero-knowledge cloud storage service based on best-in-class
privacy and security. Made in Spain. Open-source mobile and desktop apps. 10GB FREE and Paid plans starting from
€0.99/month for 20GB.
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FileN - Zero knowledge end-to-end encrypted affordable cloud storage made in Germany. Open-source mobile and desktop apps.
10GB FREE with paid plans starting at €0.92/month for 100GB.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
An alternative option, is to use a cloud computing provider, and implement
the syncing functionality yourself, and encrypt data locally before
uploading it - this may work out cheaper in some situations.
You could also run a local server that you physically own at a secondary location,
that would mitigate the need to trust a third party cloud provider.
Note that some knowledge in securing networks is required.
FileSend - Simple, encrypted file sharing, with a 500mb limit and 5-day retention. Files are secured with client-side AES-256
encryption and no IP address or device info is logged. Files are permanently deleted after download or after specified
duration. Developed by StandardNotes, and has built-in integration with the SN app.
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OnionShare - An open source tool that lets you securely and anonymously share a file of any size, via Tor servers. OnionShare does
require installing, but the benefit is that your files are transferred directly to the recipient, without needing to be
hosted on an interim server. The host needs to remain connected for the duration of the transfer, but once it is complete,
the process will be terminated.
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Floccus - Simple and efficient bookmark syncing using either NextCloud Bookmarks, a WebDAV server (local or remote)
or just a local folder through LoFloccus. Browser extensions available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge.
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XBrowserSync - Secure, anonymous and free browser and bookmark syncing. Easy to setup, and no sign up is required, you can
either use a community-run sync server, or host your own with their docker image. Extensions are available for
Chrome, Firefox, and on Android.
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Unmark - A web application which acts as a todo app for bookmarks. You can either self-host it, or use their managed
service which has a free and paid-for tier.
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Reminiscence - A self-hosted bookmark and archive manager. Reminiscence is more geared towards archiving useful web pages
either for offline viewing or to preserve a copy. It is a web application, that can be installed with Docker
on either a local or remote server, although it has a comprehensive and well-documented REST API, there is
currently no browser extension.
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Shiori - Simple bookmark manager written in Go, intended to be a clone of Pocket, it has both a simple and clean web
interface as well as a CLI. Shiori has easy import/ export, is portable and has webpage archiving features.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
Ymarks is a C-based self-hosted bookmark synchronization
server and Chrome extension.
Finally, Turtl Notes has excellent link saving functionality built-in
RainDrop is a fully-featured all-in-1 bookmarking and web-snip suite.
It has a beautiful UI, good data controls and some very handy integrations and features.
Available on desktop, mobile, web and through a browser extension.
The catch is that it is not open source, there is a free and premium plan, but no option for self-hosting.
With the many, many security issues with Zoom,
and other mainstream options, it becomes clear that a better, more private and secure alternative is required.
As with other categories, the "best video calling app" will be different
for each of us, depending on the ratio of performance + features to
security + privacy required in your situation.
Jami - A free and open source, distributed video, calling and screenshare platform with a focus on security. Jami is
completely peer-to-peer, and has full end-to-end encryption with perfect forward secrecy for all communications,
complying with the X.509 standard. Supported natively on Windows, macOS, iOS, GNU/Linux, Android and Android TV.
Video quality is quite good, but very dependent on network speeds, some of the apps are lacking in features.
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Jitsi - Encrypted, free and open source video calling app, which does not require creating an account/ providing any personal
details. Available as a web app, and native app for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and iOS. You can use the public
Jitsi instance, self-host your own, or use a community hosted instance.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
Apache OpenMeetings provides self-hosted
video-conferencing, chat rooms, file server and tools for meetings.
For remote learning, BigBlueButton is self-hosted conference call software,
aimed specifically at schools and Universities.
It allows for the host/ teacher to have full control over the session,
and provides high-quality video streaming, multi-user whiteboards,
breakout rooms, and instant chat.
A virtual machine (VM) is a sandboxed operating system, running within your
current system. Useful for compartmentalisation and safely testing software,
or handling potentially malicious files
VirtualBox - Open source, powerful, feature-rich virtualization product, supporting x86 and AMD64/Intel64 architectures.
Available for Windows, MacOS, Linux and BSD, and free for both personal and enterprise use. VirtualBox is
backed by a strong community, and has been under active development since 2007.
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Xen Project - Open source virtual machine monitor intended to serve as a type-1 hyperviser for multiple operating systems
using the same hardware - very useful for servers, as it allows for fully independent virtual Linux machines.
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UTM - Open source, feature rich, powerful type 2 hypervisor for Mac, can emulate x86-64 OSes on Apple Silicon Macs.
There's also an iOS version (so you can run Windows on your iPhone!)
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✳️ Notable Mentions
QEMU is a virtual hardware emulation tool,
meaning it is less appropriate for creating fully independant sandboxes,
but performance is considerable better than that of a traditional virtual machine.
VMWare is popular in the enterprise world,
it is not open source, and although there is a free version, a license
is required to access all features. VMWare performs very well when running
on a server, with hundreds of hosts and users.
For Mac users, Parallels is a popular
option which performs really well, but again is not open source.
For Windows users, there's
Hyper-V,
which is a native Windows product, developed by Microsoft.
Tools for signing, verifying, encrypting and decrypting text and files using GnuPG standard
SeaHorse - Application for managing encryption keys and passwords, integrated with the GNOME Keyring.
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Kleopatra - Certificate manager and a universal crypto GUI. It supports managing X.509 and OpenPGP certificates in the GpgSM
keybox and retrieving certificates from LDAP servers.
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GPG Suite - Successor of MacGPG. Plays nice with MacOS apps, including Finder, Appple Mail, Keychain and Spotlight.
Makes encrypting files, emails, and messages / data very easy.
As well as GUI for generating keys, verifying signatures, etc.
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OpenKeychain - Android app for managing keys, and encrypting messages.
Works both stand-alone, and as integrated into other apps, including k9-Mail.
Everything can be done through a simple yet powerful GUI.
Open source, security audited, transparent permissions, and activley maintained.
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🛡️ Security Audited ˙
PGP Everywhere - iOS app for encrypting/ decrypting text.
Has native keyboard integration, keychain support and app integrations which makes it quick to use in any app.
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FlowCrypt - Browser extension for using PGP within Gmail, for Chrome and Firefox.
Mobile version supported on Android and iOS.
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EnigMail - OpenPGP extension for Thunderbird and PostBox, integrates natively within mail app.
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Mailvelope - Mailvelope is an addon for email applications, that makes using PGP very easy for beginners. You can use the hosted
version for free, or opt to host your own instance.
Works with Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, GMX, Posteo, Web.de, FreeNet.de, Mailbox.org and many others.
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For example, if you upload an image of a sunset to the internet, but don't remove the metadata,
it may reveal the location (GPS lat + long)
of where it was taken, the device is was taken on, precise camera data, details about modifications and the
picture source + author. Social networks that remove metadata from your photos, often collect and store it,
for their own use.
This could obviously pose a security risk, and that is why it is recommended to strip out this data from a file before sharing.
ExifCleaner - Cross-platform, open source, performant EXIF meta data removal tool. This GUI tool makes cleaning media files really
easy, and has great batch process support. Created by @szTheory, and uses ExifTool.
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ExifTool - Platform-independent open source Perl library & CLI app, for reading, writing and editing meta data. Built by Phill
Harvey. Very good performance, and supports all common metadata formats. An official GUI application is available
for Windows, implemented by Bogdan Hrastnik.
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ImageOptim - Native MacOS app, with drag 'n drop image optimization and meta data removal.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
It's possible (but slower) to do this without a third-party tool.
For Windows, right click on a file, and go to: Properties --> Details --> Remove Properties --> Remove from this File --> Select All --> OK.
Alternatively, with ImageMagic installed, just run
convert -strip path/to/image.png to remove all metadata.
If you have GIMP installed, then just go to File --> Export As --> Export --> Advanced Options --> Uncheck the "Save EXIF data" option.
Often you need to perform meta data removal programmatically, as part of a script or automation process.
Simply deleting data, does
not remove it
from the disk, and recovering deleted files is a
simple task.
Therefore, to protect your privacy, you should erase/ overwrite data from
the disk, before you destroy, sell or give away a hard drive.
Eraser - Allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully
selected patterns.
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Hard Disk Scrubber - Easy to use, but with some advanced features, including custom wipe patterns. Data Sanitation Methods: AFSSI-5020,
DoD 5220.22-M, and Random Data.
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SDelete - Microsoft Secure Delete is a CLI utility, uses DoD 5220.22-M.
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OW Shredder - File, folder and drive portable eraser for Windows. Bundled with other tools to scan, analyze, and wipe, and other
traces that were left behind. Includes context menu item, recycle bin integration.
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DBAN - Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers.
DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an
appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction. DBAN is the free edition of Blanco, which is an enterprise
tool designed for legal compliance.
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nwipe - C-based secure light-weight disk eraser, operated through the easy-to-use CLI or a GUI interface.
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shred - A CLI utility that can be used to securely delete files and devices, to make them extremely difficult to recover.
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Secure Remove - CLI utility for securely removing files, directories and whole disks, works on Linux, BSD and MacOS.
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Mr. Phone - Proprietary, closed-source suite of forensic data tools for mobile. The data eraser allows for both Android and iOS to
be fully wiped, through connecting them to a PC.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
There's no need to use a third-party tool. You can boot into a UNIX-based
system, mount the disk you need to erase, and use a command to write it
with arbitrary data. For best results, this process should be repeated
several times. This is a good way to wipe a disk, before selling or
destroying it, to protect your data.
Such as the dd command,
is a tool to convert and copy files, but running
sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M will quickly overwrite the whole disk with zeros.
Or badblocks which is intended to search for all bad blocks,
but can also be used to write zeros to a disk,
by running sudo badblocks -wsv /dev/sdd.
An effective method of erasing an SSD, it to use hdparm
to issue a secure erase
command, to your target storage device,
for this, see step-by-step instructions via: wiki.kernel.org.
Finally, srm can be
use to securely remove files or directories, just run srm -zsv /path/to/file
for a single pass over.
If you are an Android user, your device has Google built-in at its core.
Google tracks you,
collecting a wealth of information, and logging your every move.
A custom ROM,
is an open source, usually Google-free mobile OS that can be flashed to your device.
GrapheneOS - GrapheneOS is an open source privacy and security focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility. Developed by Daniel Micay.
GrapheneOS is a young project, and currently only supports Pixel devices, partially due to their strong hardware security.
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CalyxOS - CalyxOS is an free and open source Android mobile operating system that puts privacy and security into the hands of everyday users.
Plus, proactive security recommendations and automatic updates take the guesswork out of keeping your personal data personal. Also currently
only supports Pixel devices and Xiaomi Mi A2 with Fairphone 4, OnePlus 8T, OnePlus 9 test builds available. Developed by the Calyx Foundation.
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DivestOS - DivestOS is a vastly diverged unofficial more secure and private soft fork of LineageOS. DivestOS primary goal is prolonging the life-span of
discontinued devices, enhancing user privacy, and providing a modest increase of security where/when possible. Project is developed and maintained
solely by Tad (SkewedZeppelin) since 2014.
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LineageOS - A free and open-source operating system for various devices, based on the Android mobile platform - Lineage is light-weight, well maintained,
supports a wide range of devices, and comes bundled with Privacy Guard.
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⚠️Word of Warning
It is not recommended to root, or flash your device with a custom ROM if you are not an advanced user.
There are risks involved
Although the above ROMs omit Google, they do open up other security issues: Without DM-verity on the system partition, the file system could be tampered with, and no verified boot stack, the kernel/initramfs also could be edited. You should understand the risks, before proceeding to flash a custom ROM to your device
You will need to rely on updates from the community, which could be slower to be released - this may be an issue for a time-urgent, security-critical patch
It is also possible to brick your device, through interrupted install or bad software
Finally, rooting and flashing your device, will void your warranty
✳️ Notable Mentions
Replicant OS is a fully-featured distro,
with an emphasis on freedom, privacy and security.
Alternatively, Ubuntu Touch is a Linux (Ubuntu)- based OS.
It is secure by design and runs on almost any device, - but it does fall short when it comes to the app store.
To install apps on the Play Store without using the Play Store app see
Aurora Store.
For Google Play Service see MicroG
Windows and MacOS have many features that violate your privacy.
Microsoft and Apple are able to collect all your data (including, but not
limited to: keystrokes, searches and mic input, calendar data, music,
photos, credit card information and purchases, identity, passwords, contacts,
conversations and location data). Microsoft Windows is also more susceptible
to malware and viruses, than alternative systems.
Switching to Linux is a great choice in terms of security and privacy -
you don't need necessarily need to use a security distro, any well-maintained
stable distro is going to be considerably better than a proprietary OS
Qubes OS - Open-source security-oriented operating system for single-user desktop computing. It uses virtualisation,
to run each application in its own compartment to avoid data being leaked. It features Split GPG, U2F Proxy,
and Whonix integration. Qubes makes is easy to create disposable VMs which are spawned quickly and destroyed
when closed. Qubes is recommended by Edward Snowden.
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Whonix - Whonix is an anonymous operating system, which can run in a VM, inside your current OS. It is the best way to
use Tor, and provides very strong protection for your IP address. It comes bundled with other features too:
Keystroke Anonymization, Time Attack Defences, Stream Isolation, Kernel Self Protection Settings and an Advanced
Firewall. Open source, well audited, and with a strong community - Whonix is based on Debian, KickSecure and Tor.
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Tails - Tails is a live operating system (so you boot into it from a USB, instead of installing). It preserves your
privacy and anonymity through having no persistent memory/ leaving no trace on the computer. Tails has Tor
built-in system-wide, and uses state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt your files, emails and instant
messaging. Open source, and built on top of Debian. Tails is simple to stop, configure and use.
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Parrot - Parrot Linux, is a full Debian-based operating system, that is geared towards security, privacy and development.
It is fully-featured yet light-weight, very open. There are 3 editions: General Purpose, Security and Forensic.
The Secure distribution includes its own sandbox system obtained with the combination of Firejail and AppArmor
with custom security profiles. While the Forensics Edition is bundled with a comprehensive suite of security/
pen-testing tools, similar to Kali and Black Arch.
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Discreete Linux - Aimed at journalists, activists and whistle-blowers, Discreete Linux is similar to Tails, in that it is booted
live from external media, and leaves no/ minimal trace on the system. The aim of the project, was to provide
all required cryptographic tools offline, to protect against Trojan-based surveillance.
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Alpine Linux - Alpine is a security-oriented, lightweight distro based on musl libc and busybox. It compiles all user-space
binaries as position-independent executables with stack-smashing protection. Install and setup may be quite
complex for some new users.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
Septor is a Debian-based distro with the
KDE Plasma desktop environment, and Tor baked-in. Designed for surfing the
web anonymously, and completing other internet-based activities (with
Thunderbird, Ricochet IM, HexChat, QuiteRSS, OnionShare).
Septor is light-weight, but comes bundled with all the essential privacy +
security utilities (including: Gufw, Ark, Sweeper, KGpg, Kleopatra,
KWallet, VeraCrypt, Metadata Anonymisation Toolkit and more).
Subgraph OS is designed to be an adversary resistant
computing platform, it includes strong system-wide attack mitigations,
and all key applications run in sandbox environments. Subgraph is still
in beta (at the time of writing), but still is well tested, and has some
nice anonymization features
For defensive security, see Kali and BlackArch,
both are bundled with hundreds of security tools, ready for pretty much any job
(not reccomended as a daily driver!)
If you do not want to use a specalist security-based distro, or you are
new to Unix - then just switching to any well-maintained Linux distro,
is going to be significantly more secure and private than Windows or Mac OS.
Since it is open source, major distros are constantly being audited by
members of the community. Linux does not give users admin rights by default -
this makes is much less likely that your system could become infected with malware.
And of course, there is no proprietary Microsoft or Apple software constantly
monitoring everything you do.
Some good distros to consider would be: Fedora,
Debian, or Arch-
all of which have a large community behind them. Manjaro
(based of Arch) is a good option, with a simple install process, used by new comers,
and expers alike.
POP_OS and PureOS
are reasonably new general purpose Linux, with a strong focus on privacy, but also
very user-friendly with an intuitive interfac and install process.
See Detailed Comparison.
BSD
BSD systems arguably have far superior network stacks.
OpenBSD is designed for maximum security —
not just with its features, but with its implementation practices.
It's a commonly used OS by banks and critical systems.
FreeBSD is more popular, and aims for high
performance and ease of use.
Windows
Two alternative options for Windows users are Windows 10 AME (ameliorated)
project and the LTSC stream.
Windows 10 AME AME project aims at delivering
a stable, non-intrusive yet fully functional build of Windows 10 to anyone,
who requires the Windows operating system natively. Core applications, such
as the included Edge web-browser, Windows Media Player, Cortana, as well as
any appx applications (appx apps will no longer work), have also been successfully
eliminated. The total size of removed files is about 2 GB. Comes as a pre-built
ISO or option to build from scratch with de-bloat scripts. Strong, supportive
community on Telegram.
Windows 10 LTSC
LTSC provides several security benefits over a standard Win 10 Installation.
LTSC or Long Term Servicing Channel is a lightweight, low-cost Windows 10
version, that is intended for specialized systems, and receives less regular
feature updates. What makes it appealing, is that it doesn't come with any
bloatware or non-essential applications, and needs to be configured from the
ground up by the user. This gives you much better control over what is running
on your system, ultimately improving security and privacy. It also includes
several enterprise-grade
security features,
which are not available in a standard Windows 10 instance. It does require
some technical knowledge to get started with, but once setup should perform
just as any other Windows 10 system. Note that you should only download the
LTSC ISO from the Microsoft's
official page
Improve the Security and Privacy of your current OS
Firejail - Firejail is a SUID sandbox program that reduces the risk of security breaches by restricting the running environment
of untrusted applications using Linux namespaces and seccomp-bpf. Written in C, virtually no dependencies, runs on any
modern Linux system, with no daemon running in the background, no complicated configuration, and it's super lightweight
and super secure, since all actions are implemented by the kernel. It includes security profiles for over 800 common
Linux applications. FireJail is recommended for running any app that may potential pose some kind of risk, such as
torrenting through Transmission, browsing the web, opening downloaded attachments.
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Gufw - Open source GUI firewall for Linux, allowing you to block internet access for certain applications. Supports both simple
and advanced mode, GUI and CLI options, very easy to use, lightweight/ low-overhead, under active maintenance and backed
by a strong community. Installable through most package managers, or compile from source.
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ClamTk - ClamTk is basically a graphical front-end for ClamAV, making it an easy to use, light-weight, on-demand virus scanner
for Linux systems.
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chkrootkit - Locally checks for signs of a rootkit.
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Snort - Open source intrusion prevention system capable of real-time traffic analysis and packet logging.
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BleachBit - Clears cache and deletes temporary files very effectively. This frees up disk space, improves performance, but most
importantly helps to protect privacy.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
SecTools.org is a directory or popular Unix security tools.
Windows Spy Blocker - Capture and interprets network traffic based on a set of rules, and
depending on the interactions certain assignments are blocked.
Open source, written in Go and delivered as a single executable.
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HardenTools - A utility that disables a number of risky Windows features. These "features"
are exposed by the OS and primary consumer applications,
and very commonly abused by attackers, to execute malicious code on a
victim's computer. So this tool just reduces the attack surface by
disabling the low-hanging fruit.
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ShutUp10 - A portable app that lets you disable core Windows features (such as Cortana,
Edge) and control which data is passed to Microsoft.
(Note: Free, but not open source).
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WPD - Portable app with a GUI, that makes it really easy to safely block key
telemetry features, from sending data to Microsoft and other third parties
(It uses the Windows API to interact with key features of Local Group
Police, Services, Tasks Scheduler, etc).
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GhostPress - Anti low-level keylogger: Provides full system-wide key press protection,
and target window screenshot protection.
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KeyScrambler - Provides protection against software keyloggers. Encrypts keypresses at
driver level, and decrypts at application level, to protect against
common keyloggers.
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SafeKeys V3.0 - Portable virtual keyboard. Useful for protecting from keyloggers when
using a public computer, as it can run of a USB with no administrative
permissions.
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RKill - Useful utility, that attempts to terminate known malware processes,
so that your normal security software can then run and clean your
computer of infections.
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IIS Crypto - A utility for configuring encryption protocols, cyphers, hashing methods,
and key exchanges for Windows components. Useful for sysadmins on Windows
Server.
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NetLimiter - Internet traffic control and monitoring tool.
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SigCheck - A CLI utility that shows file version number, timestamp information,
and digital signature details.
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BleachBit - Clears cache and deletes temporary files very effectively.
This frees up disk space, improves performance, but most importantly
helps to protect privacy.
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Windows Secure Baseline - Group Policy objects, compliance checks, and configuration tools that
provide an automated and flexible approach for securely deploying and
maintaining the latest releases of Windows 10.
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USBFix - Detects infected USB removable devices.
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SpyDish - Open source GUI app built upon PowerShell, allowing you to perform a quick and easy privacy check, on Windows 10 systems.
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SharpApp - Open source GUI app built upon PowerShell, for disabling telemetry functions in Windows 10, uninstalling preinstalled apps, installing software packages and automating Windows tasks with integrated PowerShell scripting.
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Debotnet - Light-weight, portable app for controlling the many privacy-related settings within Windows 10- with the aim of helping to keep private data, private.
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PrivaZer - Good alternative to CCleaner, for deleting unnecessary data - logs, cache, history, etc.
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⚠️Word of Warning
(The above software was last tested on 01/05/20).
Many of the above tools are not necessary or suitable for beginners,
and can cause your system to break - only use software that you need,
according to your threat model. Take care to only download from an
official/ legitimate source, verify the executable before proceeding,
and check reviews/ forums.
Create a system restore point, before making any significant changes to
your OS (such as disabling core features).
From a security and privacy perspective, Linux may be a better option.
LuLu - Free, open source macOS firewall. It aims to block unknown outgoing connections, unless explicitly approved by the user.
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Stronghold - Easily configure macOS security settings from the terminal.
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Fortress - Kernel-level, OS-level, and client-level security for macOS. With a Firewall, Blackhole, and Privatizing Proxy for Trackers, Attackers, Malware, Adware, and Spammers; with On-Demand and On-Access Anti-Virus Scanning.
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Cross-platform, open source malware detection and virus prevention tools
ClamAV - An open source cross-platform antivirus engine for detecting viruses, malware & other malicious threats. It is versatile, performant and very effective.
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VirusTotal - Web-based malware scanner, that inspects files and URLs with over 70 antivirus scanners, URL/domain services, and other tools to extract signals and determine the legitimacy.
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⚠️Word of Warning
For Microsoft Windows, Windows Defender provides totally adequate virus
protection in most cases. These tools are intended for single-use in
detecting/ removing threats on an infected machine, and are not recommended
to be left running in the background, use portable editions where available.
Many anti virus products have a history of introducing vulnerabilities themselves,
and several of them seriously degrade the performance of your computer, as well as
decrease your privacy. Never use a free anti-virus, and never trust the companies
that offer free solutions, even if you pay for the premium package.
This includes (but not limited to) Avast, AVG, McAfee and Kasperky.
For AV to be effective, it needs intermate access to all areas of your PC,
so it is important to go with a trusted vendor, and monitor its activity closely.
SourceHut - Git and mercurial code hosting, task management, mailing lists, wiki hosting and Alpine-based build pipelines. Can be self-hosted, or used through the managed instance at sr.ht.
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Google Assistant, Alexa and Siri don't have the best
reputation when it comes to protecting
consumers privacy, there have been
many recent breaches.
For that reason it is recommended not to have these devices in your house.
The following are open source AI voice assistants, that aim to provide a
human voice interface while also protecting your privacy and security
Mycroft - An open source privacy-respecting AI platform, compatible with a wide range of
devices including Raspberry Pi, desktop computers, or dedicated Mycroft hardware.
Actively developed, with extensive documentation and a broad skill set. Facilitates
easy development of new skills.
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Kalliope - A modular, always-on, voice-controlled personal assistant geared towards home automation.
Optimized for Raspberry Pi, Debian, or Ubuntu. Skills are easily programmable in YAML,
though the library of pre-built add-ons is not as extensive.
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⚠️Word of Warning
If you are building your own assistant, you may want to consider a hardware-switch
for disabling the microphone. Keep tabs on issues and check the code, to ensure
you are happy with how it works, from a privacy perspective.
✳️ Notable Mentions
If you choose to continue using Google Home/ Alexa, then check out
Project Alias.
It's a small app that runs on a Pi, and gives you more control over your smart assistants, for both customisation and privacy.
For a desktop-based assistant, see
Dragonfire for Ubuntu,
and Jarvis for MacOS.
LinTO, Jovo and Snips
are private-by-design voice assistant frameworks that can be built on by developers,
or used by enterprises.
Gladys Assistant - An open source privacy-respecting Home Assistant, compatible with a wide range of
devices including Raspberry Pi, desktop computers, or NAS systems.
Actively developed, with good french community and various integrations
(Zigbee, Philips, Camera, Tuya, MQTT, Telegram, ...).
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Monero - One of the most private cryptocurrencies, since no meta data is available
(not even the transaction amount). It uses complex on-chain cryptographic
methods such as Ring signatures, RingCT, Kovri, and Stealth addresses all
of which help protect the privacy of users.
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ZCash - Uses zero-knowledge proofs to protect privacy cryptographic technique,
that allows two users to transact without ever revealing their true identity
or address. The Zcash blockchain uses two types of addresses and transactions,
Z transactions and addresses are private and T transactions and addresses
are transparent like Bitcoin.
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⚠️Word of Warning
Not all cryptocurrencies are anonymous, and without using a privacy-focused coin,
a record of your transaction will live on a publicly available distributed ledger, forever.
If you send of receive multiple payments, ensure you switch up addresses or use a mixer,
to make it harder for anyone trying to trace your transactions.
Cryptocurrencies that allow private and public transactions may reveal meta
data about your transactions and balances when funds are moving from
private to public addresses which can compromise your privacy with methods
similar to a knapsack problem.
Always store private keys somewhere safe, but offline
Note: Cryptocurrency prices can go down. Storing any wealth in crypto may result in losses.
If you are new to digital currencies - do your research first, don't invest more than you can afford to loose,
and be very weary crypto-related scams are very common. as is and cryptocurrency-related malware.
It is still possible to use currencies that have a public ledger 'privately',
but you will need to take great care not to cause any transactions to be
linked with your identity or activity. For example, avoid exchanges that
require KYC, and consider using a service such as
Local Bitcoins.
If you use a Bitcoin ATM, then take care to not
be physically tracked (CCTV, phone location, card payments etc)
Wasabi Wallet - An open source, native desktop wallet for Windows, Linux, and MacOS. Wasabi implements trustless CoinJoins over the Tor network. Neither an observer nor the participants can determine which output belongs to which input. This makes it difficult for outside parties to trace where a particular coin originated from and where it was sent to, which greatly improves privacy. Since it's trustless, the CoinJoin coordinator cannot breach the privacy of the participants. Wasabi is compatible with cold storage and hardware wallets, including OpenCard and Trezor.
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Trezor - Open source, cross-platform, offline, crypto wallet, compatible with 1000+ coins. Your private key is generated on the device, and never leaves it, all transactions are signed by the Trezor, which ensures your wallet is safe from theft. There are native apps for Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android, and iOS, but Trezor is also compatible with other wallets, such as Wasabi. You can back the Trezor up, either by writing down the seed, or by duplicating it to another device. It is simple and intuitive to use, but also incredibly customizable with a large range of advanced features.
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ColdCard - An easy-to-use, super secure Bitcoin hardware wallet, which can be used independently as an air-gapped wallet. ColdCard is based on partially signed Bitcoin transactions following the BIP174 standard. Built specifically for Bitcoin, and with a variety of unique security features, ColdCard is secure, trustless, private, and easy-to-use. Companion products for the ColdCard include: BlockClock, SeedPlate, and ColdPower.
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Electrum - Long-standing Python-based Bitcoin wallet with good security features. Private keys are encrypted and do not touch the internet and balance is checked with a watch-only wallet. Compatible with other wallets, so there is no tie-in, and funds can be recovered with your secret seed. It supports proof-checking to verify transactions using SPV, multi-sig, and add-ons for compatibility with hardware wallets. A decentralized server indexes ledger transactions, meaning it's fast and doesn't require much disk space. The potential security issue here would not be with the wallet, but rather your PC - you must ensure your computer is secure and your wallet has a long, strong passphrase to encrypt it with.
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Sparrow Wallet - Sparrow is a Bitcoin wallet for those who value financial self-sovereignty. Sparrow’s emphasis is on security, privacy, and usability. Sparrow does not hide information from you - on the contrary, it attempts to provide as much detail as possible about your transactions and UTXOs, but in a way that is manageable and usable.
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Atomic Wallet - Atomic is an open-source desktop and mobile-based wallet, where your private keys are stored on your local device, and do not touch the internet. Atomic has a great feature set, and supports swapping, staking, and lending directly from the app. However, most of Atomic's features require an active internet connection, and Atomic does not support hardware wallets yet. Therefore, it may only be a good choice as a secondary wallet, for storing small amounts of your actively used currency.
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CryptoSteel - A steel plate, with engraved letters which can be permanently screwed - CryptoSteel is a good fire-proof, shock-proof, water-proof, and stainless cryptocurrency backup solution.
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BitBox02 - Open source hardware wallet, supporting secure multisig with the option for making encrypted backups on a MicroSD card.
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⚠️Word of Warning
Avoid using any online/ hot-wallet, as you will have no control over
the security of your private keys.
Offline paper wallets are very secure, but ensure you store it
properly - to keep it safe from theft, loss or damage.
✳️ Notable Mentions
Metamask (Ethereum and ERC20 tokens) is a bridge
that allows you to visit and interact with distributed web apps in your browser.
Metamask has good hardware wallet support, so you can use it to swap, stake,
sign, lend and interact with dapps without you're private key ever leaving your device.
However the very nature of being a browser-based app means that you need to stay vigilant with what services you give access to.
Bisq - An open-source, peer-to-peer application that allows you to buy and sell
cryptocurrencies in exchange for national currencies. Fully decentralized,
and no registration required.
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LocalBitcoins - Person-to-person exchange, find people local to your area, and trade
directly with them, to avoid going through any central organization.
Primarily focused on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and LiteCoin,
as it gets harder to find people near you selling niche alt-coins.
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AtomicDEX - Person-to-person cryptocurrency exchange with no KYC or registration
required and uses atomic swaps to perform trustless trades.
The orderbook uses a modified libp2p protocol to prevent censorship and maintain decentralization.
Fiat currencies are not supported, but hundreds of alt-coins and major cryptocurrencies are supported.
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RoboSats - RoboSats is an easy way to privately exchange Bitcoin for national currencies.
It simplifies the peer-to-peer experience and makes use of lightning hold
invoices to minimize custody and trust requirements.
The deterministically generated avatars help users stick to best privacy practices.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
For traders, BaseFEX doesn't require ID and has a good privacy policy.
BitMex has more advanced trading features,
but ID verification is required for higher value trades involving Fiat currency.
For buying and selling alt-coins, Binance has a wide range of currencies,
and ID verification is not needed for small-value trades but ID verification is required in most countries.
Virtual cards generated provide an extra layer of security, improve privacy
and help protect from fraud. Most providers have additional features,
such as single-use cards (that cannot be charged more than once),
card limits (so you can be sure you won't be charged more than you expected)
and other security controls.
In most countries KYC is required. The bank will of course be able to see all your transactions.
Be sure to read their privacy policy and terms of service beforehand.
Not all services are available in all countries.
Privacy.com - Privacy.com has a good reputation, and is the largest virtual card provider
in the US. Unlike other providers, it is free for personal use (up to 12 cards
per month) with no fees, apps and support is good. There is a premium plan
for $10/month, with 1% cashback and 36 cards/month.
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Revolut Premium - Revolut is more of a digital bank account, and identity checks are required
to sign up. Virtual cards are only available on Premium/ Metal accounts, which
start at $7/month.
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MySudo - Much more than just virtual cards, MySudo is a platform for creating
compartmentalised identities, each with their own virtual cards, virtual phone
numbers, virtual email addresses, messaging, private browsing, and more. There
is a free plan for up to 3 identities, and premium plans start at $0.99/month.
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Cash - Actual physical cash is still the most private option, with no chance of leaving
any transactional records.
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Gift Cards - Gift cards can be purchased for cash in many convenience stores, and redeemed
online for goods or services. Try to avoid CCTV as best as possible.
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Pre-paid Cards - Similarly to gift cards, buying a pre-paid card for cash can enable you to
purchase goods and services in stores that only accept card payments.
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⚠️Word of Warning
Note that credit card providers heavily track transaction metadata, which build
up a detailed picture of each persons spending habits. This is done both to
provide improved fraud alerts, but also because the data is extremely valuable
and is often 'anonymized' and sold to 3rd parties. Hence your privacy is degraded
if these cards are used for daily transactions
ℹ️ Further Info
Paying for goods and services is a good example of where privacy and security conflict;
the most secure option would be to pay with credit card, since most providers include
comprehensive fraud protection, whereas the most private option would be to pay using
crypto currency or cash, since neither can be easily tied back to your identity.
Firefly III - A free and open source personal finance manager. Firefly III features a clean
and clear UI, is easy to set up and use, and is backed by a strong community.
Regular updates bring new features, improvements, and fixes. There's also a hass.io
addon, and compatibility with Home Assistant. Ensure your server is securely configured.
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GnuCash - A full-featured cross-platform accounting application suitable for personal
and small business finance. Stable and reliable, GnuCash offers a comprehensive
suite of financial management tools. Available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and
Android.
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Plain Text Accounting - Utilizes plain text files and scriptable, command-line-friendly software for
bookkeeping/accounting, offering full control over data. Popular tools include
Ledger, hledger, and Beancount among others, providing a flexible and vendor-independent
approach to accounting.
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✳️ Notable Mentions
Spreadsheets remain a popular choice for managing budgets and financial planning.
Collabora or
OnlyOffice (on NextCloud),
Libre Office and EtherCalc
are popular open source spread sheet applications. Mintable
allows you to auto-populate your spreadsheets from your financial data,
using publicly accessible API - mitigating the requirement for a dedicated budgeting application.
Over the past decade, social networks have revolutionized the way we communicate
and bought the world closer together - but it came at the
cost of our privacy.
Social networks are built on the principle of sharing - but you, the user
should be able to choose with whom you share what, and that is what the
following sites aim to do.
Aether - Offers self-governing communities with auditable moderation, akin to Reddit but
prioritizing privacy, democracy, and transparency. Aether is peer-to-peer and open
source, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.
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Discourse - A fully open-source, self-hostable discussion platform usable as a mailing list,
discussion forum, or long-form chat room.
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Mastodon - An open-source, distributed social media platform functioning similarly to Twitter,
without algorithmic timeline manipulations. It operates across independent servers.
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Minds - A social media platform designed to foster open conversations and community
engagement. Rewards content creation.
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Tildes, Lemmy and notabug.io - bulletin boards and news aggregators (similar to Reddit)
Pixelfed - A free, ethical, federated photo sharing platform (FOSS alternative to Instagram)
ℹ️ Further Info
The content on many of these smaller sites tends to be more niche.
To continue using Twitter, there are a couple of
tweaks,
that will improve security. For Reddit, use a privacy-respecting client -
such as Reditr.
Other main-stream social networking sites do not respect your privacy,
so should be avoided, but if you choose to keep using them see
this guide for tips on protecting your privacy
PeerTube - A federated video platform leveraging peer-to-peer technology to decrease server
load during video streaming. Supports self-hosting or joining existing instances,
enabling video viewing from any PeerTube server.
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DTube - A decentralized, ad-free video platform emphasizing minimal moderation. It rewards
users with cryptocurrency, leveraging blockchain technology.
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BitChute - Established in 2017, BitChute is a video hosting service that offers a platform for
uploaders to evade the content restrictions found on other sites like YouTube.
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⚠️Word of Warning
Without moderation, some of these platforms accommodate video creators
whose content may not be appropriate for all audiences
ℹ️ Further Info
YouTube Proxies
The content on many of the smaller video sites, often just doesn't compare to YouTube.
So another alternative, is to access YouTube through a proxy client, which reduces what Google can track.
Petey Vid is a non-biased video search engine.
Unlike normal search engines it indexes videos from a lot of sources,
including Twitter, Veoh, Instagram, Twitch, MetaCafe, Minds, BitChute,
Brighteon, D-Tube, PeerTube, and many others.
Write Freely - A minimalist, federated blogging platform offering a clean UI. It's free, open source,
and caters to writers seeking simplicity and federation capabilities. For hosted options,
visit Write.as.
…
Stats
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Telegraph - A quick, anonymous blogging platform by Telegram. It's designed for simplicity and speed,
allowing for straightforward content publishing without registration.
…
Mataroa - A minimalist blogging platform focused on privacy and simplicity. It's open source and
eschews complex features for a straightforward writing and publishing experience.
…
Stats
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Bear Blog - A no-nonsense, super-fast blogging platform prioritizing privacy. It strips back
unnecessary features to focus on straightforward blogging. The platform is open source.
…
Stats
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Movim - A web frontend for XMPP, offering decentralized blogging and chatrooms. Movim is open source,
integrating social and communication tools in a unified platform.
…
Stats
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Pico - Web services over SSH, including blogging with Prose, microsites with Pages, and a pastebin with
Pastes. The services use public-key cryptography by default with no browser-based tracking and
minimal logging.
…
Stats
📦 Open Source ˙
✳️ Notable Mentions
If you use Standard Notes,
then Listed.to is a public blogging platform with
strong privacy features.
It lets you publish posts directly through the Standard Notes app or web interface.
Want to write a simple text post and promote it yourself?
Check out telegra.ph, txt.fyi and NotePin.
For seriously anonymous platforms, aimed at activists, see noblogs
and autistici.
It is also possible to host a normal WordPress site,
without it being linked to your real identity, although WP does not have
the best reputation when it comes to privacy.
Of course you could also host your blog on your own server,
using a standard open source blog platform, such as
Ghost and configure it to disable all trackers, ads and analytics.
Tiny RSS - A web-based news feed reader and aggregator, supporting RSS/Atom feeds. It's free, open source,
and offers a customizable and self-hostable platform for managing your news feeds.
…
RSSOwl - A powerful, desktop-based RSS reader offering extensive organization features. It facilitates
managing and curating news feeds from various sources.
…
Feedly - Offers a premium news aggregation experience, presenting news from chosen sources in a clean,
modern interface. Beyond RSS, it integrates with various news outlets, ensuring a tailored
news feed without manipulated content. Parts of the service are open source.
…
These are websites that enable you to access existing social media platforms,
without using their primary website - with the aim of improving privacy &
security and providing better user experience. The below options are open
source (so can be self-hosted, if you wish), and they do not display ads
or tracking (unless otherwise stated).
Nitter - A privacy-centric alternative to Twitter's front-end, focusing on preventing user tracking.
It's free, open source, lightweight, supports multiple themes, and offers customizable RSS feeds.
All client requests are proxied, enhancing privacy. No JavaScript required.
…
Invidious - An open source, privacy-focused YouTube frontend. It minimizes Google tracking, supports audio-only mode,
integrates Reddit comments, and offers advanced playback options. Lightweight and can function without
JavaScript. Supports import/export of subscriptions and feed customization.
…
Stats
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Libreddit - A private, fast Reddit frontend written in Rust. Excludes ads, trackers, and bloat, making it much faster
than the official site. Can be self-hosted via Docker or other methods. Implements most Reddit features
for anonymous browsing.
…
WebProxy - A free proxy service offering a Tor mode for evading censorship and accessing geo-restricted content.
Claims to encrypt traffic, but caution is advised for personal information. Managed by DevroLabs.
…
⚠️Word of Warning
When proxies are involved - only use reputable services, and never enter any personal information
✳️ Notable Mentions
NewPipe - An open source, privacy-respecting YouTube client for Android.> - FreeTube - An open source YouTube client for Windows, MacOS and Linux, providing
a more private experience, with a native-feel desktop app.
It is built upon the Invidious API.
Gimp - A free, open source, cross-platform image editor. GIMP is a powerful tool for
photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring. It is highly customizable,
and supports a wide range of file formats.
…
Stats
📦 Open Source ˙
InkScape - A free, open source, professional vector graphics editor. It is a powerful tool
for creating illustrations, icons, logos, diagrams, maps, and web graphics.
…
Stats
📦 Open Source ˙
Paint.NET - A more advanced take on Microsoft Paint. Suitable for basic image editing,
with support for basic layers, unlimited undo/redo, and extendable via plugins
…
Stats
📦 Open Source ˙
PixlrX - A free web-based image editor, with a modern UI.
Also offers premium/paid features, such as AI-powered generation, touchup and editing
…
Stats
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RawTherapee - A powerful raw photo processing system and editor, for non-destructive editing
of raw digital photos
…
Stats
📦 Open Source ˙
PhotoPea - A free online image editor, for both raster and vector graphics,
with a very wide range of supported formats
…
Stats
💰 Accepts Anonymous Payment ˙
Krita - Digital painting application.
Free and open source (backed by KDE), with cross-platform support,
Krita is popular among both professional and amateur artists
due to it's comprehensive feature set, and intuitive UI
…
Stats
📦 Open Source ˙
DarkTable - A photography workflow application (similar to Adbobe Lightroom)
Includes a non-destructive raw developer for raw images and managing digital negatives.
…
Shotcut - A free, open source, cross-platform video editor, using FFmpeg
Shotcut supports a wide range of formats, and has a comprehensive feature set,
including 4K & 8k resolution, webcam + audio capture, batch opperations and
much more…
Stats
📦 Open Source ˙
OpenShot - A free, simple, cross-platform video editor.
Great for trimming/slicing, video effects, adding titles, scene animations
and more…
Stats
📦 Open Source ˙
Kdenlive - KDE Non-Linear Video Editor, is an editor based on the MLT Framework, KDE and Qt,
written using C++ and using FFmpeg
…
Stats
📦 Open Source ˙
FlowBlade - A multitrack non-linear video editor with a simple interface
…
Stats
📦 Open Source ˙
Cinelerra GG Infinity - Simple video editor, for applying transitions, effects and text as well
as splicing video clips
…
Stats
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VitCutter - A simple Python-based cross-platform tool for cutting and splicing videos
…
Stats
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Natron - Free & open desktop node-graph based video compositing software.
Similar in functionalities to Adobe After Effects.
Features flexible rotoscoping, 2D & planner tracking, keying tools,
curve & dope-shift editor, GPU & network rendering, and is
easily extendable via community plugins, or by writing Python scripts
…
Audacity - An easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for desktops,
great free alternative to Adobe Audition.
Features recording from real and virtual devices,
import/export to a wide range of formats, high-quality processing
advanced multi-track editing, noise reduction, pitch correction,
audio restoration and much more.
It's easily extendable via community plugins, and
also supports cusotm macros and many scripting options
…
OBS Studio - Powerful desktop software for live streaming and screen recording.
Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.
Features real-time video/audio capturing, scene composition, encoding,
recording, and broadcasting. It supports a wide range of formats,
and is easily extendable via community plugins
…
Blender - Free desktop 3D creation suite, with a wide range of tools for
modeling, sculpting, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering, compositing,
motion tracking, and video editing. It's easily extendable via community plugins
…
Stats
📦 Open Source 🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Wings3D - A simple and easy-to-use subdivision 3D modeler
with AutoUV facility for unfolding a models surface for painting/texturing.
Unlike Blender, it has no built-in animation capabilites, and it's feature set
is more limited, but it's a good choice for beginners.
…
Many corporations put profit before people, collecting data and exploiting privacy. They claim to be secure but without being open source it can't be verified, until there's been a breach and it's too late. Switching to privacy-respecting open source software will drastically help improving your security, privacy and anonymity online.
However, that's not all you need to do. It is also important to: use strong and unique passwords, 2-factor authentication,
adopt good networking practices and be mindful of data that are collected when browsing the web. You can see the full
personal security checklist for more tips to stay safe.
Important Considerations
Compartmentalise, Update and Be Ready
No piece of software is truly secure or private. Further to this, software can only as secure as the system it is running on. Vulnerabilities are being discovered and patched all the time, so you much keep your system up-to-date. Breaches occur regularly, so compartmentalise your data to minimise damage. It's not just about choosing secure software, you must also follow good security practices.
Attack Surface
It is a good idea to keep your trusted software base small, to reduce potential attack surface. At the same time trusting a single application for too many tasks or too much personal data could be a weakness in your system. So you will need to judge the situation according to your threat model, and carefully plan which software and applications you trust with each segment of your data.
Convenience Vs Security
There is often a trade-off between convenience and security. Construct a threat model, and choose a balance that is right for you. In a similar way in some situations there is privacy and security conflict (e.g. Find My Phone is great for security, but terrible for privacy, and anonymous payments may be good for privacy but less secure than insured fiat currency). Again it is about assessing your situation, understanding the risks and making an informed decision.
Hosted Vs Self-Hosted Considerations
When using a hosted or managed application that is open-source software - there is often no easy way to tell if the version running is the same as that of the published source code (even published signatures can be faked). There is always the possibility that additional backdoors may have been knowingly or unknowingly implemented in the running instance. One way round this is to self-host software yourself. When self-hosting you will then know for sure which code is running, however you will also be responsible for the managing security of the server, and so may not be recommended for beginners.
Open Source Software Considerations
Open source software has long had a reputation of being more secure than its closed source counterparts. Since bugs are raised transparently, fixed quickly, the code can be checked by experts in the community and there is usually little or no data collection or analytics.
That being said, there is no piece of software that it totally bug free, and hence never truly secure or private. Being open source, is in no way a guarantee that something is safe. There is no shortage of poorly-written, obsolete or sometimes harmful open source projects on the internet. Some open source apps, or a dependency bundled within it are just plain malicious (such as, that time Colourama was found in the PyPI Repository)
Proprietary Software Considerations
When using a hosted or proprietary solution - always check the privacy policy, research the reputation of the organisation, and be weary about which data you trust them with. It may be best to choose open source software for security-critical situations, where possible.
Maintenance
When selecting a new application, ensure it is still being regularly maintained, as this will allow for recently discovered security issues to be addressed. Software in an alpha or beta phase, may be buggy and lacking in features, but more importantly - it could have critical vulnerabilities open to exploit. Similarly, applications that are no longer being actively maintained may pose a security risk, due to lack of patching. When using a forked application, or software that is based on an upstream code base, be aware that it may receive security-critical patches and updates at a slightly later date than the original application.
This List: Disclaimer
This list contains packages that range from entry-level to advanced, a lot of the software here will not be appropriate for all audiences. It is in no way a definitive list of secure applications, and aims only to be a guide, a collection of software and services that myself and other contributors have used, and would recommend. There will always be new vulnerabilities discovered or introduced, bugs and security-critical glitches, malicious actors and poorly configured systems. It is up to you to do your research, draw up a threat model, and decide where and how your data are managed.
If you find something on this list that should no longer be deemed secure or private/ or should have a warning note attached, please raise an issue. In the same way if you know of something that is missing, or would like to make an edit, then pull requests are welcome, and are much appreciated!
Further Reading
More Awesome Software Lists
This list was focused on privacy-respecting software. Below are other awesome lists, maintained by the community of open source software, categorised by operating system.
News & Updates
A custom Reddit feed covering news and updates for all the apps covered here can be found here
The Website
The easiest way to browse Awesome Privacy, is via our website, at awesome-privacy.xyz
About Website
The source for the website is in the web/ directory.
This is a statically generated site, built with Astro, Svelte, TypeScript an SCSS.
At build-time, it reads the data from awesome-privacy.yml and generates the pages.
Running the Website Locally
You'll need Node.js (20.11.1 or later) and Git installed.
Then run the following commands to fetch the code, install dependencies and start the dev server.
git clone [email protected]:Lissy93/awesome-privacy.git
cd awesome-privacy/web
cp .env.sample .env
yarn install
yarn dev
# Then open 127.0.0.1:4321 in your browser
Deploying the Website
Follow the steps above, then run yarn build to generate the static files.
You can then upload the ./dist directory to any web server, static host or CDN.
Alternatively, you can fork the repo and import it into either Vercel or Netlify.
Contributing
We welcome suggestions, additions, edits and removals to the list.
It's thanks to contributors like you that this project is possible 💜
All data is stored in awesome-privacy.yml.
If you're adding, editing or removing a listing - this is the only file you need to edit.
Please familiarise yourself with the Contributing Guidelines before submiting your pull request, as we have some guidelines that must be followed to ensure your PR can be accepted.
If you're new to open source, you can find some resources to get you started at git-in.to,
but feel free to reach out if you need any help 😊
The API
We also have a free, no-auth, CORS-enabled RESR API, which you can use to access
Awesome Privacy's data programmatically, or to build your own apps on top of it.
To get started, try our Swagger Explorer,
which outlines all endpoints, usage and examples.
The MIT License (MIT)
Copyright (c) Alicia Sykes <[email protected]>
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sub-license, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished
to do so, subject to the following conditions:
The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included install
copies or substantial portions of the Software.
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANT ABILITY, FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT
HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION
OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Bitwarden - Fully-featured, open source password manager with cloud-sync. Bitwarden is easy-to-use with a clean UI and client apps for desktop, web and mobile. See also Vaultwarden, a self-hosted, Rust implementation of the Bitwarden server and compatible with upstream Bitwarden clients. …
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KeePass - Hardened, secure and offline password manager. Does not have cloud-sync baked in, deemed to be gold standard for secure password managers. KeePass clients: Strongbox (Mac & iOS), KeePassDX (Android), KeeWeb (Web-based/ self-hosted), KeePassXC (Windows, Mac & Linux), see more KeePass clients and extensions at awesome-keepass by @lgg. …
LessPass - LessPass is a little different, since it generates your passwords using a hash of the website name, your username and a single main-passphrase that you reuse. It omits the need for you to ever need to store or sync your passwords. They have apps for all the common platforms and a CLI, but you can also self-host it. …
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Padloc - A modern, open source password manager for individuals and teams. Beautiful, intuitive and dead simple to use. Apps available for all platforms and you can self-host it as well. …
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ProtonPass - From the creators of ProtonMail, ProtonPass is a new addition to their suite of services. They have a full collection of user-friendly native mobile and desktop apps. ProtonPass is one of the few "trustworthy" providers that also offers a free plan. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Pass - The Standard Unix Password Manager…
2FAS - Free, secure and open source authenticator app for both iOS and Android. Supports creating encrypted backups and syncing between devices without the need for an account. …
˙
Aegis - Free, secure and open source authenticator app for Android. Has a backup/
restore feature and a customisable UI with dark mode
…
˙
Authenticator Pro - Free and open-source two factor authentication app for Android. It features encrypted backups, icons, categories and a high level of customisation. It also has a Wear OS companion app …
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Tofu - An easy-to-use, open-source two-factor authentication app designed specifically for iOS …
˙
Authenticator - Simple, native, open source 2-FA Client for iOS, which never connects to the internet - built by @mattrubin.me …
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WinAuth - Portable, encrypted desktop authenticator app for Microsoft Windows. With useful features, like hotkeys and some additional security tools, WinAuth is a great companion authenticator for desktop power-users. It's open source and well-established (since mid-2010) …
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Authenticator GNOME - Rust-based OTP authenticator. Has native With GNOME Shell integration. Also available through flathub. …
Authenticator CC - Authenticator Extension is an in-browser One-Time Password (OTP) client, supports both Time-Based One-Time Password (TOTP, specified in RFC 6238) and HMAC-Based One-Time Password (HOTP, specified in RFC 4226). …
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Ente Auth - Ente Auth is a free and open-source app which stores and generates TOTP tokens. It can be used with an online account to backup and sync your tokens across your devices (and access them via a web interface) in a secure, end-to-end encrypted fashion. It can also be used offline on a single device with no account necessary. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Authenticator Pro
Tofu
Authenticator
Authenticator CC
VeraCrypt - VeraCrypt is open source cross-platform disk encryption software. You can use it to either encrypt a specific file or directory, or an entire disk or partition. VeraCrypt is incredibly feature-rich, with comprehensive encryption options, yet the GUI makes it easy to use. It has a CLI version, and a portable edition. VeraCrypt is the successor of (the now deprecated) TrueCrypt. …
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Cryptomator - Open source client-side encryption for cloud files - Cryptomator is geared towards using alongside cloud-backup solutions, and hence preserves individual file structure, so that they can be uploaded. It too is easy to use, but has fewer technical customizations for how the data is encrypted, compared with VeraCrypt. Cryptomator works on Windows, Linux and Mac - but also has excellent mobile apps. …
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age -
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Picocrypt - Picocrypt is a very small (hence Pico), very simple, yet very secure encryption tools that you can use to protect your files. It's designed to be the go-to tool for encryption, with a focus on security, simplicity, and reliability. …
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age
LibreWolf - LibreWolf is an independent fork of Firefox that aims to provide better default settings to improve on privacy, security and user freedom. Mozilla telemetry is disabled, ties with Google (Safe Browsing) are severed, the content blocker uBlock Origin is included and privacy defaults are guided by research like the Arkenfox project. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Brave Browser - Brave Browser, currently one of the most popular private browsers - it provides speed, security, and privacy by blocking trackers with a clean, yet fully-featured UI. It also pays you in BAT tokens for using it. Brave also has Tor built-in, when you open up a private tab/ window. …
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Firefox - Significantly more private, and offers some nifty privacy features than Chrome, Internet Explorer and Safari. After installing, there are a couple of small tweaks you will need to make, in order to secure Firefox. For a though config, see @arkenfox's user.js. You can also follow one of these guides by: Restore Privacy or 12Bytes …
📦 Open Source ˙
Tor Browser - Tor provides an extra layer of anonymity, by encrypting each of your requests, then routing it through several nodes, making it near-impossible for you to be tracked by your ISP/ provider. It does make every-day browsing a little slower, and some sites may not work correctly. As with everything there are trade-offs …
📦 Open Source ˙
Cromite - Cromite is a Chromium fork based on Bromite with built-in support for ad blocking and an eye for privacy. …
˙
LibreWolf
Brave Browser
Firefox
Tor Browser
DuckDuckGo - DuckDuckGo is a very user-friendly, fast and secure search engine. It's totally private, with no trackers, cookies or ads. It's also highly customisable, with dark-mode, many languages and features. They even have a .onion URL, for use with Tor and a no Javascript version …
📦 Open Source ˙
Qwant - French service that aggregates Bings results, with its own results. Qwant doesn't plant any cookies, nor have any trackers or third-party advertising. It returns non-biased search results, with no promotions. Qwant has a unique, but nice UI. …
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Startpage - Dutch search engine that searches on Google and shows the results (slightly rearranged). It has several configurations that improve privacy during use (it is not open source) …
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Brave Search - Brave Search is a privacy-focused search engine that does not track users or their searches, does not use secret algorithms or user profiling, and is based on its own search index.…
📦 Open Source 🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Mojeek - British search engine providing independent and unbiased search results using its own crawler. Has a zero tracking policy (it is not open source) …
˙
DuckDuckGo
Brave Search
Mojeek
Signal - Probably one of the most popular, secure private messaging apps that combines strong encryption (see Signal Protocol) with a simple UI and plenty of features. It's widely used across the world, and easy-to-use, functioning similar to WhatsApp - with instant messaging, read-receipts, support for media attachments and allows for high-quality voice and video calls. It's cross-platform, open-source and totally free. Signal is recommended by Edward Snowden, and is a perfect solution for most users. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Session - Session is a fork of Signal, however unlike Signal it does not require a mobile number (or any other personal data) to register, instead each user is identified by a public key. It is also decentralized, with servers being run by the community though Loki Net, messages are encrypted and routed through several of these nodes. All communications are E2E encrypted, and there is no meta data. …
📦 Open Source ˙
XMPP - XMPP, also known as Jabber, is an open standard for decentralized messaging that has been widely used for decades. It has actually been the basis upon which WhatsApp, Facebook's Chat and Google's Talk were built, but these companies (eventually) chose to remove the interoperability with other servers. Prominent XMPP clients support OMEMO end-to-end encryption, which is based on the Double Ratchet Algorithm that is used in Signal. For more hands-on information and to register an account you can visit JoinJabber. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Matrix - Matrix is a decentralized open network for secure communications, with E2E encryption with Olm and Megolm. Along with the Element client, it supports VOIP + video calling and IM + group chats. Since Matrix has an open specification and Simple pragmatic RESTful HTTP/JSON API it makes it easy to integrates with existing 3rd party IDs to authenticate and discover users, as well as to build apps on top of it. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Signal
Oxen - Oxen (previously Loki) is an open source set of tools that allow users to transact and communicate anonymously and privately, through a decentralised, encrypted, onion-based network. Session is a desktop and mobile app that uses these private routing protocols to secure messages, media and metadata. …
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Briar - Tor-based Android app for P2P encrypted messaging and forums. Where content is stored securely on your device (not in the cloud). It also allows you to connect directly with nearby contacts, without internet access (using Bluetooth or WiFi). …
📦 Open Source ˙
Ricochet Refresh - Desktop instant messenger, that uses the Tor network to rendezvous with your contacts without revealing your identity, location/ IP or meta data. There are no servers to monitor, censor, or hack so Ricochet is secure, automatic and easy to use. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Jami - P2P encrypted chat network with cross-platform GNU client apps. Jami supports audio and video calls, screen sharing, conference hosting and instant messaging. …
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Tox & qTox client - Open source, encrypted, distributed chat network, with clients for desktop and mobile - see supported clients. Clearly documented code and multiple language bindings make it easy for developers to integrate with Tox. …
Briar
Ricochet Refresh
Jami
Tox & qTox clientProtonMail - An end-to-end encrypted anonymous email service. ProtonMail has a modern easy-to-use and customizable UI, as well as fast, secure native mobile apps. ProtonMail has all the features that you'd expect from a modern email service and is based on simplicity without sacrificing security. It has a free plan or a premium option for using custom domains (starting at $5/month). ProtonMail requires no personally identifiable information for signup, they have a .onion server, for access via Tor, and they accept anonymous payment: BTC and cash (as well as the normal credit card and PayPal). …
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Tuta - Free and open source email service based in Germany. It has a basic intuitive UI, secure native mobile apps and desktop email clients, anonymous signup, and an encrypted calendar. Tuta has a full-featured free plan and premium subscription plans allowing for custom domains (starting at $3/month). Tuta does not use OpenPGP like other encrypted mail providers, instead they use a standardized, hybrid method consisting of symmetrical and asymmetrical algorithms (with AES256, and RSA 2048 or ECC (x25519) and Kyber-1024). This causes compatibility issues when communicating with contacts using PGP. But it does allow them to encrypt much more of the header data (body, attachments, subject lines, and sender names etc) which PGP mail providers cannot do. The recent upgrades to Tuta's encryption algorithm makes data stored and sent with their service safe against attacks posed by quantum computers. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Forward Email - An open source, privacy-focused, encrypted email service supporting SMTP, IMAP, and API access …
📦 Open Source ˙
Mailfence - Mailfence supports OpenPGP so that you can manually exchange encryption keys independently from the Mailfence servers, putting you in full control. Mailfence has a simple UI, similar to that of Outlook, and it comes with bundled with calendar, address book, and files. All mail settings are highly customizable, yet still clear and easy to use. Sign up is not anonymous, since your name, and prior email address is required. There is a fully-featured free plan, or you can pay for premium, and use a custom domain ($2.50/ month, or $7.50/ month for 5 domains), where Bitcoin, LiteCoin or credit card is accepted. …
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MailBox.org - A Berlin-based, eco-friendly secure mail provider. There is no free plan, the standard service costs €12/year. You can use your own domain, with the option of a catch-all alias. They provide good account security and email encryption, with OpenPGP, as well as encrypted storage. There is no dedicated app, but it works well with any standard mail client with SSL. There's also currently no anonymous payment option. …
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ProtonMail
Tuta
Forward Email
Mailfence
MailBox.org
Mozilla Thunderbird - Free and open source email application developed and backed by Mozilla -it's secure, private easy and customizable. As of V 78.2.1 encryption is built in, and the TorBirdy extension routes all traffic through the Tor network. Forks, such as Betterbird may add additional features. …
📦 Open Source ˙
eM Client - Productivity-based email client, for Windows and MacOS. eM Client has a clean user interface, snappy performance and good compatibility. There is a paid version, with some handy features, including snoozing incoming emails, watching for replies for a specific thread, message translation, send later, and built-in Calendar, Tasks, Contacts and Notes. Note, eM Client is proprietary, and not open source. …
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SnappyMail - Simple, modern, fast web-based mail client. This is an IMAP-only fork of RainLoop that mitigates a severe RainLoop vulnerability and adds several new features. …
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RoundCube - Browser-based multilingual IMAP client with an application-like user interface. It provides full functionality you expect from an email client, including MIME support, address book, folder manipulation, message searching and spell checking. …
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FairEmail - Open source, fully-featured and easy mail client for Android. Supports unlimited
accounts and email addresses with the option for a unified inbox. Clean user
interface, with a dark mode option, it is also very lightweight and consumes minimal
data usage.
…
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K-9 Mail - K-9 (or Thunderbird for Android) is open source, very well supported and trusted - k9 has been around for nearly as long as Android itself! It supports multiple accounts, search, IMAP push email, multi-folder sync, flagging, filing, signatures, BCC-self, PGP/MIME & more. Install OpenKeychain along side it, in order to encrypt/ decrypt emails using OpenPGP. …
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Mozilla Thunderbird
SnappyMail
RoundCube
K-9 Mail
Addy - An open source anonymous email forwarding service, allowing you to create unlimited email aliases. Has a free plan. …
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33Mail - A long-standing aliasing service. As well as receiving, 33Mail also lets you reply to forwarded addresses anonymously. Free plan, as well as Premium plan ($1/ month) if you'd like to use a custom domain. Note that 33Mail usese Google Analytics. …
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SimpleLogin - Fully open source (view on GitHub) alias service with many additional features. Can be self-hosted, or the managed version has a free plan, as well as hosted premium option ($2.99/ month) for using custom domains. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Firefox Private Relay - Developed and managed by Mozilla, Relay is a Firefox addon, that lets you make an email alias with 1 click, and have all messages forwarded onto your personal email. Relay is totally free to use, and very accessible to less experienced users, but also open source, and able to me self-hosted for advanced usage. …
📦 Open Source ˙
˙
Addy
Firefox Private Relay
Enigmail - Mail client add-on, enabling the use of OpenPGP to easily encrypt, decrypt, verify and sign emails. Free and open source, Enigmail is compatible with Interlink Mail & News and Postbox. Their website contains thorough documentation and quick-start guides, once set up it is extremely convenient to use. …
Email Privacy Tester - Quick tool, that enables you to test whether your mail client "reads" your emails before you've opened them, and also checks what analytics, read-receipts or other tracking data your mail client allows to be sent back to the sender. The system is open source (on GitLab), developed by Mike Cardwell and trusted, but if you do not want to use your real email, creating a second account with the same provider, should yield identical results. …
📦 Open Source ˙
DKIM Verifier - Verifies DKIM signatures and shows the result in the e-mail header, in order to help spot spoofed emails (which do not come from the domain that they claim to). …
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Enigmail
DKIM Verifier
Mumble - Open source, low-latency, high quality voice chat software. You can host your own server, or use a hosted instance, there are client applications for Windows, MacOS and Linux as well as third-party apps for Android and iOS. …
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Linphone - Open source audio, video and IM groups with E2E encryption and built-in media server. SIP-based evolving to RCS. Native apps for Android, iOS, Windows, GNU/Linux and MacOS. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Mumble
Linphone
SMSPool - Don't feel comfortable giving out your phone number? Protect your online identity by using our one-time-use non-VoIP phone numbers. We support over 50+ countries and support over 300+ services. …
💰 Accepts Anonymous Payment ˙
Silent.link - Anonymous eSIM for sending / receiving SMS, incoming calls and 4G / 5G internet
SMSPool
Silent.linkCrypton.sh - Physical SIM card in the cloud, for sending + receiving SMS messages. Messages are encrypted using your chosen private key. Includes a web interface, as well as an API for interacting with it from any device. Pricing is around €7.00/month, and payment is accepted in BTC, XMR or credit card. …
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Jmp.chat - Phone number for incoming + outgoing calls and messages, provided by Soprani. Works with Jabber, Matrix, Snikket, XMPP or any SIP client. Pricing starts at $4.99 / month. Only available in the US and Canada (as of 2024). See alternate instances at soprani.ca …
MoneroSMS - Anonymous SMS service able to activate accounts. Accessible over web, CLI, or email. Pricing starts at $3.60 / month. The service is in beta as of 2022. …
Crypton.sh
Jmp.chat
MoneroSMSRocket.Chat - Easy-to-deploy, self-hosted team collaboration platform with stable, feature-rich cross-platform client apps. The UI is fast, good looking and intuitive, so very little technical experience is needed for users of the platform. Rocket.Chat's feature set is similar to Slack's, making it a good replacement for any team looking to have greater control over their data. …
📦 Open Source ˙
RetroShare - Secure group communications, with the option to be used over Tor or I2P. Fast intuitive group and 1-to-1 chats with text and rich media using decentralized chat rooms, with a mail feature for delivering messages to offline contacts. A channels feature makes it possible for members of different teams to stay up-to-date with each other, and to share files. Also includes built-in forums, link aggregations, file sharing and voice and video calling. RetroShare is a bit more complex to use than some alternatives, and the UI is quite retro, so may not be appropriate for a non-technical team. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Element - Privacy-focused messenger using the Matrix protocol. The Element client allows for group chat rooms, media sharing voice and video group calls. …
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Internet Relay Chat - An IRC-based solution is another option, being decentralized there is no point of failure, and it's easy to self-host. However it's important to keep security in mind while configuring your IRC instance and ensure that channels are properly encrypted - IRC tends to be better for open communications. There's a variety of clients to choose from - popular options include: The Longe (Web-based), HexChat (Linux), Pidgin (Linux), WeeChat (Linux, terminal-based), IceChat (Windows), XChat Aqua (MacOS), Palaver (iOS) and Revolution (Android). …
Mattermost - Mattermost has an open source edition, which can be self-hosted. It makes a good Slack alternative, with native desktop, mobile and web apps and a wide variety of integrations. …
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Rocket.Chat
RetroShare
Element
Internet Relay Chat
Privacy Badger - Blocks invisible trackers, in order to stop advertisers and other third-parties from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at. Download: Chrome - Firefox …
📦 Open Source ˙
uBlock Origin - Block ads, trackers and malware sites. Download:
Chrome -
Firefox
…
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ScriptSafe - Allows you to block the execution of certain scripts. Download: Chrome - Opera …
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Firefox Multi-Account Containers - Firefox Multi-Account Containers lets you keep parts of your online life separated into color-coded tabs that preserve your privacy. Cookies are separated by container, allowing you to use the web with multiple identities or accounts simultaneously. Download: Firefox …
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WebRTC-Leak-Prevent - Provides user control over WebRTC privacy settings in Chromium, in order to prevent WebRTC leaks. Download: Chrome. For Firefox users, you can do this through browser settings. Test for WebRTC leaks, with browserleaks.com/webrtc …
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Canvas Fingerprint Blocker - Block fingerprint without removing access to HTML5 Canvas element. Canvas fingerprinting is commonly used for tracking, this extension helps to mitigate this through disallowing the browser to generate a true unique key Download: Chrome - Firefox - Edge …
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ClearURLs - This extension will automatically remove tracking elements from the GET parameters of URLs to help protect some privacy Download: Chrome - Firefox / Source …
📦 Open Source ˙
CSS Exfil Protection - Sanitizes and blocks any CSS rules which may be designed to steal data, in order to guard against Exfil attacks Download: Chrome - Firefox - Source …
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First Party Isolation - Enables the First Party isolation preference (Clicking the Fishbowl icon temporarily disables it) Download: Firefox …
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Privacy-Oriented Origin Policy - Prevent Firefox from sending Origin headers when they are least likely to be necessary, to protect your privacy Download: Firefox - Source …
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LocalCDN - Emulates remote frameworks (e.g. jQuery, Bootstrap, Angular) and delivers them as local resource. Prevents unnecessary 3rd party requests to tracking CDNs Download: Firefox …
Decentraleyes - Similar to LocalCDN, Serves up local versions of common scripts instead of calling to 3rd-party CDN. Improves privacy and load times. Works out-of-the-box and plays nicely with regular content blockers. Download: Chrome - Firefox - Opera - Pale Moon - Source …
Privacy Essentials - Simple extension by DuckDuckGo, which grades the security of each site. Download: Chrome
📦 Open Source ˙
Privacy Redirect - A simple web extension that redirects Twitter, YouTube, Instagram & Google Maps requests to privacy friendly alternatives Download: Firefox - Chrome …
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User Agent Switcher - Spoofs browser's User-Agent string, making it appear that you are on a different device, browser and version to what you are actually using. This alone does very little for privacy, but combined with other tools, can allow you to keep your fingerprint changing, and feed fake info to sites tracking you. Some websites show different content, depending on your user agent. Download: Chrome - Firefox - Edge - Opera - Source …
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PrivacySpy - The companion extension for PrivacySpy.org - an open project that rates, annotates, and archives privacy policies. The extension shows a score for the privacy policy of the current website. Download: Chrome - Firefox …
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HTTPZ - Simplified HTTPS upgrades for Firefox (lightweight alternative to HTTPS-Everywhere) Download: Firefox …
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Skip Redirect - Some web pages use intermediary pages before redirecting to a final page. This add-on tries to extract the final url from the intermediary url and goes there straight away if successful Download: Firefox - Source …
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Web Archives - View archived and cached versions of web pages on 10+ search engines, such as the Wayback Machine, Archive.is, Google etc Useful for checking legitimacy of websites, and viewing change logs Download: Firefox - Chrome - Edge - Source …
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Flagfox - Displays a country flag depicting the location of the current website's server, which can be useful to know at a glance. Click icon for more tools such as site safety checks, whois, validation etc Download: Firefox …
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Lightbeam - Visualize in detail the servers you are contacting when you are surfing on the Internet. Created by Gary Kovacs (former CEO of Mozilla), presented in his TED Talk. Download: Firefox - Source …
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Track Me Not - Helps protect web searchers from surveillance and data-profiling, through creating meaningless noise and obfuscation, outlined in their whitepaper. Controversial whether or not this is a good approach Download: Firefox - Source …
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AmIUnique Timeline - Enables you to better understand the evolution of browser fingerprints (which is what websites use to uniquely identify and track you). Download: Chrome - Firefox …
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Netcraft Extension - Notifies you when visiting a known or potential phishing site, and detects suspicious JavaScript (including skimmers and miners). Also provides a simple rating for a given site's legitimacy and security. Great for less technical users. Netcraft also has a handy online tool: Site Report for checking what any given website is running. Download: Chrome \ Firefox \ Opera \ Edge …
HTTPS Everywhere - NOTE On modern browsers, this is no longer needed Forces sites to load in HTTPS, in order to encrypt your communications with websites, making your browsing more secure (Similar to Smart HTTPS). Note this functionality is now included by default in most modern browsers. Download: Chrome
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Privacy Badger
ScriptSafe
Firefox Multi-Account Containers
WebRTC-Leak-Prevent
Canvas Fingerprint Blocker
ClearURLs
First Party Isolation
Privacy-Oriented Origin Policy
Decentraleyes
Privacy Redirect
User Agent Switcher
PrivacySpy
HTTPZ
Skip Redirect
Web Archives
Flagfox
Lightbeam
Track Me Not
Netcraft Extension
Orbot - System-wide Tor proxy, which encrypts your connection through multiple nodes. You can also use it alongside Tor Browser to access .onion sites. …
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NetGuard - A firewall app for Android, which does not require root. NetGuard provides simple and advanced ways to block access to the internet, where applications and addresses can individually be allowed or denied access to your Wi-Fi and/or mobile connection. …
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Island - A sandbox environment, allowing you to clone selected apps and run them in an isolated box, preventing it from accessing your personal data, or device information. …
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Insular - An actively-maintained fork of the Island project with additional enhancements …
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Exodus - Shows which trackers, each of your installed apps is using, so that you can better understand how your data is being collected. Uses data from the Exodus database of scanned APKs. …
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Bouncer - Gives you the ability to grant permissions temporarily, so that you could for example use the camera to take a profile picture, but when you close the given app, those permissions will be revoked. …
XPrivacyLua - Simple to use privacy manager for Android, that enables you to feed apps fake data when
they request intimate permissions. Solves the problem caused by apps malfunctioning when
you revoke permissions, and protects your real data by only sharing fake information. Enables
you to hide call log, calendar, SMS messages, location, installed apps, photos, clipboard,
network data plus more. And prevents access to camera, microphone, telemetry, GPS and other sensors.
…
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SuperFreezZ - Makes it possible to entirely freeze all background activities on a per-app basis. Intended purpose is to speed up your phone, and prolong battery life, but this app is also a great utility to stop certain apps from collecting data and tracking your actions while running in the background. See on F-Droid …
Haven - Allows you to protect yourself, your personal space and your possessions - without compromising on security. Leveraging device sensors to monitor nearby space, Haven was developed by The Guardian Project, in partnership with Edward Snowden. …
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Secure Task - Triggers actions, when certain security conditions are met, such as multiple failed login attempts or monitor settings changed. It does require Tasker, and needs to be set up with ADB, device does not need to be rooted. …
Cryptomator - Encrypts files and folders client-side, before uploading them to cloud storage (such as Google Drive, One Drive or Dropbox), meaning none of your personal documents leave your device in plain text. …
1.1.1.1 - Lets you use CloudFlares fast and secure 1.1.1.1 DNS, with DNS over HTTPS, and also has the option to enable CloudFlares WARP+ VPN. …
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Fing App - A network scanner to help you monitor and secure your WiFi network. The app is totally free, but to use the advanced controls, you will need a Fing Box. …
DPI Tunnel - An application for Android that uses various techniques to bypass DPI (Deep Packet Inspection)
systems, which are used to block some sites (not available on Play store).
…
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Blokada - This application blocks ads and trackers, doesn't require root and works for all the apps on your Android phone. Check out how it works here. …
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SnoopSnitch - Collects and analyzes mobile radio data to make you aware of your mobile network security and to warn you about threats like fake base stations (IMSI catchers), user tracking and over-the-air updates. Get from F-Droid …
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TrackerControl - Monitor and control hidden data collection in mobile apps about user behavior/ tracking. Get from F-Droid …
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Greentooth - Auto-disable Bluetooth, then it is not being used. Saves battery, and prevent some security risks. Get from F-Droid …
PrivateLock - Auto lock your phone based on movement force/ acceleration. Get from F-Droid See also PluckLock …
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CamWings - Prevent background processes gaining unauthorized access to your devices camera. Better still, use a webcam sticker. …
AFWall+ - Android Firewall+ (AFWall+) is an advanced iptables editor (GUI) for rooted Android devices, which provides very fine-grained control over which Android apps are allowed to access the network. Get from F-Droid …
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Catch the Man-in-the-Middle - Simple tool, that compares SHA-1 fingerprints of the the SSL certificates seen from your device, and the certificate seen from an external network. If they do not match, this may indicate a man-in-the-middle modifying requests. …
RethinkDNS & Firewall - An open-source ad-blocker and firewall app for Android 6+ (does not require root). …
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F-Droid - F-Droid is an installable catalogue of FOSS applications for Android. The client enables you to browse, install, and keep track of updates on your device. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Orbot
NetGuard
Island
Insular
Exodus
Bouncer
SuperFreezZ
Haven
Secure Task
Blokada
SnoopSnitch
TrackerControl
Greentooth
PrivateLock
CamWings
AFWall+
Catch the Man-in-the-Middle
RethinkDNS & Firewall
F-Droid
Have i been pwned - Checks if your credentials (Email address or Password) have been compromised in a data breach. See also Firefox Monitor. …
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εxodus - Checks how many, and which trackers any Android app has. Useful to understand how data is being collected before you install a certain APK, it also shows which permissions the app asks for. …
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Panopticlick - Check if your browser safe against tracking. Analyzes how well your browser and add-ons protect you against online tracking techniques, and if your system is uniquely configured—and thus identifiable. …
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Phish.ly - Analyzes emails, checking the URLs and creating a SHA256 and MD5 hash of attachments, with a link to VirusTotal. To use the service, just forward a potentially malicious or suspicious email to [email protected], and an automated reply will include the results. They claim that all email data is purged after analysis, but it would be wise to not include any sensitive information, and to use a forwarding address. …
Browser Leak Test - Shows which of personal identity data is being leaked through your browser, so you can better protect yourself against fingerprinting. …
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IP Leak Test - Shows your IP address, and other associated details (location, ISP, WebRTC check, DNS, and lots more). …
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EXIF Remove - Displays, and removes Meta and EXIF data from an uploaded photo or document. …
Redirect Detective - Check where a suspicious URL redirects to (without having to click it). Lets you avoid being tracked by not being redirected via adware/tracking sites, or see if a shortened link actually resolves a legitimate site, or see if link is an affiliate ad. …
Blocked.org - Checks if a given website is blocked by filters applied by your mobile and broadband Internet Service Providers (ISP). …
Virus Total - Analyses a potentially-suspicious web resources (by URL, IP, domain or file hash) to detect types of malware (note: files are scanned publicly). …
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Hardenize - Scan websites and shows a security overview, relating to factors such as HTTPS, domain info, email data, www protocols and so on. …
Is Legit? - Checks if a website or business is a scam, before buying something from it. …
Should I Remove It? - Ever been uninstalling programs from your Windows PC and been unsure of what something is? Should I Remove It is a database of Windows software, detailing whether it is essential, harmless or dangerous. …
10 Minute Mail - Generates temporary disposable email address, to avoid giving your real details. …
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MXToolBox Mail Headers - Tool for analyzing email headers, useful for checking the authenticity of messages, as well as knowing what info you are revealing in your outbound messages. …
Am I FloCed? - Google testing out a new tracking feature called Federated Learning of Cohorts (aka "FLoC"). It currently effects 0.5% of Chrome users, this tool developed by the EFF will detect if you are affected, and provide additional info on how to stay protected. …
Site Report - A tool from Netcraft, for analysing what any given website is running, where it's located and information about its host, registrar, IP and SSL certificates. …
Have i been pwned
εxodus
Phish.ly
Redirect Detective
Blocked.org
Virus Total
Hardenize
Is Legit?
10 Minute Mail
Site ReportMullvad - Mullvad is one of the best for privacy, they have a totally anonymous sign up process, you don't need to provide any details at all, you can choose to pay anonymously too (with Monero, BTC or cash). …
🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Azire - Azire is a Swedish VPN provider, who owns their own hardware with physically removed storage and a no logging policy. Pricing starts at €3.25/mo, with crypto (including XMR) supported. Note that they've not yet been audited, and client applications are not open source, for more info, see #140. …
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IVPN - Independently Security Audited VPN with anonymous signup, no logs, no cloud or customer data stored, open-source apps and website. Strong ethics: no trackers, no false promises, no surveillance ads. Accepts various payment methods including cryptocurrencies. …
📦 Open Source 🛡️ Security Audited ˙
ProtonVPN - From the creators of ProtonMail, ProtonVPN has a solid reputation. They have a full suite of user-friendly native mobile and desktop apps. ProtonVPN is one of the few "trustworthy" providers that also offer a free plan. …
🛡️ Security Audited ˙
OVPN - A court-proven VPN service with support for Wireguard and OpenVPN support, and optional ad-blocking. Running on dedicated hardware, with no hard drives. …
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Mullvad
Azire
ProtonVPN
Pi-Hole - Network-level advertisement and Internet tracker blocking application which acts as a DNS sinkhole. Pi-Hole can significantly speed up your internet, remove ads and block malware. It comes with a nice web interface and a mobile app with monitoring features, it's open source, easy to install and very widely used. …
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Technitium - Another DNS server for blocking privacy-invasive content at its source. Technitium doesn't require much of a setup, and basically works straight out of the box, it supports a wide range of systems (and can even run as a portable app on Windows). It allows you to do some additional tasks, such as add local DNS addresses and zones with specific DNS records. Compared to Pi-Hole, Technitium is very lightweight, but lacks the deep insights that Pi-Hole provides, and has a significantly smaller community behind it. …
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IPFire - A hardened, versatile, state-of-the-art open source firewall based on Linux. Its ease of use, high performance and extensibility make it usable for everyone. …
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PiVPN - A simple way to set up a home VPN on any Debian server. Supports OpenVPN and WireGuard with elliptic curve encryption keys up to 512 bit. Supports multiple DNS providers and custom DNS providers - works nicely along-side PiHole. …
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E2guardian - Powerful open source web content filter. …
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PF Sense - Widely used, open source firewall/router. …
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Zeek - Detect if you have a malware-infected computer on your network, and powerful network analysis framework and monitor. …
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Firezone - Open-source self-hosted VPN and firewall built on WireGuard®. …
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Pi-Hole
IPFire
PiVPN
E2guardian
PF Sense
Zeek
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I2P - I2P offers great generic transports, it is well geared towards accessing hidden services, and has a couple of technical benefits over Tor: P2P friendly with unidirectional short-lived tunnels, it is packet-switched (instead of circuit-switched) with TCP and UDP, and continuously profiles peers, in order to select the best performing ones. I2P is less mature, but fully-distributed and self-organising, its smaller size means that it hasn't yet been blocked or DOSed much. …
Freenet - Freenet is easy to setup, provides excellent friend To Friend Sharing vs I2P, and is great for publishing content anonymously. It's quite large in size, and very slow so not the best choice for casual browsing. …
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ShadowSocks - Secure socks5 proxy, designed to protect your Internet traffic. Open source, superfast, cross-platform and easy to deploy, see GitHub repo. …
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Privoxy - Non-caching web proxy with advanced filtering capabilities for enhancing privacy, modifying web page data and HTTP headers, controlling access, and removing ads and other obnoxious Internet junk. …
PrivoxyCloudFlare - One of the most performant options, Cloudflare's DNS supports DoH and DoT, and has a Tor implementation, providing world-class protection. They have native cross-platform apps, for easy set-up. …
🛡️ Security Audited ˙
AdGuard - Open-source DNS provider, specialising in the blocking of ads, trackers and malicious domains. They have been independently audited and do not keep logs. …
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NextDNS - An ad-blocking, privacy-protecting, censorship-bypassing DNS. Also comes with analytics, and the ability to shield kids from adult content. …
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CloudFlare
AdGuard
DNScrypt-proxy 2 - A flexible DNS proxy, with support for modern encrypted DNS protocols including DNSCrypt V2, DNS-over-HTTPS and Anonymized DNSCrypt. Also allows for advanced monitoring, filtering, caching and client IP protection through Tor, SOCKS proxies or Anonymized DNS relays. …
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Unbound - Validating, recursive, caching DNS resolve with support for DNS-over-TLS. Designed to be fast, lean, and secure Unbound incorporates modern features based on open standards. It's fully open source, and recently audited. (For an in-depth tutorial, see this article by DNSWatch.) …
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Nebulo - Non-root, small-sized DNS changer utilizing DNS-over-HTTPS and DNS-over-TLS. (Note, since this
uses Android's VPN API, it is not possible to run a VPN while using Nebulo.)
…
📦 Open Source ˙
RethinkDNS & Firewall - Free and open source DNS changer with support for DNS-over-HTTPS, DNS-over-Tor, and DNSCrypt v3 with Anonymized Relays. (Note, since this uses Android's VPN API, it is not possible to run a VPN while using RethinkDNS + Firewall.) …
DNS Cloak - Simple all that allows for the use for dnscrypt-proxy 2 on an iPhone.
…
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Stubby - Acts as a local DNS Privacy stub resolver (using DNS-over-TLS). Stubby encrypts DNS queries sent from a client machine (desktop or laptop) to a DNS Privacy resolver increasing end user privacy. Stubby can be used in combination with Unbound - Unbound provides a local cache and Stubby manages the upstream TLS connections (since Unbound cannot yet re-use TCP/TLS connections), see example configuration. …
˙
Unbound
RethinkDNS & Firewall
Stubby
NetGuard - Provides simple and advanced ways to block access to the internet. Applications and addresses
can individually be allowed or denied access to Wi-Fi and/or mobile connection.
…
NoRoot Firewall - Notifies you when an app is trying to access the Internet, so all you need to do is just Allow or Deny. Allows you to create filter rules based on IP address, host name or domain name, and you can allow or deny only specific connections of an app. …
Lockdown - Firewall app for iPhone, allowing you to block any connection to any domain. …
SimpleWall - Tool to control Windows Filtering Platform (WFP), in order to configure detailed network activity on your PC. (Windows) …
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LuLu - Free, open source macOS firewall. It aims to block unknown outgoing connections, unless explicitly approved by the user. …
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Little Snitch - A very polished application firewall, allowing you to easily manage internet connections on a per-app basis. (Mac OS) …
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OpenSnitch - Makes internet connections from all apps visible, allowing you to block or manage traffic on a per-app basis.
GNU/Linux port of the Little Snitch application firewall.
…
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Gufw - Open source GUI firewall for Linux, allowing you to block internet access for certain applications.
Supports both simple and advanced mode, GUI and CLI options, very easy to use, lightweight/ low-overhead,
under active maintenance and backed by a strong community.
…
📦 Open Source ˙
Uncomplicated Firewall - The ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) is a GUI application and CLI, that allows you to configure a firewall using
Shorewall - An open source firewall tool for Linux that builds upon the Netfilter system built into the Linux kernel, making it easier to manage more complex configuration schemes with iptables. …
OPNSense - Enterprise firewall and router for protecting networks, built on the FreeBSD system. …
NoRoot Firewall
SimpleWall
LuLu
Little Snitch
OPNSenseDiversion - A shell script application to manage ad-blocking, Dnsmasq logging, Entware and pixelserv-tls installations and more on supported routers running Asuswrt-Merlin firmware, including its forks. …
BlockParty - Native Apple (Swift) apps, for system-wide ad-blocking. Can be customized with custom host lists,
primarily aimed for just ad-blocking.
…
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hBlock - A POSIX-compliant shell script, designed for Unix-like systems, that gets a list of domains that serve ads,
tracking scripts and malware from multiple sources and creates a hosts file (alternative formats are also supported)
that prevents your system from connecting to them. Aimed at improving security and privacy through blocking advert,
tracking and malware associated domains.
…
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Blokada - Open source mobile ad-blocker that acts like a firewall. Since it's device-wide, once connected all apps will have ads/ trackers blocked, and the blacklist can be edited. The app is free, but there is a premium option, which has a built-in VPN. …
Ad Block Radio - Python script that uses machine learning to block adverts in live audio streams, such as Radio, Podcasts, Audio Books, and music platforms such as Spotify. See live demo. …
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Diversion
SomeoneWhoCares/ Hosts - An up-to-date host list, maintained by Dan Pollock - to make the internet not suck (as much). …
Hosts by StevenBlack - Open source, community-maintained consolidated and extending hosts files from several well-curated sources. You can optionally pick extensions to block p0rn, Social Media, gambling, fake news and other categories. …
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No Google - Totally block all direct and indirect content from Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft (or just some). …
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EasyList - Comprehensive list of domains for blocking tracking, social scripts, bad cookies and annoying stuff. …
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iBlockList - Variety of lists (free and paid-for) for blocking content based on certain topics, inducing: spam, abuse, political, illegal, hijacked, bad peers and more. …
Hosts by StevenBlack
No Google
iBlockListOpenWRT - Plenty of scope for customization and a ton of supported addons. Stateful firewall, NAT, and dynamically-configured port forwarding protocols (UPnP, NAT-PMP + upnpd, etc), Load balancing, IP tunneling, IPv4 & IPv6 support. …
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DD-WRT - Easy and powerful user interface. Great access control, bandwidth monitoring and quality of service. IPTables is built-in for firewall, and there's great VPN support as well as additional plug-and-play and wake-on-lan features. …
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OONI - Open Observatory of Network Interference - A free tool and global observation network, for detecting censorship, surveillance and traffic manipulation on the internet. Developed by The Tor Project, and available for Android, iOS, and Linux. …
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Goodbye DPI - Passive Deep Packet Inspection blocker and Active DPI circumvention utility, for Windows. …
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Proxy Checker - You can quickly check if a given IP is using a proxy, this can also be done through the command line. …
OONI
Goodbye DPI
OSSEC - OSSEC is an Open Source host-based intrusion detection system, that performs log analysis, integrity checking, monitoring, rootkit detection, real-time alerting and active response. …
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Kismet - An 802.11 layer2 wireless network detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system. …
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Snare - SNARE (System iNtrusion Analysis and Reporting Environment) is a series of log collection agents that facilitate centralized analysis of audit log data. Logs from the OS are collected and audited. Full remote access, through a web interface easy to use manually, or by an automated process. …
picosnitch - picosnitch helps protect your security and privacy by "snitching" on anything that connects to the internet, letting you know when, how much data was transferred, and to where. It uses BPF to monitor network traffic per application, and per parent to cover those that just call others. It also hashes every executable, and will complain if some mischievous program is giving it trouble. …
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OSSEC
Snare
Njalla - Njalla is a privacy and security-focused domain registrar and VPN hosting provider. They own and manage all their own servers, which are based in Sweden. They accept crypto, for anonymous payments, and allow you to sign up with OTR XMPP if you do not want to provide an email address. Both VPS and domain name pricing is reasonable, with packages starting at $15/ month. …
💰 Accepts Anonymous Payment ˙
Private Layer - Offers enterprise-grade, high-speed offshore dedicated servers, they own their own data centres, have a solid privacy policy and accept anonymous payment. …
Servers Guru - Servers Guru provides affordable and anonymous VPS and cloud servers with dedicated cpu resources. They accept crypto-currencies (Bitcoin, Monero, Ethereum etc..) and don't require any personal informations. They resell from reputable providers. …
💰 Accepts Anonymous Payment ˙
💰 Accepts Anonymous Payment ˙
Orange Website - Anonymous domain registration, with low online censorship since they are based outside the 14-eyes jurisdiction (in Iceland). …
deSEC - Free DNS hosting provider designed with security in mind, and running on purely open source software. deSEC is backed and funded by SSE. …
📦 Open Source ˙
deSEC
Mail-in-a-box - Easy-to-deploy fully-featured and pre-configured SMTP mail server. It includes everything from webmail, to spam filtering and backups. …
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Docker Mailserver - A full-stack but simple mailserver (smtp, imap, antispam, antivirus, ssl...) using Docker. Very complete, with everything you will need, customizable and very easy to deploy with docker. …
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mailcow - A mail server with everything you need (SMTP, IMAP, webmail, NextCloud support..) using Docker. …
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Mail-in-a-box
Docker Mailserver
mailcow
Standard Notes - S.Notes is a free, open-source, and completely encrypted private notes app. It has a simple UI, yet packs in a lot of features, thanks to the Extensions Store, allowing for: To-Do lists, Spreadsheets, Rich Text, Markdown, Math Editor, Code Editor and many more. You can choose between a number of themes (yay, dark mode!), and it features built-in secure file store, tags/ folders, fast search and more. Standard Notes is actively developed, and fully open-source. …
📦 Open Source 🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Turtle - A secure, collaborative notebook. Self-host it yourself, or use their hosted plan (free edition or $3/ month for premium). …
🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Notable - An offline markdown-based note editor for desktop, with a simple, yet feature-rich UI. All notes are saved individually as .md files, making them easy to manage. No mobile app, built-in cloud-sync, encryption or web UI. But due to the structure of the files, it is easy to use your own cloud sync provider, and additional features are provided through extensions. …
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Joplin - Cross-platform desktop and mobile note-taking and todo app. Easy organisation into notebooks and sections, revision history and a simple UI. Allows for easy import and export of notes to or from other services. Supports synchronisation with cloud services, implemented with E2EE. …
🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Logseq - Privacy-first, open-source knowledge base that works on top of local plain-text Markdown and Org-mode files. Supports lots of different note modes, including task management, PDF annotation, flashcards, whiteboards strong markdown support and more. Includes themes and extensions, backed by a strong community …
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Obsidian - A powerful knowledge base that works on top of local plain-text Markdown files. It has a strong community, and a lot of plugins and themes. Generally privacy-respecting, but no encryption out of the box, and some of the code is obfuscated or not fully open source …
🛡️ Security Audited ˙
AFFiNE - Privacy first, open-source alternative to Notion, monday.com and Miro. It is a knowledge management tool that allows you to create, organize and share your knowledge. …
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Cryptee - Private & encrypted rich-text documents. Cryptee has encryption and anonymity at its core,
it also has a beautiful and minimalistic UI. You can use Cryptee from the browser, or download
native apps. Comes with many additional features, such as support for photo albums and file storage.
The disadvantage is that only the frontend is open source. Pricing is free for starter plan, $3/
month for 10GB, additional plans go up-to 2TB.
…
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Turtle
Joplin
Logseq
Obsidian
SeaFile - An open source cloud storage and sync solution. Files are grouped into Libraries, which can be individually encrypted, shared of synced. Docker image available for easy deployment, and native clients for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iOS. …
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Syncthing - Continuous file synchronization between 2 or more clients. It is simple, yet powerful, and fully-encrypted and private. Syncthing can be deployed with Docker, and there are native clients for Windows, Mac, Linux, BSD and Android. …
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NextCloud - Feature-rich productivity platform, that can be used to backup and selectively sync encrypted files and folders between 1 or more clients. A key benefit the wide range of plug-ins in the NextCloud App Store, maintained by the community. NextCloud was a hard fork off OwnCloud. …
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SeaFile
Syncthing
NextCloud
CryptPad - A zero knowledge cloud productivity suite. Provides Rich Text, Presentations, Spreadsheets, Kanban, Paint a code editor and file drive. All notes and user content, are encrypted by default, and can only be accessed with specific URL. The main disadvantage, is a lack of Android, iOS and desktop apps - CryptPad is entirely web-based. You can use their web service, or you can host your own instance. Price for hosted: free for 50mb or $5/ month for premium. …
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Disroot - A platform providing online services based on principles of freedom, privacy, federation and decentralization. It is an implementation of NextCloud, with strong encryption configured - it is widely used by journalists, activists and whistle-blowers. It is free to use, but there have been reported reliability issues of the cloud services. …
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Sandstorm - An open source platform for self-hosting web apps. Once you've set it up, you can install items from the Sandstorm App Market with -click, similar to NextCloud in terms of flexibility. …
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Vikunja - Vikunja is an open-source to-do application. It is suitable for a wide variety of projects, supporting List, Gantt, Table and Kanban views to visualize all tasks in different contexts. For collaboration, it has sharing support via private teams or public links. It can be self-hosted or used as a managed service for a small fee. …
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CryptPad
Disroot
Tresorit - End-to-end encrypted zero knowledge file storage, syncing and sharing provider, based in Switzerland. The app is cross-platform, user-friendly client and with all expected features. £6.49/month for 500 GB. …
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IceDrive - Very affordable encrypted storage provider, with cross-platform apps. Starts as £1.50/month for 150 GB or £3.33/month for 1 TB. …
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Sync.com - Secure file sync, sharing, collaboration and backup for individuals, small businesses and sole practitioners. Starts at $8/month for 2 TB. …
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pCloud - Secure and simple to use cloud storage, with cross-platform client apps. £3.99/month for 500 GB. …
Peergos - A peer-to-peer end-to-end encrypted global filesystem with fine grained access control. Provides a secure and private space online where you can store, share and view your photos, videos, music and documents. Also includes a calendar, news feed, task lists, chat and email client. Fully open source and self-hostable (or use hosted solution, from £5/month for 100 GB). …
Internxt - Store your files in total privacy. Internxt Drive is a zero-knowledge cloud storage service based on best-in-class privacy and security. Made in Spain. Open-source mobile and desktop apps. 10GB FREE and Paid plans starting from €0.99/month for 20GB. …
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FileN - Zero knowledge end-to-end encrypted affordable cloud storage made in Germany. Open-source mobile and desktop apps. 10GB FREE with paid plans starting at €0.92/month for 100GB. …
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FileSend - Simple, encrypted file sharing, with a 500mb limit and 5-day retention. Files are secured with client-side AES-256 encryption and no IP address or device info is logged. Files are permanently deleted after download or after specified duration. Developed by StandardNotes, and has built-in integration with the SN app. …
OnionShare - An open source tool that lets you securely and anonymously share a file of any size, via Tor servers. OnionShare does require installing, but the benefit is that your files are transferred directly to the recipient, without needing to be hosted on an interim server. The host needs to remain connected for the duration of the transfer, but once it is complete, the process will be terminated. …
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Floccus - Simple and efficient bookmark syncing using either NextCloud Bookmarks, a WebDAV server (local or remote) or just a local folder through LoFloccus. Browser extensions available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge. …
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XBrowserSync - Secure, anonymous and free browser and bookmark syncing. Easy to setup, and no sign up is required, you can either use a community-run sync server, or host your own with their docker image. Extensions are available for Chrome, Firefox, and on Android. …
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Unmark - A web application which acts as a todo app for bookmarks. You can either self-host it, or use their managed service which has a free and paid-for tier. …
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Shiori - Simple bookmark manager written in Go, intended to be a clone of Pocket, it has both a simple and clean web interface as well as a CLI. Shiori has easy import/ export, is portable and has webpage archiving features. …
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Jami - A free and open source, distributed video, calling and screenshare platform with a focus on security. Jami is completely peer-to-peer, and has full end-to-end encryption with perfect forward secrecy for all communications, complying with the X.509 standard. Supported natively on Windows, macOS, iOS, GNU/Linux, Android and Android TV. Video quality is quite good, but very dependent on network speeds, some of the apps are lacking in features. …
Jitsi - Encrypted, free and open source video calling app, which does not require creating an account/ providing any personal details. Available as a web app, and native app for Windows, MacOS, Linux, Android and iOS. You can use the public Jitsi instance, self-host your own, or use a community hosted instance. …
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Jami
Jitsi
VirtualBox - Open source, powerful, feature-rich virtualization product, supporting x86 and AMD64/Intel64 architectures. Available for Windows, MacOS, Linux and BSD, and free for both personal and enterprise use. VirtualBox is backed by a strong community, and has been under active development since 2007. …
Xen Project - Open source virtual machine monitor intended to serve as a type-1 hyperviser for multiple operating systems using the same hardware - very useful for servers, as it allows for fully independent virtual Linux machines. …
UTM - Open source, feature rich, powerful type 2 hypervisor for Mac, can emulate x86-64 OSes on Apple Silicon Macs. There's also an iOS version (so you can run Windows on your iPhone!) …
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Xen Project
UTM
SeaHorse - Application for managing encryption keys and passwords, integrated with the GNOME Keyring. …
Kleopatra - Certificate manager and a universal crypto GUI. It supports managing X.509 and OpenPGP certificates in the GpgSM keybox and retrieving certificates from LDAP servers. …
GPG4Win - Kleopatra ported to Windows. …
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GPG Suite - Successor of MacGPG. Plays nice with MacOS apps, including Finder, Appple Mail, Keychain and Spotlight. Makes encrypting files, emails, and messages / data very easy. As well as GUI for generating keys, verifying signatures, etc. …
OpenKeychain - Android app for managing keys, and encrypting messages. Works both stand-alone, and as integrated into other apps, including k9-Mail. Everything can be done through a simple yet powerful GUI. Open source, security audited, transparent permissions, and activley maintained. …
🛡️ Security Audited ˙
PGP Everywhere - iOS app for encrypting/ decrypting text. Has native keyboard integration, keychain support and app integrations which makes it quick to use in any app. …
FlowCrypt - Browser extension for using PGP within Gmail, for Chrome and Firefox. Mobile version supported on Android and iOS. …
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EnigMail - OpenPGP extension for Thunderbird and PostBox, integrates natively within mail app. …
Mailvelope - Mailvelope is an addon for email applications, that makes using PGP very easy for beginners. You can use the hosted version for free, or opt to host your own instance. Works with Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, GMX, Posteo, Web.de, FreeNet.de, Mailbox.org and many others. …
🛡️ Security Audited ˙
SeaHorse
Kleopatra
GPG4Win
GPG Suite
PGP Everywhere
FlowCrypt
ExifCleaner - Cross-platform, open source, performant EXIF meta data removal tool. This GUI tool makes cleaning media files really easy, and has great batch process support. Created by @szTheory, and uses ExifTool. …
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ExifTool - Platform-independent open source Perl library & CLI app, for reading, writing and editing meta data. Built by Phill Harvey. Very good performance, and supports all common metadata formats. An official GUI application is available for Windows, implemented by Bogdan Hrastnik. …
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ImageOptim - Native MacOS app, with drag 'n drop image optimization and meta data removal. …
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ExifCleaner
ImageOptim
Eraser - Allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. …
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Hard Disk Scrubber - Easy to use, but with some advanced features, including custom wipe patterns. Data Sanitation Methods: AFSSI-5020, DoD 5220.22-M, and Random Data. …
SDelete - Microsoft Secure Delete is a CLI utility, uses DoD 5220.22-M. …
OW Shredder - File, folder and drive portable eraser for Windows. Bundled with other tools to scan, analyze, and wipe, and other traces that were left behind. Includes context menu item, recycle bin integration. …
DBAN - Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction. DBAN is the free edition of Blanco, which is an enterprise tool designed for legal compliance. …
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shred - A CLI utility that can be used to securely delete files and devices, to make them extremely difficult to recover. …
Secure Remove - CLI utility for securely removing files, directories and whole disks, works on Linux, BSD and MacOS. …
Mr. Phone - Proprietary, closed-source suite of forensic data tools for mobile. The data eraser allows for both Android and iOS to be fully wiped, through connecting them to a PC. …
Eraser
OW Shredder
GrapheneOS - GrapheneOS is an open source privacy and security focused mobile OS with Android app compatibility. Developed by Daniel Micay. GrapheneOS is a young project, and currently only supports Pixel devices, partially due to their strong hardware security. …
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CalyxOS - CalyxOS is an free and open source Android mobile operating system that puts privacy and security into the hands of everyday users. Plus, proactive security recommendations and automatic updates take the guesswork out of keeping your personal data personal. Also currently only supports Pixel devices and Xiaomi Mi A2 with Fairphone 4, OnePlus 8T, OnePlus 9 test builds available. Developed by the Calyx Foundation. …
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DivestOS - DivestOS is a vastly diverged unofficial more secure and private soft fork of LineageOS. DivestOS primary goal is prolonging the life-span of discontinued devices, enhancing user privacy, and providing a modest increase of security where/when possible. Project is developed and maintained solely by Tad (SkewedZeppelin) since 2014. …
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LineageOS - A free and open-source operating system for various devices, based on the Android mobile platform - Lineage is light-weight, well maintained, supports a wide range of devices, and comes bundled with Privacy Guard. …
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GrapheneOS
CalyxOS
DivestOS
LineageOS
Qubes OS - Open-source security-oriented operating system for single-user desktop computing. It uses virtualisation, to run each application in its own compartment to avoid data being leaked. It features Split GPG, U2F Proxy, and Whonix integration. Qubes makes is easy to create disposable VMs which are spawned quickly and destroyed when closed. Qubes is recommended by Edward Snowden. …
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Whonix - Whonix is an anonymous operating system, which can run in a VM, inside your current OS. It is the best way to use Tor, and provides very strong protection for your IP address. It comes bundled with other features too: Keystroke Anonymization, Time Attack Defences, Stream Isolation, Kernel Self Protection Settings and an Advanced Firewall. Open source, well audited, and with a strong community - Whonix is based on Debian, KickSecure and Tor. …
Tails - Tails is a live operating system (so you boot into it from a USB, instead of installing). It preserves your privacy and anonymity through having no persistent memory/ leaving no trace on the computer. Tails has Tor built-in system-wide, and uses state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt your files, emails and instant messaging. Open source, and built on top of Debian. Tails is simple to stop, configure and use. …
Parrot - Parrot Linux, is a full Debian-based operating system, that is geared towards security, privacy and development. It is fully-featured yet light-weight, very open. There are 3 editions: General Purpose, Security and Forensic. The Secure distribution includes its own sandbox system obtained with the combination of Firejail and AppArmor with custom security profiles. While the Forensics Edition is bundled with a comprehensive suite of security/ pen-testing tools, similar to Kali and Black Arch. …
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Discreete Linux - Aimed at journalists, activists and whistle-blowers, Discreete Linux is similar to Tails, in that it is booted live from external media, and leaves no/ minimal trace on the system. The aim of the project, was to provide all required cryptographic tools offline, to protect against Trojan-based surveillance. …
Alpine Linux - Alpine is a security-oriented, lightweight distro based on musl libc and busybox. It compiles all user-space binaries as position-independent executables with stack-smashing protection. Install and setup may be quite complex for some new users. …
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Gufw - Open source GUI firewall for Linux, allowing you to block internet access for certain applications. Supports both simple and advanced mode, GUI and CLI options, very easy to use, lightweight/ low-overhead, under active maintenance and backed by a strong community. Installable through most package managers, or compile from source. …
ClamTk - ClamTk is basically a graphical front-end for ClamAV, making it an easy to use, light-weight, on-demand virus scanner for Linux systems. …
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chkrootkit - Locally checks for signs of a rootkit. …
Snort - Open source intrusion prevention system capable of real-time traffic analysis and packet logging. …
BleachBit - Clears cache and deletes temporary files very effectively. This frees up disk space, improves performance, but most importantly helps to protect privacy. …
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ShutUp10 - A portable app that lets you disable core Windows features (such as Cortana, Edge) and control which data is passed to Microsoft. (Note: Free, but not open source). …
WPD - Portable app with a GUI, that makes it really easy to safely block key telemetry features, from sending data to Microsoft and other third parties (It uses the Windows API to interact with key features of Local Group Police, Services, Tasks Scheduler, etc). …
GhostPress - Anti low-level keylogger: Provides full system-wide key press protection, and target window screenshot protection. …
KeyScrambler - Provides protection against software keyloggers. Encrypts keypresses at driver level, and decrypts at application level, to protect against common keyloggers. …
SafeKeys V3.0 - Portable virtual keyboard. Useful for protecting from keyloggers when using a public computer, as it can run of a USB with no administrative permissions. …
RKill - Useful utility, that attempts to terminate known malware processes, so that your normal security software can then run and clean your computer of infections. …
IIS Crypto - A utility for configuring encryption protocols, cyphers, hashing methods, and key exchanges for Windows components. Useful for sysadmins on Windows Server. …
NetLimiter - Internet traffic control and monitoring tool. …
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SigCheck - A CLI utility that shows file version number, timestamp information, and digital signature details. …
BleachBit - Clears cache and deletes temporary files very effectively. This frees up disk space, improves performance, but most importantly helps to protect privacy. …
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USBFix - Detects infected USB removable devices. …
GMER - Rootkit detection and removal utility. …
ScreenWings - Blocks malicious background applications from taking screenshots. …
CamWings - Blocks unauthorized webcam access. …
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PrivaZer - Good alternative to CCleaner, for deleting unnecessary data - logs, cache, history, etc. …
ShutUp10
WPD
GhostPress
KeyScrambler
SafeKeys V3.0
RKill
IIS Crypto
BleachBit
USBFix
ScreenWings
LuLu - Free, open source macOS firewall. It aims to block unknown outgoing connections, unless explicitly approved by the user. …
Stronghold - Easily configure macOS security settings from the terminal. …
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LuLu
Stronghold
ClamAV - An open source cross-platform antivirus engine for detecting viruses, malware & other malicious threats. It is versatile, performant and very effective. …
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ClamAV
SourceHut - Git and mercurial code hosting, task management, mailing lists, wiki hosting and Alpine-based build pipelines. Can be self-hosted, or used through the managed instance at sr.ht. …
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Codeberg - A fully-managed instance of Forgejo. …
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Gitea - Lightweight self-hosted git platform, written in Go. …
Gogs - Lightweight self-hosted git platform, written in Go. …
SourceHut
Codeberg
Mycroft - An open source privacy-respecting AI platform, compatible with a wide range of devices including Raspberry Pi, desktop computers, or dedicated Mycroft hardware. Actively developed, with extensive documentation and a broad skill set. Facilitates easy development of new skills. …
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Kalliope - A modular, always-on, voice-controlled personal assistant geared towards home automation. Optimized for Raspberry Pi, Debian, or Ubuntu. Skills are easily programmable in YAML, though the library of pre-built add-ons is not as extensive. …
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Gladys Assistant - An open source privacy-respecting Home Assistant, compatible with a wide range of devices including Raspberry Pi, desktop computers, or NAS systems. Actively developed, with good french community and various integrations (Zigbee, Philips, Camera, Tuya, MQTT, Telegram, ...). …
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Monero - One of the most private cryptocurrencies, since no meta data is available (not even the transaction amount). It uses complex on-chain cryptographic methods such as Ring signatures, RingCT, Kovri, and Stealth addresses all of which help protect the privacy of users. …
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ZCash - Uses zero-knowledge proofs to protect privacy cryptographic technique, that allows two users to transact without ever revealing their true identity or address. The Zcash blockchain uses two types of addresses and transactions, Z transactions and addresses are private and T transactions and addresses are transparent like Bitcoin. …
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Wasabi Wallet - An open source, native desktop wallet for Windows, Linux, and MacOS. Wasabi implements trustless CoinJoins over the Tor network. Neither an observer nor the participants can determine which output belongs to which input. This makes it difficult for outside parties to trace where a particular coin originated from and where it was sent to, which greatly improves privacy. Since it's trustless, the CoinJoin coordinator cannot breach the privacy of the participants. Wasabi is compatible with cold storage and hardware wallets, including OpenCard and Trezor. …
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Trezor - Open source, cross-platform, offline, crypto wallet, compatible with 1000+ coins. Your private key is generated on the device, and never leaves it, all transactions are signed by the Trezor, which ensures your wallet is safe from theft. There are native apps for Windows, Linux, MacOS, Android, and iOS, but Trezor is also compatible with other wallets, such as Wasabi. You can back the Trezor up, either by writing down the seed, or by duplicating it to another device. It is simple and intuitive to use, but also incredibly customizable with a large range of advanced features. …
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ColdCard - An easy-to-use, super secure Bitcoin hardware wallet, which can be used independently as an air-gapped wallet. ColdCard is based on partially signed Bitcoin transactions following the BIP174 standard. Built specifically for Bitcoin, and with a variety of unique security features, ColdCard is secure, trustless, private, and easy-to-use. Companion products for the ColdCard include: BlockClock, SeedPlate, and ColdPower. …
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Electrum - Long-standing Python-based Bitcoin wallet with good security features. Private keys are encrypted and do not touch the internet and balance is checked with a watch-only wallet. Compatible with other wallets, so there is no tie-in, and funds can be recovered with your secret seed. It supports proof-checking to verify transactions using SPV, multi-sig, and add-ons for compatibility with hardware wallets. A decentralized server indexes ledger transactions, meaning it's fast and doesn't require much disk space. The potential security issue here would not be with the wallet, but rather your PC - you must ensure your computer is secure and your wallet has a long, strong passphrase to encrypt it with. …
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Sparrow Wallet - Sparrow is a Bitcoin wallet for those who value financial self-sovereignty. Sparrow’s emphasis is on security, privacy, and usability. Sparrow does not hide information from you - on the contrary, it attempts to provide as much detail as possible about your transactions and UTXOs, but in a way that is manageable and usable. …
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Atomic Wallet - Atomic is an open-source desktop and mobile-based wallet, where your private keys are stored on your local device, and do not touch the internet. Atomic has a great feature set, and supports swapping, staking, and lending directly from the app. However, most of Atomic's features require an active internet connection, and Atomic does not support hardware wallets yet. Therefore, it may only be a good choice as a secondary wallet, for storing small amounts of your actively used currency. …
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CryptoSteel - A steel plate, with engraved letters which can be permanently screwed - CryptoSteel is a good fire-proof, shock-proof, water-proof, and stainless cryptocurrency backup solution. …
BitBox02 - Open source hardware wallet, supporting secure multisig with the option for making encrypted backups on a MicroSD card. …
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Wasabi Wallet
Trezor
Bisq - An open-source, peer-to-peer application that allows you to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in exchange for national currencies. Fully decentralized, and no registration required. …
LocalBitcoins - Person-to-person exchange, find people local to your area, and trade directly with them, to avoid going through any central organization. Primarily focused on Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, and LiteCoin, as it gets harder to find people near you selling niche alt-coins. …
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AtomicDEX - Person-to-person cryptocurrency exchange with no KYC or registration required and uses atomic swaps to perform trustless trades. The orderbook uses a modified libp2p protocol to prevent censorship and maintain decentralization. Fiat currencies are not supported, but hundreds of alt-coins and major cryptocurrencies are supported. …
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RoboSats - RoboSats is an easy way to privately exchange Bitcoin for national currencies. It simplifies the peer-to-peer experience and makes use of lightning hold invoices to minimize custody and trust requirements. The deterministically generated avatars help users stick to best privacy practices. …
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Privacy.com - Privacy.com has a good reputation, and is the largest virtual card provider in the US. Unlike other providers, it is free for personal use (up to 12 cards per month) with no fees, apps and support is good. There is a premium plan for $10/month, with 1% cashback and 36 cards/month. …
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Revolut Premium - Revolut is more of a digital bank account, and identity checks are required to sign up. Virtual cards are only available on Premium/ Metal accounts, which start at $7/month. …
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MySudo - Much more than just virtual cards, MySudo is a platform for creating compartmentalised identities, each with their own virtual cards, virtual phone numbers, virtual email addresses, messaging, private browsing, and more. There is a free plan for up to 3 identities, and premium plans start at $0.99/month. …
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Cash - Actual physical cash is still the most private option, with no chance of leaving any transactional records. …
Gift Cards - Gift cards can be purchased for cash in many convenience stores, and redeemed online for goods or services. Try to avoid CCTV as best as possible. …
Pre-paid Cards - Similarly to gift cards, buying a pre-paid card for cash can enable you to purchase goods and services in stores that only accept card payments. …
Cash
Gift Cards
Pre-paid CardsFirefly III - A free and open source personal finance manager. Firefly III features a clean and clear UI, is easy to set up and use, and is backed by a strong community. Regular updates bring new features, improvements, and fixes. There's also a hass.io addon, and compatibility with Home Assistant. Ensure your server is securely configured. …
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GnuCash - A full-featured cross-platform accounting application suitable for personal and small business finance. Stable and reliable, GnuCash offers a comprehensive suite of financial management tools. Available for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android. …
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Plain Text Accounting - Utilizes plain text files and scriptable, command-line-friendly software for bookkeeping/accounting, offering full control over data. Popular tools include Ledger, hledger, and Beancount among others, providing a flexible and vendor-independent approach to accounting. …
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GnuCash
Aether - Offers self-governing communities with auditable moderation, akin to Reddit but prioritizing privacy, democracy, and transparency. Aether is peer-to-peer and open source, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. …
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Discourse - A fully open-source, self-hostable discussion platform usable as a mailing list, discussion forum, or long-form chat room. …
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Mastodon - An open-source, distributed social media platform functioning similarly to Twitter, without algorithmic timeline manipulations. It operates across independent servers. …
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Minds - A social media platform designed to foster open conversations and community engagement. Rewards content creation. …
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PeerTube - A federated video platform leveraging peer-to-peer technology to decrease server load during video streaming. Supports self-hosting or joining existing instances, enabling video viewing from any PeerTube server. …
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DTube - A decentralized, ad-free video platform emphasizing minimal moderation. It rewards users with cryptocurrency, leveraging blockchain technology. …
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BitChute - Established in 2017, BitChute is a video hosting service that offers a platform for uploaders to evade the content restrictions found on other sites like YouTube. …
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BitChute
Write Freely - A minimalist, federated blogging platform offering a clean UI. It's free, open source, and caters to writers seeking simplicity and federation capabilities. For hosted options, visit Write.as. …
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Telegraph - A quick, anonymous blogging platform by Telegram. It's designed for simplicity and speed, allowing for straightforward content publishing without registration. …
Mataroa - A minimalist blogging platform focused on privacy and simplicity. It's open source and eschews complex features for a straightforward writing and publishing experience. …
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Bear Blog - A no-nonsense, super-fast blogging platform prioritizing privacy. It strips back unnecessary features to focus on straightforward blogging. The platform is open source. …
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Movim - A web frontend for XMPP, offering decentralized blogging and chatrooms. Movim is open source, integrating social and communication tools in a unified platform. …
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Pico - Web services over SSH, including blogging with Prose, microsites with Pages, and a pastebin with Pastes. The services use public-key cryptography by default with no browser-based tracking and minimal logging. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Tiny RSS - A web-based news feed reader and aggregator, supporting RSS/Atom feeds. It's free, open source, and offers a customizable and self-hostable platform for managing your news feeds. …
RSSOwl - A powerful, desktop-based RSS reader offering extensive organization features. It facilitates managing and curating news feeds from various sources. …
Feedly - Offers a premium news aggregation experience, presenting news from chosen sources in a clean, modern interface. Beyond RSS, it integrates with various news outlets, ensuring a tailored news feed without manipulated content. Parts of the service are open source. …
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Nitter - A privacy-centric alternative to Twitter's front-end, focusing on preventing user tracking. It's free, open source, lightweight, supports multiple themes, and offers customizable RSS feeds. All client requests are proxied, enhancing privacy. No JavaScript required. …
Invidious - An open source, privacy-focused YouTube frontend. It minimizes Google tracking, supports audio-only mode, integrates Reddit comments, and offers advanced playback options. Lightweight and can function without JavaScript. Supports import/export of subscriptions and feed customization. …
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Libreddit - A private, fast Reddit frontend written in Rust. Excludes ads, trackers, and bloat, making it much faster than the official site. Can be self-hosted via Docker or other methods. Implements most Reddit features for anonymous browsing. …
WebProxy - A free proxy service offering a Tor mode for evading censorship and accessing geo-restricted content. Claims to encrypt traffic, but caution is advised for personal information. Managed by DevroLabs. …
Gimp - A free, open source, cross-platform image editor. GIMP is a powerful tool for photo retouching, image composition, and image authoring. It is highly customizable, and supports a wide range of file formats. …
📦 Open Source ˙
InkScape - A free, open source, professional vector graphics editor. It is a powerful tool for creating illustrations, icons, logos, diagrams, maps, and web graphics. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Paint.NET - A more advanced take on Microsoft Paint. Suitable for basic image editing, with support for basic layers, unlimited undo/redo, and extendable via plugins …
📦 Open Source ˙
PixlrX - A free web-based image editor, with a modern UI. Also offers premium/paid features, such as AI-powered generation, touchup and editing …
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RawTherapee - A powerful raw photo processing system and editor, for non-destructive editing of raw digital photos …
📦 Open Source ˙
PhotoPea - A free online image editor, for both raster and vector graphics, with a very wide range of supported formats …
💰 Accepts Anonymous Payment ˙
Krita - Digital painting application. Free and open source (backed by KDE), with cross-platform support, Krita is popular among both professional and amateur artists due to it's comprehensive feature set, and intuitive UI …
📦 Open Source ˙
DarkTable - A photography workflow application (similar to Adbobe Lightroom) Includes a non-destructive raw developer for raw images and managing digital negatives. …
📦 Open Source ˙
Gimp
InkScape
Paint.NET
PixlrX
RawTherapee
PhotoPea
Krita
DarkTable
Shotcut - A free, open source, cross-platform video editor, using FFmpeg Shotcut supports a wide range of formats, and has a comprehensive feature set, including 4K & 8k resolution, webcam + audio capture, batch opperations and much more …
📦 Open Source ˙
OpenShot - A free, simple, cross-platform video editor. Great for trimming/slicing, video effects, adding titles, scene animations and more …
📦 Open Source ˙
Kdenlive - KDE Non-Linear Video Editor, is an editor based on the MLT Framework, KDE and Qt, written using C++ and using FFmpeg …
📦 Open Source ˙
FlowBlade - A multitrack non-linear video editor with a simple interface …
📦 Open Source ˙
Cinelerra GG Infinity - Simple video editor, for applying transitions, effects and text as well as splicing video clips …
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VitCutter - A simple Python-based cross-platform tool for cutting and splicing videos …
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Natron - Free & open desktop node-graph based video compositing software. Similar in functionalities to Adobe After Effects. Features flexible rotoscoping, 2D & planner tracking, keying tools, curve & dope-shift editor, GPU & network rendering, and is easily extendable via community plugins, or by writing Python scripts …
📦 Open Source ˙
Shotcut
OpenShot
Kdenlive
FlowBlade
Natron
Audacity - An easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for desktops, great free alternative to Adobe Audition. Features recording from real and virtual devices, import/export to a wide range of formats, high-quality processing advanced multi-track editing, noise reduction, pitch correction, audio restoration and much more. It's easily extendable via community plugins, and also supports cusotm macros and many scripting options …
📦 Open Source ˙
Audacity
OBS Studio - Powerful desktop software for live streaming and screen recording. Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming. Features real-time video/audio capturing, scene composition, encoding, recording, and broadcasting. It supports a wide range of formats, and is easily extendable via community plugins …
📦 Open Source ˙
OBS Studio
Blender - Free desktop 3D creation suite, with a wide range of tools for modeling, sculpting, texturing, rigging, animation, rendering, compositing, motion tracking, and video editing. It's easily extendable via community plugins …
📦 Open Source 🛡️ Security Audited ˙
Wings3D - A simple and easy-to-use subdivision 3D modeler with AutoUV facility for unfolding a models surface for painting/texturing. Unlike Blender, it has no built-in animation capabilites, and it's feature set is more limited, but it's a good choice for beginners. …
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Blender
Wings3D
Aseprite - An animated sprite editor & pixel art tool for Windows, macOS and Linux.…
📦 Open Source ˙
Aseprite
