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https://github.com/vlvagerviwager/protect-your-privacy

Privacy resources for the layperson. Highlights resources, tools, VPNs, search engines, articles, books, and dark patterns.
https://github.com/vlvagerviwager/protect-your-privacy

List: protect-your-privacy

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

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README

        

# Protect Your Privacy

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

The table of contents is generated using [gh-md-toc](https://github.com/ekalinin/github-markdown-toc).

## Table of Contents

* [ℹ️ Feedback](#ℹ️-feedback)
* [ℹ️ Explanation of the Table Column Titles](#ℹ️-explanation-of-the-table-column-titles)
* [⚠️ Disclaimer](#⚠️-disclaimer)
* [General Privacy Tooling Tips](#general-privacy-tooling-tips)
* [Privacy Resources](#privacy-resources)
* [General News / Info](#general-news--info)
* [Tools](#tools)
* [IM / Messaging](#im--messaging)
* [Email](#email)
* [Browser](#browser)
* [Browser Plugin](#browser-plugin)
* [Search Engine (A - Z)](#search-engine-a---z)
* [Password Manager](#password-manager)
* [Operating System (OS) (A - Z)](#operating-system-os-a---z)
* [Encryption](#encryption)
* [Phone](#phone)
* [Translation](#translation)
* [VPN (A - Z)](#vpn-a---z)
* [Networking (A - Z)](#networking-a---z)
* [Disinformation (A - Z)](#disinformation-a---z)
* [Opinion and Entertainment](#opinion-and-entertainment)
* [Opinion Pieces](#opinion-pieces)
* [Comics](#comics)
* [Movies (A - Z)](#movies-a---z)
* [Books (A - Z)](#books-a---z)
* [Donate (A - Z)](#donate-a---z)
* [Dark Patterns](#dark-patterns)
* [Google](#google)
* [Meta](#meta)
* [Windows 10](#windows-10)

## ℹ️ Feedback

Feedback, [issues](https://github.com/vlvagerviwager/protect-your-privacy/issues/new), and [pull requests](https://github.com/vlvagerviwager/protect-your-privacy/pulls) welcome.

## ℹ️ Explanation of the Table Column Titles

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

## ⚠️ Disclaimer

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

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

## General Privacy Tooling Tips

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

## Privacy Resources

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

## General News / Info

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

## Tools

### AI

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

### IM / Messaging

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

### Email

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

### Browser

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

### Browser Plugins

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

### Search Engine (A - Z)

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

### Password Manager (A - Z)

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

### Meeting Software

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

### Operating System (OS) (A - Z)

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

### Encryption

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

### Phone

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

### Translation

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

### Video (A - Z)

What | Where | Why | Year Added
--- | --- | --- | ---

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

### VPN (A - Z)

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

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

### Networking (A - Z)

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

### Disinformation (A - Z)

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

## Opinion and Entertainment

### Opinion Pieces

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

### Comics

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

### Movies (A - Z)

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

### Books (A - Z)

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

## Donate (A - Z)

What | Where | Why | Year Added
--- | --- | --- | ---
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) | https://action.aclu.org/secure/donate-to-aclu | [ACLU Accomplishments](https://www.aclu.org/aclu-accomplishments), [The Successes of the American Civil Liberties Union](https://www.aclu.org/successes-american-civil-liberties-union) |
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) | https://supporters.eff.org/donate/fcc-privacy-rules-s | [Timeline of Electronic Frontier Foundation actions (Wikipedia)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Electronic_Frontier_Foundation_actions)

## Dark Patterns

### Google

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

### Meta

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

### Windows 10

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