Privacy Guides
Practical, vendor-neutral guides, kept current as tools and threats change.
Switch from Big Tech How to Export Google Keep Notes and Import Them into PrivacyNotes
Move your Google Keep notes to PrivacyNotes in minutes. Export with Google Takeout, then import the .zip. Checklists, labels, pins, and formatting all come across.
Jun 20, 2026
Privacy Basics The Relaunch: A Faster Way to Escape Big Tech
PrivacyTools.io is rebuilt: start with the app you want to escape, get a vetted private alternative, and meet VERNAM, our new in-browser file encryptor.
Jun 19, 2026
Switch from Big Tech Open Source CapCut Alternatives That Respect Your Privacy
CapCut is owned by ByteDance and leans on the cloud. Here are the open source video and audio editors that keep your footage on your own machine.
Jun 18, 2026
Privacy Basics Phone and Laptop Seizures at Airports and Borders - Privacy Travel Guide
The world and its borders are slowly opening up after strict Covid lockdowns, and people are looking forward to travelling again. While this is great and f
Apr 15, 2025
Apps & Alternatives Internxt Unveiled: Safeguarding Your Encrypted Files and Photo Memories
Let me introduce you to Internxt, a great alternative to Google Drive, Dropbox, WeTransfer and Google Photos. The services launched in 2020 and are based i
2023
Phones & Devices Android: Simple, open-source apps without ads, tracking and unnecessary permissions
I want to introduce you to a great Android developer team that released countless alternatives to apps that usually come for free but invade your privacy.
2022
Privacy Basics 7 Publicly Known LastPass Security Breaches since 2011
The security team of the popular password manager LastPass can't seem to catch a break. This is the second security breach this year, and they are connecte
2022
Phones & Devices Exodus for Android: Finds trackers embedded in all your apps
Today, I want to shed light on a fairly unknown but powerful Android app that helps you to locate trackers embedded in all your smartphone apps. It's calle
2022
Phones & Devices AirDrop feature limited ahead of protests in China
Apple Inc. has limited the AirDrop wireless file-sharing feature on iPhones in China after the mechanism was used by protesters to spread images to other i
2022
Encryption & Passwords The Eufy Security Camera Privacy Scandal: Unencrypted Cloud Footage
Twitter user Paul Moore discovered recently that his Eufy home security camera leaks unencrypted private images of faces and names to the cloud, even with
2022
Messaging & Email Encrypted Twitter DMs soon for improved privacy with Signal Protocol
Twitter is working on end-to-end encrypted Twitter DMs under the new leadership of Elon Musk. It is to be expected that this new privacy feature will be re
2022
Messaging & Email Berty Messenger: Private, secure, distributed. Even works offline!
You might wonder why you should be interested in another instant messenger app? Berty comes with heaps of neat feature, is packed in an appealing and moder
2022
Privacy Basics Data Breach Prevention to Protect Your Privacy
Data breaches in a nutshell: Data breaches happen every day. It has become more important than ever to understand what a data breach is, how it happens, an
2022
Privacy Basics Is the Five Eyes Alliance a Threat to Your Privacy?
The Five Eyes is an international intelligence-sharing alliance. The Five Eyes countries are Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the Un
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks WireGuard vs. OpenVPN: Which VPN protocol is better?
When you connect to a VPN, your data travels through a secure encrypted tunnel to a VPN server, where you’re assigned an IP address. A VPN protocol refers
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks Proxy vs. VPN: Which One Should You Choose?
Virtual private networks VPN and proxy servers are both great tools for protecting your identity online. People tend to think of them as doing the same thi
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks Sentinel dVPN Guide: New, Exciting and Decentralized. Everything Explained
A plain-language explainer of decentralized VPNs (dVPNs): how they route traffic through community-run nodes and differ from a traditional centralized VPN.
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks VPN vs Tor: Which one is right for you?
Online security and privacy are becoming increasingly important. Therefore, it isn’t surprising to see many people turning to internet security tools for m
2022
Privacy Basics Privacy, Cybersecurity and Anonymity - Difference Explained
Privacy, cybersecurity and anonymity are all different concepts that are often used interchangeably. Understanding the difference between these three is cr
2022
Switch from Big Tech Grammarly Alternative: LanguageTool an open-source grammar and spell checker
Grammarly is a popular proofreader who helped millions of people around the world to gain confidence in writing. In this post, you'll learn about an even b
2022
Apps & Alternatives Top 10: Privacy Tools List with Out-of-the-Box Solutions
In this list, we're introducing you to ten great privacy tools that come with out-of-the-box privacy features that don't require complicated setup or confi
2022
Apps & Alternatives How to access reddit without ads and tracking while benefiting from faster page load times
Reddit ranks in the top 10 of most visited website in the world. Part of their business model is serving ads to their users and gain data with tracking. No
2022
Phones & Devices Enforce Privacy & Security Best-Practices on Windows and macOS: privacy.sexy
Today we present you another GitHub Gem: privacy.sexy is an open-source privacy tool to enforce security and privacy best-practices on Windows and macOS.
2022
Apps & Alternatives Introduction of GitHub 💎 Gems by PrivacyTools.io
GitHub Gems are open-source projects that fall outside our main privacy topics but are worth a look, surfaced and shared by PrivacyTools.io for you.
2022
Apps & Alternatives Open Source Portfolio Managers and Trackers for Wealth Management
Today we present you two GitHub Gems: Portfolio Tracker, Wealth Management, Accounting and Analytics Tools that protect your privacy. Supports stocks, EFTs
2022
Privacy Basics Whistleblower Guide: How Privacy Tools Can Protect You From Retaliation
Picture this: You’re in a position where you want to expose wrongdoing but you’re afraid of retaliation. Whether it’s a company or a government, someone is
2022
Apps & Alternatives 8 Simple Stupid Flat File CMS: Free, User-Friendly and Open Source
You've decided to start your own website or blog and don't know where to start? You are in for treat. I've hand-picked eight wonderfully designed Flat-File
2022
Messaging & Email Acceptable Places to Communicate Securely with Another Party
You might never think of physical security coming into play too much if you have a very high level of Internet/Device security. But it is actually a lot mo
2022
Encryption & Passwords Advanced Encryption Chapter
I know, I have already discussed different areas of encryption in varying levels of detail. But I think an aspect that needs to be highlighted even further
2022
Encryption & Passwords Advanced Password Management and Storage
In the beginning sections of this paper, I talked a bit about creating strong passwords and how to store them securely. However, if your threat model fits
2022
Privacy Basics Emergency Preparedness: A Plan for Worst Case Scenarios
If we were to place security, privacy, and anonymity onto a sliding scale from 1-100, nobody is going to be able to achieve all 100s. It is just not feasib
2022
Apps & Alternatives File-Change Detection or Integrity Monitoring Systems
Pretty much the only thing left to do is to make sure that our data is not being changed or altered without our prior knowledge or consent. We can do this
2022
Phones & Devices Manufacturer Tools for Wiping HDD and SSD Drives
Always check your laptop BIOS/UEFI for native utilities first. Be sure to use the right wipe mode for the right disk. Wipe and Passes are for HDD drives. T
2022
Apps & Alternatives The Issues with Free and Open-Source Software for Privacy Tools
Once you get down to this level, you almost need to reevaluate everything about your threat model and what you are doing to protect yourself. Even the litt
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks Using Virtual Private Networks (VPN) and Tor Together
The issue once you get to need such a level of security that you find yourself categorized in a paper like this is you are really the only person who knows
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks A Complete Guide to Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
There are very few locations where I actually trust connecting directly to the Internet. I don’t even do things like online banking or logging into my Bitw
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks A Guide for Firewalling Your Network Connections: Windows, MacOS and Linux
One of the other ways one can secure their connection to the Internet is to make sure that all incoming and outgoing connections are being passed through a
2022
Privacy Basics A Starting Place for Business and Tech Geeks
I often times see people whom are clearly business people doing business related things with customers, clients, and the like in very public places in very
2022
Messaging & Email Apple's iMessage Service and Privacy
Apple has provided a messaging service since the dawn of the iPhone many years ago and expanded on it to be a very privacy conscious and secure way of comm
2022
Apps & Alternatives Breaking Down a Privacy Service: What's Really Under the Rug?
By now, the hope is that you have really begun to look at the services you are using on a day-to-day basis. Maybe you have run a few SSL tests on the websi
2022
Phones & Devices Cell Phones are not Devices that Aid in Being Anonymous
It isn’t so obvious why after we discussed earlier about the strong encryption on a newer iPhone, they might not be considered a tool for anonymity but it
2022
Encryption & Passwords Choosing and Using Strong Passwords and Manage them easily
Now, there is a difference between some terminologies here that seems to be used interchangeably when they aren’t really the same.
2022
Messaging & Email Daily go-to Secure Messaging Apps for Better Privacy
Warning: This section of The Crypto Paper is outdated. Wire went through some severe Privacy policy changes after moving its holding company between jurisdictions.
2022
Privacy Basics Defining Your Threat-Model
For starters, a threat-model could be defined as how an individual needs to be protected based on things like:
2022
Privacy Basics Deleting and Decluttering Data to Improve Privacy
After you have put all of the above pages to good use, you are going to be left with a lot of unneeded data. This data could include cache information, tem
2022
Encryption & Passwords Full Disk Encryption: Strongest Counter to Surveillance, Attack and Theft of Your Devices
One of your strongest counters to surveillance, attack, and theft of your devices is making sure the data on them is secure. Really, the only way to do tha
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks Gaining Anonymity: The Tor Network & Tor Browser Bundle
My first step in looking at anonymity is making use of the TBB and the Tor network. Tor was released in 2002 and has since evolved into a tool that is used
2022
Encryption & Passwords GPG/PGP Based Encryption & Authentication for Emails
One of the other things you will have likely noticed me touching on is companies who are willing to share their PGP Key for customers so they can use email
2022
Encryption & Passwords Hashing & Authentication: How are your passwords stored on websites?
It is important when we learn about encryption and using it alongside strong passwords, to also take a look at how these passwords are stored on the websit
2022
Encryption & Passwords How does HTTPS / Browser Encryption work?
Often times when you connect to a website, you will notice that the URL just displays the website name. But as we move into a more digital world, it is hig
2022
Privacy Basics How is the Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance Related to Your Privacy?
The “5 Eyes” countries refer to 5 countries United States, Canada, The United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand that have an intelligence agreement known
2022
Privacy Basics Keeping Personal Information Out and Using an Alias to Hide Your Real Identity
If you are reading this but have no need for anonymity and really can’t see where it would fit into your Internet life, I at least hope you can imagine a s
2022
Messaging & Email Messaging privately and securely with the XMPP/Jabber Protocol
The one thing missing from Version 2 of the paper was the XMPP/Jabber Protocol and OTR off-the-record for messaging privately and securely. XMPP is very ni
2022
Messaging & Email Messaging with Signal by Open Whisper Systems
Signal is marketed on the Open Whisper Systems website as “Privacy that fits in your pocket”. Open Whisper Systems had originally created separate apps for
2022
Privacy Basics Once it is out on the Internet, it's impossible to take it back or erase for good
So once you have the basics of how the Internet can work with you to keep you safe, it is vital that you determine what information you are putting out the
2022
Messaging & Email Privacy Tools: Securely Transmitting Information - Messaging & Calling
Currently, technology allows us to communicate in so many different ways with each other that even 30 years ago we were unable to do. Skype, Email, SMS, Fa
2022
Messaging & Email Secure Email in Switzerland: ProtonMail
Before coming across the ProtonMail crowdfunding campaign, I was an avid user of email services like Yahoo and Gmail. However, Yahoo was only putting in a
2022
Phones & Devices Secure Operating Systems: Tails, Debian and Qubes OS
Before we dive to heavily into the tactics that are going to keep an individual at this level secure from a big name adversary, we have to consider the ope
2022
Encryption & Passwords Securing Online Accounts: Always use Two-Factor Authentication
Hopefully by now you have registered for a ProtonMail or Tutanota account and are ready to start transferring some accounts over. So it is time to discuss
2022
Apps & Alternatives Storing & Sharing in the Cloud: Finding the Right Provider to Protect Your Privacy
Right alongside messaging people in a secure manner, we have to think about how and where we are storing files in the cloud, and how those files are being
2022 Privacy BasicsThe Crypto Paper
The Crypto Paper by @CryptoSeb: a beginner-to-advanced privacy, security and anonymity primer, archived and kept web-friendly on PrivacyTools.io.
2022
Privacy Basics The difference between Privacy, Security and Anonymity explained
What is Privacy? Wikipedia describes privacy as “the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves, or information about themselves, and thereby
2022
Apps & Alternatives The Importance of Free and Open-Source Software for Privacy Tools
Getting back to the good stuff, I have talked in the above pages about a term called FOSS or open source, or the long form Free, Open Source Software. This
2022
Apps & Alternatives Your first choice for better internet privacy: Firefox Browser
Diving right into the specifics, I want to start off with the most common mode of accessing the World Wide Web, your Internet browser. Probably around 99%
2022
How You're Tracked What is Metadata and how can it hurt your Privacy?
Metadata is data that describes other data. An example of this would be the email header contained within each email you send. It contains identifying info
2022
Encryption & Passwords Your primary tool to keep data secure: Encryption
I am a pretty big believer in encryption online because encryption can be seen as the primary tool that keeps our information/data secure. It prevents outs
2022
How You're Tracked Devices can be tracked even when offline and invade your privacy
You have seen this in action/spy/Sci-Fi movies and shows, the protagonists always remove the battery of their phones to make sure it cannot be used. Most p
2022
How You're Tracked Geolocation: How Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices track you
Geolocation is not only done by using mobile antennas triangulation. It is also done using the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices around you. Operating systems ma
2022
How You're Tracked Here is how even your CPU can be used to track you
All modern CPUs are now integrating hidden management platforms such as the now infamous Intel Management Engine and the AMD Platform Security Processor.
2022
How You're Tracked How DNS and IP requests can be used to track you and how to avoid it
DNS stands for “Domain Name System” and is a service used by your browser and other apps to find the IP addresses of a service. It is a huge “contact list”
2022
How You're Tracked How to Counteract Forensic Linguistics
Stylometry is our personal and unique writing style. No matter who you are, you have a unique finger printable, and traceable writing style. This has been
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks How your anonymized Tor/VPN traffic can be used to track you down
Tor and VPNs are not silver bullets. Many advanced techniques have been developed and studied to de-anonymize encrypted Tor traffic over the years. Most of
2022
How You're Tracked How your public IP address can lead back to you. Use these IP tools to find out what is exposed
Your IP address is the most known and obvious way you can be tracked. That IP is the IP you are using at the source. This is where you connect to the inter
2022
How You're Tracked How your RFID enabled devices is tracking you
RFID stands for Radio-frequency identification, it is the technology used for instance for contactless payments and various identification systems. Of cour
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks Man-in-the-middle attacks with malicious & rogue Wi-Fi access points
These have been used at least since 2008 using an attack called “Jasager” and can be done by anyone using self-built tools or using commercially available
2022
How You're Tracked Smart Devices: Accepted Tracking for Convenience?
You got it; your smartphone is an advanced spying/tracking device that:
2022
How You're Tracked Tracking your digital fingerprint, footprint and online behavior
This is the part where you should watch the documentary “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix. They cover this topic much better than anyone else IMHO.
2022
How You're Tracked Tracking: Your Operating Systems and Apps telemetry services
Whether it is Android, iOS, Windows, macOS, or even Ubuntu. Most popular Operating Systems now collect telemetry information by default even if you never o
2022
Phones & Devices Virtualization: Three big reasons how Virtual Machines can help to improve your privacy
Basically, it is like the Inception movie with computers. You have emulated software computers called Virtual Machines running on a physical computer. And
2022
Phones & Devices Warning about smartphones and smart devices
When conducting sensitive activities, remember that:
2022
How You're Tracked You can be tracked via your Bluetooth MAC address
Your Bluetooth MAC is like the earlier MAC address except it is for Bluetooth. Again, it can be used to track you as manufacturers and operating system mak
2022
How You're Tracked You can be tracked via your IMEI, IMSI and by extension, your phone number
The IMEI International Mobile Equipment Identity and the IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity are unique numbers created by cell phone manufacture
2022
How You're Tracked You can be tracked via your Wi-Fi or Ethernet MAC address
The MAC address is a unique identifier tied to your physical Network Interface Wired Ethernet or Wi-Fi and could of course be used to track you if it is no
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks Accessing the internet as safely as possible when Tor and VPNs are not an option
There might be worst-case situations where using Tor and VPNs are not possible due to extensive active censorship or blocking.
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks Finding safe places with decent public Wi-Fi for better privacy
You need to find safe places where you will be able to do your sensitive activities using some publicly accessible Wi-Fi without any account/ID registratio
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks Installing and using desktop Tor Browser
This is valid for Windows, Linux, and macOS.
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks Using long-range Antenna to connect to Public Wi-Fis from a safe distance
It is possible to access/connect to remote distant Public Wi-Fis from a distance using a cheap directional Antenna that looks like this.
2022
VPN, Tor & Networks Using Tor bridges in hostile environments
In some environments, your ISPs might be trying to prevent you from accessing Tor. Or accessing Tor openly might be a safety risk.
2022
Apps & Alternatives Firefox Send Is Back
Remember Firefox Send by Mozilla? A simple, user-friendly file-sharing service. It was revived a while ago by the open-source community and is more alive t
Switch from Big TechOpen Source Alternatives To Discord
Discord is a proprietary platform that offers messaging, voice and video calls, and file sharing. For those with privacy or security concerns there are a c