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EPIC Online Guide to Practical Privacy Tools


Disclaimer: EPIC does not lobby for, consult, or advise companies, nor do we endorse specific products or services. This list merely serves as a sampling of available privacy-enhancing tools. If you have a suggestion for a tool that you believe should be included, or if you have comments to share regarding one or more of the tools that are already listed, send e-mail to epic-info@epic.org. If you have questions about a tool on this page, visit the affiliated company or individual's Web site for more information.


Desktop

Operating Systems

  • Tails: live operating system that can run from removable media without leaving tracks. Routes Internet traffic through the Tor network.

Disk/File Encryption

Disk/File Erasing Programs

Firewalls

Antivirus Software

Heartbleed

Mobile

Messaging

  • ChatSecure is an encrypted chat client for Android and iPhone.
  • iPGMail (iOS): app to send and decrypt PGP-encoded messages.
  • K-9 Mail (Android): open source mail app for android that supports PGP.
  • Signal (Android): open source application for encrypted voice and text communications.
  • SilentCircle (iOS, Android): encrypted voice, video, text, and file communications
  • Telegram (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, PC, Mac, Linux): encrypted messaging
  • Wickr (iOS, Android): encrypted, self-destructing text, picture, audio and video messages.

Mobile Web

  • DuckDuckGo Search and Stories (Android): Secure, anonymous searches with Tor/Orbot integration.
  • Orbweb is an exceptionally privacy-focused web browser for Android, based on Tor.

Other Mobile Resources

  • Encrypt your Android phone.
  • CyanogenMod open-source alternative: to avoid leaving your phone vulnerable to your carrier's customization of the Android OS, consider replacing the firmware (on select phone models) with CyanogenMod.
  • APG is an OpenPGP implementation for Android phones.

Web

Web Browsers

Web Browser Add-ons

  • Adblock Plus (Firefox, Chome, Opera, Android): Customizable ad-blocking plugin
  • Beef Taco (Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-Out) (Firefox): Sets permanent targeted-advertising opt-out cookies
  • BetterPrivacy (Firefox): Removes and deletes long-term “super-cookies”
  • Blur (Firefox): Tracker blocking, password management, and e-mail masking
  • Decentraleyes (Firefox): Limits tracking by third-party content delivery networks by storing copies of the content locally
  • Disconnect (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera): Stops 3rd party tracking sites around the web.
  • Facebook Disconnect (Firefox, Chrome, Opera): Blocks third-party website requests to Facebook to limit Facebook's tracking of users' web activity
  • Flashblock (Firefox): Allows selective blocking and execution of Flash content.
  • Flash Control (Chrome): Allows selective blocking and execution of Flash content.
  • Ghostery (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera): Script and tracker blocking.
  • HTTPS Everywhere (Firefox, Chrome): Forces HTTPS versions of websites were they are available
  • Lightbeam (Firefox): Visualization plugin that shows web sites visited, including the third-party web sites that users may not be aware of
  • NoScript (Firefox, derivatives of Mozilla): highly customizable plugin to selectively allow Javascript, Java, and Flash to run.
  • Privacy Badger (Firefox, Chrome, Opera): Blocks third-party scripts and images
  • Protect My Choices (Chrome): Sets cookies to opt out of targeted advertising
  • ScriptSafe (Chrome): Script blocking
  • Self-Destructing Cookies (Firefox): Automatically removes a site's cookies on closing its browser tab
  • uBlock Origin (Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera): Lightweight blocking plug-in for multiple browsers

Search Engines

  • DuckDuckGo: anonymous, encrypted web searches.
  • ixquick: anonymous, encrypted web searches. Hosted in the Netherlands.

Cookie/Cache/Internet History Cleaners

General Networking

Internet Anonymizers, Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and Proxy Servers

Privacy-Enhanced Networks and Mesh Networking (decentralized networks)

  • Hyperboria: encrypted, decentralized Internet alternative .
  • GNUnet: encrypted, anonymous, decentralized P2P networking.
  • Commotion: open-source tool that uses phones and computers to create mesh networks.
  • I2P Anonymous Network: "I2P is an anonymous overlay network - a network within a network. It is intended to protect communication from dragnet surveillance and monitoring by third parties such as ISPs."
  • Freenet: "Freenet is a peer-to-peer platform for censorship-resistant communication and publishing."

DNS

File Storage/Cloud

E-Mail and Messaging

Email/Communication Encryption

  • GPG(Windows, OSX, Linux): free implementation of OpenPGP.
  • Mailvelope(Chrome, Firefox): OpenPGP encryption for webmail.
  • Enigmail is and OpenPGP add-on for the Thunderbird and SeaMonkey email clients.
  • GPGMail is a plug in for Apple Mail, an open source implementation of OpenPGP for encrypting, decrypting, signing and verifying email.
  • Email Self Defense: a guide for using encrypted email (GNU/Linux, Mac OS, Windows).

Alternative Email Accounts

  • Guerrillamail: web-based disposable email accounts.
  • CounterMail
  • MyKolab: Privacy-focused email, based in Switzerland
  • Neomailbox: email provider focused on privacy and anonymity, based in Switzerland
  • Unseen: Privacy-focused e-mail provider based in Iceland

Anonymous Remailers

Secure Instant Messaging

  • Adium is a third-party instant messaging program that allows for encrypted chats across multiple networks, but for Macs.
  • Cryptocat (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Mac): encrypted instant messaging platform.
  • Off-the-Record (Windows, Pidgin): encrypted communications with authentication and deniability features.
  • Pidgin is a third-party instant messaging/chat program that allows users to log in to multiple chat programs simultaneously (e.g., AIM, MSN, Google Talk) and to install a variety of privacy and security plugins.
  • Telegram (iOS, Android, Windows Phone, PC, Mac, Linux): encrypted messaging for mobile and desktop operating systems
  • TorChat (Windows, Linux): P2P instant messaging routed through the Tor network.

VoIP/Video Messaging

  • Jitsi (Windows, OSX, Linux): open source software for encrypted video, audio calls.
  • Silent Circle (Windows)

Miscellaneous

Password Vaults

  • 1Password (Windows, OSX, Android, iOS)
  • Blur (Firefox): Tracker blocking, password management, and e-mail masking
  • Dashlane (Windows, OS X, Android, iOS)
  • Lastpass (Windows, OS X, Linux, Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, iOS, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile)
  • MasterPassword (iPhone/iPad, OS X, Destop (Java), Terminal (Java), Terminal (C)).
  • Password Safe (Windows)

Social Networking

  • Diaspora: alternative social media; open source and allows users to own and control personal data.
  • buddycloud: decentralized social networking with strong privacy controls.
  • Facebook Disconnect (Firefox, Chrome, Opera): Browser plugin that blocks third-party website requests to Facebook to limit Facebook's tracking of users' web activity

Alternative Currencies

  • Cash: the original anonymous currency.
  • Bitcoin: open source, P2P digital currency.
  • Litecoin: open source, P2P digital currency.

Publishing

  • Pastebin: multi-purpose text publishing.
  • Strongbox: for submitting files to The New Yorker.
  • Wikileaks: for submitting classified/sensitive information.

Additional Resources


Disclaimer: EPIC does not lobby for, consult, or advise companies, nor do we endorse specific products or services. This list merely serves as a sampling of available privacy-enhancing tools. If you have a suggestion for a tool that you believe should be included, or if you have comments to share regarding one or more of the tools that are already listed, send e-mail to epic-info@epic.org. If you have questions about a tool on this page, visit the affiliated company or individual's Web site for more information.

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