"I don't care about privacy!" and "But protecting your privacy is all or nothing!"
There’s a ton of reasons to care about privacy! Please read Privacy Guides’ article on Why Privacy Matters. If you believe that privacy is too hard or impossible to achieve, please read their article on Threat Modeling.
Also check out 🖥️ Hardware and Software
Many of my selections (such as my software, browser, and operating system recommendations) are informed by my concerns for privacy and security.
General
🌟🌐 Privacy Guides
The authority in protecting your privacy, imo. Check in every now and then to see up to date information. This should be your first resource for privacy everything and even has great resources regarding security. Including and especially software recommendation.
🌟 EndofLife.date
A tool that tells you when security updates stop for your software/device. People always seem to neglect this with regards to phones especially I notice, so keep this in mind when buying an old device!
Techlore
YouTube channel that posts super helpful recommendations and guides on all things privacy. Also hosts a weekly show called Surveillance Report which recaps news and important events in the quickly ever changing world of privacy. They also have a website.
Proton Mail
Privacy focused e-mail service. Their front page is a little bit misleading about what it can do, and quite frankly e-mail just is straight up not a private or particularly secure protocol, but at least they’re not selling your data. Will not protect you from feds (no e-mail service will). Check privacy guides for alternatives.
🌟 Bitwarden
Best cloud password manager. Free and functional, with an open core. Export your current password vault and import it into bitwarden.
🌟 Signal Messenger
Messenger app. Fast, easy, private, functional, and secure. E2EE, VOIP video/voice calls, voice messages, emoji reactions, stories, group chats, free stickers (make your own sticker packs and download packs by others), I can go on. Even if it’s primary draw is that it’s private and secure, it’s so easy, functional, and well made that you might just be able to get your family and friends to use it just because it’s a good messenger. That’s even if they don’t care about privacy.
Matrix
Open-source, decentralized, and privacy focused alternative to Discord. Also supplies bridges that lets you send and receive messages from many other chat services including discord, signal, telegram, facebook messenger, SMS, whatsapp, and more.
Cover Your Tracks
Test your browser to see how well protected you are from fingerprinting and tracking. Also an educational demonstration of how easy it is to identify and track your browser.
🌐 Alternative Front Ends
Access popular sites like YouTube, Genius, Reddit, and more while protecting your privacy. These alternative front ends simply deliver the content you want to see without the bullshit. Sites like YouTube, Reddit. Twitter, Imgur, IMDB, Genius, Google Translate, and whatever else are often filled with bloat, trackers, and other creepy bullshit you don’t need that downloads way too much data. This not only violates your privacy, but hogs internet resources to do so. If these interest you, you may also want to check out LibRedirect, a browser extension that automatically redirects you to said alternative front ends.
VPNs
Do you really need a VPN?
An infographic from IVPN’s site that details what use case a VPN is actually good for.
All entries in this section are taken from This Techlore Video
🌟 Techlore’s VPN Chart
Objective information on various popular or noteworthy VPN services.
🌟🌐 VPN Industry Company Relationships and Histories
See controversies, acquisitions, and the history of most VPN services. The history of a VPN company is extremely important. A lot of these services are essentially black boxes, so you have to trust the company of the service you’re subscribing to. NordVPN may look okay on paper, but as soon as you look at their history (let alone the histories of other VPNs owned by the same company like CyberGhost, ExpressVPN, SurfShark), you’ll find quickly that they’re suspect at best. There’s also a lot of work these companies put into hiding the information listed here.
🌟 Mullvad
Fast no bullshit VPN. I trust this VPN more than any other on the market. Priced at €5/mo (~63.24/yr)
IVPN
Another VPN I’ve heard good things about. Priced at 100/yr for pro
Proton VPN
A fine VPN, by the Proton suite team. Priced at 120/yr for premium at the time of writing Premium comes with the whole Proton suite (email, calendar, cloud storage, password manager, wallet and whaever else they come up with) They also offer a free version with less features.
RiseupVPN
Free and private VPN. It and CalyxVPN are the only free-only VPNs I trust. Unfortunately, has few locations and can be slow. Don’t use unless you need, the extra traffic makes it slow for others that need this
CalyxVPN
Another free and private VPN. It and Riseup are the only free-only VPNs I trust. Unfortunately only has 1 location and can be slow. Don’t use unless you need, the extra traffic makes it slow for others that need this