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
Basically the authority in protecting your privacy and making your digital life more secure, in my opinion. Check in every now and then to see up to date information. This should be your first resource for privacy/security everything. Including software recommendation.
Techlore
A YouTube channel that posts super helpful recommendations and guides on all things privacy. Also hosts a weekly show called Surveillance Report (old episodes) which recaps news and important events in the quickly everchanging 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).
🌟 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, secure. E2EE, VOIP video/voice calls, voice messenges, 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 you are protected from fingerprinting and tracking. Also an educational demonstration of how easy it is to identify and track your browser.
Alternative Front Ends
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; not only violating your privacy, but hogging internet resources to do so. These alternative front ends simply deliver the content you want to see without the bullshit. 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
All entries in this section are taken from This Techlore Video
🌟 Techlore’s VPN Chart
Easy to read, objective information on various popular or noteworthy VPN services.
🌟 VPN Industry Company Relationships and Company Histories
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. A service like nord may look okay on paper, but as soon as you look at their history (let alone the histories of cyberghost, express, surfshark, and more since they’re all the same company) 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. These are actually linked to on Techlore’s VPN chart, but no one seems to notice, so i’m putting it here
Do you really need a VPN?
An infographic from IVPN’s site
🌟 Mullvad
Great, but no transparency report, no warrant canaries, no 2FA. Otherwise fast and no bullshit VPN. Priced at €5/mo (63.24/yr)
IVPN
Priced at 100/yr for pro
Proton VPN
Ran 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) Also offer a free version with less features
Windscribe
Priced at $69/yr. Also offers a free version with less features
RiseupVPN
A 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
A 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