Privacy & Personal Security — Useful Sites

BrowserLeaks

2026-10-18T00:00:00Z

A suite of tests, one tab each, showing what your browser leaks (IP/WebRTC, canvas and font fingerprints, JavaScript, geolocation, client hints). Cover Your Tracks gives one uniqueness score; BrowserLeaks dumps the raw output of each API separately.

https://browserleaks.com/

Digital Defense (Personal Security Checklist)

2026-10-18T00:00:00Z

A categorised personal digital-security checklist of 300+ items, each with recommended tools and settings. Rather than reviewing one tool it covers the whole set of habits, from passwords to messaging, as an open-source audit list.

https://digital-defense.io/

GnuPG

2026-10-18T00:00:00Z

The free implementation of the OpenPGP standard, a command-line tool for encrypting, signing and key management. Unlike modern alternatives such as age or minisign, it is the one embedded in email and package signing, at the cost of a more complex interface.

https://www.gnupg.org/

KVKK — Kişisel Verileri Koruma Kurumu

2026-10-18T00:00:00Z

Turkey’s data-protection authority: Law No. 6698, Board decisions, guidance and the data-breach notifications it publishes. Unlike guides to privacy tools it is the regulator itself, where you see what companies are obliged to do and which breaches were reported.

https://www.kvkk.gov.tr/

macOS Security and Privacy Guide

2026-10-18T00:00:00Z

A community guide to hardening macOS step by step: FileVault, firewall, DNS, VPN and app permissions. Unlike general privacy lists it gives detailed commands and settings for one operating system.

https://github.com/drduh/macOS-Security-and-Privacy-Guide

PRISM Break

2026-10-18T00:00:00Z

A catalogue of free, privacy-respecting alternatives to surveillance-prone services, organised by platform and category. Unlike general software-alternative sites, its only criteria are privacy and open source.

https://prism-break.org/en/all/

security.txt

2026-10-18T00:00:00Z

A form that generates the /.well-known/security.txt file (RFC 9116) telling security researchers where to report a vulnerability, plus an explanation of the standard. Fill in contact, encryption key and policy fields and download the file directly. Instead of writing the file by hand, you fill in fields and get one that follows the standard.

https://securitytxt.org/

Surveillance Self-Defense

2026-10-18T00:00:00Z

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's guide to protecting communications and devices against surveillance, from building a threat model to encrypted messaging, as step-by-step guides. Unlike tool lists it first makes you ask who you are protecting against.

https://ssd.eff.org/

WhoTracks.me

2026-10-18T00:00:00Z

Ghostery's monthly measurements of how widespread tracking is across websites and tracker companies; you can look up which trackers run on which site. Unlike an extension dashboard it is a long-running measurement archive whose raw data can be downloaded as open data.

https://www.ghostery.com/whotracksme

KeePass

2026-09-18T00:00:00Z

An open-source password manager that keeps passwords in a locally encrypted vault. Unlike Bitwarden there is no cloud — the vault file is yours and you set up sync yourself; cross-platform forks such as KeePassXC exist.

https://keepass.info/

Malwarebytes

2026-09-18T00:00:00Z

Anti-malware software that detects and removes malicious software. Compared with Windows Defender it is mostly used as a second opinion, strong at catching the adware and unwanted programs Defender misses.

https://www.malwarebytes.com/

OpenVPN

2026-09-18T00:00:00Z

A flexible, open-source VPN protocol and software built on TLS, running on almost every platform. Unlike WireGuard it wins on maturity and configurability; the trade-off is a much larger codebase and usually lower speed.

https://openvpn.net/

Tor

2026-09-18T00:00:00Z

A free network and browser that anonymises traffic across volunteer nodes. Unlike a VPN it splits trust across three separate relays rather than one provider; the price is a noticeably slower connection.

https://www.torproject.org/

uBlock Origin

2026-09-18T00:00:00Z

An efficient, lightweight ad and tracker blocker. Unlike other blockers it combines low memory use with fine-grained filter control; because of Manifest V3 the full version no longer runs in Chrome — it lives on in Firefox, with uBO Lite for Chrome.

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

Windows 10 Gizlilik Rehberi

2026-09-18T00:00:00Z

A detailed privacy guide to reducing data collection in Windows 10 step by step; the repository was archived in 2019, and Windows 10 itself left support in October 2025. Unlike one-click “privacy tools” it explains what each step does, but it is not current for Windows 11.

https://github.com/adolfintel/Windows10-Privacy

Citizen Lab Test Lists

2026-09-10T20:53:20Z

Country-by-country URL lists used to measure censorship — the sites to test for blocking. Unlike general domain lists their purpose is censorship detection: the source that measurement projects like OONI draw on to map which sites are blocked where.

https://github.com/citizenlab/test-lists

DandelionSprout Filters

2026-09-10T20:53:20Z

Hand-maintained ad/tracker filter lists for uBlock Origin and similar blockers, including a Nordic list. Unlike the default EasyList its coverage is regional and niche: it targets the local sites and special cases the main lists skip.

https://github.com/DandelionSprout/adfilt

AccountKiller

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

A directory of account removal instructions that also covers how to neutralise an account where no deletion path exists. That is the difference from JustDeleteMe: a plan B for the accounts you cannot delete.

https://www.accountkiller.com/en/home

AdBlock Tester

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

Scores how much your ad blocker actually stops, broken out by ads, trackers, social buttons and cookie notices. Unlike a simple "is it working" check it shows the gaps by category, which tells you which filter list you are missing.

https://adblock-tester.com/

Cover Your Tracks

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

The EFF’s browser fingerprinting test, measuring how unique your browser looks and how well it resists trackers. Unlike the "what is my IP" sites it computes fingerprint entropy, which is how tracking actually works now.

https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/

DeGoogle

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

A list of alternatives for each Google product, organised category by category. Unlike general alternative-finder sites it is focused on leaving one provider, working through what replaces what in order.

https://degoogle.jmoore.dev/

Have I Been Pwned

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

Checks whether an email address or password appears in known breaches. What separates it is Troy Hunt’s transparent methodology and the k-anonymity scheme for password lookups — your password never reaches the server.

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

How Secure Is My Password

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

Estimates how long a password would take to brute-force, computed in the browser so the password is never sent. Against a strength meter it gives a concrete number, which is how you feel what adding two characters does.

https://www.security.org/how-secure-is-my-password/

IPLeak

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

Shows what your connection leaks: IP, DNS servers, WebRTC local addresses, DNS leakage. Unlike sites that only show your IP, it catches what still leaks with a VPN on — WebRTC can hand over your real IP, and this is where you see it.

https://ipleak.net/

JustDeleteMe

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

A directory of direct links to account deletion pages, each graded by difficulty. Against searching yourself, that grading is the point: you see in advance which services made deletion deliberately hard.

https://backgroundchecks.org/justdeleteme/

LibRedirect

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

A browser extension that redirects YouTube, Twitter, Reddit and Instagram links to privacy-respecting frontends such as Invidious, Nitter and Redlib. Against hunting for a frontend yourself, it skips the dead instances and picks a working one.

https://libredirect.codeberg.page/

mat2

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

A tool that strips metadata from files: GPS coordinates in a photo, the author field in a PDF, the revision history in an office document. Unlike exiftool the default is removal, so you are not left reasoning about which field survived.

https://github.com/jvoisin/mat2

Mullvad VPN

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

A Swedish VPN that asks for no email at signup — it hands you a random account number and takes cash. What separates it is that anonymity plus published independent audits, and a flat price with no long-subscription discount games.

https://mullvad.net/en

Privacy Guides

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

A non-profit, volunteer-run evaluation of privacy tools against stated criteria. Unlike the "best VPN" listicles it takes no affiliate money and publishes the conditions each recommendation must meet, so the recommendation is arguable.

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/

PrivateBin

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

A pastebin the server cannot read: the text is encrypted in the browser and the key lives in the URL fragment, which is never sent. That zero-knowledge design and burn-after-reading are the break from pastebin.com.

https://privatebin.info/

Secure Messaging Apps Comparison

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

A table comparing messaging apps on encryption, metadata, openness and audit status. Unlike a blog comparison the criteria are fixed and applied to every app alike — a row-by-row check rather than a marketing claim.

https://www.securemessagingapps.com/

SimpleLogin

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

An email aliasing service: a separate address per site, forwarded to your real inbox. Unlike Apple’s hide-my-email it is open source and self-hostable, and killing an alias both stops the spam and tells you who sold your address.

https://simplelogin.io/

SimpleX Chat

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

Messaging with no notion of a user identity: no phone number, no username, not even a persistent ID. That is the break from Signal — Signal knows your number, whereas SimpleX servers never hold an identifier to correlate, so no social graph can be derived.

https://simplex.chat/

Tails

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

A live Linux distribution that runs from USB and routes everything through Tor. Unlike just using Tor Browser, the whole system is amnesic: shut it down and nothing remains on disk unless you deliberately made a persistent volume.

https://tails.net/

Tuta

2026-08-21T20:53:20Z

End-to-end encrypted email and calendar that encrypts the whole mailbox, subject lines and address book included. Against ProtonMail it insists on its own client rather than IMAP, and in exchange leaves less metadata exposed.

https://tuta.com/

Privacy.com

2026-08-17T20:53:20Z

Issues single-use virtual cards with spend limits. Killing the card is a faster exit than arguing with a merchant you cannot unsubscribe from. US only.

https://privacy.com/

Privnote

2026-07-28T08:48:10Z

A note that destroys itself after reading, with no account required. Unlike pasting into a chat it leaves no trail — practical for handing over a one-time password without leaving it in a chat log.

https://privnote.com/

5SIM

2026-07-05T21:11:44Z

Rents temporary numbers for SMS verification. Instead of giving your own number you sign up with a rented one; use carefully on accounts you intend to keep, as recovery becomes a problem.

https://5sim.net/

Silent Link

2026-07-05T21:11:19Z

An eSIM data plan requiring no identity — paid in crypto, no name or document. Unlike carriers’ eSIMs the line is not tied to your identity — an anonymous way to get data abroad.

https://silent.link/#generic_price_table

Bitwarden

2026-07-03T12:26:39Z

A password manager with open source and independent audits behind it; the free tier holds unlimited passwords. Unlike closed rivals such as 1Password it is open, and Vaultwarden lets you self-host the whole thing.

https://bitwarden.com/