Privacy & Personal Security

Privacy-respecting metasearch engine that proxies results from Google, Bing, Brave, and Yandex without tracking or requiring JavaScript; runs on a minimal PHP footprint compared to heavier SearXNG setups.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A step-by-step Turkish walkthrough of using PGP through a browser extension. Unlike English PGP documentation it is in Turkish and hands-on; the key generation and exchange section is where the concept becomes concrete.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Turkish guide to digital security that recommends method by threat model rather than promoting products. Starting from “who are you protecting against” is what separates it from tool lists.