There are growing concerns about the state of personal privacy on the internet, at the same time as large companies organisations bend their rules and incentive models to encourage ever larger data collection practices.
If you care about online privacy, it is more important than ever to be vigilant and considered in your choices, both as a consumer and a professional. On this page I’ll share a few privacy tech tools and resources that you use to enhance your privacy in the modern era.
These aren’t hardcore anonymity tools, but instead provide a stepping stone away from a world where every single action you take and word you share online is tracked, scrutinised, and sold for profit.
Privacy Tech Tools
- 1Blocker – Content and tracking blocker for Safari on iOS.
- Brave – Ad-blocking privacy focused browser based on Chrome with built in blockchain based advertising network.
- Cookiebot – Professional website cookie control tool built for the GDPR era.
- DuckDuckGo – A privacy focused alternative to Google Search.
- GPG Tools – PGP Key management suite for MacOS
- Keybase – Suite of collaboration and web of trust tools including; encrypted messenger and team chats, encrypted Git repositories for developers, PGP verified personal file sharing, and social media backed PGP key server.
- Let’s Encrypt – Free SSL certificate provider for website owners.
- Little Snitch – Advanced firewall solution for MacOS.
- Matomo – Self-hosted open source web analytics tool for website owners.
- ProtonMail – PGP Encrypted email and VPN provider.
- Signal – Cross-platform end-to-end encrypted messaging app.
- Tresorit – End-to-end encrypted cloud storage.
- Yubikey – Hardware based authentication token to protect your online accounts from hacks.
If you’d like to learn more about how privacy tech is impacting millions of people around the world as well as more specific guides for certain use cases, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a US based advocacy group, provide some interesting resources.