Updated: August 5th, 2019

Let us preface this post by saying that it is the longest and most in-depth post we've ever done. Below you will find guides on how to do things from securing your email and encrypting your files, to securing your online storage and privatising your online messaging. We've also compiled 150+ tools and resources to help protect your privacy online. There's no need to read every guide or use every tool below. Simply click on the sections that interest you and enjoy. We also encourage you to leave a comment below with questions or comments and we'll respond as quickly as possible.

Disclaimer: We have made every attempt to pick the most independent and private tools we could find. Using the tools and projects recommended on this page does not guarantee that 100% of your communications will be shielded against surveillance states. Please do your own research before trusting any of these tools and projects with your sensitive information.

Introduction to Encryption What is encryption? ​Encryption is best defined as the most effective way to secure data. There are a few accurate and succinct definitions here and here but, “a process applied to data to keep it secure and only accessible by those with the ‘key’ or code to do so” - is arguably the most basic 101 definition.

We differentiate encrypted data and unencrypted data by calling the former “ciphertext” and the latter “plain text”. Why does encryption exist? The practical benefits of using encryption lend themselves to be incredibly helpful and effective to keeping private or “sensitive” data just that: private. Encryption is only more and more important in today’s web-based surveillance invasions on personal data conducted by agencies and organisations, like the NSA, as a way of protecting against such prying eyes.



Encryption essentially exists to allow you to pass a secret message from yourself to someone else. The important part of that process being that you wish the message to be secret -- i.e. you do not wish for third parties to be able to read your message. Without going into the thousands of reasons as to why encryption is important, this can be justified by simply using the example of how encryption allows you to use e-commerce (buying things online) without the credit card details you use being easily observed and saved by anyone/thing that is not your intended recipient of said details. How does encryption work? Whatever your initial message (the data you transmit) is, using encryption on said message will “scramble” it with a huge “digital number”. This scrambling is achieved by using high-level mathematics in a computational system. There is now different levels of encryption used all over the world.



The most common is 128-bit﻿ key encryption, which is used at the “commercial” level (i.e. it is widely used and as such has become the standard level of encryption nowadays.) Although this 128-bit key is super hard to hack and gain access through, more and more online users are choosing to increase their encryption key to 256-bit, which is of course a whole higher level of hard-to-crack encryption.



So when data is encrypted and sent to another computer, that computer will know the digital key used for the encryption and thus be able to decrypt and determine the intended original message. Why is encryption not used for all data transmission? ​Thankfully this is actually becoming “the norm” for more and more online users, who are now able to take control of using encryption to protect all the data they transmit online by using very affordable “privacy-protection” software like Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). Today, the main reason encryption is not used for all data transmission comes down to speed. When encryption is used on data there is an unavoidable loss in the speed that data is transmitted because of the mathematical computations required to both scramble the message before transmission and then unscramble it at the end of the receiving server.



Introduction To Cryptocurrency What is cryptocurrency? Cryptocurrency may sound to many like some futuristic complex form of money… and in some ways it is exactly that! However, understanding what cryptocurrency is does not require super intelligence or a degree in computer science. The best way to get across exactly what a cryptocurrency is, would be to simply watch this awesome (and short!) video from the guys over at Good Mythical Morning:



There are currently hundreds of cryptocurrencies that exist today, with BitCoin being the first established cryptocurrency created. Below are some other popular cryptocurrencies in existence today:

How does a cryptocurrency work? To define it it really basically, a cryptocurrency is a digital currency. Each “coin” of such a currency is created through a process called “mining”. It is most important to understand that this mining is how such currencies are created, rather than knowing how mining works. So for now, it is enough to understand that this mining process is how each coin is created.



This mining process is essentially the virtual equivalent of how physical “traditional” money is created. Physical currencies as we know them are created by governments and banks that print notes and produce coins that go into the world’s circulation. Whereas to create a “coin” of cryptocurrency, a user (yes anyone, even you, can create them) uses a mining program.



Such mining programs are used to solve incredibly sophisticated algorithms, with each algorithm solve producing a “block” (i.e. a “coin”) that will go into cryptocurrency circulation. The level of computational processing power required for such mining programs to solve these super complex algorithms to produce cryptocurrency coins is truly huge. The cost to build and maintain such computers to handle this level of processing power is why so few cryptocurrency produces are around today.



Why do cryptocurrencies have value? The short answer is because of three factors:

Mining (i.e. producing) cryptocurrency coins is a fair game since nobody can just produce unlimited coins without competition. The mining process is such that competing to produce coins is a level playing field.

The more coins that are mined in any cryptocurrency; the harder it is to mine for new coins. All the algorithms have been made this way in order to maintain stability across all cryptocurrencies.

The total amount of cryptocurrencies that can be produced is finite. Only 21 million coins can be produced, ever. Once these are all mined, there will be no more in circulation. Much like any finite resource on earth, there is inherent value therein.

​To get a completely-yet-simple explanation of why cryptocurrencies have value, you should understand exactly how each coin is mined. There is an ocean of resources out there that can give you fantastic breakdowns of this process, but a great place to start is this very succinct explanation from iGaming.



How to Anonymously use the Internet Keeping yourself anonymous with everything you do online is not only smart but becoming more and more fundamentally necessary as your freedom is restricted and your privacy is monitored.



There are an ocean of resources and tools around today that you can arm yourself with in order to protect your anonymity with every website you visit; message you send; file you share and media you stream. This choice is fantastic, however so much choice can definitely be paralysing -- and although there is no way to 100% protect your anonymity online, there are plenty of ways you can give yourself the best chance of this with very little effort. So we have decided to define 7 areas of your online activity that when anonymised will cover 99% of your online activity: 5 Essential Life-saving Tools for Online Anonymity

1. DNS (Domain Name Service) Encryption 2. VPN (Virtual Private Network) 3. TOR (The Onion Router) 4. Anonymous-friendly Search Engines 5. Privacy-protected IM (Instant Messaging)

1. DNS (Domain Name Service) Encryption Let’s define what a DNS is briefly: A DNS turns any website address from it’s IP form (e.g. 12.345.678) to the domain name e.g. www.example.com) in order to make websites easier to remember for us simple humans. So to keep your DNS anonymity in tact, you want to avoid all possibility of a “DNS leak” occurring. A DNS leak is when -- even if you are using a VPN or TOR -- your computer keeps communicating with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) constantly during your online activity at a point in the network that allows your ISP (or third party ‘snoopers’) to see your online activity, regardless of whether you are encrypting your connection or not.



Therefore, encrypting your DNS is paramount. You can do this by simply using OpenDNS then test that your DNS is now tight and without leaks by using a free tool like www.dnsleaktest.com.



We also list some great DNS providers in the tools section here.



2. VPN (Virtual Private Network) For a detailed description of what a VPN is, how they work and what they are used for, definitely check out our Ultimate Guide to VPNs. A simple explanation of this will be laid out now. A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a tool that allows you to create a remote virtual connection to another computer. These computers (or servers) that you connect to remotely from your own device can be located anywhere in the world.







A classic example of why a VPN is beneficial to use for anonymity is when you want to watch a specific movie on Netflix, only to find out that the location you are accessing Netflix from either does not give you any access at all, or only access to a limited library that does not include the movie you want to watch.



By using a VPN, you can change your “location” (your IP address) to be located in a country that will give you access to that movie on Netflix. Your IP address is something assigned to your computer. This IP address is what websites and online services use to determine where you are located, and thus deny or grant you access based on this. Although there are other methods to achieve this IP address change; only a VPN will give you the highest level of privacy/anonymity protection by encrypting your data while doing so.



The anonymity protection that VPNs give you really shine through when you consider how unsafe public WiFi connections that cafes and bars offer are. Use a VPN to make sure your online activity is as securely protected as it can be, regardless of where you are in the world.



We also list some great VPN tools in the according section of this guide here.



3. TOR (The Onion Router) TOR is a very smart and ingeniously simple network that protects your anonymity by running your connection through a variety of multiple different servers before reaching its intended destination server. This process serves to make your data untraceable back to you, since no entity observing any point in TOR can accurately figure out where any data has come from or is going.







The whole purpose of TOR is to offer zero traceability of any data to any user. Any user of TOR can be sure that no one can figure out which websites you are viewing or what data you are sending/receiving at any time. Similarly, TORs protect both the intended website from knowing you sent the data and any individual relays from getting your IP address or determining it through monitoring and attaching browsing habits back to your IP.



It is important to point out that using TOR does not absolutely guarantee anonymity. As much as it will improve minimising your online footprint and ‘breadcrumbs’, there are sophisticated methods that any intelligent hacker can use if they are specifically trying to monitor you. However, for the average ever-man online user that has done nothing so significantly illegal to warrant having such hackers monitoring you, then TOR is a great way to successfully stay anonymous.



To use TOR, just download the TOR browser and install then launch it. Super simple, with no “technical understanding” required. Alternatively for mobile you can use Orbweb, which is a great web browser developed for Android devices that focuses on privacy protection that is based on TOR.



4. Anonymous-friendly Search Engines It is no secret that practically every major search engine online today tracks almost 100% of searches you perform. Google, Yahoo! and Bing are all able to very easily track your searches, so if you want to use a search engine that doesn’t -- then check out DuckDuckGO, ixquick and Startpage.



DuckDuckGo

“The search engine that doesn’t track you” - is DuckDuckGo’s slogan. The main approach that this search engine takes to protect your privacy is in not using the filtering system that major search engines use to offer “personalized results”. This search engine emphasises giving quality over quantity when it comes to results.







Ixquick and Startpage

This search engine progressively improved the level their user privacy protection over the years, finally in January 2009 hitting the milestone of completely ceasing logging user IP addresses. Startpage is for the user that wants to feel the “Googleness” of a search engine with the privacy protection that ixquick gives you:







Additionally, if you really insist on sticking with Google as your preferred search engine, then you can use the little known e﻿ncr﻿ypted ﻿version of Goo﻿gle, which gives you a certain level of encryption on your search queries.



We also highlight the importance of privacy-friendly web searching in the according tools section here.



5. Privacy-protected IM (Instant Messaging) Texting, texting, texting. We all do it, we all love it, and 99% of us do not consider just how much our messages are tracked and accessible by third parties like national governments. If you want to text to your heart’s content via an Instant Messaging service that exists to protect your privacy and keep every text you send and receive anonymous through encryption, then definitely check out these:

How to Secure Your Email The general reason for encrypting email is because most, if not all popular email providers unashamedly track your emails and use algorithms to log specific keywords therein in order to show you ads that are targeted around these. Gmail is arguably the most popular email provider around today, and are a prime example of one such email provider that does this.



If you want to stick with Gmail as your email provider then definitely activate the in-built “two factor authentication”, which will require Google to send you a specific code that you’ll then need to punch in to login to your Gmail account. There are encryption standards specifically developed for email encryption, namely OpenGPG and PGP, that have subsequently spurred on email “hardware tokens” that allow you to increase the level of encryption you can place on your emails.



However we do recommend most to switch your email provider to one like Protonmail, a super secure encrypted email based in Switzerland (so not under the privacy-invasive US or UK jurisdictions) and completely free. For mobile equivalents of such secure encrypted email providers, check out K-9 Mail and iPGMail for Android and iOS respectively:





How to Secure Your Browser You can think of using a privacy-protecting add-on for your internet browser as the most straightforward and simple method to helping your anonymity, compared to using a VPN or TOR. However, the anonymity that such browser add-ons give you is minimal at best.



What such add-ons provide you with mainly is a way to stop the bombardment of ads that slow down or inhibit your online browsing, as well as adding security to your data being retained or monitored by websites you visit. Here’s a shortlist of the most effective and handy browser add-ons worth installing onto yours:





AdBlock Plus Blocks ads (funnily enough) while also stopping third-party sites from tracking your online browsing behaviour in order to serve you more relevant ads.





Disconnect.me is an add-on developed by an ex-Google engineer that monitors and blocks 2000+ websites from collecting your online data.





Ghostery is a brilliant add-on that essentially tracks all the trackers that are tracking your online behaviour, and then lets you choose which trackers to allow or block based on your own preference.



Firefox-specific add-ons worth checking out are Self-Destructing Cookies that automatically deletes all cookies gathered whenever you close the tab, and JonDoFox that improves the anonymity and security of your browsing. We recommend FireFox above Google Chrome because Chrome has become synonymous with data tracking and privacy-infringing activity. Internet Explorer is of course a redundant web browser and if you’re using this then we strongly recommend deleting it from your computer and using FireFox.



More web browser add-ons are recommended in the according tools section of this guide here.



How To Securely Communicate in 2016 It should be stated first that phone calls are not at all secure. In fact it may be the least private way of communication in 2016. It's safe to say that governments possess the technology needed to record your phone calls and they are more than willing to do so. Burner phones or disposable cell phones are certainly a possibility but information can still be collected this way.



The best way to keep your voice conversation completely private would be to use end-to-end VOIP encryption. VoIP, which stands for Voice over Internet Protocol, allows you to talk and usually make video calls and instant messages over the internet. Skype is a great example of a VoIP service. Unfortunately it is now owned by Microsoft and they have simply turned over access to skype calls so your skype data is not secure.



Thanks to Edward Snowden we now know this is certain. So, to have a truly private conversation you would need end-to-end encryption. Below in the tools section you can find some good skype alternatives. A lot of what we just discussed in the previous section on VoIP applies here as well as many VoIP services also have a chat or IM functionality built in. With that said we've listed a lot of great, dedicated IM tools below:



A Guide to Cloud Storage Security Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of cloud storage. In fact you're probably already using cloud storage in some form or another. iCloud, Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, Amazon Web Services, and countless others. The problem with these services is that they work directly with the NSA and many of their Terms of Service specify that they have the right to look into your files and turn them over to an authority.



There are many approaches you can take to ensure that your files are secure, like manually encrypting your files before uploading them to the cloud (doing this is the simplest and most secure method.) By doing this you can continue using proprietary cloud service as long as you're the only one who holds the encryption key.



However, there are a growing amount of cloud storage options becoming available that focus on giving you the highest level of encryption and data privacy protection possible as standard. These cloud storage services are flying the flag of internet freedom proudly, and we definitely recommend giving them a try.



Rather than bombarding you with the myriad of (very legitimate) reasons to why you should be using a cloud storage service that actually protects your file privacy rather than openly giving it up to the powers that be -- we will simply list a few of the absolute best file storage services around today, so you can check them out yourself:

In addition we have also listed some fantastic secure cloud storage services that do not charge a penny. Check these out in the according tools section below by clicking ﻿here! Guide To Antivirus, Malware & Firewall Software What is antivirus software? Antivirus software is a sophisticated piece of computing software that includes multiple programs that prevent, protect and repair viruses found on a device in an effective and efficient manner.



Exactly what antivirus software does can be defined in essentially two ways:



Prevents, quarantines and/or repairs pre-existing viruses on a device, by way of routinely checking an entire device’s system against a “dictionary” of known viruses to determine any such occurrences.

Monitors the “behaviour” of software and system processes on a device and flags then resolves any instances of “suspicious behaviour”, again by referencing such behavioural occurrences against a “dictionary” of such.

Why Doesn’t Everyone Use Antivirus Software? As important and beneficial antivirus software is for any device, such software does not come without flaws and cons. Overall, no antivirus software is 100% effective in doing its job. We do want to stress that ultimately the benefits of antivirus software definitely outway the negatives.



With that said, it is worth laying out the most common negatives with antivirus software, as these explain why every user does not choose to use such protective software on their device: Negatives of Antivirus Software

Processing power required The biggest negative of antivirus software is in the large amount of computing power required to run a “scan” (i.e. check your entire computer system for viruses). When a user runs such a check, they are basically unable to perform any other task on their computer until the check is completed -- unless using a computer that has serious processing power, which most consumer devices do not possess.

Downloading issues When a user downloads any file from the internet and is running antivirus software on the system, the software may incorrectly flag a file you know is safe as “unsafe”, which then requires disabling the antivirus software just to successfully download and use such a file. This can be unnecessarily time-consuming and annoying for some.

Program safety confusion When running some software, your antivirus software may incorrectly flag that software as dangerous or suspicious, causing it to stop running or run incorrectly. This happens due to the antivirus software seeing “behavioural patterns” in the software that match “suspicious behaviour” in their built-in dictionary.

Although most use antivirus software to ideally prevent viruses on their device, the software ends up acting as a cleanup tool that discovers new viruses that already get into the system.

What is Malware? “Malicious Software”, shortened to “Malware”, is an all-encompassing term that refers to computational spyware, viruses, worm and Trojan. You can essentially define malware as being something that is in your device that is 100% designed to damage that system or the network it is connected to. Why does Malware exist? The short answer is: MONEY.



For those of us that would never dream of damaging a computer system, or whom can’t even understand why someone would want to -- hopefully this will explain why malware exists.



For all the different forms that malware can take, the purpose of it ultimately comes down to two conclusions:



1. Advertisement.

Yup, most malware is installed onto a device for the purpose of making money through advertising. Such malware is usually found masquerading as a random offer popping up to a user online while browsing, offering “software to increase the speed of your computer” and the like. If you are naive enough to download such a scam, you quickly discover that the “software” is in fact useless and only bombards your system with ads from which the malware creator makes money.



2. To make your computer a brain-dead “zombie”.

This is malware that, once unwillingly installed on your device, will take control and command it to perform such things like contributing to a DDoS attack or steal all your info contained in the device. Such info-stealing malware will also do this for money in the end by selling your information to third parties.



What is a Firewall? A firewall is a system that is created to prevent unauthorised network access, from either end. Firewalls exist on both hardware and software. Almost every device nowadays has some level of firewall installed as standard.



The main shapes that software firewalls take today are either as packet filters, gateways and proxy servers.



Why do Firewalls exist? Firewalls are predominantly used as a way to moderate networks on the internet (i.e. intranets) by checking every data packet that is sent through such networks to make sure every packet adheres to pre-specified security points. Using a firewall essentials prevents users or bots from accessing data inside a network that they are not authorised to.



Firewalls keep networks accessible to only users that are officially allowed access. Thus, using a firewall puts up a “wall” around your network, protecting the privacy and security of data within that wall.



Additional Security Tricks & Tips In addition to the -- what we believe to be essential -- online privacy and anonymity protection tools and software we have recommended through this comprehensive guide, we also want to conclude this section with some very sensible and “every day” additional security tricks and tips for you to take into consideration with your device and internet usage.



Password Advice It goes without saying that you should always use a completely unique password with every personal account you access from your devices. The main reason that most online users stick with either a simple to remember password or the same more complicated password across all accounts is because of our simple human brains. We simply cannot remember a highly complex password, let alone a different highly complex one for every personal account we access online. The paradox with the ideal password is that it should be so complex that you are unable to remember it.



So how do you remember it? This is why we strongly recommend using a password manager to take care of this for you.



Password managers work in such a way that you only need to remember one password (to access the manager) and all your passwords therein (which you should make so difficult that even you cannot remember them) will be accessible; giving you access to your personal accounts automatically. Here are the top password managers that we recommend giving a try: