Privacy Freeware

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Revision as of 07:48, 18 April 2019 by Eskimo (talk | contribs) (→‎Email)

This page contains external links to free programs that will help you protect your privacy, some of the listed tools might show you advertisements or a nagging screen inviting the user to upgrade to a paid for version, they might also make it difficult for you to find the free version on their website.

Encryption

To quickly send encrypted email files or messages you can use Winrar or 7-Zip, the protection they offer is strong enough to stop even corrupt law enforcement agents, but to be sure that if your computer is ever lost or stolen no data will be recovered, you will need to use full disk encryption, file encryption alone can not protect you from temporary files and Internet browsing history leaking into your hard drive, the only way to protect is by fully encrypting your operating system.

  • Veracrypt - Free open source encryption software to fully encrypt your hard drive. Available for Windows, Linux and Mac computers, but the full disk encryption option only works in Windows, in the other operating systems Veracrypt can only be used to create virtual encrypted disks and file encryption.

Data Wiping

  • BleachBit - Internet browsing and temporary files data wiping software
  • Eraser - File and hard drive empty sectors wiper
  • Privazer - It securely wipes temporary files and hard drive free space
  • CCleaner - Program to securely erase history browsing, cookies, temporary files and other personal data stored in your hard drive.
  • DBAN - Linux live CD to wipe the whole hard drive, including the operating system, useful before selling or throwing away the computer. You need to know how to boot a live CD before using this program.

VPN Providers

Free VPN services finance their activities displaying advertisements while you surf, or with a freemium model where they convert a part of their free users into paying ones to finance the free VPN. A few other VPN services get government or private funding to help people living in oppressive regimes to bypass censorship, the funding allows them to provide a free service focused towards bypassing firewalls but keeping logs tracking the originating IP.

When choosing a VPN pick a company that will not keep any logs and is located in a jurisdiction where they have no obligation to keep them. Remember that you have no way to verify if the VPN company claims are true or not, when extreme security measures are necessary, browse the Internet with Tor instead of a VPN.

  • ProtonVPN - Company in Switzerland, no bandwidth limit, company claims they do not keep logs, not even for free users.
  • Hide.me - Company is based in Malaysia, free version only allows 2GB/month. They claim they do not keep logs.

Secure Email

Since they can´t make money with advertising, most privacy free email services charge for their services. The free privacy email services that are provided, do so with the hope that some of their free customers will upgrade to paid accounts and with that money they finance the free service.

One way to obtain an anonymous email account is to hide your computer IP using Tor to register with any free email provider but many free webmail providers ban Tor proxy IPs and they ask for a backup email account, the method will fail many times.

Note: If you use the Tor Browser any website requiring you to enable Javascript presents a serious security risk. Javascript code has been used by law enforcement agencies (or LEO="Law Enforcement Officers") to defeat the security of Tor -- LEO may even have the capability to inject Javascript into websites without the knowledge of the website administrator if they control the server.

  • Tutanota - Free German based encrypted email service that reportedly keeps no logs.
  • ProtonMail - Encrypted email service in Switzerland that does not keep logs.
  • TorBirdy - Addon for the free Thunderbird email client, Torbirdy uses the Tor proxy to access email.

Note: Hushmail is not recommended; among other things, Hushmail privacy policy states that the company keeps emails for one year.

Antivirus

Windows 10 comes with Windows Defender, a fully featured security solution that scans your computer for malware and viruses, it is enabled by default but if you install new antivirus software, Windows will disable Windows Defender and use your preferred antivirus solution instead. Most online reviews point out at the high quality of Windows Defender, the main reason why somebody might want to use a different product it is lack of trust in Microsoft products, or somebody looking for advanced control over their antivirus software. Windows Defender has few customisation options.

Firewall

Although Windows comes with a free firewall, it is very basic that allows for little configuration and does not warn you when a program installed in your computer wants to access the Internet, Windows firewall only warns you when an outside IP wants to get inside, if you were to have a trojan installed in your PC you would not be warned when it connects to the Internet sending out personal data.

Remailers and Usenet

Anonymous email messages sent using this software will be encrypted and routed across a few Mixmaster mail servers run by volunteers, the messages will be deliberately delayed to avoid timing attacks where a rogue server operator could guess who sent a message matching connection and posting times. The main problem with messages hidding the sender IP is that spam filters often flag them as spam and they could end up in the recipient spam folder.

Anonymous newsgroups messages can be posted with the same software specifying the newsgroup name and using a mail2news gateway run by one of the Mixmaster operators, it could take a couple of days for the message to show up and no binaries (pictures) can be posted using them, only text messages, because the network uses various nodes in different countries, just like tor servers do, it is not possible to trace back the sender.

  • QuickSilver - Windows client to anonymously post in Usenet groups and send anonymous email messages using Mixmaster remailer network
  • NoName Email - Web based remailer from Novo Ordo to send anonymous email messages
  • Mixmaster - Command line remailer for Linux/BSD users

Other

  • Tails - Linux distribution for anonymous communications and Internet browsing with tor proxy, it can be used as a live DVD.
  • Whonix - Very similar to Tails but it runs inside a virtual box. Whonix is for people that know what a virtual box is.
  • Tor Project - Browser to access the Internet anonymously.
  • GetI2P - Anonymous network similar to Tor that can be used for email and Internet browsing.
  • KeePass - Free open source offline password manager.

See also

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