BEST PRIVACY TOOLS

The best tools to help you preserve your privacy online. Surf securely and communicate with privacy. No adware, no spyware, just good software.

E-mail

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  Thunderbird + Enigmail

  To receive and send encrypted e-mails that only you and the sender can read, use the Thunderbird e-mail client with the Enigmail plugin.
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  Hushmail

  Web-based, PGP-encrypted e-mail service. Not as bulletproof as Thunderbird + Enigmail.

Chat/IM

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  Pidgin + OTR

  To receive and send encrypted chat messages that only you and the sender can read, use the Pidgin IM client with the OTR plugin.

Web Browsing

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  Adblock Plus

  Sick of seeing ads everywhere? Tired of online ad companies tracking your every move? Install the Adblock Plus plugin for Firefox and get rid of the clutter.
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  Better Privacy

  This Firefox plugin keeps sites from tracking you using Flash Cookies and other "super cookies."
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  HTTPS Everywhere

  HTTPS Everywhere is a Firefox extension that encrypts your communications with a number of major websites, like Google Search, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, and most of Amazon.
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  Vidalia

  This TOR frontend keeps you anonymous on the web using military-grade techniques. For use with Firefox see: TorButton.

Hard Drive Encryption

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  TrueCrypt

  TrueCrypt encrypts some or all of your hard drive so others can't get at your data. What's more, it's free and open source.

Podcasts and Websites

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  Security Now!

  To keep up to speed on the latest threats to your privacy and how to combat them, listen to the Security Now! podcast.
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  The Access Guide to "Protecting Your Security Online"

  Written for people using phones and the net in the Middle East and North Africa. A good overview for anyone.

Worth a Look

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  Certificate Patrol

  If you're concerned that not all SSL Certification Authorities are to be trusted, this is a Firefox plugin to try. It locally caches all certificates it has seen so far, and issues a warning whenever it sees one for the first time, or when something has changed and it's not clear why. This comes with some false positives though, as some major sites use different certificates for the same domain name.