Freedom tools is a repository of (mostly) FREE tools anyone can use to live with more freedom. Freedom from surveillance, debt and other chains made commonplace in this modern age.
You might be familiar with some of these tools, if that’s the case good for you! We hope you find something new, if so, make sure you recommend the tools or this website to your friends.
LINUX
We started with Linux because your OS is the base of your privacy journey. Microsoft as well as Apple collect huge amounts of data, and are not recommended if you seek to keep your information to yourself. Linux is an open source project thus making it a robust and secure platform anyone can use easily and for free. There are several versions of Linux, we’re just listing a few private ones that are user-friendly for newcommers.
POP-OS: A private and solid OS based on Debian. https://pop.system76.com/
UBUNTU: Another Debian distro, it does collect user information, but you can turn that off easily. https://ubuntu.com/download
TAILS OS: This is a Linux distro for absolute anonymity. It can be booted from a flash drive, and everything you do during your session will be deleted once your turn your machine off. It is very easy to use, but not for an everyday workstation probably due to its amnesic properties. https://tails.net
BROWSERS
LEARN WHAT INFORMATION YOUR BROWSER IS LEAKING.
These websites will teach you how much information your current browser is giving away about your system, fonts, location, etc.
https://coveryourtracks.eff.org/
https://browserleaks.com/
webkay.robinlinus.com
USE A BROWSER THAT RESPECTS YOUR PRIVACY.
There are hundreds of articles like this one that offer an in-depth comparison between different browsers. The purpose of this website is to give you bite sized tools, so we’re just listing the top privacy browsers that avoid telemetry, make fingerprinting less likely and are actually usable.
Clearnet:
LIBREWOLF
BRAVE BROWSER
MULLVAD BROWSER
_
Onion Sites and Clearnet:
TOR BROWSER
(read this article from the Tor Project about how Tor works)
ALTERNATIVES TO TWITTER, REDDIT, YOUTUBE
YOUTUBE
Invidious provides several instances where you can watch videos with no ads, no trackers, for free.
You can select any instance from here:
https://docs.invidious.io/instances/
VPNS
YOU NEED TO TRUST YOUR VPN PROVIDER
Your VPN provider can see all your traffic. Even if it’s encrypted you need to distrust everyone, anyone with the encryption key can unencrypt your traffic and keep logs. This is why choosing a legit VPN is very important.
Many vpn providers have been caught keeping logs. This is why it’s recommended to pay your VPN with an anonymous cryptocurrency, like Monero. Both Mullvad and IVPN accept Monero and make an anonymous account for you, no e-mail or any identifiable information.
The list is short on this subject because those are the only ones we’ve documented to accept Monero.
TOOLS FOR TOR, TAILS & RELATED
While VPNs provide PRIVACY, Tor is the only way to remain ANONYMOUS on the internet. It is important to understand how the project works. Whoever controls the exit node controls the traffic, so if you input passwords, usernames, etc. this may be observed by the exit node operators. Yet, Tor is a vital tool for online privacy and anonymity.
TAILS OS
IF you’re serious about anonymity and want to work or use an OS that is completely anonymous, consider
Tails is an amnesic OS you can plug into your computer and boot from a USB stick. You can have a persistent storage or not, but everything you do outside this storage is gone forever once you power off your machine.
HOW TO TORIFY ALL YOUR TRAFFIC
This is only recommended if you know what you’re doing. You can set up your current Linux OS to route all of your traffic through Tor. We recommend using Tails or Whonix, but it might be a useful tool if you still want to use your custom OS and route everything through Tor.
TORIFY ALL TRAFFIC: linuxconfig.org/install-tor-proxy-on-ubuntu-20-04-linux
WHONIX
Whonix is an OS that is not amnesic, so you can easily install messengers, crypto wallets, or whatever software you choose, and it works like a regular OS. You can save your work and return to it later. The beauty of Whonix is that it’s designed to make your computer look identical to all other computers using Whonix. It also routes all your traffic through Tor, making opsec mistakes less likely.
It works best in a virtual machine environment but you can also boot it from a flash drive.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR INSTALLATION HERE.
https://www.whonix.org/wiki/Download
PRIVATE MESSENGERS
SESSION: A secure, e2e encrypted messenger that uses Lokinet. https://getsession.org/
SIMPLEX: Another secure, e2e encrypted messenger. This one is interesting because it has no identifiers on your account. No account numer, no e-mail or phone number. https://simplex.chat/
XMPP: This is a decentralized, open source technology for messaging securely. It supports encryption but is not necessarily encrypted. There are hundreds of apps you can download for using xmpp like Dino or Pidgin for Linux, or Kaidan for Android. https://xmpp.org/about/technology-overview/
MISCELLANIOUS BUT NOTEWORTHY TOOLS
FILE SHARING
E-mail is not a preferred communication method for privacy seekers. It is mostly unencrypted, and there are much better tools for private and baseline encrypted communications. However here are a few of the most private E-mail providers: (Disroot is the only one that’s free, the other options may have paid plans)
ANONADDY https://addy.io/
CYBERFEAR https://cyberfear.com/
DISROOT E-MAIL
GHOSTBOX https://ghostbox.cc/
FREE KNOWLEDGE & BOOKS
PROJECT GUTEMBERG: 70,000+ FREE BOOKS. https://www.gutenberg.org/
LIBRIVOX: Free audiobooks https://librivox.org/
INTERNET ARCHIVE: Free book rentals, and waybackwhen machine is a snapshot of the internet at any given time. https://archive.org/
E-MAIL ALIASES
Aliases are revolutionary for E-mail privacy. Even though Simplelogin is a third party you need to trust and can and does provide user information when prompted by authorities, it hides your E-mail, gives you disposable e-mail addresses which are forwarded to your main inbox.
PASTEBINS
MORE TOOLS
SIMPLIFIED PRIVACY: A great website just like this one with tools for freedom and privacy. https://simplifiedprivacy.com
STRICTLY KYC-FREE CRYPTOCURRENCY EXCHANGES (CEXs)
P2P CRYPTO EXCHANGE PLATFORMS
OTHER MONERO TOOLS
Monero is the king of privacy coins. Here are some simple tools that may come in handy for using, spending, etc.
MONERICA: A list of hundreds of vendors, companies and spaces that accept Monero https://basicswapdex.com/
MONERUJO WALLET: Simple, beautiful UI Mobile wallet for Monero. https://www.monerujo.io/
FEATHER WALLET: A great, simple to use wallet for PC https://featherwallet.org/
XMRBAZAAR: A growing XMR marketplace. https://xmrbazaar.com/
MONEROMARKET: A growing XMR marketplace. https://moneromarket.io/
DISCLAIMER: This website provides information about how to use privacy tools, it is your responsibility to do so responsibly without breaking any local or federal laws in your country. Please consult your laws and regulations before utilizing any of these tools, and after doing so only use them resonsibly. This is guide is intended for educational purposes only.