Why should I care?¶
“I have nothing to hide. Why should I care about my privacy?”
Much like the right to interracial marriage, woman's suffrage, freedom of speech, and many others, our right to privacy hasn't always been upheld. In several dictatorships, it still isn't. Generations before ours fought for our right to privacy. Privacy is a human right, inherent to all of us, that we are entitled to (without discrimination).
You shouldn't confuse privacy with secrecy. We know what happens in the bathroom, but you still close the door. That's because you want privacy, not secrecy. Everyone has something to protect. Privacy is something that makes us human.
What should I do?¶
First, you need to make a plan
Trying to protect all your data from everyone all the time is impractical, expensive, and exhausting. Maar maak je geen zorgen! Veiligheid is een proces, en door vooruit te denken kun je een plan samenstellen dat bij jou past. Security isn't just about the privacy tools you use or the software you download. Integendeel, het begint met het begrijpen van de unieke bedreigingen waarmee je wordt geconfronteerd en hoe je deze kunt beperken.
This process of identifying threats and defining countermeasures is called threat modeling, and it forms the basis of every good security and privacy plan.
Trustworthy Privacy Software Reviews¶
Privacy Guides has a dedicated community independently reviewing various privacy tools and services. Each of our recommendations comply with a strict set of criteria to ensure they provide the most value to most people, and provide the best balance of privacy, security, and convenience. As part of a non-profit public charity, Privacy Guides has strict journalistic standards and policies to ensure our recommendations are free of conflict of interest, and we do not partner with providers or affiliate programs that could sway our reviews and recommendations.
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Top 3 Private Email Providers¶
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Proton Mail
Proton Mail is an email service with a focus on privacy, encryption, security, and ease of use. They have been in operation since 2013. Proton AG is gevestigd in Genève, Zwitserland. The Proton Mail Free plan comes with 500MB of Mail storage, which you can increase up to 1GB for free.
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Mailbox.org
Mailbox.org is an email service with a focus on being secure, ad-free, and privately powered by 100% eco-friendly energy. Ze zijn sinds 2014 in bedrijf. Mailbox.org is gevestigd in Berlijn, Duitsland. Accounts start with up to 2GB storage, which can be upgraded as needed.
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Tuta
Tuta (formerly Tutanota) is an email service with a focus on security and privacy through the use of encryption. Tuta has been in operation since 2011 and is based in Hanover, Germany. Free accounts start with 1GB of storage.
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Over Privacy Guides¶
Established in 2021 due to the difficulty of finding unbiased reviewers in the VPN and privacy space, Privacy Guides is the most popular, trustworthy, non-profit website that provides information about protecting your personal data security and privacy. Our crowdsourced recommendations and reviews of privacy tools and our community dedicated to helping others set us apart from other blogs and content creators. The team behind this project has been researching privacy and security in the open-source space for over 5 years, originally with a now-defunct web resource that eventually became the Privacy Guides millions of readers trust.
Our website is free of advertisements and not affiliated with any of the listed providers.
As seen in WIRED, Tweakers.net, The New York Times, and many other publications as a reliable source for privacy and security knowledge.
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What are privacy tools?¶
We recommend a wide variety of privacy tools (a.k.a. privacy apps, privacy utilities, privacy software) spanning software and hardware that you can adopt to improve your privacy. Many of the tools we recommend are completely free to use and open-source software, while some are commercial services available for purchase. Switching from mainstream data-hungry software like Google Chrome and Windows to privacy-focused tools like Brave and Linux can go a long way towards controlling the information you share with companies and others.
Why does privacy matter?¶
In the modern age of digital data exploitation, your privacy has never been more critical, yet many believe it is already a lost cause. Dat is het niet. Your privacy is up for grabs, and you need to care about it. Privacy is about power, and it is so important that this power ends up in the right hands.
Many people get the concepts of privacy, security, and anonymity confused. Je ziet mensen verschillende producten bekritiseren als "niet privé", terwijl ze eigenlijk bedoelen dat het bijvoorbeeld geen anonimiteit biedt. Op deze website behandelen we alle drie onderwerpen, maar het is belangrijk dat je het verschil begrijpt en wanneer het om verschillende zaken gaat.
We need you! Here's how to get involved:
Het is belangrijk voor een website als Privacy Guides om altijd up-to-date te blijven. We willen dat ons publiek software-updates in de gaten houdt voor de toepassingen die op onze site staan en recent nieuws volgt over providers die we aanbevelen. Het is moeilijk om het snelle tempo van het internet bij te houden, maar we doen ons best. Als u een fout ziet, denkt dat een provider niet in de lijst zou moeten staan, merkt dat een gekwalificeerde provider ontbreekt, denkt dat een browserplugin niet langer de beste keuze is of een ander probleem ontdekt, laat het ons dan weten.