The only things I can imagine here are because they had a data breach where the attackers could see the traffic of users and aggressive advertising, which is tbh just annoying. That of course doesn’t mean they’re bad in terms of their user’s privacy.
Mullvad has been visited by the police but Mullvad couldn’t deliver them what they wanted because they don’t keep data of their users. This is proof that they truly don’t keep logs. This incident alone makes me personally prefer Mullvad over NordVPN.
NordVPN has had itself audited 3 times and their policy stood up. Not sayin you shouldn’t go mullivad, but nordvpn does appear to stand by their no logging policy. That being said, mullivad as a company seems less sketch than nordvpn. They’re both probably fine.
Any reason for not just using PrivacyGuides.org instead? I like seeing a lot of variety, but PrivacyGuides seems like the cream of the crop in my opinion.
Raivo is “source available” actually. No real way to verify if it actually running the code available either. There is also no legal way to fork it from my understanding.
For the moment I’ve settled on 2FAS as the best iOS replacement. I’ve used Tofu, but its inability to export is a dealbreaker, and the lack of updates is troubling.
I find Brave’s dependence on Chromium (and therefore Google) to be troubling. They don’t have the engineering team to keep up with Google as they continue backtracking on the “Don’t Be Evil” motto.
For the same reason, I prefer Brave Search over DuckDuckGo. DDG relies almost entirely on Bing for its results. In comparison, Brave Search has a completely independent search index and does its own web crawling.
Oh for sure. The manual down ranking of Russian search results didn’t really bother me, but the undisclosed inability to block Microsoft tracking in their browser was enough to have me avoid it going forward. Not a good look, especially when there are already better options in the space.
I’m only using Brave because it was highest rated in terms of privacy (don’t quote me, I saw it on a video by SomeOrdinaryGamers). What would you say is a better option to Brave?
So I tend to agree with the PrivacyGuides.org Team on this one. I’ll break it down slightly differently though. Brave isn’t BAD per se, but I strongly prefer not using a Chromium based browser unless it’s 100% necessary.
Most private and secure but frustrating to use:
Tor Browser
Private and secure, still frustrating for daily use:
Mullvad Browser
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Genuinely curious, why doesn’t the list suggest NordVPN? And why does it suggest Mullvad, seeing as they’re headquartered in a 14 eyes country?
Why Mullvad:
Ok, but NordVPN?
The only things I can imagine here are because they had a data breach where the attackers could see the traffic of users and aggressive advertising, which is tbh just annoying. That of course doesn’t mean they’re bad in terms of their user’s privacy.
Mullvad has been visited by the police but Mullvad couldn’t deliver them what they wanted because they don’t keep data of their users. This is proof that they truly don’t keep logs. This incident alone makes me personally prefer Mullvad over NordVPN.
NordVPN has had itself audited 3 times and their policy stood up. Not sayin you shouldn’t go mullivad, but nordvpn does appear to stand by their no logging policy. That being said, mullivad as a company seems less sketch than nordvpn. They’re both probably fine.
Iappreciate the info. And fwiw, I wasn’t being critical of your choices, @Harry_h0udini. Thanks for putting this list together.
Thanks for list I have been using the GitHub one that I’ve seen passed around :).
Any reason for not just using PrivacyGuides.org instead? I like seeing a lot of variety, but PrivacyGuides seems like the cream of the crop in my opinion.
Being 100% honest. Didn’t know it was a thing :)
Happy to have introduced you! 🙂 Hope you find it as helpful as I have.
You are welcome to join me on matrix and contribute your valuable suggestions and works.
https://matrix.to/#/!fLsBEiNFNXJQLDhyMv:matrix.org?via=matrix.org
I don’t feel like leaving the PG community at the moment, but here are a few suggestions that come to mind after reading your list.
Search: SearXNG
MacOS Firewall: Lulu
DNS: NextDNS
Email Alias: AnonAddy
2FA: 2 FAS, iOS and Android
2FA: Remove Ravio (sold to sketchy app maker MobiMe). I consider this compromised until proven otherwise.
YT Proxies: Yattee (iOS App)
File Encryption: Cryptomator (File encryption app, optimized for the cloud)
Notes: Joplin
Podcast: Podverse
Graphics: Digikam ente
MobiMe (the company that bought Raivo) seems pretty shady. They even have one of those Free VPN apps which is a clear red flag imo.
The app is Open Source but still…
Maybe Tofu could be an option. https://github.com/iKenndac/Tofu
Raivo is “source available” actually. No real way to verify if it actually running the code available either. There is also no legal way to fork it from my understanding.
For the moment I’ve settled on 2FAS as the best iOS replacement. I’ve used Tofu, but its inability to export is a dealbreaker, and the lack of updates is troubling.
Nice list! I would’ve added more alternatives but it’s better to keep it short and simple.
I haven’t looked at the whole list, but at least parts of it seem outdated.
Also according to the arkenfox Wiki you shouldn’t bother with Decentraleyes.
Bromite also hasn’t been updated in over half a year, which is bad for a browser. There is an up to date fork of it called Cromite
For my taste way to many crypto bro/blockchain products listed. Also some very controversal apps with no comment on the contoversy.
Maybe you could improve that a bit :)
These videos are pretty wack tbh.
Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t have Brave as the top alternative privacy friendly browser option.
Brave’s crypto component is easy to ignore if you never engage with it. On privacy side, it is one of the most ironclad.
I find Brave’s dependence on Chromium (and therefore Google) to be troubling. They don’t have the engineering team to keep up with Google as they continue backtracking on the “Don’t Be Evil” motto.
For the same reason, I prefer Brave Search over DuckDuckGo. DDG relies almost entirely on Bing for its results. In comparison, Brave Search has a completely independent search index and does its own web crawling.
DuckDuckGo had its own bit of controversy too.
Valid point about Brave using Chromium.
Oh for sure. The manual down ranking of Russian search results didn’t really bother me, but the undisclosed inability to block Microsoft tracking in their browser was enough to have me avoid it going forward. Not a good look, especially when there are already better options in the space.
I’m only using Brave because it was highest rated in terms of privacy (don’t quote me, I saw it on a video by SomeOrdinaryGamers). What would you say is a better option to Brave?
I’ve tried Firefox and Opera so far.
Librewolf
So I tend to agree with the PrivacyGuides.org Team on this one. I’ll break it down slightly differently though. Brave isn’t BAD per se, but I strongly prefer not using a Chromium based browser unless it’s 100% necessary.
Most private and secure but frustrating to use: Tor Browser
Private and secure, still frustrating for daily use: Mullvad Browser
Able to be private and secure, defaults aren’t perfect. Firefox + uBlock Origin
Private and secure by default, potentially slowly updates and a smaller team might impact security. LibreWolf
Chromium Based Browser with good Security and Privacy, defaults aren’t perfect: Brave
Chromium based browser with good privacy, but potentially slow updates and a smaller team. Ungoogled Chromium + uBlock Origin
👍