Why we list these products

How something gets on the list

Most "best privacy tool" lists are ranked by who paid the most per click. That's why they're long, contradictory, and full of VPNs you've never heard of. Ours is short because the bar is specific. A tool has to clear all five:

1. Open source, or independently audited. Someone outside the company has looked at the code or the claims. "Trust us" is not a security model.
2. Encrypted so the company can't read your data. If a subpoena or a breach can expose your content, the tool isn't protecting you from the thing most likely to happen.
3. An honest business model. You pay money, or a nonprofit or foundation funds it. If the product is free and the company is large, ask what's being sold.
4. Usable by a normal person. Security you abandon after a week is worse than none, because you think you're covered.
5. A track record. Years of operation, published incident reports, and honesty when things went wrong.

What we won't do

• Take affiliate commission, referral codes, or sponsorship.
• Accept free hardware or accounts in exchange for coverage.
• Rank by payment, or list a dozen options so there's something for every advertiser.
• Recommend a specific data deletion service — that market changes monthly and runs almost entirely on affiliate payouts. We tell you how to judge one instead.
• Claim any tool makes you anonymous. Nothing on the list does that by itself.

We could still be wrong

These are judgement calls, not test results. Companies change hands, audits go stale, and a good tool can quietly become a bad one. Cross-check anything important against EFF Surveillance Self-Defense and Privacy Guides — both are independent, and both will tell you when we're out of date.

Absence from the list isn't an accusation. There are good tools we simply haven't used enough to vouch for.