Last updated on December 27, 2023

In today’s digital world privacy is more important than ever. On this page you will find tools which will help improve your privacy and your control over your data.

Let’s start with the Privacy Tools website. Bookmark it and remember it. Always check that website for the latest updates on good privacy tools.

privacytools.io provides services, tools and knowledge to protect your privacy against global mass surveillance. There are alternatives to all your needs out there which will protect you.

Facebook is not your friend, it is a surveillance engine.

Richard Stallman

Facebook in particular is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented

Julian Assange

Chris Titus Tech’s Windows Utility

This is a great open source advanced utility for installing software, debloating Windows (less background resources), features and Windows Updates. It lets you do almost everything and gives you a clean, smooth and faster Windows. All you have to do is open Terminal or PowerShell as an Administrator and run the following command and then hit enter:

irm christitus.com/win | iex

At any time you can put the Terminal or PowerShell window side by side the CTT Windows Utility to see what it does in the background. The tool is open source and you can see the entire code on the github page as well.

Also, this tool is not installed on your computer. It only runs whenever you type in the above command.

Install

The first page you’ll get is where you can install software.

If you already have programs installed, you can click on the Get Installed-button and it will mark what you have. You can then choose to upgrade them, uninstall them and so on.

Tweaks

This section is recommended to run on ALL Windows PC’s.

If you have a Desktop PC, click on Desktop.
If you have a laptop PC, click on Laptop.

Then click the button Run Tweaks.

There’s also other tweaks you can do, but it is not recommended unless you know what you are doing.

The tweaks will take effect the next time you restart your computer.

Config

In the config pane you will be able to install features in Windows which is hidden, as well as other fixes if you ever experience any problems.

The tool also gives you easy access to legacy Windows panels as you can see on the right side.

Updates

The update pane gives you control over Windows updates.

It is recommended here to choose the middle pane named Security. This will keep your Windows up to date with the latest security updates and will leave out all feature updates which often comes with more bloat into windows like the AI Copilot and so on.

Microwin

MicroWin let you create your own customized Windows ISO without bloated pre-installed apps, telemetry and tracking.

Create your ISO and then use it to perform a clean install on your computer and enjoy a faster and more responsive debloated Windows.

It is recommended to run the Tweaks and set updates to security in the Chris Titus Tech Tool after installation.

You can read more about the tool and its latest features on christitus.com/one-tool-for-everything/ website, and if you like to contribute or take a deep dive into the code go and check out the Winutil Github project.

Also go check out @ChrisTitusTech‘s YouTube channel for more detailed information, updates and tips & tricks on his winutil program.

I don’t want to live in a society that does these sort of things… I do not want to live in a world where everything I do and say is recorded. That is not something I am willing to support or live under.

Edward Snowden

You can’t assume any place you go is private because the means of surveillance are becoming so affordable and so invisible.

Howard Rheingold

Browser Extensions

I’m not going to bother with recommending any Internet browser because it all comes down to what you like. Personally I’ve used Firefox, Brave, Opera and so on. I’m still switching between browser whenever they come with new features which I like.

So let’s talk about extensions as these will be essential to your privacy no matter what Internet browser you use.

uBlock Origin: Block Ads and Trackers

uBlock Origin (uBO) is a CPU and memory-efficient wide-spectrum content blocker for Chromium and Firefox. It blocks ads, trackers, coin miners, popups, annoying anti-blockers, malware sites, etc., by default using EasyList, EasyPrivacy, Peter Lowe’s Blocklist, Online Malicious URL Blocklist, and uBO filter lists. There are many other lists available to block even more.

Decentraleyes: Block Content Delivery Networks

Emulates Content Delivery Networks locally by intercepting requests and injecting it into the environment. Automatically, and no configuration required.

ClearURLs: Automatically remove tracking elements from URLs


Removes tracking from URLs automatically in the background. Lightweight and useful.

SponsorBlock: Skip Sponsor Segments in YouTube Videos Automatically

A crowdsourced extension: Users submit when a sponsor happens from the extension, and the extension automatically skips sponsors it knows about. Almost 9M skip segments in the crowdsourced database.

You can find more privacy browser extensions here: https://www.privacytools.io/privacy-browser-addons