Privacy Guides
| White shield with keyhole and checkbox on a yellow background | |
| Type of business | 501(c)(3) non-profit |
|---|---|
Type of site | Digital privacy advocacy |
| Predecessor(s) | PrivacyTools.io |
| Key people | |
| Website | privacyguides.org |
| Commercial | No |
| Launched | September 13, 2021 |
| Current status | Active |
Content license | CC BY-ND 4.0 or MIT License |
Privacy Guides (or PrivacyGuides) is a non-profit digital activism group which publishes crowdsourced educational guides and recommendations for protecting personal data on the internet.[3] The project is funded on Open Collective.
History
Privacy Guides was created as a fork of the website "PrivacyTools.io" by the remaining core maintainers in 2021.[3] PrivacyTools.io was originally created in 2015 as a response to Edward Snowden’s 2013 disclosures of global surveillance programs.[3] Though PrivacyTools.io was open source, its domain name and other resources were under the control of a single inactive maintainer, limiting the input other contributors had on the project and risking site-threatening possibilities such as the domain name expiring.[3]
Following the launch of Privacy Guides, the PrivacyTools.io website was recreated from scratch as a for-profit entity by its founder on the original domain name, separate from the Privacy Guides team and community.[4][5]
In 2023, Privacy Guides launched a multilingual version of their website in Dutch, French, and Hebrew in addition to the native English site, using Crowdin.[6][7]
Activities
Privacy Guides primarily publishes the open source website privacyguides.org. According to a 2022 interview with a volunteer team member, the information on Privacy Guides is based on community feedback sourced from their Discourse discussion forum and GitHub issue tracker.[2] The website is frequently cited as a source of reliable privacy information.[8][9][10]
Changes to recommendations by the Privacy Guides community have occasionally drawn media attention, such as when Startpage’s recommendation was removed (and subsequently restored)[11] following their acquisition by ad tech company System1,[9][12] or when Wire was delisted after ownership was transferred to a US-based holding company.[13][14]
Privacy Guides also operates a number of public internet services, including Tor relays, Searx and Invidious frontends, and online discussion platforms using Discourse and Matrix.
See also
References
- ↑ Burgess, Matt (2022-02-19). "Is Firefox OK?". Ars Technica. WIRED. Retrieved 2023-03-25.
'The main thing with Firefox is how extensible it is,' says Jonah Aragon, a system administrator who also helps run the recommendation website Privacy Guides. The site, which focuses on open source software, ranks the Firefox browsers high.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hofmans, Tijs (2022-10-15). "Op zoek naar privacyvriendelijke tools - Niek de Wilde van Privacy Guides". Tweakers (in Nederlands). Retrieved 2023-03-24.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Privacytools.io verandert naam wegens afwezigheid oprichter - update". Tweakers (in Nederlands). 2021-09-14. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
- ↑ Hofmans, Tijs (2021-09-30). "Privacytools.io is terug in oude vorm en voegt weer nieuwe diensten toe". Tweakers (in Nederlands). Retrieved 2023-03-24.
- ↑ van Miltenburg, Olaf (2022-04-05). "Privacytools.io beschuldigt PrivacyGuides van overnamepoging en stelen donaties". Tweakers (in Nederlands). Retrieved 2023-03-25.
- ↑ Hofmans, Tijs (2023-01-03). "Privacy Guides begint vertaalproces en is in Nederlands beschikbaar". Tweakers (in Nederlands). Retrieved 2023-03-24.
- ↑ "YouTube Is Spying on Kids!". Surveillance Report (Podcast). Substack. 2023-03-06. Event occurs at 41:28. "Privacy Guides, which is an online resource for privacy information, is now multilingual, so you can go and check out the languages they added..."
- ↑ Klosowski, Thorin (2022-04-22). "Simple Online Security for Social Media Accounts". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
Good, private alternatives do exist for most productivity apps, though, and while you might not always be able to choose what your employer, school, or friends use, you can pick more privacy-focused options for yourself. To find these types of apps, check out sites like Good Reports and Privacy Guides, which list privacy-focused apps in a variety of categories, notably including email providers (usually on paid plans) that aren’t run by the big tech companies.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Hofmans, Tijs (2019-11-15). "PrivacyTools beveelt Startpage niet meer aan na onduidelijkheid over investering". Tweakers (in Nederlands). Retrieved 2023-03-24.
- ↑ "Ooit online eens wat doms geplaatst? "Ga jezelf eens googlen en kijk dan wat je tegenkomt"". NPO Radio 1 (in Nederlands). 2023-03-23. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
- ↑ Hugo, Hayte (2022-01-21). "Maker van privacyvriendelijke Startpage-zoekmachine brengt browserextensie uit". Tweakers (in Nederlands). Retrieved 2023-03-24.
- ↑ Leonard, John (2020-07-03). "Privacy-focused search engine Startpage gives more details of the System1 investment". Computing. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
At the start of the year, we reviewed a number of privacy-focused search engines and reported that one of the oldest contenders, Startpage, had been struck off a list of such tools by the site privacytools.io.
- ↑ Dorfman, Ian (2019-11-20). "Wire is now owned by a US-based holding company, delisted from PrivacyTools". AlternativeTo. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
Following Wire's official announcement of the change of holding company to a United States-based business entity, as well as the fact that Wire has accepted $8 million in venture capital funding from investors including Morpheus Ventures, PrivacyTools.io has removed Wire from its list of secure software.
- ↑ Orr, Andrew (2019-11-13). "Privacytools.io Delists Startpage Over System1". The Mac Observer. Retrieved 2023-03-24.
Privacytools.io delists Startpage from its list of privacy tools and services. Startpage had been taken over by Privacy One Group, which itself is owned by System1.
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