Even on Gnome, a single dbus call allows applications outside of
sandboxes to overwrite their permissions in the portal permission
store. A sandbox that is supported by portals for identifying apps is
also required: otherwise, a malicious app could trivially spoof a name
on the bus. Currently, only Flatpak and Snap are subclasses of the
XdpAppInfo class, required for xdg-desktop-portal to be able to
identify a client.
Privileged Wayland protocols are also not an issue. KDE's kwin requires
that applications have an entry in a system-installed desktop file[1],
meaning that random crap can't simply capture the screen, and Flatpak
supports the security-context-v1 protocol, which is used to filter
access to these privileged protocols[2].
An example of the dbus call for Gnome:
dbus-send --session --print-reply=literal --dest=org.freedesktop.impl.portal.PermissionStore /org/freedesktop/impl/portal/PermissionStore org.freedesktop.impl.portal.PermissionStore.SetPermission string:'screenshot' boolean:true string:'screenshot' string:'' array:string:'yes'
[1] https://github.com/KDE/kwin/blob/master/src/wayland_server.cpp#L129-L134
[2] https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/commit/f0e626a4b60439f211f06d35df74b675a9ef42f4
Signed-off-by: redoomed1 <redoomed1@privacyguides.org>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Nathan Gray <dngray@privacyguides.org>
- Replace Proton Drive link to link with highlight to eliminate confusion
- Add direct link to Proton Calendar Android letter of attestation
Signed-off-by: fria <fria@privacyguides.org>
Signed-off-by: Mare Polaris <ph00lt0@privacyguides.org>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Gray <dngray@privacyguides.org>
Changed the env var to use double quotes around the value and single
quotes in the HTML attributes to avoid issues caused by words containing
apostrophes within the text.
- Grammar, Style, and Wording Changes
- Remove commas where pauses or breaks in reading may not be needed
- Reduce instances of comma splices by replacing commas with
semicolons or em dashes where appropriate
- Spell out abbreviations like E2EE for the first instance of the term
on the page, then use the abbreviation for the subsequent instances
- Add line breaks in card descriptions for a cleaner look,
particularly for mentions of an accompanying blog review of a tool
- Move more technical information from recommendation blurb to the
description under the card
- Format quotations from audits as block quotes
- Standardize syntax for tooltips
- Arrange download links according to the widely used order
- Mobile app stores > alternative distribution methods (e.g.,
GitHub) > developer-owned or -operated F-Droid repositories >>
desktop platforms > Flathub >> browsers >> web
- Shorten Chrome extension links
- Standardize icon for web download links
- For "Repository" buttons, embed direct links to project's Readme to
differentiate them from "Source Code" links
- Other Changes
- Add GitHub releases link for IVPN
- Mention CryptPad's official public instance and add link to list of
public instances
- Replace current link to Miniflux docs with a direct link to the end
user docs
- Update version of Newsboat documentation link
- Update and reword guidance on finding YouTube channel code for RSS feed
- Remove F-Droid download link for Stingle since it is not owned by
the developer or dev team
Signed-off-by: Jonah Aragon <jonah@privacyguides.org>
Signed-off-by: fria <fria@privacyguides.org>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Gray <dngray@privacyguides.org>
- Replace all instances of "Apple ID" with "Apple Account"
- Update Wi-Fi section to reflect new MAC randomization setting
- Note Bluetooth behavior after system updates
- Update name of AirPlay setting
- Add more switches in Analytics & Improvements section
- Remove Privacy Report section
- Remove part of Safari description which mentions ability to lock private tabs
Co-authored-by: fria <138676274+friadev@users.noreply.github.com>
Signed-off-byy: fria <138676274+friadev@users.noreply.github.com>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Gray <dngray@privacyguides.org>
- Update privacy.com paid plan description and restylize Coincards
- Remove mention of Cake Wallet beta version, replace defunct link with
archive link, and mention platform availability for Monero.com
Signed-off-by: Jonah Aragon <jonah@triplebit.net>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Gray <dngray@privacyguides.org>
- Fix bold of consistency of some items
- Proton card already mentions service is in Switzerland
- Tidy up 1Password description
- Change the icons for Proton Pass's and 1Password's web app links so that they're consistent with the icons for other web app links
- Update Psono's description to mention its limited passkey support
- Grammar fixes
Signed-off-by: Daniel Gray <dngray@privacyguides.org>
- Added Proton Calendar Android app, web client have been audited
- Replaced drive description link to general audit page
Signed-off-by: Daniel Gray <dngray@privacyguides.org>
fix: hanging footnote orbot card
fix: external Tor Browser link to internal one
Signed-off-by: Jonah Aragon <jonah@triplebit.net>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Gray <dngray@privacyguides.org>
It seems like both distributions in the current 'immutable distributions' category are moving beyond the immutable branding.
Fedora:
> Thirdly, this nice branding term is also a more accurate way of talking about how rpm-ostree works. Fedora Atomic spins are not actually immutable. There are ways to get around the read-only aspects of the implementation even though it is much harder. The nature of the OS, where updates are only implemented when they successfully build and you can rollback or rebase between core host systems, is better described by atomicity than immutability. Atomic is also how many of the contributors who work on rpm-ostree prefer to talk about it! Rebranding provides an opportunity to change the language surrounding this technology.
Nix:
> NixOS also provides atomic updates;
(Directly from Privacy Guides)
It's a minor change, but I feel it'd be helpful for the community to be utilizing consistent terminology for different technologies being utilized.
Co-authored-by: Jonah Aragon <jonah@privacyguides.org>
Signed-off-by: Daniel Gray <dngray@privacyguides.org>
**We pledge** to make our community a harassment-free experience for everyone.
**We strive** to create a positive environment, using welcoming and inclusive language, and being respectful of the viewpoints of others.
**We do not allow** inappropriate or otherwise unacceptable behavior, such as sexualized language, trolling and insulting comments, or otherwise promoting intolerance or harassment.
## Community Standards
What we expect from members of our communities:
1.**Do not spread misinformation**
We are creating an evidence-based educational community around information privacy and security, not an information home for conspiracy theories. For example, when making a claim that a certain piece of software is malicious or that certain telemetry data is privacy invasive, explain in detail what is collected and how it collected. Claims of this nature must be backed by technical evidence.
2.**Do not abuse our willingness to help**
Our community members are not free tech support. We are happy to help with specific steps for your privacy journey, if you are willing to put in effort. We are not obligated to answer endless, repetitive questions about general computer problems solvable with a simple internet search. **Do not** become a [help vampire](https://slash7.com/2006/12/22/vampires).
3.**Behave in a positive and constructive manner**
Examples of behavior that contributes to a positive environment for our community include:
- Being respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints, and experiences.
- Demonstrating empathy and kindness toward others.
- Focusing on what is best not just for us as overseers, but for the overall community.
- Giving and gracefully accepting constructive feedback within our community while growing and improving.
- Operating with a communal mindset at all times.
## Unacceptable Behavior
The following behaviors are considered harassment and are unacceptable within our community:
- Any other conduct which would reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting.
- Public and/or private harassment of any kind.
- Publishing others' private information, such as a physical address and/or an email address, without their explicit permission.
- The use of sexualized language or imagery, and sexual attention or advances of any kind.
- Trolling, insulting and/or derogatory comments, including personal or political attacks.
## Scope
Our Code of Conduct applies within all project spaces, as well as when an individual is representing the Privacy Guides project in other communities.
We are responsible for clarifying the standards of our community and have the right to remove or alter the comments of those participating within our community, as necessary and at our discretion.
## Contact
If you observe a problem on a platform like Matrix or Reddit, please contact our moderators on that platform via chat, direct message, or any designated "Modmail" system.
If you have a problem elsewhere, or a problem that our community moderators are unable to resolve, reach out to `jonah@privacyguides.org` and/or `dngray@privacyguides.org`.
All community leaders are obligated to respect the privacy and security of reporters for all incidents.
**Privacy Guides** is a socially motivated website that provides information for protecting your data security and privacy. We are a non-profit collective operated entirely by volunteer team members and contributors.
**Privacy Guides** is a socially motivated website that provides information for protecting your data security and privacy. Our mission is to inform the public about the value of digital privacy, and global government initiatives which aim to monitor your online activity. We are a non-profit collective operated entirely by volunteer team members and contributors. Our website is free of advertisements and not affiliated with any of the listed providers.
Our current list of team members can be found [here](https://github.com/orgs/privacyguides/people). Additionally, [many people](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/graphs/contributors) have made contributions to the project, and you can too!
The current list of team members can be found on [the executive committee page](https://www.privacyguides.org/en/about/#executive-committee). Additionally, many people have made contributions to the project, and you can too!
*Featured on: [Tweakers](https://tweakers.net/reviews/10568/op-zoek-naar-privacyvriendelijke-tools-niek-de-wilde-van-privacy-guides.html), [The New York Times](https://nytimes.com/wirecutter/guides/online-security-social-media-privacy), [Wired](https://wired.com/story/firefox-mozilla-2022), and [Fast Company](https://www.fastcompany.com/91167564/mozilla-wants-you-to-love-firefox-again).*
## Contributing
- 💬 [Start a discussion or suggest an idea](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/discussions)
[](https://codespaces.new/privacyguides/privacyguides.org?devcontainer_path=.devcontainer%2Fdevcontainer.json)
- 💬 [Start a discussion or suggest an idea](https://discuss.privacyguides.net)
- 💖 [Sponsor the project](https://github.com/sponsors/privacyguides)
- 🈴 [Help translate the site](https://crwd.in/privacyguides) [[Matrix chat](https://matrix.to/#/#pg-i18n:aragon.sh)]
- 🈴 [Help translate the site](https://crowdin.com/project/privacyguides) [[Matrix chat](https://matrix.to/#/#pg-i18n:aragon.sh)]
- 📝 Edit the site, everything's accessible in this repo
- Browse our [open issues](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/issues) to see what needs to be updated
- View some contribution tips on our [contributor's wiki](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/wiki)
- Browse our [open issues](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/issues) to see what needs to be updated
- View the list of [approved topics waiting for a PR](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/tag/approved)
- Read some writing tips in our [style guide](https://www.privacyguides.org/en/meta/writing-style)
### Blog
### Alternative Networks
We aspire to publish the best articles about privacy on the net. From hot-takes to long-form essays, we are looking for stylish and well-written pieces.
> [!NOTE]
> Most hidden service providers are not very extensively used or tested, [which is why we strongly recommend Tor](https://www.privacyguides.org/en/tor/). Using other networks could be more likely to endanger your anonymity, so make sure you know what you're doing.
This not a place for sponsored content or SEO-obsessed posts. Please do **not** pitch us this, as we don't take kindly to it and your email will be blocked. *Caveat scriptor.*
Privacy Guides content is licensed under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License](/LICENSE), and the underlying source code used to format and display that content on [www.privacyguides.org](https://www.privacyguides.org) is licensed under the [MIT License](/LICENSE-CODE).
Generally speaking, **content** can be found in the [`/docs`](/docs), [`/theme/assets/img`](/theme/assets/img) and [`/includes`](/includes) folders; and **source code** and configuration files can be found in the [`/config`](/config) and [`/theme`](/theme) folders, and in the root of this repository. Any source code snippets contained within documentation files are [MIT Licensed](/LICENSE-CODE). Please contact us if you require clarification on any of these terms.
These licenses do not apply to any work where another license is otherwise noted.
**Logos** in the [`/theme/assets/img`](/theme/assets/img) folder may not be original works of Privacy Guides and therefore cannot be (re)licensed by us. We believe that these logos obtained from third-party providers are either in the public domain or **fair use**. In a nutshell, legal [fair use doctrine](https://copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html) allows the use of copyrighted images in order to identify the subject for purposes of public comment. However, these logos and other images may still be subject to trademark laws in one or more jurisdictions. Before using this content, please ensure that it is used to identify the entity or organization that owns the trademark and that you have the right to use it under the laws which apply in the circumstances of your intended use. *When copying content from this website, you are solely responsible for ensuring that you do not infringe someone else's trademark or copyright.*
You may comply with our license terms in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests Privacy Guides endorses you or your use. You **may not** use the Privacy Guides branding in your own project without express approval from this project. Privacy Guides's brand trademarks include the "Privacy Guides" wordmark and shield logo.
When you contribute to this repository you are doing so under the above licenses, and you are granting Privacy Guides a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, irrevocable license with the right to sublicense such rights through multiple tiers of sublicensees, to reproduce, modify, display, perform and distribute your contribution as part of our project.
## Developing
The only supported method of building and previewing this website locally is by running the automatic dev container. The easiest way to do this in your web browser without installing any software is to use [GitHub Codespaces](https://codespaces.new/privacyguides/privacyguides.org). To build the website locally, you will need the following software:
You can technically use any IDE which supports [development containers](https://containers.dev/), but YMMV. Docker Desktop has an experimental Dev Environments option which allows you to use any text editor under Settings > Features in development. We are only testing with the combination of software above.
Committing to this repository requires [signing your commits](https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/managing-commit-signature-verification/signing-commits) (`git config commit.gpgsign true`) unless you are making edits via the GitHub.com text editor interface. As of August 2022 the preferred signing method is [SSH commit signatures](https://docs.github.com/en/authentication/managing-commit-signature-verification/about-commit-signature-verification#ssh-commit-signature-verification), but GPG signing is also acceptable. You should add your signing key to your GitHub profile.
This website uses [`mkdocs-material-insiders`](https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/insiders/) which offers additional functionality over the open-source `mkdocs-material` project. For obvious reasons we cannot distribute access to the insiders repository. You can install the website locally with the open-source version of `mkdocs-material`:
- The site will be available at `http://localhost:8000`
- You can build the site locally with `mkdocs build`
- Your local version of the site may be missing functionality, which is expected. If you are submitting a PR, please ensure the automatic preview generated for your PR looks correct, as that site will be built with the production insiders build.
**Team members** should clone the repository with `mkdocs-material-insiders` directly. This method is identical to production:
1. Clone this repository and submodules: `git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org.git`
2. Enable SSH commit verification with our local [`.allowed_signers`](/.allowed_signers) file: `git config gpg.ssh.allowedSignersFile .allowed_signers`
3. Install Python **3.10**
4. Install **pipenv**: `pip install pipenv`
5. Install dependencies: `pipenv install --dev` (install [Pillow and CairoSVG](https://squidfunk.github.io/mkdocs-material/setup/setting-up-social-cards/#dependencies) as well to generate social cards)
6. Serve the site locally: `pipenv run mkdocs serve --config-file mkdocs.production.yml` (set `CARDS=true` to generate social cards)
- The site will be available at `http://localhost:8000`
- You can build the site locally with `pipenv run mkdocs build`
- This version of the site should be identical to the live, production version
If you commit to `main` with commits signed with your SSH key, you should add your SSH key to [`.allowed_signers`](/.allowed_signers) in this repo.
## Releasing
1. Create a new tag: `git tag -s v2.X.X -m 'Some message'`
- Tag [numbering](https://semver.org/): Increment the MINOR (2nd) number when making significant changes (adding/deleting pages, etc.), increment the PATCH (3rd) number when making minor changes (typos, bug fixes). Probably leave the MAJOR number at 2 until a massive revamp (v1 -> v2 was the Jekyll to MkDocs transition).
-Consider enabling GPG tag signing by default (`git config tag.gpgSign true`) to avoid missing signatures
It is required to create a GitHub release to publish the current site to privacyguides.org. The current `main` branch can be previewed at [https://main.staging.privacyguides.dev](https://main.staging.privacyguides.dev) prior to release.
1. Create a new tag: `git tag -s YYYY.MM.DD -m 'Some message'`
-Tag numbering: `YYYY.MM.DD` - if two+ releases are published on the same day, append short commit to the next release, e.g. `YYYY.MM.DD-6aa14e8`
- Enable GPG tag signing by default (`git config tag.gpgSign true`) to avoid missing signatures
2. Push the tag to GitHub: `git push --tags`
3. A GitHub Release will be automatically created and deployed to the live site.
- You may wish to manually check or edit the release changelog/title after it is published for accuracy.
description: Privacy Guides is a socially motivated website that provides information for protecting your data security and privacy.
breadcrumbs: false
cascade:
type: docs
aliases:
- /about/contributors
- /en/about
- /en/about/contributors
---

{ .pg:image:right }
**Privacy Guides** is a socially motivated website that provides information for protecting your data security and privacy. We are a non-profit project with a mission to inform the public about the value of digital privacy, and about global government initiatives which aim to monitor your online activity. Our website is free of advertisements and not affiliated with any of the listed providers.
[Become a Member](https://donate.magicgrants.org/privacyguides)
Privacy Guides is built by volunteers and staff members around the world. All changes to our recommendations and resources are reviewed by at least two [trusted](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/u?group=team&order=solutions&period=all) individuals, and we work diligently to ensure our content is updated as quickly as possible to adapt to the ever-changing cybersecurity threat landscape.
In addition to our core team, many other people have made contributions to the project. You can too! We're open source on GitHub, and accepting translation suggestions on [Crowdin](https://crowdin.com/project/privacyguides).
## Contact Us
[Join the Privacy Guides forum](https://discuss.privacyguides.net)
{ .pg:buttons }
The best way to get individual help is from our community on Discourse. If you notice an issue with our website, please open a discussion in the [Site Development](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/c/site-development/7) category on our forum. If you have a question about anything we cover, please ask it in the [Questions](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/c/privacy/questions/8) category on our forum.

{ .pg:image:right }
Have a tip for us, or need to share some sensitive information? The best way to get in touch with us securely is via `@privacyguides.01` on Signal. This group account is monitored by [Jonah](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/u/jonah), [Niek](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/u/niek-de-wilde), [Em](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/u/em), and [Jordan](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/u/jordan).
[Chat on Signal](https://signal.me/#eu/zg9xcrIv5w-EtXt2FmTJgfWv01LmyTed8rpr7RDv35Mizq8ISZ9NJLmYtzsxI0Z4)
{ .pg:buttons }
You may also email the entire team at <team@privacyguides.org>. This is a shared inbox that could be read by any [team member](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/u?group=team&order=solutions&period=all), so please consider what sensitive information you share via email accordingly.
We will do our best to respond to all queries within 3 business days, but please understand we are unable to provide individualized advice to everyone who asks. If you have a question about privacy, you will receive a much more detailed and timely response from the Privacy Guides community by [asking on our forum](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/c/privacy/questions/8).
You can also use OpenPGP to contact us via email, if you feel comfortable with your client's security settings. You can discover the PGP keys of our team members using WKD if your client supports it. If it doesn't, or you don't know what that means, you can also find the public key for any Privacy Guides email account by searching on [keys.openpgp.org](https://keys.openpgp.org). We do not have PGP for the shared team inbox, only individual mailboxes which can be found in our team directory below.
If you need an alternative secure channel, please request one via any contact method including social media, and we will work with you to establish one. Please do not share any sensitive information with us before we have established an appropriately secure discussion channel.
## Executive Committee
The project executive committee consists of five volunteers charged with management of the [MAGIC Privacy Guides Fund](https://magicgrants.org/funds/privacy_guides), making most critical project-related decisions.
Our staff are paid to contribute to supplemental content at Privacy Guides, like [video production](https://www.youtube.com/@privacyguides), [news articles and tutorials](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles), and our discussion communities and social media. Most are available and paid on a full-time basis to assist the organization.
We have a general policy of avoiding links to centralized social media profiles and other websites outside our control. This means that in places like our website footer and other areas, we only link to platforms we fully control, such as our Mastodon and PeerTube accounts or Matrix channels.
However, Privacy Guides *does* have social media accounts on a wide variety of platforms, in the hope of reaching new users who aren't yet familiar with our content. We try to make this a "one-way street" where those accounts link to privacyguides.org, and not the other way around. However, this creates some confusion about which accounts are actually run by the Privacy Guides team. For reference, we will list all of our accounts here:
To reiterate, this is not an endorsement of any platform, and we generally discourage following us on most social media platforms.
## In The Media
> To find [privacy-focused alternative] 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.
— [New York Times](https://nytimes.com/wirecutter/guides/online-security-social-media-privacy)
> If you're looking for a new VPN, you can go to the discount code of just about any podcast. If you are looking for a **good** VPN, you need professional help. The same goes for email clients, browsers, operating systems and password managers. How do you know which of these is the best, most privacy-friendly option? For that there is **Privacy Guides**, a platform on which a number of volunteers search day in, day out for the best privacy-friendly tools to use on the internet.
— [Tweakers.net](https://tweakers.net/reviews/10568/op-zoek-naar-privacyvriendelijke-tools-niek-de-wilde-van-privacy-guides.html) [Translated from Dutch]
Also featured on: [Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/02/is-firefox-ok), [Wirecutter](https://nytimes.com/wirecutter/guides/practical-guide-to-securing-windows-pc) [[2](https://nytimes.com/wirecutter/guides/practical-guide-to-securing-your-mac)], [NPO Radio 1](https://nporadio1.nl/nieuws/binnenland/8eaff3a2-8b29-4f63-9b74-36d2b28b1fe1/ooit-online-eens-wat-doms-geplaatst-ga-jezelf-eens-googlen-en-kijk-dan-wat-je-tegenkomt), [Wired](https://wired.com/story/firefox-mozilla-2022), [Fast Company](https://fastcompany.com/91167564/mozilla-wants-you-to-love-firefox-again) and [404 Media](https://404media.co/privacy-service-optery-faces-backlash-after-plan-to-send-openai-user-data).
## History
Privacy Guides was launched in September 2021 as a continuation of the [defunct](privacytools/index.md) "PrivacyTools" open-source educational project. We recognized the importance of independent, criteria-focused product recommendations and general knowledge in the privacy space, which is why we needed to preserve the work that had been created by so many contributors since 2015 and make sure that information had a stable home on the web indefinitely.
In 2022, we completed the transition of our main website framework from Jekyll to MkDocs, using the `mkdocs-material` documentation software. This change made open-source contributions to our site significantly easier for outsiders, because instead of needing to know complicated syntax to write posts effectively, contributing is now as easy as writing a standard Markdown document.
We additionally launched our new discussion forum at [discuss.privacyguides.net](https://discuss.privacyguides.net) as a community platform to share ideas and ask questions about our mission. This augments our existing community on Matrix, and replaced our previous GitHub Discussions platform, decreasing our reliance on proprietary discussion platforms.
In 2023, we launched international translations of our website in [French](https://www.privacyguides.org/fr), [Hebrew](https://www.privacyguides.org/he), [Dutch](https://www.privacyguides.org/nl), and more languages, made possible by our excellent translation team on [Crowdin](https://crowdin.com/project/privacyguides).
In 2024, we successfully fundraised to hire several full-time staff members, Em, Jordan, and Kevin; to help with content creation, community management, and video production. This has allowed us to expand our reach and provide more frequent updates to our audience.
In 2025, we launched our [newsroom](https://www.privacyguides.org/news), providing timely articles on the latest developments in privacy and security. We also hired Nate as a Digital Content Producer to bring more consistency to our educational video content.
We plan to continue carrying forward our mission of outreach and education, and finding ways to more clearly highlight the dangers of a lack of privacy awareness in the modern digital age, and the prevalence and harms of security breaches across the technology industry.
## Site License
> [!IMPORTANT]
>
> The following is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the [license](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/blob/main/README.md#license).
Unless otherwise noted, the original content on this website is made available under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/blob/main/LICENSE). This means that you are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format for any purpose, even commercially; as long as you give appropriate credit to `Privacy Guides (www.privacyguides.org)` and share your work under the same license.
You may comply with these terms in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests Privacy Guides endorses you or your use.
description: A list of general priorities we consider for all submissions to Privacy Guides.
aliases:
- /en/about/criteria
---
Below are some general priorities we consider for all submissions to Privacy Guides. Each category will have additional requirements for inclusion.
- **Security**: Tools should follow security best practices wherever applicable.
- **Source Availability**: Open-source projects are generally preferred over equivalent proprietary alternatives.
- **Cross-Platform Availability**: We typically prefer recommendations to be cross-platform to avoid vendor lock-in.
- **Active Development**: The tools that we recommend should be actively developed. Unmaintained projects will be removed in most cases.
- **Usability**: Tools should be accessible to most computer users. An overly technical background should not be required.
- **Documentation**: Tools should have clear and extensive documentation for use.
## Financial Disclosure
We do not make money from recommending certain products, we do not use affiliate links, and we do not provide special consideration to project donors.
## Developer Self-Submissions
We have these requirements in regard to developers which wish to submit their project or software for consideration.
- Must undergo our [self-submission process](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/about-the-project-showcase-category/114) as a way to engage with our community, address any potential concerns, and elicit any feedback that can help improve your project.
- Must disclose affiliation, i.e. your position within the project being submitted.
- Must have a security white paper if it is a project that involves the handling of sensitive information like a messenger, password manager, encrypted cloud storage, etc.
- Regarding third party audit status, we want to know if you have undergone one, or have requested one. If possible please mention who will be conducting the audit.
- Must explain what the project brings to the table in regard to privacy.
- What new problem(s), if any, does it solve?
- Why should anyone use it over the alternatives?
- Must state what the exact threat model is with their project.
- It should be clear to potential users what the project can provide, and what it cannot. Ideally, a developer should be able to identify what [common threat(s)](../../wiki/basics/common-threats/index.md) their project protects against.
description: The charitable mission of Privacy Guides relies on contributions from visitors like yourself. Anything you can do to support the project is hugely appreciated.
aliases:
- /en/about/donate
---
<style>
.hextra-tabs-panel img {
height: 3.25rem;
}
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display: flex;
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<!-- markdownlint-disable MD036 -->
Support our mission to defend digital rights and spread the word about mass surveillance programs and other daily privacy invasions. You can help Privacy Guides researchers, activists, and maintainers create informative content, host private digital services, and protect privacy rights at a time when the world needs it most.
<!-- markdownlint-disable-next-line -->
[Become a Member](https://donate.magicgrants.org/privacyguides/membership)
[Become a Member (Cryptocurrency)](https://donate.magicgrants.org/privacyguides/membership)
*MAGIC Grants is our fiscal host, and their custom, open-source donation platform allows you to donate to our project with **Monero**, **Litecoin (MWEB)**, **Bitcoin**, or **debit/credit card**. You can also donate using [GitHub Sponsors](https://github.com/sponsors/privacyguides).*
## Foundations & Organizations
{{< tabs >}}
{{< tab name="Current Supporters" >}}
Thank you to these organizations who significantly support Privacy Guides.
- [](https://powerupprivacy.com "Power Up Privacy")
Thank you to these organizations who have substantially supported our project in the past.
- [Safing](https://safing.io): 2019 – 2021
{{< /tab >}}
{{< /tabs >}}
## Active Members
Privacy Guides would not be possible without these individuals who generously donate on a monthly or yearly basis.[^active-members]
[^active-members]: If you [become a member](https://donate.magicgrants.org/privacyguides/membership) and [link your donation](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/getting-your-member-flair-on-the-forum/25453) to your forum account, you're automatically added here with a link to your profile and avatar to show your support for Privacy Guides. If you don't make your membership public on the forum, you'll be a silent +1. You can change your visibility any time. This chart is updated upon each website release.
The list of active members is updated when the site is built from our donation platform. After you [become a member](https://donate.magicgrants.org/privacyguides/membership) and [link your donation](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/getting-your-member-flair-on-the-forum/25453) to your forum account, you can choose whether your name appears on the published donate page.
*This is a list of our **active** [members](https://donate.magicgrants.org/privacyguides/membership), plus donors on GitHub, who have chosen to make their donation public. Hundreds more have donated in the past or privately, and their support is hugely appreciated as well.*
## Merchandise
You can support us and share your passion for privacy by buying our merchandise from HelloTux.
[Buy on HelloTux.com](https://hellotux.com/privacyguides)
{ .pg:buttons }
## Non-Financial Support
It takes a lot of people and [work](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/pulse/monthly) to keep Privacy Guides up to date and spread the word about privacy and mass surveillance. If you're looking for other ways to help out, consider getting involved by [editing the site](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org), [joining our forum](https://discuss.privacyguides.net), or [contributing translations](https://crowdin.com/project/privacyguides).
## FAQ
### What is an organizational membership?
Organizational membership[^org-members] to Privacy Guides is open to any company, private foundation, or organization that donates at least $5,000 per year. While Privacy Guides does not endorse private companies or their products, we're grateful for their contributions. Your donation may be tax-deductible, and we will provide you with a receipt.
You can become an organizational member by reaching out to <info@magicgrants.org> for more information.
[^org-members]: Please contact <info@magicgrants.org> to inquire about giving. Privacy Guides reserves the right to rescind the membership of those who are unaligned with our mission or organization at any time. Organizational members have no ability to influence what content is recommended on the Privacy Guides website. Learn more about our [donation acceptance policy](../donation-acceptance-policy/index.md).
### How are organizational members recognized?
Organizational members that choose to be recognized publicly are included in our organizational members section (above), and occasionally at other opportunities where appropriate. Organizational member links include the `rel="nofollow"` attribute: We adopted this policy to screen out potential abuse of our program and site to raise the rank of third parties in search algorithms. Unfortunately, this is a growing problem for nonprofits. This was a complex decision since we know many of the sincere supporters behind these companies, but we decided that it was the best choice for us.
Organizational members have no ability to influence what content is recommended on the Privacy Guides website. Learn more about our [donation acceptance policy](../donation-acceptance-policy/index.md).
### What is an active membership?
Your monthly or yearly membership sustains Privacy Guides's services and public activism for privacy and cybersecurity year round. If you become a member, we will recognize your support here on our website, our community forum, and occasionally in other areas like our videos if you choose to make your membership publicly known.
Our membership program is brand new, and we are still exploring other ways that we can share a token of our appreciation with you, while maintaining sustainable and ethical boundaries. Stay tuned!
### How does Privacy Guides use donations?
Privacy Guides has been a nonstop effort for over 5 years to stay up to date with the world of cybersecurity and privacy, and to promote the benefits of privacy overall. This is a **non-profit, community-driven** project that would not be possible without the generous support of all our contributors, in addition to our regularly donating members above.
Your donation go to a [dedicated fund](https://magicgrants.org/funds/privacy_guides) within [MAGIC Grants](https://magicgrants.org), a 501(c)(3) organization and our fiscal host. The funds will **only** be used for this project specifically.
You may qualify for a tax deduction. When you donate to us [here](https://donate.magicgrants.org/privacyguides) with cryptocurrency or card you have the option to receive a receipt from MAGIC Grants for this purpose. If you have questions about other transactions please email <info@magicgrants.org>.
We use donations for a variety of purposes, including:
**Payroll**
: We have journalists, writers, and video creators on payroll to review products and create more educational content on a regular basis. This is a significant expense, and we are only able to create our quantity of content with your support.
**Web Hosting and Infrastructure**
: Traffic to this website uses hundreds of gigabytes of data per month; we use a variety of service providers to keep up with this traffic.
**Online Services**
: We host [internet services](../services/index.md) for testing and showcasing different privacy-products we like and [recommend](../../tools/_index.md). Some of them are made publicly available for our community's use (SearXNG, Tor, etc.), and some are provided for our team members (email, etc.).
**Product Purchases**
: We occasionally purchase products and services for the purposes of testing our [recommended tools](../../tools/_index.md).
Thank you to all those who support our mission!
We strictly **do not** use donations to support political campaigns/candidates or attempt to influence legislation. Earnings will **not** inure to the benefit of any private shareholder or individual.
description: Privacy Guides aspires to obtain funding from a wide variety of sources to reduce our dependency on any single donor. Please consider donating!
aliases:
- /en/about/donation-acceptance-policy
---
Privacy Guides takes the ethical responsibility of making unbiased recommendations on its website very seriously.
Privacy Guides aspires to obtain funding from a wide variety of sources to reduce our dependency on any single donor. Please consider [donating](../donate/index.md)!
## What we **can** accept
In the course of our regular fundraising activities...
- Donations and other forms of support will generally be accepted from individuals, corporations, foundations, or other entities, without limitations.
- This includes cash, cash equivalents (checks, money orders, credit/debit card payments), and cryptocurrency.
- Gifts of Real Property, Personal Property, or Securities may only be accepted upon approval of the MAGIC Grants board of directors.
Privacy Guides will only accept such gifts that are legal and consistent with our policies. Gifts must not interfere with Privacy Guides' mission, purpose, and procedures.
## Things we do **not** do
- Accept sponsorships.
- Offer to recommend a product or service in exchange for a donation or other incentive.
- Threaten to remove a recommendation for a product or service unless we receive a donation or other incentive.
- Offer to expedite a review of a product or service in exchange for a donation or other incentive.
- Write sponsored content or feature sponsored components in our content.
## Things we **may** do
- Accept donations from privacy-related companies and non-profits.
- Apply for grant programs.
- Accept free versions of software or hardware to test and review, while being mindful of possible differences in versions that could differ from a regular customer experience. ([More details](../executive-policy/index.md#ep1-freely-provided-product-samples))
- Accept discounted versions of software or hardware that assist our operations (for example, discounted software costs made available to non-profits).
## Restrictions on gifts
Privacy Guides accepts unrestricted gifts, and we appreciate the flexibility to apply your gift to our programs where they are most needed.
We also accept and appreciate gifts for specified programs or purposes, provided that such gifts are consistent with our program's stated mission, purpose, and priority. Privacy Guides will not accept gifts which are too restrictive in purpose.
Examples of gifts which are too restrictive include:
- Those which fund the research and review of a specific product category or specific product.
- Those which violate our existing policies.
- Those which are too difficult for us to administer.
- Those that are for purposes outside our general mission.
An example of an acceptable restriction could be a gift towards funding our [video](https://www.privacyguides.org/videos) production, or hosting our website and forum.
Final decisions on the restrictive nature of a gift and its acceptance or refusal will be made by our executive committee.
## Additional terms
Privacy Guides generally does not pay "finder's fees" or commissions to third parties in connection with any gift to Privacy Guides. We may, however, pay commissions and fees to properly negotiate and receive assets when appropriate.
No officer, committee member, employee, or other agent of Privacy Guides will be compensated in a manner which is dependent on the size or nature of gifts made to Privacy Guides by any person. If we engage with legal, accounting, or other professionals, their fees and expenses will be determined by the time they spend engaged with our work, and not by reference to any particular gift in connection to their retainer.
Privacy Guides always follows the MAGIC Grants Gift Acceptance Policy, available on their website: <https://magicgrants.org/about/documentation/>
description: These are policies formally adopted by our executive committee, and take precedence over all other statements expressed on this website.
aliases:
- /en/about/executive-policy
---
These are policies formally adopted by Privacy Guides' executive committee, and take precedence over all other statements expressed on this website.
The keywords **must**, **must not**, **required**, **shall**, **shall not**, **should**, **should not**, **recommended**, **may**, and **optional** are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119](https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc2119).
## EP1: Freely-Provided Product Samples
*Our policy on accepting product samples for review was adopted September 7, 2024.*
{{< tabs >}}
{{< tab name="Current Version (1)" >}}
- Privacy Guides **shall not** proactively reach out to vendors asking for product samples or review accounts.
- Privacy Guides **may** accept freely-provided product samples for one-time purchase software applications which run locally, given they don't require a subscription for continued operation.
- Privacy Guides **may** accept freely-provided samples of hardware products.
- Privacy Guides **may** accept a freely-provided subscription service associated with a hardware product, if such a subscription/license is necessary to use the product.
- Privacy Guides **must not** enter into an agreement pertaining to our editorial opinion with the vendor in order to receive a sample or publish a review. All freely-provided items must be strictly "no strings attached."
- We **may** agree to return the product to the vendor following the review if requested.
- We **may** agree to a reasonable NDA, provided it has a clear embargo date that is lifted no more than 6 months in the future where the NDA completely no longer applies.
- We **should not** enter into any other agreement with the vendor not described here. Potential agreements not described here **must** be approved by the executive committee beforehand.
In all cases, whether we paid for the product independently or received a free sample from a vendor, how we obtained the product **must** be clearly documented in the background section of every article associated with the product.
description: Privacy Guides has a small, remote team of privacy researchers and advocates. Any open positions we may have in the future will be posted here.
aliases:
- /about/jobs/content-creator
- /about/jobs/intern-news
- /about/jobs/journalist
- /en/about/jobs
- /en/about/jobs/content-creator
- /en/about/jobs/intern-news
- /en/about/jobs/journalist
---
Privacy Guides has a small, remote team of privacy researchers and advocates working to further our mission of protecting free expression and promoting privacy-respecting technology. As a non-profit, we are expanding very slowly to ensure the project is sustainable in the long term. All of our team members are listed [here](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/u?group=team&order=solutions&period=all). Please consider [donating](https://donate.magicgrants.org/privacyguides) to support our cause.
We are occasionally looking for strong journalistic writers, product reviewers, and privacy experts to help us out, and any open positions will be posted below.
description: Information about our website license, acceptable use policy, and other important details.
aliases:
- /en/about/notices
---
## Legal Disclaimer
Privacy Guides is not a law firm. As such, the Privacy Guides website and contributors are not providing legal advice. The material and recommendations in our website and guides do not constitute legal advice nor does contributing to the website or communicating with Privacy Guides or other contributors about our website create an attorney-client relationship.
Running this website, like any human endeavor, involves uncertainty and trade-offs. We hope this website helps, but it may include mistakes and can’t address every situation. If you have any questions about your situation, we encourage you to do your own research, seek out other experts, and engage in discussions with the Privacy Guides community. If you have any legal questions, you should consult with your own legal counsel before moving forward.
Privacy Guides is an open-source project contributed to under licenses that include terms that, for the protection of the website and its contributors, make clear that the Privacy Guides project and website is offered "as-is", without warranty, and disclaiming liability for damages resulting from using the website or any recommendations contained within. Privacy Guides does not warrant or make any representations concerning the accuracy, likely results, or reliability of the use of the materials on the website or otherwise relating to such materials on the website or on any third-party sites linked on this site.
Privacy Guides additionally does not warrant that this website will be constantly available, or available at all.
## Licensing Overview
> [!IMPORTANT]
>
> The following is a human-readable summary of (and not a substitute for) the [license](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/blob/main/README.md#license).
Unless otherwise noted, all **content** on this website is released under the [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/tree/main/LICENSE). This means that you can use the human-readable content on this website for your own project, as long as you give appropriate credit to [Privacy Guides](https://www.privacyguides.org) including a link where technically possible, and you release your project under the same license. You may not do so in any way that suggests Privacy Guides endorses you or your use. You **may not** use the Privacy Guides brand trademarks in your own project without express approval from this project. Privacy Guides's brand trademarks include the "Privacy Guides" wordmark and shield logo.
The underlying **source code** used to generate this website and display that content is released under the [MIT License](https://github.com/privacyguides/privacyguides.org/tree/main/LICENSE-CODE).
This does not include third-party code embedded in the Privacy Guides code repository, or code where a superseding license is otherwise noted. The following are notable examples, but this list may not be all-inclusive:
* The [Bagnard](https://github.com/privacyguides/brand/tree/67166ed8b641d8ac1837d0b75329e02ed4056704/fonts/Bagnard) heading font is licensed under the [SIL Open Font License 1.1](https://github.com/privacyguides/brand/blob/67166ed8b641d8ac1837d0b75329e02ed4056704/fonts/Bagnard/LICENSE.txt).
* The [Public Sans](https://github.com/privacyguides/brand/tree/67166ed8b641d8ac1837d0b75329e02ed4056704/fonts/Public%20Sans) font used for most text on the site is licensed under the terms detailed [here](https://github.com/privacyguides/brand/blob/67166ed8b641d8ac1837d0b75329e02ed4056704/fonts/Public%20Sans/LICENSE.txt).
* The [DM Mono](https://github.com/privacyguides/brand/tree/67166ed8b641d8ac1837d0b75329e02ed4056704/fonts/DM%20Mono) font used for monospaced text on the site is licensed under the [SIL Open Font License 1.1](https://github.com/privacyguides/brand/blob/67166ed8b641d8ac1837d0b75329e02ed4056704/fonts/DM%20Mono/LICENSE.txt).
We believe that the logos and other images in `assets` obtained from third-party providers are either in the public domain or **fair use**. In a nutshell, legal [fair use doctrine](https://copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html) allows the use of copyrighted images in order to identify the subject for purposes of public comment. However, these logos and other images may still be subject to trademark laws in one or more jurisdictions. Before using this content, please ensure that it is used to identify the entity or organization that owns the trademark and that you have the right to use it under the laws which apply in the circumstances of your intended use. *When copying content from this website, you are solely responsible for ensuring that you do not infringe someone else's trademark or copyright.*
When you contribute to our website you are doing so under the above licenses, and you are granting Privacy Guides a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, irrevocable license with the right to sublicense such rights through multiple tiers of sublicensees, to reproduce, modify, display, perform and distribute your contribution as part of our project.
## Acceptable Use
You may not use this website in any way that causes or may cause damage to the website or impairment of the availability or accessibility of Privacy Guides, or in any way which is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent, harmful, or in connection with any unlawful, illegal, fraudulent, or harmful purpose or activity.
You must not conduct any systematic or automated data collection activities on or in relation to this website without express written consent, including:
* Excessive Automated Scans
* Denial of Service Attacks
* Scraping
* Data Mining
* 'Framing' (IFrames)
---
*Portions of this notice itself were adopted from [opensource.guide](https://github.com/github/opensource.guide/blob/master/notices.md) on GitHub. That resource and this page itself are released under [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).*
description: The real story behind the team transition from privacytools.io to privacyguides.org
aliases:
- /en/about/privacytools
---
In September 2021, every active contributor unanimously agreed to move from PrivacyTools to work on this site: Privacy Guides. This decision was made because PrivacyTools’ founder and controller of the domain name had disappeared for an extended period of time and could not be contacted.
Having built a reputable site and set of services on PrivacyTools.io, this caused grave concerns for the future of PrivacyTools, as any future disruption could wipe out the entire organization with no recovery method. This transition was communicated to the PrivacyTools community many months in advance via a variety of channels including its blog, Twitter, Reddit, and Mastodon to ensure the entire process went as smoothly as possible. We did this to ensure nobody was kept in the dark, which has been our modus operandi since our team was created, and to make sure Privacy Guides was recognized as the same reliable organization that PrivacyTools was before the transition.
After the organizational move was completed, the founder of PrivacyTools returned and began to spread misinformation about the Privacy Guides project. They continue to spread misinformation in addition to operating a paid link farm on the PrivacyTools domain. We are creating this page to clear up any misconceptions.
## What is PrivacyTools?
PrivacyTools was created in 2015 by "BurungHantu," who wanted to make a privacy information resource - helpful tools following the Snowden revelations. The site grew into a flourishing open-source project with [many contributors](https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/graphs/contributors), some eventually given various organizational responsibilities, such as operating online services like Matrix and Mastodon, managing and reviewing changes to the site on GitHub, finding sponsors for the project, writing blog posts and operating social media outreach platforms like Twitter, etc.
Beginning in 2019, BurungHantu grew more and more distant from the active development of the website and communities, and began delaying payments he was responsible for related to the servers we operated. To avoid having our system administrator pay server costs out of their own pocket, we changed the donation methods listed on the site from BurungHantu's personal PayPal and crypto accounts to a new OpenCollective page on [October 31, 2019](https://web.archive.org/web/20210729184557/https://blog.privacytools.io/privacytools-io-joins-the-open-collective-foundation). This had the added benefits of making our finances completely transparent, a value we strongly believe in, and tax-deductible in the United States, because they were being held by the Open Collective Foundation 501(c)3. This change was unanimously agreed upon by the team and went uncontested.
## Why We Moved On
In 2020, BurungHantu's absence grew much more noticeable. At one point, we required the domain's nameservers to be changed to nameservers controlled by our system administrator to avoid future disruption, and this change was not completed for over a month after the initial request. He would disappear from the public chat and private team chat rooms on Matrix for months at a time, occasionally popping in to give some small feedback or promise to be more active before disappearing once again.
In October 2020, the PrivacyTools system administrator (Jonah) [left](https://web.archive.org/web/20210729190742/https://blog.privacytools.io/blacklight447-taking-over) the project because of these difficulties, handing control to another long-time contributor. Jonah had been operating nearly every PrivacyTools service and acting as the *de facto* project lead for website development in BurungHantu's absence, thus his departure was a significant change to the organization. At the time, because of these significant organizational changes, BurungHantu promised the remaining team he would return to take control of the project going forward. ==The PrivacyTools team reached out via several communication methods over the following months, but did not receive any response.==
## Domain Name Reliance
At the beginning of 2021, the PrivacyTools team grew worried about the future of the project, because the domain name was set to expire on 1st March 2021. The domain was ultimately renewed by BurungHantu with no comment.
The team’s concerns were not addressed, and we realized this would be a problem every year: If the domain expired it would have allowed it to be stolen by squatters or spammers, thus ruining the organization's reputation. We also would have had trouble reaching the community to inform them of what took place.
Without being in any contact with BurungHantu, we decided the best course of action would be to move to a new domain name while we still had guaranteed control over the old domain name, sometime before March 2022. This way, we would be able to cleanly redirect all PrivacyTools resources to the new site without any interruption in service. This decision was made many months in advance and communicated to the entire team in the hopes that BurungHantu would reach out and assure his continued support for the project, because with a recognizable brand name and large communities online, moving away from "PrivacyTools" was the least desirable possible outcome.
In mid-2021 the PrivacyTools team reached out to Jonah, who agreed to rejoin the team to help with the transition.
## Community Call to Action
At the end of July 2021, we [informed](https://web.archive.org/web/20210729184422/https://blog.privacytools.io/the-future-of-privacytools) the PrivacyTools community of our intention to choose a new name and continue the project on a new domain, to be [chosen](https://web.archive.org/web/20210729190935/https://aragon.cloud/apps/forms/cMPxG9KyopapBbcw) on 2nd August 2022. In the end, "Privacy Guides" was selected, with the `privacyguides.org` domain already owned by Jonah for a side-project from 2020 that went undeveloped.
## Control of r/privacytoolsIO
Simultaneously with the ongoing website issues at privacytools.io, the r/privacytoolsIO moderation team was facing challenges with managing the Subreddit. The Subreddit had always been operated mostly independently of the website's development, but BurungHantu was the primary moderator of the Subreddit as well, and he was the only moderator granted "Full Control" privileges. u/trai_dep was the only active moderator at the time, and [posted](https://reddit.com/comments/o9tllh) a request to Reddit's administrators on June 28, 2021, asking to be granted the primary moderator position and full control privileges, in order to make necessary changes to the Subreddit.
Reddit requires that Subreddits have active moderators. If the primary moderator is inactive for a lengthy period of time (such as a year) the primary moderation position can be re-appointed to the next moderator in line. For this request to have been granted, BurungHantu had to have been completely absent from all Reddit activity for a long period of time, which was consistent with his behaviors on other platforms.
> If you were removed as moderator from a subreddit through Reddit request it is because your lack of response and lack of activity qualified the subreddit for an r/redditrequest transfer.
>
> r/redditrequest is Reddit's way of making sure communities have active moderators and is part of the [Moderator Code of Conduct](https://redditinc.com/policies/moderator-code-of-conduct).
## Beginning the Transition
On September 14th, 2021, we [announced](https://blog.privacyguides.org/2021/09/14/welcome-to-privacy-guides) the beginning of our migration to this new domain:
> [...] we found it necessary to make this switch sooner rather than later to ensure people would find out about this transition as soon as possible. This gives us adequate time to transition the domain name, which is currently redirecting to `www.privacyguides.org`, and it hopefully gives everyone enough time to notice the change, update bookmarks and websites, etc.
This change [entailed:](https://reddit.com/comments/pnhn4a)
- Redirecting `www.privacytools.io` to [www.privacyguides.org](https://www.privacyguides.org).
- Archiving the source code on GitHub to preserve our past work and issue tracker, which we continued to use for months of future development of this site.
- Posting announcements to our Subreddit and various other communities informing people of the official change.
- Formally closing privacytools.io services, like Matrix and Mastodon, and encouraging existing users to migrate as soon as possible.
Things appeared to be going smoothly, and most of our active community made the switch to our new project exactly as we hoped.
## Following Events
Roughly a week following the transition, BurungHantu returned online for the first time in nearly a year, however nobody on our team was willing to return to PrivacyTools because of his historic unreliability. Rather than apologize for his prolonged absence, he immediately went on the offensive and positioned the transition to Privacy Guides as an attack against him and his project. He subsequently [deleted](https://reddit.com/comments/pp9yie/comment/hd49wbn) many of these posts when it was pointed out by the community that he had been absent and abandoned the project.
At this point, BurungHantu claimed he wanted to continue working on privacytools.io on his own and requested that we remove the redirect from `www.privacytools.io` to [www.privacyguides.org](https://www.privacyguides.org). We obliged and requested that he keep the subdomains for Matrix, Mastodon, and PeerTube active for us to run as a public service to our community for at least a few months, in order to allow users on those platforms to easily migrate to other accounts. Due to the federated nature of the services we provided, they were tied to specific domain names making it very difficult to migrate (and in some cases impossible).
Unfortunately, because control of the r/privacytoolsIO Subreddit was not returned to BurungHantu at his demand (further information below), those subdomains were [cut off](https://reddit.com/comments/pymthv/comment/hexwrps) at the beginning of October, ending any migration possibilities to any users still using those services.
Following this, BurungHantu made false accusations about Jonah stealing donations from the project. BurungHantu had over a year since the alleged incident occurred, and yet he never made anyone aware of it until after the Privacy Guides migration. BurungHantu has been repeatedly asked for proof and to comment on the reason for his silence by the team [and the community](https://twitter.com/TommyTran732/status/1526153536962281474), and has not done so.
BurungHantu also made a [twitter post](https://twitter.com/privacytoolsIO/status/1510560676967710728) alleging that an "attorney" had reached out to him on Twitter and was providing advice, in another attempt to bully us into giving him control of our Subreddit, and as part of his smear campaign to muddy the waters surrounding the launch of Privacy Guides while pretending to be a victim.
## PrivacyTools.io Now
As of September 25th 2022 we are seeing BurungHantu's overall plans come to fruition on privacytools.io, and this is the very reason we decided to create this explainer page today. The website he is operating appears to be a heavily SEO-optimized version of the site which recommends tools in exchange for financial compensation. Very recently, IVPN and Mullvad, two VPN providers near-universally [recommended](../../tools/services/vpn/index.md) by the privacy community and notable for their stance against affiliate programs were removed from PrivacyTools. In their place? NordVPN, Surfshark, ExpressVPN, and hide.me; Giant VPN corporations with untrustworthy platforms and business practices, notorious for their aggressive marketing and affiliate programs.
==**PrivacyTools has become exactly the type of site we [warned against](https://web.archive.org/web/20210729205249/https://blog.privacytools.io/the-trouble-with-vpn-and-privacy-reviews) on the PrivacyTools blog in 2019.**== We've tried to keep our distance from PrivacyTools since the transition, but their continued harassment towards our project and now their absurd abuse of the credibility their brand gained over 6 years of open-source contributions is extremely troubling to us. Those of us actually fighting for privacy are not fighting against each other, and are not getting our advice from the highest bidder.
## r/privacytoolsIO Now
After the launch of [r/PrivacyGuides](https://reddit.com/r/privacyguides), it was impractical for u/trai_dep to continue moderating both Subreddits, and with the community on-board with the transition, r/privacytoolsIO was [made](https://reddit.com/comments/qk7qrj) a restricted sub in a post on November 1st, 2021:
> [...] The growth of this Sub was the result of great effort, across several years, by the PrivacyGuides.org team. And by every one of you.
>
> A Subreddit is a great deal of work to administer and moderate. Like a garden, it requires patient tending and daily care. It's not a task for dilettantes or commitment-challenged people. It can’t thrive under a gardener who abandons it for several years, then shows up demanding this year’s harvest as their tribute. It's unfair to the team formed years ago. It’s unfair to you. [...]
Subreddits do not belong to anybody, and they especially do not belong to brand-holders. They belong to their communities, and the community and its moderators made the decision to support the move to r/PrivacyGuides.
In the months since, BurungHantu has threatened and begged for returning Subreddit control to his account in [violation](https://reddit.com/r/redditrequest/wiki/top_mod_removal) of Reddit rules:
> Retaliation from any moderator with regards to removal requests is disallowed.
For a community with many thousands of remaining subscribers, we feel that it would be incredibly disrespectful to return control of that massive platform to the person who abandoned it for over a year, and who now operates a website that we feel provides very low-quality information. Preserving the years of past discussions in that community is more important to us, and thus u/trai_dep and the rest of the Subreddit moderation team has made the decision to keep r/privacytoolsIO as-is.
## OpenCollective Now
Our fundraising platform, OpenCollective, is another source of contention. Our position is that OpenCollective was put in place by our team and managed by our team to fund services we currently operate and which PrivacyTools no longer does. We [reached out](https://opencollective.com/privacyguides/updates/transitioning-to-privacy-guides) to all of our donors regarding our move to Privacy Guides, and we were unanimously supported by our sponsors and community.
Thus, the funds in OpenCollective belong to Privacy Guides, they were given to our project, and not the owner of a well known domain name. In the announcement made to donors on September 17th, 2021, we offered refunds to any donor who disagrees with the stance we took, but nobody has taken us up on this offer:
> If any sponsors or backers disagree with or feel misled by these recent events and would like to request a refund given these highly unusual circumstances, please get in touch with our project admin by emailing `jonah@triplebit.net`.
## Further Reading
This topic has been discussed extensively within our communities in various locations, and it seems likely that most people reading this page will already be familiar with the events leading up to the move to Privacy Guides. Some of our previous posts on the matter may have extra detail we omitted here for brevity. They have been linked below for the sake of completion.
- [June 28, 2021 request for control of r/privacytoolsIO](https://reddit.com/comments/o9tllh)
- [July 27, 2021 announcement of our intentions to move on the PrivacyTools blog, written by the team](https://web.archive.org/web/20210729184422/https://blog.privacytools.io/the-future-of-privacytools)
- [Sept 13, 2021 announcement of the beginning of our transition to Privacy Guides on r/privacytoolsIO](https://reddit.com/pnql46)
- [Sept 17, 2021 announcement on OpenCollective from Jonah](https://opencollective.com/privacyguides/updates/transitioning-to-privacy-guides)
- [Sept 30, 2021 Twitter thread detailing most of the events now described on this page](https://twitter.com/privacy_guides/status/1443633412800225280)
- [Oct 1, 2021 post by u/dng99 noting subdomain failure](https://reddit.com/comments/pymthv/comment/hexwrps)
- [Apr 2, 2022 response by u/dng99 to PrivacyTools' accusatory blog post](https://reddit.com/comments/tuo7mm/comment/i35kw5a)
- [May 16, 2022 response by @TommyTran732 on Twitter](https://twitter.com/TommyTran732/status/1526153497984618496)
- [Sep 3, 2022 post on Techlore's forum by @dngray](https://discuss.techlore.tech/t/has-anyone-seen-this-video-wondering-your-thoughts/792/20)
description: We run a number of web services to test out features and promote cool decentralized, federated, and/or open-source projects.
aliases:
- /en/about/services
---
We run a number of web services to test out features and promote cool decentralized, federated, and/or open-source projects. Many of these services are available to the public and are detailed below.
[Report an issue](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/c/services/2)
- Availability: Invite-Only. Access may be granted upon request to Privacy Guides team members, Matrix moderators, third-party Matrix community administrators, Matrix bot operators, and other individuals in need of a reliable Matrix presence.
- Your information is never shared with a third party, it stays on servers we control
- Your personal data is never saved, we only collect data in aggregate
- No client-side JavaScript is used
Because of these facts, keep in mind our statistics may be inaccurate. It is a useful tool to compare different dates with each other and analyze overall trends, but the actual numbers may be far off from reality. In other words they're *precise* statistics, but not *accurate* statistics.
meta_title: "Guides and Tools for Privacy Activists"
description: Privacy Guides' Activism section contains tools to support the community in its privacy advocacy and activism effort, both for individuals and organizations.
hide:
- toc
- footer
cover: banner-activism.webp
breadcrumbs: false
cascade:
type: docs
aliases:
- /en/activism
---
The **Guides and Tools for Privacy Activists** project from [*Privacy Guides*](../about/_index.md) offers a new way to empower the digital rights community.
This section contains information to help you become a better defender of privacy rights, both for individuals and organizations.
## We must fight for privacy rights collectively
Fighting to improve our privacy cannot *only* be a matter of individual protections.
When [regulations keep attacking](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/08/chat-control-must-be-stopped/) the tools and services we rely on to protect our personal information, when corporations [exploit our data](../wiki/basics/common-threats/index.md#surveillance-as-a-business-model) more aggressively every day, and when platforms exponentially [erode online pseudonymity](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/10/15/real-name-policies/), we must broaden our reach to fight for our rights.
<mark>For privacy to become a valued and respected human right, we must work together</mark> to defend privacy rights as a community.
This section will progressively grow with more tools to support the community in its privacy advocacy and activism effort. The Privacy Activist Toolbox and the DPA Directory are the first parts of this new development.
description: The DPA Directory is a tool to help you find the principal consumer privacy law in your region, the authority mandated to enforce it, and how to report violations.
The **Data Protection Authority** (DPA) **Directory** is a tool to help you find the main consumer privacy law in your region, and the authority mandated to enforce the law.
Additionally, this table provides information about each law, authority, contact information for questions, and a link to place a complaint for violation of the law with each authority.
> [!TIP]
> For more information on how to find a specific privacy law that might not be listed here, and what to look for when reading it, consult the Privacy Activist Toolbox tip to [Know Your Privacy Laws](../../toolbox/tip-know-your-privacy-laws/index.md).
>
> For more information on how to proceed when reporting a privacy law violation, consult the Privacy Activist Toolbox tip to [Report Privacy Violations](../../toolbox/tip-report-privacy-violations/index.md).
## Scope and limitations
- This directory does not constitute legal advice. For any legal questions, consult a privacy lawyer or contact the authority responsible for enforcing the law.
- This directory only lists comprehensive consumer data privacy regulations that were effective on the date of the last update.
- This directory isn't a complete list of all existing data protection regulations worldwide. If you feel like your region's regulation should be added to it, please reach out to us.
- This directory does not list specialized privacy regulations related to specific data types, such as health data or children data.
- Remember that your data *could* be protected by a privacy regulation that isn't listed here. This will depend on the region, circumstances, and type of data involved.
> [!CAUTION]
> When sharing personal information with a DPA, keep in mind this information could be shared with the subject of the complaint, and/or displayed publicly. Make sure to consult your DPA's privacy notice first, or ask anonymously how your complaint data might be shared before sending any sensitive information.
>
> For example, the DPA for the state of Oregon in the United States specifies that: \"Any information submitted to this form is subject to Oregon’s Public Records Law. You may choose not to include personally identifiable data that you do not wish to be subject to public records requests.\"
- **For EU GDPR**: [Helpful tips on how to proceed with your request or complaint (*NOYB*)](https://noyb.eu/en/helpful-tips)
- **For EU GDPR**: [Explanation on the right to lodge a complaint (*NOYB*)](https://noyb.eu/en/your-right-lodge-complaint-article-77)
- **For missing regions**[^1]: [Check this Global Privacy Law and DPA Directory (*IAPP*)](https://iapp.org/resources/global-privacy-directory)
- **For more information on each law**: [To learn more on each regulation, you can consult this useful database (*DLA Piper*)](https://www.dlapiperdataprotection.com/)
[^1]: Some information from IAPP's Global Privacy Law and DPA Directory might be out-of-date.
description: The Privacy Activist Toolbox is a unique resource with tips for anyone interested in becoming a better privacy rights activist, or anyone who wants to start.
toc: true
aliases:
- /en/activism/toolbox
---
The **Privacy Activist Toolbox** is a resource for anyone interested in becoming a better privacy rights activist, or anyone who wants to start advocating for privacy rights.
This page is also a resource to help digital rights organizations that would like to expand their work focusing on privacy.
By clicking on any of the tips listed on this page, you can access more information on each topic, as well as additional resources to support your advocacy.
Being well-informed about the data protection regulations in your own jurisdiction can be a significant asset for your personal and collective battles to improve privacy, for yourself and for others. Learn more about what to look for when researching your local privacy laws.
Once you become informed on your local privacy laws, get familiar with the process to report violations. Submitting an official complaint is often simple, and can have a significant impact for yourself and your community. Learn more about why and how you should report violations of your local privacy laws.

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
In your privacy advocacy, it's essential to use and recommend tools that reliably protect privacy. For this, you need to investigate and remain highly skeptical of any dangerous or unproven marketing claims. Learn more about how to evaluate privacy claims and recommend tools that are trustworthy.
<h3>2. Migrate outside the surveillance ecosystem</h3>

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
As privacy activists, it's important to not only support the tools and organizations with good privacy practices, but to also lead by example when it comes to moving away from the surveillance ecosystem. Learn more about why and how to move away from "Big Tech" and embrace alternatives.
Commercial social media platforms represent one of the biggest sources of data exploitation. By staying active on these platforms we continue to feed the beast, and indirectly support their invasion of our privacy rights. Learn more about how to minimize your presence there, and slowly build better social networks.
<h3>1. Don't stop at individual solutions, consider the collective impact</h3>

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
When we think about our privacy, we often focus on the technical tools we can use. While this is indeed an important component, it's crucial not to lose sight of how regulations and invasive practices impact us collectively. Learn more about how to expand your perspective on data privacy.
Privacy isn't just about the tools, the laws, or the practices of any individual or organization. To move our society in a place where everyone benefits from privacy by default, we must consider technologies, laws, and culture holistically. Learn more about remembering to consider the whole landscape.

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
Everyone has different needs and faces different dangers when their personal data is exposed. To give actionable privacy advice and recommendations, it's essential to keep in mind everyone's unique situation. Learn more about better evaluating each person's threat model.
At times, it might feel like the privacy community is niche and isolated. The battle for privacy rights is difficult, and its defenders are often scattered. This is why it's essential that we support and uplift each other at every opportunity. Learn more about how to lift your allies up and grow the movement.

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
Fighting for privacy rights is a collective endeavor. You cannot do it alone. Anyone around you contributing is fighting the same battle by your side. This battle can be difficult and isolating at time. This is why it's critical to care for each other. Learn more about how you can support your privacy comrades.
<h3>3. Be kind to people, but be relentless with institutions</h3>

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
Kindness is essential for privacy advocates. To grow our movement, we must meet people from a place of camaraderie. People don't change their mind by being berated. However, this isn't true for institutions. Learn more about how to integrate kindness in your work, while being relentless with institutions.
The privacy community consists of a patchwork of individuals and organizations that sometimes hold quite different views. When these divergences lead to infighting, we need to ask how these internal wars are impacting our community negatively. Learn more about how to start alliances instead of wars.
<h3>2. Value allies with expertise complementary to yours</h3>

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
In privacy, like everywhere else, diversity is a strength. If you want your community to have a broad understanding of threat models, and be able to fight on multiple levels, you need to value a diversity of expertises. Learn more about recognizing, respecting, and retaining experts with skills different to yours.

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
To succeed, we must support each other. A good way to do this is to never forget to give credit where credit is due. When another advocate or organization says something you agree with, boost them up, spread their reach, and thank them publicly. Learn more about making your allies feel seen and valued.

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
For our privacy rights movement to grow, we must bring more people in. To accomplish this, it's fundamental to discuss privacy in ways that are accessible to newcomers who aren't familiar with basic concepts yet. Learn more about improving your advocacy work to make it more approachable to beginners.
<h3>2. Keep your posts and community inclusive</h3>

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
Inclusivity is not only the right thing to do, it's also essential to grow our movement. If we want privacy rights to succeed, it's imperative that we build communities where *everyone* feels safe and welcomed, regardless of who they are. Learn more about keeping your communications and communities inclusive.

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
Accessibility is indispensable to inclusivity, and should always be a priority in our work. To make our privacy communities welcoming to all, accessibility cannot be an afterthought. We must integrate it in our practice from the start. Learn more about improving the accessibility of your privacy work.
If you are developing a privacy-focused application or website, do not neglect the design aspect of it. This is a common mistake that can have a significant negative impact on adoption by a general audience. Learn more about making your design appealing and accessible to all. Make it cute!

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
As privacy advocates and activists, it's important to be a voice for resistance and take a stand against abusive practices. One substantial way to do this is to refuse to participate in privacy-intrusive requests, or use invasive software. Learn more about refusing to comply with privacy-abusive practices.
If you manage a digital rights group or organization, make sure you aren't subjecting your contributors to the very privacy-invasive tech you're fighting against. Sadly, it's not rare to see communities that aren't following their own advice for internal practices. Learn more about the importance of maintaining integrity *internally* as well as externally.

{class="toolbox-tip-icon"}
Through your privacy work, be careful to never collect or share the data of others without their explicit consent. It's crucial to protect your allies' data in all that you do, whether that's individual action or organizational leadership. Learn more about safeguarding the data of your privacy comrades.
There is so much to do in the movement for better privacy rights. So much, that it's sometimes easy to feel discouraged when facing the scale of what's left to accomplish. But everything helps, and even the smallest action counts. Learn more about why every action and every victory matters, no matter how small.
The battle for privacy rights will be a long one. This isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. If you want to be a good advocate, you *must* take the time to rest when needed. Burning out isn't an option, we cannot afford to lose your precious contribution! Learn more about why it's fundamental to learn to rest when you need it.
Once you have the knowledge, motivation, and energy, it's time to act! Perhaps you've read all of these tips, or read through our Knowledge Base already! But you don't need to know that much about privacy to start contributing. Learn more about how to start being a privacy activist.
If you've been a privacy advocate for a while, maybe it's time to level up and grow as a leader in your community. Becoming a leader can mean starting a local group, or initiating bigger projects online. Learn more about how to become a *good* leader in the privacy rights movement.
title: Be Kind to People, But Be Relentless With Institutions
description: Kindness and patience are essential qualities for privacy advocates. To grow our movement, we must meet people from a place of camaraderie.
Kindness and patience are essential qualities for privacy advocates. To grow our movement, we must meet people from a place of camaraderie. People don't change their mind by being berated. However, this isn't true for institutions.
Here's how you can **integrate kindness in your work**, while being relentless with institutions:
## Use kindness and patience while working with individuals
Whenever you talk with individuals in your privacy work, make sure to **stay kind and calm** when communicating with them.
Perhaps you are posting on social media, replying to posts or emails, answering questions after a talk, or writing advices on the best privacy tools to use. No matter the context, when communicating with individuals, <mark>kindness is your greatest asset</mark> to persuade and bring more people to the movement.
Sadly, it's not rare to see replies to beginners' posts by more advanced peers online that are humiliating and berating their uninformed or misinformed questions. People don't learn and don't change their mind by being yelled at. Aggression isn't an effective way to communicate.
Furthermore, aggression is a horrible strategy to bring more people to your cause, which should be your ultimate goal as a privacy rights advocate and activist.
Instead, be gentle and [develop your empathy skills](https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-empathy-2795562). Write from a place of compassion, to gradually attract more and more [new people](../tip-welcome-beginners/index.md) to the cause.
Stay patient and compassionate, even when people ask questions that might sound obvious to you. Be patient when people don't understand the first time you explain something. Happily clarify with simpler terms when needed, without being condescending.
Accept that some people might not be able to adopt all of your suggestions at once. It's okay, let them grow at their own pace.
Give time for ideas to brew and change minds. Plant seeds for change, and gently wait for growth.
## Be relentless with corporations, governments, and public institutions
While patience and kindness are crucial to bring your message the right way to individuals, institutions do not function the same way.
Whether you are trying to report a privacy-abusive corporate practice, push back against an invasive regulation proposal, or raise awareness about a public institution's privacy malpractices, you must be firm, loud, and determined.
Respect and politeness are vital here as well. Violence or threat to representatives of these institutions would only be detrimental to your goals. However, patience shouldn't be extended to privacy-abusive organizations that aren't demonstrating any realistic intentions to improve.
<mark>To bring significant changes to institutions and corporations, your message must be loud and clear.</mark>
You should try to bring as many people and allied organizations to your cause, and be as loud as possible in the media. Your campaign must be powerful enough to grab media's attention, and to send a firm message that the people want change and will not back down.
Each time your message is ignored, and the abuse continues, **shout louder** (metaphorically). Bring even *more* people to the cause, until the popular discontent is so strong that they have no choice but to stop the abuse.
## More resources
- [Rich resource for campaign strategy and community organizing (The Commons Social Change Library)](https://commonslibrary.org/)
description: Accessibility should always be a priority in our work. To make our privacy communities welcoming to all, we must integrate it in our practice from the start.
**Accessibility** is indispensable to [inclusivity](../tip-keep-your-posts-and-community-inclusive/index.md), and should always be a priority in our work. To make our privacy communities welcoming to all, accessibility cannot be an afterthought. We must integrate it in our practice from the start. This means making sure the languages, visuals, tools, and venues we use are accessible to as many people as possible.
Here's what you can do to improve accessibility for your privacy-related content and communities:
## Accessibility for all, in all the ways
For many people who don't need any specific accommodations, accessibility is often only thought about in terms of solutions to *mobility* impairments, such as for people requiring the use of a wheelchair.
While this is indeed and important factor to consider, there are many other types of disabilities and accommodations we should be mindful of in our privacy work.
Considering how each part of our work could be accessed more easily by everyone is essential to grow our movement, and to diversify our privacy communities.
Ethically, it's also just the right thing to do, and should be the norm everywhere.
### Visual, auditory, and other sensorial accessibility
Anytime you are using images, audio, or any other sensorial elements in your advocacy work, you should always make sure to follow best practices to ensure your content will be accessible to people with visual, auditory, or other sensorial impairments.
- If you use images in your websites or social media posts, make sure to always add proper [alt text](https://abilitynet.org.uk/resources/digital-accessibility/five-golden-rules-compliant-alt-text) to describe the information the image represents. Keep in mind visitors that might be using a [screen reader](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screen_reader).
- When designing websites, posters, flyers, or zines, keep in mind [visual accessibility](https://webdesign.tutsplus.com/accessibility-basics-designing-for-visual-impairment--cms-27634a) for people with blindness, low vision, color blindness, and other visual impairments.
- Be careful to refrain from using designs and videos with [flashing lights](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/Accessibility/Guides/Seizure_disorders), or display proper warning if you do. Flashing or flickering light effects, and even certain high-contrast static images, can trigger seizures in people with photosensitive epilepsy.
- If you use [audio material](https://www.w3.org/WAI/people-use-web/abilities-barriers/auditory/) in your advocacy, try to include captions or transcripts in your content for people with auditory impairments. If you organize a larger event with speakers, try to see if you could hire a sign language interpreter.
- Whenever you develop content or organize events, always be mindful of people with sensory impairments or [sensory sensitivities](https://accessforallllc.com/sensory-and-cognitive-accessibility/).
### Website accessibility
If you develop a website in your privacy work, make sure to follow the international standards for web accessibility.
This is very important to ensure readers using assistive devices will be able to access your content, and that people with visual impairments will not struggle to access your content.
- Get familiar with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) [international Web standards](https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/). These standards have been reviewed for accessibility support by the Accessible Platform Architectures ([APA](https://www.w3.org/WAI/about/groups/apawg/)) Working Group.
- Use a [web accessibility evaluation tool](https://www.w3.org/WAI/test-evaluate/tools/list/) to verify that your web content meets accessibility guidelines, or otherwise make sure to follow the [Web Content Accessibility Guidelines](https://www.pivotalaccessibility.com/2024/11/how-to-perform-a-web-accessibility-audit-step-by-step-guide/) (WCAG).
- If your organization can afford it, hire a [web accessibility consultant](https://accessibilityinnovations.com/blogs/web-accessibility-consultant/).
### Global accessibility
Whether you write a post, an article, or a whole website in English, keep in mind that your audience is likely global.
People from all around the world will be able to read or watch your English content, many who don't speak English as their first language. Don't assume that your audience is only coming from your own country or region. This is a good thing, by the way! ==The battle for privacy rights must be global now.==
- Be careful not to use too many references that are unique to your own country or region. If you do, make sure to explain what it is for people from other regions.
- When talking about issues related to politics, make sure to specify what governmental entities are, and explain any special rights your country has (don't just name them). That way, outsiders will be able to understand and support your cause as well, even if perhaps they aren't directly impacted by this issue at the moment.
- Don't assume everyone knows all the popular internet acronyms such as DIY (Do It Yourself) or IIRC (If I Recall Correctly). These acronyms are very challenging for non-native English speakers. When using acronyms in your content, always explain the full expression in parentheses at least once, or better yet, simply use whole words instead.
- When inviting people to an event, consider that people from other time zones might be reading your invitation. If your event is online, always specify the [time zone](https://www.timeanddate.com/time/map/) for the announced time. If your event is in person, always specify the whole location with the country and region ([do *not* just name the city](https://www.roughmaps.com/destinations/20-places-around-the-world-that-share-the-same-name/22)).
### Physical accessibility
When organizing events and meetups in person, it's essential to keep in mind physical accessibility for people with mobility challenges of all kind. This includes accessibility around the venue, but also on the journey to the venue.
- Ensure the venue you select is [accessible for people using wheelchairs](https://sites.augsburg.edu/events/policies/accessible-events/accessible-event-planning-guide/). Check that there is access to an elevator if it's on an upper floor, that there are access ramps and automatic doors if required, and that doorways and hallways are wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair.
- Make certain that there will be enough comfortable seating for your guests, and that seating and eating areas will be accessible to guests using wheelchairs or other mobility aids.
- Check that there are wheelchair-accessible bathrooms nearby.
- Evaluate the accessibility of the transit options available to reach the venue you select, including specialized transits for people who are using wheelchairs, or other types of mobility aids. Publish a map of the transit accesses around your venue.
- Research if your venue has access to parking and accessible parking spots. Publish this information with your invitation.
- Verify the venue you select is accessible to people with visual or auditory impairments. For example, check if elevators are marked with Braille or raised letters, and make sure that hosts are informed on how to communicate with guests who are deaf or hard of hearing.
### Health accessibility
In-person accessibility isn't just about mobility. Accessibility is also important to consider for a variety of health conditions, including people who are vulnerable to infectious diseases, or require other accommodations related to their health.
- Designate a trained person responsible for accessibility, and share their contact information in advance. That way, people will be able to contact this person if they have any questions before or during the event.
- Encourage your participants to wear a mask, and try to select a venue with adequate ventilation to minimize the risks for people who are [vulnerable to respiratory infections](https://health.clevelandclinic.org/superspreader-events). If food is served, try to select a venue with an area allowing to consume food outside.
- Make sure to bring a few boxes of [protective face masks](https://health.clevelandclinic.org/do-masks-work) to your event that guests can use for free. That way, people who might be at risk in dense crowd can decide to wear a mask once they arrived, or if they forgot to bring their own.
- Try to prepare an area in your venue, or near your venue, where people can rest comfortably in a [quiet space](https://eventwell.org/ensuring-inclusive-events-the-importance-of-supervising-quiet-spaces-for-neurodivergent-attendees-and-vulnerable-adults/), if they feel tired or overstimulated during the event.
- Promote a [scent-free](https://www.chrc-ccdp.gc.ca/resources/publications/environmental-sensitivities-and-scent-free-policies) environment to make your event welcoming to people who have scent allergies, environmental sensibilities, or other health conditions that can be affected by scents.
- Provide training for hosts and event volunteers to make sure they are aware of available accommodations, and can give helpful information upon request.
### Dietary accessibility
If your event provides meals, snacks, or drinks, make sure to prepare well in-advance to consider the potential dietary restrictions of your guests.
- List clearly what types of food and drinks with be served (or available) at the event.
- Provide contact information for people to reach out in advance if they have special dietary requirements or requests that have not already been addressed.
- Try to provide food and beverages that will cover a variety of dietary needs, such as vegan, nut-free, gluten-free, lactose-free, alcohol-free, or low-sugar options.
- If you host a large event, consider keeping a few [epinephrine autoinjectors](https://greatergood.com/blogs/news/epinephrine-public-areas) available on site in your emergency kit, in case anyone experiences a dangerous allergic reaction.
- Make sure guests will have access to free and clean water, especially if your event is scheduled during a heat wave.
- Ensure there is a quiet and private room available for anyone who might be breastfeeding.
- Provide all this information in advance with your invitation, so that guests can evaluate properly if the event is accessible to them.
### Safety accessibility
Safety is also an important aspect of accessibility. Everyone has a unique threat model, and, for a variety of reasons, some people might be at an elevated risk to their physical safety when going to and participating in an event in person.
- Implement a [Code of Conduct](https://oshwa.org/resources/how-to-write-a-code-of-conduct/) for your event or community. Ensure there are clear channels to report bad behaviors, and that your Code of Conduct is enforced properly.
- Verify that access to the bathrooms is safe and well lit at your venue.
- Make sure the venue you select is safe to access by transits or cars, and that the nearest parking lot or bus stop is well lit if the event ends late at night.
- If your venue is located in an area that might be more dangerous at night, consider setting up an [accompaniment service](https://www.concordia.ca/campus-life/security/services/safe-walk.html) with a set of volunteers offering to walk guests safely back to their bus stop, for example. Make this information known in advance.
- Implement a clear [Photo Policy](https://events.ccc.de/congress/2025/infos/privacy.html#photo-policy) for your event, and forbid all nonconsensual photos. You can also provide "No Photos" or "Photos OK" stickers, buttons, or lanyards for guests upon arrival. That way, guests can explicitly opt out of being photographed at your event if they prefer not to. If your event hired an official photographer, make sure they are careful to never take photos that include people wearing these badges. Ideally, limit event photos to a minimum, and only take photos of people after asking for their explicit consent first.
### Financial accessibility
Another aspect of accessibility that is often overlooked is financial accessibility. Sadly, many people are unable to access certain events due to financial limitations, even if it would be very helpful to them to network and meet privacy advocacy peers. When you organize an event, be mindful of providing options to increase financial accessibility.
- Try to keep your events free or partly free whenever possible, while remaining vigilant about accepting money from [financial sponsors](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#donations-event-sponsorships-and-other-revenues) that could be in contradiction with your privacy values.
- Reserve a quantity of free tickets for people with more severe limitations.
- Offer discounts for students or unemployed peers.
- Create opportunities for part-time volunteering, where people can offer to help a little, then participate in the rest of the event for free.
- Provide contact information for people who would like to request free or cheaper access, or discuss their unique situation with you.
### Beginners accessibility
[Welcoming beginners](../tip-welcome-beginners/index.md) is crucial in all the work we do. To keep your content and events accessible to beginners, it's important to be mindful of the language you use, the ways you present content, and the places where you promote your events.
- Always explain acronyms with whole words before only using the letters only.
- Be careful when using jargon, try to be explicit and use simple words and analogies.
- Beware of gatekeeping. Try to stay aware of newcomers that might be quiet or isolated from the group. [Be inclusive](../tip-keep-your-posts-and-community-inclusive/index.md) and invite them to participate.
- Specify that your event welcomes beginners.
- Be mindful of advertising your event in places where potential newcomers might see it. Be careful about not inviting people only from places reaching out to people who are already part of the privacy community.
## More resources
- [How to make your social justice event accessible (*The Commons Social Change Library*)](https://commonslibrary.org/how-to-make-your-social-justice-event-accessible/)
- [Make your event accessible and inclusive (*Park People*)](https://parkpeople.ca/make-your-event-accessible-and-inclusive/)
- [How to host a COVID-safe party: Tips and tricks (*Party Pro*)](https://party.pro/covid/)
- [Dos and don'ts on designing for accessibility (UK Government)](https://accessibility.blog.gov.uk/2016/09/02/dos-and-donts-on-designing-for-accessibility/)
- [Five golden rules for compliant alt text (*AbilityNet*)](https://abilitynet.org.uk/resources/digital-accessibility/five-golden-rules-compliant-alt-text)
- [Accessibility developer guide (*Access for all*)](https://www.accessibility-developer-guide.com/)
description: In your privacy advocacy, it's important to recommend tools that reliably protect your and other people's privacy. Learn how to evaluate privacy claims.
In your privacy advocacy, it's essential to use and recommend tools that *reliably* protect privacy. For this, you need to **investigate and remain highly skeptical** of any dangerous or unproven marketing claims.
Here's how to evaluate privacy claims, and recommend tools that are trustworthy:
## Why is there so much privacy snake oil?
Regrettably, it's quite common to see businesses using privacy promises as a mere marketing strategy to reassure understandingly concerned users. But many aren't genuinely doing the work to make these promises come true.
Many businesses want to have their cake and eat it too, by attracting users with false promises of privacy while exploiting their data for profit all the while. Other times, failure to meet privacy promises simply comes from incompetence or negligence.
Misleadingly, or fraudulently, presenting a product, service, or organization as being responsible and trustworthy with data privacy when it isn't is called "[privacy washing](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/08/20/privacy-washing-is-a-dirty-business/)."
There are many things you can learn to become more resistant to privacy washing, and become better at using and recommending genuinely privacy-preserving technologies.
## How to spot privacy snake oil
Never trust any privacy claims at face value.
Here are some red flags you should always keep in mind when evaluating a privacy tool, service, or organization:
- [**Conflict of interest**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#conflict-of-interest): Is the source that is telling you this product is trustworthy independent of the company or parent-company that owns this product?
- [**Biased reviews**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#fake-reviews): Is the review recommending this product truly independent, or has it received sponsorship money? Was the review AI-generated?
- [**Meaningless attestations**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#meaningless-privacy-compliance-badges): Are claims of privacy law compliance or trustworthiness supported by external sources, or do they only come from the organization itself?
- [**Buzzword language**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#buzzword-language): Is the advertising and description of the product using a lot of privacy buzzwords like "military-grade encryption" or "AI-powered"?
- [**Unsupported claims**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#checkbox-compliance-and-copy-paste-policies): Are the product's claims supported by documentation and detailed descriptions? It's not enough to write "end-to-end encrypted." This claim should be supported by a detailed account of *how* the data is end-to-end encrypted, including which protocols and algorithms it is using.
- [**Unrealistic claims**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#unverifiable-and-unrealistic-promises): Are the privacy claims being made realistic? Nothing can be 100% private or 100% secure. A trustworthy product will give you reasonable warnings about its limitations.
- [**Lack of deletion process**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#flawed-or-absent-process-for-data-deletion): Does this product or service offer a clear process to delete your data upon request? How much of your data can you delete, and how quickly can you delete it if you wanted to stop using this service tomorrow?
- [**Untested technologies**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#new-and-untested-technologies): Has this technology been tested by experts before? Are there any *external* parties who have verified its claims?
- [**Bad reputation**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#critics-from-experts): What are privacy and security experts saying about this product or organization? Was the product or organization subjected to multiple critiques from privacy experts? Has the organization ever been impacted by major data breaches?
</div>
## How to trust privacy tools and services
You should never *completely* trust a product, service, or organization. Additionally, your trust should always be revocable, and you should revoke it when new information comes to light that warrants it. Even privacy professional sources that you trust might not always be up-to-date.
Things can change quickly in the tech world, and we must all be prepared to revoke our trust and adapt quickly when required.
With that in mind, here are some green flags you can keep in mind when evaluating a privacy tool, service, or organization:
- [**Good reputation**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#reputation-history): What are privacy and security experts saying about this product or organization? Does the product or organization have a good reputation within the field?
- [**Access to evidence**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#verifiable-claims): Are you able to verify the privacy claims from independent sources that aren't related to the business itself?
- [**Independent review**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#independent-reviews): Was the product reviewed by an independent third-party who had significant access to test the product in a meaningful way?
- [**Transparency**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#transparency): Can you easily find detailed information about what data this organization collects, and how it processes and shares it? Would an independent expert have access to its software code to inspect it?
- [**Clear funding model**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#clear-funding-model): How does this organization make money? If it's free to use, does this organization rely on donations or grants? Is the product sold to users or to businesses? Where does the money come from?
- [**Availability**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#availability): Could you easily contact this organization if you needed to? Can you find an email address dedicated to privacy requests and questions? Can you find where the organization is located? Would you have access to at least two different ways to contact it?
- [**Expert recommendation**](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/#expert-advice): Is this product recommended by independent privacy experts and nonprofit digital rights organizations?
</div>
## More resources
- [Tool recommendations vetted by our community (*Privacy Guides*)](../../../tools/_index.md)
- [Extensive guide on how to evaluate better privacy tools and organizations (*Privacy Guides*)](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/03/red-and-green-privacy-flags/)
- [Privacy washing is a dirty business (*Privacy Guides*)](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/08/20/privacy-washing-is-a-dirty-business/)
- [Understanding encryption and end-to-end encryption (*Privacy Guides* video)](https://www.privacyguides.org/videos/2025/04/03/is-your-data-really-safe-understanding-encryption/)
description: To give actionable privacy advices, it's essential to consider everyone's situation. Learn more on how you can evaluate each person's unique threat model.
Everyone has different needs, and everyone faces different dangers when their personal data gets exposed.
To give actionable privacy advices and recommendations, it's essential to **keep in mind everyone's situation**. There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to data privacy.
Here's how you can get better at evaluating each person's unique [*threat model*](../../../wiki/basics/threat-modeling/index.md):
## What is a threat model?
We regularly use the term "threat model" in cybersecurity and data privacy. This might sound obscure at first if you haven't seen it before, but it's quite simple: A threat model is an evaluation of what is dangerous for a certain person (or entity) in a given situation, and what protective measures should be prioritized.
For example, if you leave near the equator, polar bears might not be an important threat to your safety. However, if you live in Nunavut, it may be important to get information on how to prevent a polar bear attack.
Similarly, when you choose privacy protections for yourself or for others, you should first ask a few questions to understand better what information you are trying to protect, from whom, and in which context.
## What questions to ask?
To establish a threat model, ask the following questions:
1. What information leak could endanger this person or organization the most?
2. Who this information should be protected from?
3. How likely is it that this person or entity could access this information?
4. What could happen if this person or entity had access to this information?
5. What are the protections available to protect this information specifically from this person or entity?
6. What would be the downside of using these protections?
7. How long do these protections need to remain in place?
Ask, rinse, and repeat for each type of information. The answers to these questions will be unique for each person or organization. This is their unique threat model.
{{< details title="Example scenario: Threat of stalking" closed="true" >}}
**Needs:** Alice is a young celebrity sharing a lot of information about herself on social media. As part of her work, she has to be able to share photos of herself, her legal name, some of her travel information, and details about her personal life.
**Threat:** However, to protect herself from an aggressive stalker, she must protect information about her *home address* at all cost.
**Level of danger:** She already received threats online, and the danger to her safety is imminent if her home address were to be known to this aggressive stalker.
**Information to protect and solutions:** Everywhere that Alice is required to share her home address must be protected. She should use a PO box every time her personal address isn't absolutely necessary. She should make sure to only share her address with trusted people that are informed about this danger. And she should inspect all of her photos and metadata carefully, to make sure her location is never precisely [revealed](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/03/25/privacy-means-safety/#victims-of-stalkers).
**Needs:** Bob feels uncomfortable with companies using his information without his consent. He doesn't trust what they might do with this information later, or whom they might sell it to. He is especially worried about how companies and governments might use facial recognition with him.
**Threat:** To limit facial recognition, Bob doesn't want any companies to have access to a *photo of his face*.
**Level of danger:** If Bob or someone close to Bob posted a photo of his face online, the numerous bots constantly scanning the open web and social media platforms would have a copy of it in no time.
**Information to protect and solutions:** To prevent this, Bob should not post any photos of his face online. He should make sure to only choose profile pictures that don't show his face for social media, and inspect any other photos posted to make sure his face doesn't show up on reflective surfaces. He should also inform his friends and family that he doesn't want photos of himself to be posted online, and he should protect his phone camera roll and cloud storage from getting [scanned](https://www.forbes.com/sites/zakdoffman/2026/01/15/google-upgrade-starts-scanning-all-your-photos-be-very-careful/) by remotely controlled AI. Bob should also opt out of any online platforms demanding a facial scan or photo ID in order to [verify his age](https://www.privacyguides.org/videos/2025/08/15/age-verification-is-a-privacy-nightmare/) or identity.
{{< /details >}}
## Respect people's choices when it comes to their own privacy
When advising others on data privacy, it's easy to get carried away and forget that other people might have different threat models from our own.
Once we have provided the information to somebody who might need it, it's important to take a step back and respect their choices. If someone understands the risks, and decides that sharing this information *about themselves* is an acceptable level of risk to them, we cannot (and shouldn't try) to force them in using the same level of protection we have adopted ourselves, if they don't want to.
Of course, this might be a different story if their decision also affects the data of others. But if it only concerns their own data, the choice is theirs.
To be a good privacy advocate is to provide information and support when needed. But ultimately, privacy is about deciding what one is comfortable sharing about themselves or not. We can only choose this for ourselves, not for others.
## More resources
- [More detailed information on threat modeling (*Privacy Guides*)](../../../wiki/basics/threat-modeling/index.md)
- [Examples of common threats (*Privacy Guides*)](../../../wiki/basics/common-threats/index.md)
title: Don't Stop at Individual Solutions, Consider The Collective Impact
description: When we think about privacy, we often focus on technical individual solutions. But it's also crucial to consider the collective impact of privacy issues.
When we think about our privacy, we often focus on the technical tools we can use to protect it. While this is an important *component*, it's crucial not to lose sight of how regulations and invasive practices impact us collectively.
Here's what to keep in mind to **expand your perspective on data privacy** beyond individual solutions:
## The danger of focusing only on individual solutions
While it might feel easier to focus on our own needs, nobody lives in a vacuum. Even if you were able to somehow protect all the data you have custody of, there is a lot of data about you that isn't under your control, and a lot of data about *others* that impact you.
Moreover, it's important to consider others in different situations. For example, even if everyone who has access to a [VPN](../../../tools/services/vpn/index.md) service can stay protected from a particular issue, what about all the others? It's neither practical nor realistic to expect that *everyone* would be able to circumvent a problem by using a VPN.
While in some cases we might want to discuss immediate individual solutions in order to mitigate some harm, we must also attack the root cause of the problem.
If we only think of *individual* solutions when a corporation exploits our data, or a government adopts a privacy-invasive regulation, we risk letting our guard down by giving up the fight early. This makes the problem harder to fight later on, and results in more harm to our communities, and eventually to ourselves as well.
## Things to keep in mind when a privacy issue arises
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself whenever a new privacy issue arises in the news, to help expand your perspective beyond individual solutions:
- What are potential mitigation solutions, and who will realistically be able to use them?
- What will happen to the people who don't have the resources (in time, in money, in knowledge) to protect themselves individually?
- Will this issue impact some communities more than others? Who will this affect the most negatively?
- What will be the impact for the people who *cannot* protect themselves individually?
- What will be the impact for the people who *can* protect themselves individually?
- Are there other solutions that could be adopted to fight this issue for *everyone* at once, without relying on *individual* harm mitigations.
- How can we fight against this issue in a way that will benefit *everyone* impacted, including the people who aren't even aware of the issue?
## More resources
- [Why you should also care about other people's privacy (*Privacy Guides*)](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/03/10/the-privacy-of-others/)
- [Why privacy might be a safety matter for many (*Privacy Guides*)](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/03/25/privacy-means-safety/)
- [Encryption must not be outlawed for our privacy tools to work (*Privacy Guides*)](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/04/11/encryption-is-not-a-crime/)
- [Dangerous regulation proposals like Chat Control could impact everyone without many individual solutions (*Privacy Guides*)](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/09/08/chat-control-must-be-stopped/)
description: Once you have the knowledge, motivation, and energy to fight for privacy rights, it's time to act! Learn more on what you can do to be a privacy activist.
Once you have the knowledge, motivation, and energy, **it's time to act**! Perhaps you've read all the tips here, or have read through our [Knowledge Base](../../../wiki/basics/why-privacy-matters/index.md) already! But you don't need to know that much about privacy to start contributing.
The most important part is that you care about privacy rights, and want to be part of the movement to defend them.
Here's what you can do to become a privacy activist:
## Be active! Participate and contribute!
Being a privacy activist means actively taking part in the movement to protect and improve fundamental privacy rights for everyone.
> We want to help redefine 'activist' to a term that can include anyone who wants to work collectively to create social change. You don't have to be an expert, and you don't have to spend every waking minute trying to do 'activism'. You just have to be a person who wants to create change with other people.
There are many ways to actively engage in the privacy rights movement.
While a lot can be accomplished by *anyone* interested in joining, think about how you can orient your activism around *your* strengths, skills, and interests. This will help with sustainability.
If you find one way doesn't really work for you, and you get tired or bored quickly, then find another way to contribute. There isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. Find the ways that work best for you.
Perhaps you like to write, to draw, to record videos, or to build applications? Or maybe you prefer to engage with people directly, and become involved in the more social part of privacy advocacy? This can all be incredibly valuable contributions to the movement.
Ask yourself these questions:
- What do I enjoy doing that could also be useful to the cause?
- What are my interests? What do I want to learn more about?
- Which skills and social networks do I already have?
- How much time do I have to contribute each week?
- Who around me shares my privacy values and could be an ally?
## Things you can do to engage, boost, and contribute
Here are some ideas of what you can do to become a privacy activist in your community, and a valuable member of the privacy rights movement:
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<div class="emoji-list-a" markdown>
- [**Spread** the words of your allies.](../tip-lift-your-allies-up/index.md) Repost social media campaigns from digital rights organizations you like, and write about it on your own platforms. Encourage people to participate if there is a call to action.
- **Write** about the privacy issues you care about. Inform the public with accurate information and effective ways of action to push back against invasive technologies and legislations. This can be through your social networks, personal blog, or even a book!
- [**Participate**](../tip-small-actions-matter/index.md) in the actions organized by others. Reply positively to social media posts related to privacy rights, repost the content of your allies, sign petitions, report violations, join an online forum, and contact your representatives about privacy rights in your region of the world.
- [**Refuse**](../tip-refuse-to-participate/index.md) to participate in privacy-invasive requests, and refuse to use privacy-invasive technologies as much as doable for your situation. Sometimes doing nothing can be a powerful action. Try to prioritize your privacy principles over [convenience](https://www.privacyguides.org/articles/2025/06/07/selling-surveillance-as-convenience/), and report on your refusal experiences on social networks and with your local communities.
- [**Join or build** communities](https://discuss.privacyguides.net/) with people sharing your privacy values. Be a positive contributor and lift your allies up. [Support your privacy comrades](../tip-support-your-privacy-comrades/index.md) and [ask for help](../tip-take-time-to-rest/index.md) when you need it yourself. Look for nonprofit organizations seeking volunteers.
- [**Contribute** financially](../../../about/donate/index.md) if you can. If you cannot afford to participate in time, consider donating money. There are many digital rights nonprofit organizations that could do *so much more* if only they had more funding. Offering financial support when you can is a meaningful way to contribute to the privacy rights movement.
- **Go** to local meetups related to privacy and digital rights. Meet people who share your values in-person, and grow your network to find allies in your area.
- **Take part** in digital rights protests that support causes and raise awareness on privacy issues you care about. Actively look online for events to join in your local privacy rights community.
- **Invite** others to join you in the movement to defend privacy rights!
</div>
> People who do activism reclaim their own agency in deciding what kind of world they want to live in.
- [What is activism? (*Activist Handbook*)](https://activisthandbook.org/theory/what-is-activism#personal-is-political)
- [How to be an activist for human rights causes (*WikiHow*)](https://www.wikihow.com/Become-an-Activist)
- [Learn to use ethical principles of persuasion (*The Community Tool Box* (University of Kansas))](https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/promoting-interest/principles-of-persuasion/main)
- [Communicate your message: Making sure your message comes across (*Activist Handbook*)](https://activisthandbook.org/communication)
description: To succeed with our movement to defend privacy rights, we must support each other. One good way to do this is to give credit where credit is due.
To succeed in our battle, we must **support each other**. One good way to accomplish this is to never forget to give credit where credit is due. When another advocate or organization says something you agree with, boost them up, spread their reach, and thank them publicly.
Here are a few ways you can help your allies feel seen and valued:
## Why crediting people and organization is important
Giving credit to the right person or organization isn't only the ethical thing to do, it's also a way to **build alliances**, to bring more people to the cause, and to retain the allies you already have.
When people feel valued, they are usually inclined to work harder. People are also more likely to stick around places where they feel seen and appreciated. This is incredibly important for our movement.
When giving credit to organizations, you are also making a whole team feel valued. Organizations are made of people, after all. Caring about the people who work hard at your allied organizations is fundamental to build our movement.
## Ways to credit your allies in your advocacy work
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- **Quote** your allies' work in your own content and material. Make sure to always credit their name and link to their external resources when you do.
- **Link** to your allies' resources on your own platforms. Give them credit for their work, and encourage your own audience to consult your allies' material.
- **Support** your allies publicly on social media. Repost their content to increase their reach. Post about them while tagging them, to encourage your circle to follow them as well. Reply to their posts thanking them for their hard work for the cause.
- **Reach out** to offer your help on their projects, whenever you have the resources to do so.
- **Thank** your allies publicly when working with a group, whether it's for paid or volunteer work. Make the members of your group feel recognized and valued individually.
- **Attribute** the work of each contributor to the name they have agreed to share publicly, depending on the platform you use. Ask first how they prefer to be credited, but do not forget to credit them.
- **Nominate** your allies for rewards/awards if the opportunity arises, and make sure to add your vote to support them.
</div>
## More resources
- [3 ways to use recognition to boost performance and engagement (*HumanResourceMag*)](https://www.humanresourcemag.com/news/277/3-ways-to-use-recognition-to-boost-performance-and-engagement)
- [The fine line between teamwork and taking credit: Why recognitionmatters (*Gwendolyn F. McGraw*)](https://blog.gwendolynmcgraw.net/2025/07/12/the-fine-line-between-teamwork-and-taking-credit-why-recognition-matters/)
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