Most privacy tools are not magical. A VPN does not make you anonymous, Tor does not protect you from bad habits, and switching browsers does not suddenly make tracking disappear.


What these tools can do is reduce how much information you expose, limit who can see it, and make different parts of your online activity harder to connect together.


This guide is based mainly on recommendations from Privacy Guides, with a few additions based on other sources and my own experience. The goal is not to create the most paranoid setup possible, but to give a practical overview of tools that are actually worth knowing about.


If you want the full technical criteria behind each recommendation, Privacy Guides is the better source. This is the shorter, more opinionated version.

Start With Your Threat Model

Before installing anything, it helps to figure out what you are actually trying to protect against.


There is a big difference between:

  • avoiding advertising trackers
  • hiding DNS requests from your ISP
  • protecting files stored in the cloud
  • preventing phishing
  • hiding your IP address
  • staying anonymous while researching something sensitive

For normal privacy, a hardened browser, password manager, encrypted messaging, and a good VPN may be plenty.


If anonymity is the goal, Tor and stricter separation between identities matter much more.


The important thing is not stacking as many privacy tools as possible. It is using the right tool for the problem.

Browsing and Anonymity

Tor Browser

If I genuinely do not want browsing activity tied back to me, Tor Browser is usually the first tool I think about.


Tor sends traffic through several relays before it reaches its destination, making it much harder for websites and network observers to directly associate your IP address with what you are visiting.


The important part is that Tor Browser is designed to make users look similar. Because of that, heavily customizing it can actually hurt your anonymity.


Keep it boring:

  • do not install random extensions
  • avoid changing advanced settings unless you know why
  • avoid logging into accounts linked to your normal identity
  • keep anonymous activity separate from normal browsing

Tor is particularly useful for sensitive research, censorship circumvention, and situations where hiding your real IP matters more than convenience.


On Android, Orbot can route applications through Tor. On iOS, Onion Browser is the main Tor-focused option.

Mullvad Browser

Mullvad Browser is basically built around many of the same anti-fingerprinting ideas as Tor Browser, but without routing traffic through Tor.


I like it for situations where I want stronger browser privacy without the speed penalty of Tor. It makes the most sense when paired with a VPN and left mostly at its default configuration.

Brave and Firefox

For everyday browsing, you probably do not need Tor.


Brave is one of the easiest privacy-focused browsers to recommend because most of the important protections are already built in. Enable aggressive tracker blocking, disable features you do not use, and you already have a fairly strong everyday setup.


Firefox can also be very good, but it usually requires more configuration. Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection, HTTPS-Only mode, reduced telemetry, and sensible cookie settings are a good start.


For extensions, uBlock Origin remains one of the most useful additions where supported.


On iPhone, browser choice matters less than people often think because browsers use Apple’s WebKit engine. Safari already provides strong privacy protections for most users.

VPNs and DNS

A VPN is useful, but it is probably the most misunderstood privacy tool.


It moves trust from your ISP to the VPN provider. Your ISP can no longer easily see which services you connect to, but the VPN provider now sits in that position instead.


A VPN is useful for:

  • hiding your public IP from websites
  • reducing ISP visibility
  • untrusted Wi-Fi networks
  • torrenting
  • bypassing some regional restrictions

It does not make you anonymous if you immediately log into Google, Instagram, Microsoft, and every other account connected to your identity.


The VPN providers I generally look at first are:

  • Mullvad
  • Proton VPN
  • IVPN

Encrypted DNS solves a smaller problem. Services such as Quad9, NextDNS, Mullvad DNS, Cloudflare, and ControlD can stop basic DNS snooping and provide features such as malware or tracker blocking.


Just remember that encrypted DNS does not hide your browsing activity by itself.

Email and Messaging

For email, Proton Mail is probably the easiest privacy-focused recommendation. It gives you encrypted storage, strong authentication options, and good integration with the rest of the Proton ecosystem.


Mailbox.org is another solid option if you prefer something closer to traditional email hosting.


Email itself is still an old protocol, though. Even with a privacy-focused provider, not every part of an email can magically become private.


For actual conversations, I would choose Signal.


It provides end-to-end encryption by default and does not require the user to understand much about cryptography. That matters because a secure messaging application is not very useful if normal people find it too annoying to use.


I would recommend creating a Signal username and limiting who can see or discover your phone number.

Passwords and Authentication

Privacy falls apart quickly if someone simply takes over your accounts.


A password manager should therefore be part of almost any privacy setup.


My main picks are:

  • Bitwarden for a strong open-source all-rounder
  • 1Password for probably the nicest overall user experience
  • Proton Pass if you already use Proton services

The exact password manager matters less than using one properly. Generate long, unique passwords for every important account and enable multi-factor authentication wherever possible.


For important accounts, passkeys or hardware security keys such as YubiKeys provide much stronger protection against phishing than passwords alone.

Files, Cloud Storage and Encryption

If you store sensitive files in the cloud, encryption should happen before you have to trust the storage provider.


Proton Drive and Tresorit are designed around encrypted cloud storage and are good options if you want something that mostly works out of the box.


Nextcloud is great if you want control and are comfortable self-hosting, but running your own infrastructure also means taking responsibility for updates, backups, authentication, and hardening.


Another approach is to encrypt files yourself before uploading them.


Useful tools include:

  • Cryptomator for encrypting cloud folders
  • VeraCrypt for encrypted containers and volumes
  • BitLocker for Windows disk encryption
  • FileVault for macOS disk encryption

For sharing files privately, OnionShare is especially interesting because files can be shared directly over Tor rather than uploaded to a normal hosting provider.

Notes and Photos

For encrypted notes, the tools I find most interesting are Standard Notes, Notesnook, and Joplin.


Standard Notes is simple and focused. Notesnook offers a more modern experience, while Joplin is excellent if you want more control and do not mind configuring things yourself.


For photos, Ente is one of the strongest Google Photos alternatives if end-to-end encryption matters to you.


If you prefer hosting everything yourself, tools such as PhotoPrism give you much more control, although self-hosting should not automatically be confused with security. A badly maintained personal server can be less secure than a reputable hosted service.

Metadata Is Easy to Forget

You can remove your name from a document and still accidentally reveal where it came from.


Photos can contain GPS coordinates, camera information, timestamps, and other EXIF metadata. Documents may contain usernames, software versions, revision history, or other hidden information.


Useful tools include:

  • ExifTool for detailed metadata inspection and removal
  • MAT2 on Linux
  • ExifEraser on Android
  • Metapho on iOS

For example, ExifTool can remove metadata from files with:

exiftool -all= *.jpg

This is especially worth remembering before publishing photos or documents anonymously.

Operating Systems

Applications only protect you so far. Eventually, everything runs on an operating system.


For Android, GrapheneOS is one of the strongest options if you use a supported Google Pixel. It focuses heavily on security hardening while still being usable as a normal phone.


For desktop Linux, Fedora Workstation is a good balance between security and usability. I would recommend it much sooner than something like Arch to someone who simply wants a secure daily system.


For more specialized situations:

  • Tails is designed for anonymous sessions through Tor
  • Qubes OS isolates activities into separate virtualized environments
  • Arch Linux gives you enormous control, but also makes you responsible for maintaining that control

Qubes and Tails are excellent tools, but they solve very different problems from a normal desktop operating system.

What I Would Actually Use

If someone asked me for a practical privacy setup without turning privacy into a full-time hobby, I would keep it relatively simple:

  • Brave or Firefox for normal browsing
  • Tor Browser when anonymity actually matters
  • Mullvad or Proton VPN
  • Signal for messaging
  • Bitwarden, 1Password, or Proton Pass
  • MFA or passkeys on important accounts
  • Proton Drive, Tresorit, or Cryptomator for sensitive files
  • FileVault or BitLocker enabled on the computer
  • Ente if private photo backups matter

Anything beyond that should come from an actual need rather than trying to maximize some imaginary privacy score.


The biggest privacy improvement usually does not come from installing another tool. It comes from reducing how much information you give away, separating identities when necessary, using strong authentication, and understanding which services you are trusting.


Privacy is less about disappearing from the internet and more about deciding who gets to know what about you.