Tools
Small, free tools that back up the guides. Where possible they run entirely in your own browser, so what you check never reaches our server.
Colour key. Every tool tells you where your data goes.
● Stays in your browser What you type or upload is handled on your own device and never leaves it.
■ Uses our server Something is handled by this site's server. The last column says exactly what, and whether it is stored.
▲ Uses an outside tool The job involves a service that is not ours. We have vetted these, but they are not under our control, they can change, and they have their own privacy practices.
Plain links to outside sites inside a guide do not count; only what you type, upload or look up does.
| Data | Tool | What it does | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|---|
| ● Stays in your browser | Email address protector | Hide your email address from spam robots before you put it on a web page: get a copy-and-paste snippet that shows visitors a normal clickable link. | Your browser only. The address is never sent or stored, and no outside service is used. |
| ● Stays in your browser | Guest Wi-Fi sign maker | For restaurants, cafés and shops: make a printable guest Wi-Fi sign with a QR code, so customers join without typing the password. | Your browser only. The network name and passphrase are never sent or stored. |
| ● Stays in your browser | What should I do? (privacy quiz) | Five short questions, then a prioritized checklist built from this site's guides and tools, matched to who you are and what worries you. | Your browser only. Answers are never stored, sent or put in the address bar. |
| ● Stays in your browser | Privacy settings checklists | Step-by-step lists of the settings to change on Google, iPhone, Android, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and WhatsApp: where to find each one and why it matters. Tick them off as you go. | Your browser only. Ticks are not saved unless you choose to, and never sent to us. |
| ● Stays in your browser | Email alias guide | Find out which kind of alias or burner address fits you (masking service, your own domain, a separate mailbox or a throwaway), see how they compare, and make random alias names. | Your browser only. Nothing you enter is sent or stored. |
| ● Stays in your browser | VPN comparison | A filterable table of the VPN services we list: where each is based, whether you can sign up without an email, pay with cash or crypto, and whether it publishes independent audits. | Your browser only. Nothing you choose is sent or stored. |
| ● Stays in your browser | Scenario guides | Before, during and after checklists for attending a protest, crossing a border with your devices, and reporting from a risky place. Includes a quick-exit button. | Your browser only. Nothing you read or choose is sent or stored. |
| ▲ Uses an outside tool | DNS leak check | See the address websites see for you, then follow a short test to find out whether your VPN is really hiding the sites you visit from your internet provider, and how to fix it if not. | Our server shows your address while the page loads. It is not stored or logged. The leak test itself is on an outside site you choose to open. |
| ▲ Uses an outside tool | Data breach check | How to find out whether your email address was in a data breach, what to do for each kind of leaked data, and how to spot fake breach-checker sites. We never ask for your address. | Nothing runs here. You are pointed to Have I Been Pwned and Mozilla Monitor, which are outside sites. |
| ■ Uses our server | Self-destructing note | Write a private message and get a one-time link. It is encrypted in your browser, can be opened once, and is then deleted. Optional extra passphrase. | Encrypted in your browser. Our server holds only scrambled data it cannot read, until it is opened or expires. |
| ▲ Uses an outside tool | Data broker opt-out tracker | Get your details off people-search sites and data brokers for free, track which requests you sent and when to re-check, and write an erasure request under GDPR, UK, California or Canadian law. | The tracker and letter run in your browser and nothing is sent to us. The removal forms themselves are on the brokers' own sites, which are outside our control. |
| ● Stays in your browser | Country digital-safety research | Pick a country for links to live measurements of internet blocking and press freedom, plus a checklist of what to find out before you travel or speak out. Deliberately no scores. | Your browser only. Nothing you pick is sent or stored. |
| ● Stays in your browser | Photo metadata stripper | See the location, phone model and other hidden data inside a photo, then download a clean copy before you post or send it. JPEG, PNG and WebP. | Your browser only. Photos are never uploaded. |
| ● Stays in your browser | Message and file encryption | Lock a message or a file with a passphrase, then send it over any channel. Only someone who knows the passphrase can read it. Standard AES-256 encryption. | Your browser only. Nothing is sent or stored, and the passphrase never leaves your device. |
| ● Stays in your browser | Scrub personal details from text | Replace emails, phone numbers, addresses, card numbers, keys and passwords with placeholders before you paste text into an AI chat or a support ticket, then put your originals back into the reply. | Your browser only. Text is never sent or stored. |
| ● Stays in your browser | Document metadata cleaner | See the author, company, comments and editing history hidden in a PDF, Word, Excel or PowerPoint file, then download a clean copy. It also lists what cannot be removed. | Your browser only. Documents are never uploaded. |
| ● Stays in your browser | Photo redaction | Cover faces, license plates, house numbers, signs and other visible details in a photo. Black box, pixelate or blur; saved permanently into the copy. | Your browser only. Photos are never uploaded. |
| ▲ Uses an outside tool | Password checker and generator | Realistic strength estimate and advice, an optional check against known data breaches, and a generator for strong passphrases and passwords. | Your browser only. The breach check sends a partial hash, never the password. |
| ● Stays in your browser | QR code inspector | Read a QR code from a photo or the camera and see what is really inside, including the true web address, look-alike domains, Wi-Fi passwords and payment requests, before you go anywhere. | Your browser only. Nothing is sent, and no link is ever opened for you. |
| ● Stays in your browser | Link cleaner | Strip hidden tracking codes from a link before you share it. Smart mode keeps what the page needs; strict mode removes everything after the ?. | Your browser only. Links are never sent anywhere or opened. |
| ■ Uses our server | What your browser reveals | See the details any website can read about your browser and device without asking, and the fingerprint ID they add up to. | Your browser only. Nothing is stored or sent. The page also shows what the server sees with any request. |
| ■ Uses our server | Am I on Tor? | Shows the address the internet sees for you and whether it belongs to a Tor exit node. | Our server compares your address to Tor's public list. It is not stored or logged. |
More tools are added over time. Outside tools we recommend are on the Resources page.