Selecting Our Favorite Privacy Tools
It seems like every day there’s a new privacy tool on the market. But how do you know if it’s a legitimate tool or company?
No worries! We’re here to help with some questions to ask about a given tool and recommendations of some of our favorites.
How to Select a Privacy Tool
- Check the privacy policy. This is where you’ll learn exactly what the tool does. Make sure to check if a) they collect and/or store any personal data, b) what they do with your personal data, c) what security and privacy measures are in place to protect your personal data. If you can’t find the privacy policy or make sense of it, ask questions.To read Startpage’s privacy policy: https://startpage.gg/en/privacy-policy/
- Where is the company headquartered? Companies are subject to the privacy laws of their headquarters. This means, if you use a privacy tool from a company headquartered in the USA, the company must comply with surveillance laws from the USA and therefore must turn data over to law enforcement.On the other hand, Startpage is HQ’ed in the Netherlands, meaning we comply with Dutch and EU privacy laws (which are the most stringent in the world). https://startpage.gg/privacy-please/privacy-news/overview-startpage-gdpr-ccpa
- What’s their revenue model? To provide a service such as a privacy tool, a company will either need to fundraise, use ads to make money, or charge users for the service. It’s always helpful to follow the money and see what the company is doing with your personal data.Unlike non-private search engines, Startpage generates its income from contextual ads. This means the ads you see in your search results page are based on your search query, not your search history or online activity. This is less profitable than behavioral ads which are based on your search history and online activity, but it’s a more ethical form of advertising. For more information: https://startpage.gg/privacy-please/privacy-awareness/advertising-respects-privacy
The Startpage Team’s Favorite Privacy Tools
As you may have guessed, everyone on the Startpage team is passionate about privacy and will fight over what they think are the best privacy tools. So we asked some of our worldwide team for their go-to privacy tools.
“My favorite privacy tool is Privacy Badger!”
– Dan, Startpage Support
Privacy Badger (https://privacybadger.org/) is a browser add-on that stops advertisers and other third-party trackers from secretly tracking where you go and what pages you look at on the web. It’s a free tool developed and maintained by Electronic Frontier Foundation (https://www.eff.org/).
“AdGuard and Express VPN. Both are paid products. I think if you want value you should pay for it, [otherwise] you are the product. No free lunch.”
– Terence, Startpage Dev Ops Engineer
AdGuard (https://adguard.com/en/welcome.html) is an ad blocker and Express VPN (https://www.expressvpn.com/) is a virtual private network. AdGuard blocks ads, online tracking and protects your computer from malware. Express VPN encrypts your web traffic and masks your IP address. Both are paid privacy tools.
“Besides my private search engine, Startpage and the Anonymous View feature (!) … my favorite privacy tool is my encrypted email – StartMail. I use it for all email correspondence and especially when I want to communicate privately about health-related, financial, or login details. Besides using the PGP encryption that is built-in, if I want to communicate with a person who does not have a PGP key, I can send a link to an encrypted message. The contents of my messages are protected!
– Sally, Startpage Senior Director of Support
Our sister company, StartMail () is a private email service. StartMail offers PGP encryption compatible with all major browsers and allows you to send an encrypted email to anyone. You can sign up for an annual fee of $59.95.
Signal because it’s encrypted, simple, and free!
– Kelly, Director of Brand and Content
Signal (https://signal.org/) is an end-to-end encryption messaging tool. You can set your messages to expire from 5 seconds to 1 week. It’s a free, open-source tool developed by Open Whisper Systems.
“I like Firefox Send. When I need to send a file and I want to limit the number of downloads, this is a solid tool. It’s super easy to use and makes me feel better to know it has end-to-end encryption.”
– Karina, Startpage Social Media
Firefox Send (https://send.firefox.com/) is a file-sharing tool that uses end-to-end encryption. You can send files while maintaining your personal data secure. Before sending your file, you can set your file to expire, limit the number of downloads, and add a password. Firefox Send is a free tool by Mozilla, but if you want to send files larger than 1G, you’ll need to provide your email.
What are your favorite privacy tools? How do you select them? Connect with us on social media and let us know.
The views expressed by Startpage staff in this article are those of the individual and do not necessarily reflect those of Startpage.
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