99 Free Privacy Tools That Will Keep You Safe Online

Privacy is one of our main concerns here at Cloudwards.net. We tout the best tools to maintain it, too, many of which come with a price tag. While we do our best to mention free tools, as well, many of the options fly under the radar.

Thatā€™s why weā€™ve put together a guide of 99 free tools to protect your privacy. While most come with some downsides, the options we found will maintain your anonymity on your desktop and online.

While weā€™ve tested most of the tools on the list, we havenā€™t tested them all. Weā€™ll lead each section with our top recommendations, then, as the list continues, weā€™ll venture into tools weā€™ve read about online that should be safe. If you like to be cautious, though, stick to our first 10 or so recommendations in each section.

VPNs

free privacy tools

AĀ virtual private networkĀ secures your internet connection with military-grade encryption and otherĀ VPN securitymeasures, protecting you from internet service provider or government snooping. TheĀ best VPNĀ providers come with a no-logging policy, too, meaning that your traffic is untraceable. Undoubtedly, this is the first line of defense in protecting your online privacy.

Thereā€™s an interesting disconnect, though. As you can see in ourĀ worst free VPN guide, many options come loaded with malware and data collection tools. On the other hand, the top provider in ourĀ VPN reviews, ExpressVPN, is over $10 a month. Read ourĀ ExpressVPN reviewĀ to see why itā€™s worth it.

This is the most important, and trickiest, area to navigate. We pulled from our bestĀ free VPN servicesĀ to create a comprehensive list of options for this section. Thereā€™s a drawback with each, as is to be expected for a free service, but itā€™s better to be protected than not, even if that comes with limitations.

Be mindful of budget options on the market like Private Internet Access, though. You can learn about that service in ourĀ PIA review.

Password Managers

Password managers are the antithesis of VPNs. While they also increase your privacy and security online, there is a sea of free options that are excellent. In most cases, youā€™ll be restricted in the number of entries, but the low price of theĀ best password managersĀ usually means upgrading can be justified.

We pulled options from ourĀ password manager reviewsĀ to find the best free offerings on the market. Unlike the previous section, some of the best options are free.

Antivirus Software

Antivirus software is mainly used as a check againstĀ cybercrime, protecting against nasty malware, such as ransomware (read ourĀ what is ransomwareĀ guide). That said, other schemes, such as browser hijacking and phishing, can put your personal information at risk, as you can read in ourĀ what is phishingĀ andĀ what is browsing hijackingĀ guides.

TheĀ best antivirus softwareĀ can protect you against desktop-based threats, such as ransomware, and data mining scams, such as adware. We scanned ourĀ antivirus reviewsĀ to find the free tools that do the job best.

Secure Messaging and Email

If you want to knowĀ how to encrypt text messages, this is the section for you. Weā€™ll be running through the most secure messaging apps for your phone and desktop. While theyā€™re different, both use the same basic protection concepts, so make sure to read our guide toĀ email securityĀ to get up to speed.

Ad Blockers

Frankly, ads are annoying. Ignoring the obvious privacy issues in cross-website tracking, display advertising slows down your browsing experience and crowds the pages you land on. Weā€™re going to look at the best free ad blockers next, though check out our article on theĀ best pop-up blockers, too.

Secure Search Engines

Search engines gather a lot of data. While the data is mostly gathered for marketing purposes, it poses a major security and privacy risk. Because search engines keep it on record, anyone who can bust down the server walls can see you and what you search for online, incognito or otherwise.

There are a lot of ā€œsecureā€ search engines, many of which are just a form of browser hijacker. Discrete Search is an example. The results weā€™ve included are safe, so we recommend sticking to them.

Secure Web Browsers

Secure search engines are a good start, but using aĀ secure browserĀ can often take you further. In addition to providing anonymous search results, secure browsers usually come with ad and tracker blocking, built-in malware protection and, sometimes, a secure password manager.

Windows Privacy Tools

Windows 10 gives up a lot of your privacy before you even open a browser, itsĀ privacy settingsĀ notwithstanding. Even if youā€™ve blocked every tracker, bypassed every geoblock and secured every password, Microsoft can still gather your usage data. Weā€™re going to look at Windows tools that protect against that data mining.

Other Privacy Tools

There are plenty of other tools for protecting your privacy, many of which are unique. Weā€™ve rounded up the miscellaneous options that couldnā€™t fit neatly into another section.

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