Browsers
Brave Browser
Free browser that doesn't spy on you. Blocks ads and trackers by default.
Firefox
Free, open-source browser that respects your privacy. More configurable than Chrome and doesn't funnel data to Google.
TOR Browser
Highly secure browser that anonymizes your traffic, but with significant performance loss. For highly sensitive work.
Operating Systems
Linux Mint
Free operating system that doesn't spy on you. Good for those switching from Windows — one of the easiest Linux distros to learn.
Ubuntu Linux
Free operating system that doesn't spy on you. Good for those switching from Mac — familiar layout and strong community support.
GrapheneOS
Secure phone operating system. Significantly more private than stock Android. Only runs on Google Pixel phones.
Tails OS
Most secure operating system — runs all traffic through the TOR network. Best for highly sensitive work, but not as a daily OS.
Messaging
Signal
End-to-end encrypted messaging and calls. The gold standard for secure private communication.
SimpleX
Decentralized encrypted messenger with no user IDs — not even a phone number. Extremely private.
VPNs
Mullvad VPN
Strong privacy VPN with no account required — pay with cash or crypto. ~$5/month.
Browser Extensions for Research
Search by Image
Reverse image search to find copies of an image on other sites. For instance, reverse-search a profile photo and maybe find another account using the same picture.
WayBackMachine
See old versions of websites. Maybe there was useful information that was removed, or you find a promising search result but the page is gone — this tool can help.
Infy Scroll
Converts paginated search pages (click page after page) into unlimited scrolling. Great for scraping data from search results.
Ultimate Web Scraper
Scrapes basic information and even sub-pages if they are linked. Free version is enough for most use cases.
Instant Data Scraper
Great for basic scraping of online information. Only works if data is formatted as a table — but much of the web is, even when not obvious.