eric.ness.net

It’s been a while since I last talked about some basic security and privacy apps I use daily.

Bitwarden (Password Manager)

One of the best applications you can use is a password manager. I started with LastPass but moved to BitWarden about a year ago. I would recommend either.

Why use a password manager?

There are several reasons you want to use a password manager, but the primary reason is that it makes storing and sharing passwords among your devices more accessible. Ideally, the goal you want to achieve is that the password manager generates all your passwords, and every site/app has a different password. Put another way; people reuse passwords all the time.

What does this prevent?

You just have to check haveibeenpwned.com to see that at least one of your passwords is almost certainly compromised. In this scenario, however, if a password is compromised, the scope of the damage is limited because all your other accounts have different passwords.

Browser Extensions

Browser extensions provide an array of additional functionality not natively supported by your browser. Some of these extensions offer extra security that adds a layer of protection.
uBlock Origin – is a wide-spectrum content blocker
Decentraleyes – emulates Content Delivery Networks to improve your online privacy
ClearURLs – automatically removes tracking elements from URLs to help protect your privacy
Password Manager – (see above)

Anon Addy

Anon Addy is an anonymous e-mail forwarding web application service. The service allows you to create dummy e-mail addresses you can use for sites and services without revealing your actual e-mail address. A free account is excellent for most people, but the paid pro account supports many wonderful features, like custom domain names.

Encrypted Online Office

CryptPad is an end-to-end encrypted, open-source collaboration suite that supports all your Microsoft-related docs. Think Google docs but encrypted, free and open source.

O&O ShutUp10++
O&O ShutUp is a free anti-spy tool for Windows 10 and 11. Microsoft Windows currently comes with many features that are turned on by default. Some of these features explicitly share some of your data with Microsoft and third-party vendors. O&O ShutUp is a convenient app that allows users to turn off some of these features.

Encrypted E-Mail

I’ve been using ProtonMail for a while now, and it’s the best for a reason. Highly recommend them.

Encrypted DNS

I am hesitant to recommend this service that encrypts DNS queries. I was initially interested in simply encrypting my DNS queries, but what NextDNS does is much more interesting. It also filters out ads, trackers, and other security threats.

My hesitancy comes from sometimes being aggressive in what it does. For instance, I recently started a post.news account. NextDNS blocked a library required to post comments (perhaps correctly) because it contained tracking info. These types of errors can be tricky to troubleshoot for the layperson.