Privacy Pack | End-to-End Encryption

More for Android

1. Encrypt your phone and choose a 10 digit PIN, too, for very strong protection if your phone is lost, stolen, or seized.
2. Firefox & Brave syncs your passwords securely, and lets you install privacy-protecting extensions like Adblock Plus (Brave has a built-in Ad-Blocker), Noscript, and HTTPS Everywhere (most web browsers now natively support this).
3. Don't trust carriers. Buy your Android phone directly from Google, or if you're tech savvy, install LineageOS, and also note that CyanogenMod was forked and re-branded to LineageOS in December 2016.
4. Orbot and Orweb let you browse the web privately and anonymously with Tor.
5. For savvy users, K-9 and OpenKeychain: Easy PGP let you send encrypted emails.

More for IPhone

1. According to Apple's Legal Process Guidelines, Facetime calls and iMessages are end-to-end encrypted. This is significant, but Signal Private Messenger is more secure and trustworthy.
2. Use a PIN on your iPhone for better legal protection against searches, and some protection against thieves.

More for Mac

1. Filevault is built-in, and protects you if your Mac is lost, stolen, or seized. Turn on Filevault.
2. GPG tools lets you encrypt emails using Apple's Mail.app

More for Windows

1. Firefox syncs your passwords securely, and lets you install privacy-protecting extensions like Adblock Plus, Noscript, and HTTPS Everywhere.
2. For savvy users, Thunderbird and Enigmail let you encrypt your emails.

More for GNU/Linux

1. Firefox syncs your passwords securely, and lets you install privacy-protecting extensions like Adblock Plus, Noscript, and HTTPS Everywhere.
2. For savvy users, Thunderbird and Enigmail let you encrypt your emails (Thunderbird now has OpenPGP natively supported). Enigmail can still work on SeaMonkey.
3. Tails is a USB-bootable operating system for privacy and anonymity. Try it!
4. Many GNU/Linux distributions provide support for Full Disk Encryption. Instructions for Ubuntu.
5. GNU/Linux users, install all these tools from your favorite package manager.

Other resources

We may not officially endorse all of the tools they recommended, but these are all great resources:

1. Encrypt All the Things
2. The Surveillance Self Defense Project
3. PRISM break
4. Email Self Defense

Important notes

Re: Pidgin and Adium, if you believe you may be the specific target of surveillance, these aren't the tools for you. Pidgin has had a large number of remotely exploitable vulnerabilites recently, and auditors looking at the code believe there are likely to be many more. Still, these tools are effective against passive mass surveillance, and they're unusually easy to use.

Cryptocat is not a magic bullet. Even though Cryptocat provides useful encryption, you should never trust any piece of software with your life, and Cryptocat is no exception. Cryptocat does not mask your IP address or hide your identity, and, like all software, cannot fully protect against a targeted attack on your person or electronics.

This page was made in consultation with technologists and activists at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and their contribution was invaluable. Thanks EFF!

Wondering why we didn't include (insert app here)? Read our criteria for these recommendations.

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