I was originally using Privacy Guides to learn about privacy related items, but they’re pretty psychotic over there, especially about device/OS choice. I’m fine with using Brave/Mullvad, Brave Search, etc., but there are certain thing that I need to have on my phone, whether it’s for my family, for my company, etc. I’d like to improve the privacy settings on devices like my Samsung phone, iPhone, Windows PC, and Mac. Privacy Guides doesn’t really even allow for discourse on that, going so far as telling me to sell my company because it primarily revolves around producing software that doesn’t run on Linux devices.
Not everyone can use Linux for everything, and I have had terrible experiences with Pixels, both running Pixels’ operating system and others. But they refuse to acknowledge that anything else exists, and obliterate people on their forums for asking about privacy settings for other devices. So I was hoping to find other communities in addition to this one on Reddit and Techlore that aren’t just completely nuts. Any suggestions?
Might be of interest: https://www.privacytools.io/guides/jonah-aragon-privacyguides-failed-attempt-to-takeover
Privacytools.io actively promotes VPN services that advertise heavilly on YouTube, and have no good track record, like NordVPN (which is at the top of their list of VPNs), which leads me to believe that they are paid by NordVPN to promote their service.
Mullvad (the most trustworthy VPN IMO in terms of track record) is at the bottom of their list.
At the top of their main website, they also have Incogni as a recommendation with what looks to be a referral link. They also have a referral link for Startmail, Internxt (whatever that is), and probably others as well.
On their front page: “Sponsors can be exempted from the criteria.”
Anyone trying to recommend privacy services who also accept sponsorships are not trustworthy.
Also, on their crypto page, they recommend both AgoraDesk and LocalMonero, both of which shut down last year, which leads me to believe that some of their information is also out of date.
When I look at PrivacyGuides, I see none of these issues, so I recommend PrivacyGuides over ptio. In fact, on their VPN page, not only do they recommend relatively trustworthy VPNs, but they also have a big red warning about VPN usage and what to expect in terms of privacy that ptio does not have.
Wasn’t privacytools the original, before they were bought out and the original people moved to privacy guides?
https://www.privacyguides.org/en/about/privacytools/