Normal Security

Normal Security is a minimal guide to help you maximize your digital privacy and security. You'll find a single app recommendation across the most important parts of your digital life.

If you're a security expert, this guide probably isn't for you. If you're someone who knows the importance of digital privacy and security but is overwhelmed with the amount of information on the internet, this guide is 💯 for you. If you're a digital security trainer, this guide is a great entry point that you can share.

Talk

Signal

Signal is a user-friendly private messenger. It's regarded as having the strongest encryption available to consumers and is recommended by activists and governments alike. The app has a large user base, so you'll probably find that a lot of your friends and family are already using it.

Learn more at signal.org

Passwords

Bitwarden

Having strong and unique passwords is one of the best ways you can protect your accounts online. Bitwarden is a simple but powerful password manager that stores logins, notes, identity, and credit card information. Extensions are available for many browsers making logging in easy.

Two-factor support is available for paid users.

Learn more at bitwarden.com

Internet

Firefox

Firefox is the most well-known browser developed by a non-profit organization. It has built-in blocking of trackers and other malicious things, making it a great option for those that don't want to install too many extensions.

Learn more at firefox.com

Ad Blocking

uBlock Origin

uBlock Origin is a powerful adblocking extension for many popular browsers. It'll show you how many ads and other trackers are being blocked on the website you're viewing.

Learn more at ublockorigin.com

Two-Factor

Authy

Two-factor is the best way to secure your online accounts. Any account that has your personal, financial, or other sensitive information should absolutely have two-factor enabled. You'll pair your accounts with an app that generates a unique and random code that's required to log in. This ensures that if your passwords are ever stolen, nobody will be able to access your accounts unless they also have access to your two-factor app.

Authy is recommended over open-source alternatives because of its cloud backups. All of your two-factor pairings are automatically restored when you log in to the app on a new device.

Learn more at authy.com

Productivity

Skiff

Skiff is the private Google Docs. It has a clean UI, your data is end-to-end encrypted, you can log in with your Metamask wallet, and you can opt-in to use a new decentralized file storage system called IPFS.

Learn more at skiff.org

FILES

Keybase

Keybase is more than just a secure file storage solution. If you work on a team, it's great for collaboration, offering encrypted chat, shared storage, and git functionality. The main value that's available to everyone is its 250 GB of free encrypted storage!

Learn more at keybase.io

Notes

Standard Notes

Standard Notes is a straightforward encrypted note-taking app. Desktop and mobile apps are available for all major platforms, making it accessible wherever you are. The free option lacks common formatting features like rich text, but is nevertheless recommended for its portability and data security practices.

Learn more at standardnotes.org

Email

ProtonMail

ProtonMail is a secure email service. ProtonMail data at rest and in transit are encrypted, and when two ProtonMail users message each other, their conversation is protected by PGP in the background. There are free and paid tiers, with optional VPN, calendar, and file storage services.

Learn more at protonmail.com

VPN

Mullvad

A VPN, or virtual private network, hides your physical location from the websites you connect to, and secures your connection from eavesdroppers. When you use a commercial VPN, you're connecting to a remote computer that forwards your web requests, making it appear that you're connecting from that machine. For example, if your VPN is in Germany and you visit google.com, you'll see the language is now German, and when you search for restaurants, you'll only see results from that country.

Mullvad is easy to use, doesn't log any data, and has additional configuration features available for advanced users.

Learn more at mullvad.net

Anonymity

Tor Browser

Tor Browser is an anonymous, anti-censorship browser developed by the Tor Project.

Like a VPN, Tor routes your web requests through other computers, hiding your location. But unlike a VPN, Tor is a decentralized network of volunteer computers around the world. With no central server that receives every request, it removes a single point of failure.

Learn more at torproject.org

Already have Tor Browser and need help finding trustworthy .onion sites? Check out uncensored.domains for links to Twitter, New York Time, BBC, and more!