My essential app toolkit.

When I began to prioritize privacy, security, and transparency in my digital life, I didn’t realize how deeply it would permeate my daily existence. Many of the apps and programs I had freely used before no longer stood up to the new level of scrutiny I employed.

I spent a considerable amount of time combing through different replacements and researching products. I sought out apps that were secure, ideally open source, and had transparent policies.

One of the most surprising things that I discovered is just how many open source alternatives there are out there. An entire community exists full of developers who are committed to creating free, quality products that anyone can audit and verify.

Below you will find a compiled list of some of my favorite applications, each of which I use on a daily basis.

Signal

Signal is a free, end-to-end encrypted chat client that can be used on mobile or desktop. It is open source, and recommended by several security experts worldwide. I currently use it as my main SMS client on my phone. Regular SMS messages are of course, unencrypted, but for my friends and family who have adopted Signal, it provides an easy way to communicate securely. It has a clean interface that is intuitive and easy to use, even for the less technologically-adept. Signal uses a cryptographically secure protocol for messages, one so coveted that it was even adopted by Whatsapp.

For me, a major draw to Signal is its commitment to confidentiality, as evidenced by its privacy policy. Straightforward, easy to read, and free of fluff, Signal’s privacy policy is a shining example of how privacy policies should look in the information era. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a secure messaging client.

Bitwarden

Bitwarden is a free, open-source password manager that is available on desktop, mobile, web, and as a browser extension. I personally can never overstate the importance of a password manager. With security breaches being almost a daily occurence, it’s important to have a unique, strong password for every site, and Bitwarden can help you manage this.

Bitwarden has become an integral part of my workflow. It so easy to generate and securely store unique passwords for every site that I visit. All that I have to do is remember one master password, which acts as the encryption key. Some of its features include a password and passphrase generator, the ability to store additional items such as secure notes, credit cards, and identity information, and the option to enable two-factor authentication. It has a straightforward interface with the ability to auto-fill passwords, and automatically detect and save new passwords. It boasts a command line interface for power users, and for the more privacy-conscious, it has the ability to be hosted on your own private server.

Blokada

Blokada is a free, open source ad blocker for Android. It is flexible, allowing you to choose the specific domains you would like to block through custom blacklists and “hosts” files in addition to the default ones provided. This means you can choose to block not only ads and trackers, but, in essence, any domain that you want. In my opinion, one of the best features is that it blocks ads at a device level - meaning in all of your apps and programs - without requiring root access. It also has optional live notifications of what sites are being blocked, conveniently allowing you to monitor what is being blocked and whitelist necessary domains in real-time.

AnySoftKeyboard

AnySoftKeyboard is a free, open source keyboard for Android. If you’re anything like me, you absolutely cannot stand the stock keyboard on your phone. Since a keyboard potentially has access to all the data you ever type, it’s important to choose one that you trust. AnySoftKey is my keyboard of choice because in addition to being open source, it provides a host of customization options. With a rich selection of tweaks and options, you can make your keyboard look exactly how you want. It also provides an incognito mode that when enabled, will prevent your typing history from being saved.