---
layout: page
permalink: /about/
title: "About PrivacyTools"
description: "About the PrivacyTools organization, and contributors to the PrivacyTools website, communities, and services."
hidedesc: true
---
<div itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/Organization">
<meta itemprop="alternateName" content="privacytoolsIO">
<meta itemprop="alternateName" content="Privacy Tools">
<meta itemprop="alternateName" content="privacytools.io">
<link itemprop="logo" href="{{ site.production_url }}/assets/img/svg/layout/brand/square-transparent.svg">
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    <p itemprop="description"><em>You are being watched. Private and state-sponsored organizations are monitoring and recording your online activities.</em></p>
    <p>At <strong itemprop="name">PrivacyTools</strong>, we provide services, tools, and knowledge to protect your <span itemprop="knowsAbout">privacy</span> against <span itemprop="knowsAbout">global mass surveillance</span>, and moderate a thriving community of privacy-minded individuals like yourself to discuss and learn about new advances in protecting your online data. <a itemprop="url" href="{{ site.production_url }}">This website</a> serves as the centerpiece of our organization, where we research and recommend various software solutions for our community.</p>
    <p><strong>Transparency</strong> is our strongest value, and it's what sets us apart from the rest of the "privacy recommendations" community. Editorial changes to this website and the products we recommend are always discussed on our extensive <a href="https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/issues">issue tracker</a>, drafted in a public <a href="https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/pulls">pull request</a> open for further discussion, and logged in a comprehensive <a href="https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/commits/master">commit log</a> dating back to our original founding date in <span itemprop="foundingDate">2015</span>. The <em>core</em> team members listed below are responsible for most of the edits and final decisions to changes on this website and across our services, but this website is truly the work of hundreds <a href="https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/graphs/contributors">contributors and fact checkers</a> working to make sure our recommendations are solid and trustworthy.</p>
    <p>Additionally, we are a not-for-profit organization. We do not utilize paid recommendations or affiliate programs to make the recommendations on this website. Unfortunately this practice is very common elsewhere online, which makes it difficult to trust other review sites. We are unique in this area, in that all of our research is conducted independently, and we will never accept payments to modify, add, or remove any of our reviews or recommendations. Our finances are provided entirely by our community <a href="https://opencollective.com/privacytools">donors</a> and <a href="/sponsors/">sponsors</a>, and are handled by the Open Collective Foundation 501(c)(3). Because we are operating as a charity in the United States, we are legally obligated to only use our funding to further our mission of spreading privacy education and promoting online services like Mastodon, Matrix, and WriteFreely. This website is a public resource, not a profit generator. To that regard, all our financial transactions (incoming and outgoing) are logged and made available to the public via our page at <a href="https://opencollective.com/privacytools">opencollective.com/privacytools</a>.</p>
    <p>We take the operation of our various <a href="/services/">services</a> very seriously, and require all participants to adhere to our <a href="https://github.com/privacytools/.github/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md">Code of Conduct</a>. For any questions or to report abuse, please see our CoC’s <a href="https://github.com/privacytools/.github/blob/master/CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md#enforcement">Enforcement section</a>.</p>
  </div>
</div>

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    <h2>Team Members</h2>
  </div>
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<div class="row">
{% include team.html
avatar="burung.png"
name="Burung Hantu"
role="Founder"
bio="I founded PrivacyTools in 2015 to share resources and tools, allowing users to avoid international mass-surveillance programs."
keys="https://keybase.io/privacytools"
mastodon="https://social.privacytools.io/@BurungHantu"
twitter="privacytoolsIO"
%}

{% include team.html
avatar="blacklight447.png"
name="Niek de Wilde"
bio="I research new privacy recommendations and moderate our communities. My expertise is endpoint security and networking."
role="Editor-in-chief"
email="mailto:blacklight447@privacytools.io"
mastodon="https://social.privacytools.io/@blacklight447"
blog="blacklight447"
%}

{% include team.html
avatar="dngray.png"
name="dngray"
nick="Daniel Gray"
bio="I liaise with and research privacy-focused services to refine our recommendations. My background is infosec and network security."
website="https://dngray.netlify.com"
email="https://dngray.netlify.com/email"
keys="https://keybase.io/dngray"
mastodon="https://social.privacytools.io/@dngray"
%}

{% include team.html
avatar="freddy.png"
name="Freddy Marsden"
nick="Freddy"
bio="I'm an amateur writer covering privacy, security and open-source development."
role="Blogging & Education"
website="https://write.privacytools.io/freddy/"
email="mailto:freddy@privacytools.io"
mastodon="https://social.privacytools.io/@freddy"
blog="freddy"
%}

{% include team.html
avatar="lynn.png"
name="Lynn Stephenson"
bio="I'm a software developer doing some pentesting on the side, specializing in security, cryptography, networking, web development, and accessibility."
role="Researcher"
email="mailto:lynn@privacytools.io"
mastodon="https://ioc.exchange/@lynn_stephenson"
%}

{% include team.html
avatar="trai_dep.png"
name="trai_dep"
role="Subreddit Mod"
bio="I'm the moderator at r/Privacy and r/privacytoolsIO. Day to day, I am also – <i>irony alert</i> – an (ethical) digital marketer."
email="mailto:trai_dep@privacytools.io"
website="https://www.reddit.com/user/trai_dep"
%}
</div>

<div class="row mt-4 mb-4">
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    <div class="card">
      <div class="card-body">
        <p class="card-text">Of course, we couldn't do any of this without our very generous <a href="https://opencollective.com/privacytools/">financial contributors</a>, <a href="https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/graphs/contributors">website contributors</a>, and the countless community members that help share new ideas and spread the word! Thank you.</p>
        <a href="/#participate" class="btn btn-primary"><i class="fas fa-hands-helping"></i> Get involved!</a>
        <a href="/donate/" class="btn btn-outline-danger"><i class="fas fa-heart"></i> Donate</a>
      </div>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

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    <h2>Emeritus</h2>
    <p>Emeriti are honorary PrivacyTools team members who have formerly contributed to the project in a central way but are no longer currently active.</p>
  </div>
</div>

<div class="row">
{% include team.html
name="Mikaela Suomalainen"
website="https://mikaela.info/"
keys="https://gitea.blesmrt.net/mikaela/shell-things/src/branch/master/.mikaela/keys"
emeritus=true
%}

{% include team.html
name="Dan Arel"
website="https://danarel.com"
keys="https://www.danarel.com/keys/"
blog="danarel"
emeritus=true
%}

{% include team.html
name="Dawid Potocki"
website="https://dawidpotocki.com"
keys="https://dawidpotocki.com/accounts/#pgp"
blog="dawidpotocki"
emeritus=true
%}

{% include team.html
name="Andreas Basurto"
nick="nitrohorse"
website="https://nitrohorse.com/"
keys="https://nitrohorse.com/keys"
blog="nitrohorse"
emeritus=true
%}

{% include team.html
name="Jonah Aragon"
role="Former Sysadmin"
website="https://jonaharagon.com"
keys="https://jonaharagon.com/accounts/"
mastodon="https://social.privacytools.io/@jonah"
blog="jonah"
twitter="JonahAragon"
emeritus=true
%}
</div>

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    <h2>Contact Us</h2>
    <p>It's very important to us to stay up-to-date on the latest changes in the privacy space. If you have a software recommendation for us, or want to request a change on this website, please don't hesitate to reach out in one of the following ways.</p>
    <p><a href="https://forum.privacytools.io/"><i class="fab fa-discourse fa-lg fa-fw"></i> Start a discussion in our Discourse forum</a></p>
    <p><a href="https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/issues"><i class="fab fa-github fa-lg fa-fw"></i> Open an issue on GitHub</a></p>
    <p><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/privacytoolsIO/"><i class="fab fa-reddit fa-lg fa-fw"></i> Suggest something new on our subreddit</a></p>
    <p>For complete transparency, software and providers will only be considered for this website after discussions take place on our GitHub issue tracker. We of course don't make any changes in secret.</p>
    <p>Join our Matrix room at <code>#general:privacytools.io</code> to chat with us and other members about this site and privacy in general! If you need a Matrix account, you can sign up with our own homeserver (<code>https://chat.privacytools.io</code>) using <a href="https://element.privacytools.io">Element</a>.</p>
    <p>You can also email the team at <a itemprop="email" href="mailto:support@privacytools.io">support@privacytools.io</a> and find us on <a itemprop="sameAs" href="https://twitter.com/privacytoolsIO">Twitter</a> and <a itemprop="sameAs" href="https://social.privacytools.io/@privacytools">Mastodon</a>.</p>
    <link itemprop="sameAs" href="https://blog.privacytools.io">
    <link itemprop="sameAs" href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCen3taxHtzByXV8Da73B1Vg">
    <link itemprop="sameAs" href="https://github.com/privacytools">
  </div>
</div>
</div>