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The Future of PrivacyTools

95 points| freddyym | 4 years ago |blog.privacytools.io

41 comments

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[+] teddyh|4 years ago|reply
> Please don't discuss your name suggestions or votes in community channels. To avoid exhausting bikeshedding and ensure a fair result, we want to make this a blind vote. While we obviously can't stop you from discussing it outside of PrivacyTools's rooms, we trust that you'll do your part in making all of this a smooth process!

https://aragon.cloud/apps/forms/cMPxG9KyopapBbcw

[+] GekkePrutser|4 years ago|reply
Doesn't sound like a great plan really. If I were you I'd work harder with the domain owner to get control. It sounds like he's just hard to reach, not obstructive as such.

A name change is a huge thing and you're diluting your userbase. I also think most of your userbase will consider such name changes a bad thing as rebranding is a major marketing tool of big business which a lot of us would be sceptical of.

I think you do good work but your name is already perfect.

[+] kosasbest|4 years ago|reply
I have adopted many of the tools found on that site, and the novelty of it has worn off. It's rare now that new tools come along in the privacy space. It's a bit of a golden age / renaissance of privacy tools and there are more than enough tools now to be very private online. Some would argue the opposite, but if you put the work in, you can avoid the gaze of Big Brother.
[+] kashura|4 years ago|reply
What happened to the founder and their involvement?
[+] freddyym|4 years ago|reply
We haven't had proper contact with him for a while. And even when he was "available", it was so intermittent that he may as well have been absent. (I've been in the team for a year and they have logged on to our Matrix chat about three times). This affected fundamental tasks like updating the site and having our servers for our services work.
[+] robcohen|4 years ago|reply
Just thought I'd point out that I have a standing PR with privacytools from late 2019 and it never went anywhere, even though I was careful to ensure everything was done correctly.

https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/pull/1619

After that experience I determined that privacytools is a club for cool kids.

[+] foresto|4 years ago|reply
Your PR claims to resolve issue 1618, but an open question in that issue is not addressed anywhere that I can see:

"tell more about VyOS and how it is a privacy tool and secure and how we won't regret listing it [...] remember citations so your research can be confirmed"

Is it possible that the privacytools folks are not willfully excluding your suggestion, but merely waiting until they understand it? I know what VyOS is, but I don't imagine most people do.

[+] betwixthewires|4 years ago|reply
I'm a user of a couple of your services, specifically those that will be affected by a domain change.

The founder is Jonah Aragon right? He used to run an OpenNIC TLD if I'm correct and abandoned that for some reason a long time ago.

[+] counternotions|4 years ago|reply
Weird they are taking this so seriously. I thought this was just another one of those spam VPN review sites?
[+] freddyym|4 years ago|reply
I'm sorry you think that we are just one of 'those spam VPN review sites'. As a team member, I can assure you that we hate them just as much as you. [1]

VPNs used to play a large role in the site (they no longer do), but we've never accepted any affiliate requests. (We do however operate a sponsorship programe which we are working on making a criteria for). [2,3] We have a strict criteria for the few VPNs we do list on our site. [4] We strive to educate users on the purpose of VPNs [5], and try not to recommend when there are other options.

[1] https://blog.privacytools.io/the-trouble-with-vpn-and-privac... [2]https://www.privacytools.io/sponsors/ [3]https://github.com/privacytools/privacytools.io/issues/2134 [4] https://privacytools.io/providers/vpn/#criteria [5] https://blog.privacytools.io/understanding-vpns/

[+] apecat|4 years ago|reply
No, I find them to be a lot more ambitious than that. Worth browsing around the site, and you'll see it's not spammy at all.

If you run a serious web project, ownership of domain names is critical asset management, especially if you care for privacy. If the current domain was to get hijacked by someone's commercial ambitions, the site would probably be reworked towards the kind of BS VPN blabbering you described.

I don't agree with all of PrivacyTools' angles and priorities, making a lot of their advice pretty impractical for most people. But the purist approach is also interesting to follow, even if one doesn't jump on the bandwagon.

[+] aborsy|4 years ago|reply
You were wrong.

Their privacy recommendations are good. It’s my go-to place, and I have been a frequent user.

[+] fragileone|4 years ago|reply
Their privacy suggestions are basically the best around and packaged in a pleasant UX.
[+] NeckBeardPrince|4 years ago|reply
Why did you think that? Did you ever visit the site?