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Privacy & Security
Breach checkers, fingerprint tests, throwaway inboxes and plain-English readings of terms of service. Mildly alarming, entirely free.
18 sites
Disposable inbox that self-destructs after ten minutes. Exactly what you want when a download demands an email address first.
- <1 min
Fingerprints your browser and compares it against a research dataset of hundreds of thousands of others. The verdict is usually: unique.
- 2 min
- Desktop
A search engine built on its own independent index with no profiling of searchers, and filters that let anyone re-rank results by their own rules.
One page per leak channel — WebGL, canvas, WebRTC, DNS — each showing precisely what your browser hands over without being asked.
- 10 min
- Desktop
The EFF's test showing how uniquely identifiable your browser is from fonts, plugins and screen size alone. Most people are one in millions.
- 2 min
- Desktop
Runs a standard or extended check to reveal which servers actually saw your DNS lookups. The quickest way to catch a VPN not doing its job.
- <1 min
Search without the profile building, plus bang shortcuts that fire your query straight at another site. Type an exclamation and w for Wikipedia.
- <1 min
Search any Android app and see the tracking libraries baked into it. The results for the popular ones are routinely grim.
Type an email address and find out which breaches it turned up in. Troy Hunt's index now covers billions of leaked accounts.
- <1 min
A free browser extension from the EFF that learns which trackers follow you from site to site and blocks them, with no lists to manage.
- 2 min
- Desktop
Threat-model-first advice from the community that succeeded PrivacyTools, so you pick tools for your actual risk rather than a vibe.
- 10 min
Open-source test results that compare how well each major browser resists tracking and fingerprinting, updated as new versions ship.
- 10 min
- Desktop
Opinionated lists of privacy-respecting software sorted by category, with stated reasons rather than affiliate links.
- 10 min
Grades any public HTTPS server from A+ down to F and explains every single deduction. The reference test the whole industry quotes.
- 10 min
- Desktop
Search results passed through without the tracking, plus an option to open any result through a proxy so the site never sees your address.
Graded summaries of the terms you agreed to without reading, with the specific alarming clause quoted. Volunteer-run since 2012.
The onion router straight from the people who maintain it — the browser download plus a plain-English account of how the relays work.
- 10 min
- Desktop
Upload a file or paste a URL and get verdicts back from seventy-odd antivirus engines at once, along with what the file talks to.
- 2 min
- Desktop
How we picked these
Every entry in Detour is hand-sorted rather than scraped: filed under one category, given one to three moods, and placed in a time band for how quickly it pays off. The practical facts — cost, sign-up, sound, device and whether it is safe at a desk — are recorded per site and shown on every card, so you can rule things out before you click.
Privacy & Security: questions
How many sites are in Privacy & Security?
18 sites, each hand-sorted by category, mood and how long it takes to pay off.
Which of these sites are free with no sign-up?
18 of the 18 are free and need no account. None of them are paid.
Do these sites work on a phone, and are they safe for work?
10 of 18 work on a phone; the rest are desktop only. 18 are safe for work and 18 work with the sound off.