Privacy distros

Mayank Sharma doesn’t have a cloaking device, but he is seeking a distro that will enable him to tip-toe around the internet without leaving footprints.

“Crafted specifically to equip you with the means to defend your privacy and prevent leaks.”

Privacy is one of the topics that’s always on our radar. In fact, you’ve read about privacy fortifying distributions (distros) on these very pages in at least two past issues [see Roundup, p26,

LXF124 and Roundup, p28, LXF196]. And here we are at it again. Our obsession with the topic is along the same lines as Bob Marley who showed up to perform at a concert two days after being shot and famously remarked: “The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking the day off. Why should I?” In the same vein, there’s no dearth of entities that are champing at the bit to track all our online excursions and we have to be proactive and employ every resource available to thwart their attempts at intruding our privacy.

The distros in this Roundup have all been crafted specifically to equip you with the means to defend your privacy and prevent any inadvertent leaks. The distributions may follow different approaches and each comes with their own traits and benefits. Some rely on routing your web traffic via well-known anonymising networks such as Tor, while others use novel approaches such as security by compartmentalisation. Also, since anonymity and security tend to go hand in hand, using these distros will help you protect your computer from digital assailants.