Tech and social media is having a big impact on our society. While many innovative technology inventions are improving our lives, there is increasing awareness on negative impacts that come with these trends, such as large-scale privacy invasion, surveillance capitalism, and tech monopolies. They lead to social media addiction, mental health issues, and are even eroding the fabric of our society.
This list aggregates open-source projects that are directly related to humane tech topics. Please read the guidelines for contributing before sending your PR’s.
Important: The resources presented below were collected in good faith by the contributors to this list in hopes they may prove useful to you. But as per the License we can give no guarantees on the quality or fitness of the software that is referenced. So inform yourself properly before installing anything, and if you encounter something that is inappropriate or wrong, then please file an issue in our Issue Tracker so we can take appropriate action. Thank you!
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You can also follow us on the fediverse at [@humanetech@mastodon.social](https://mastodon.social/@humanetech).
Humane design is a subset of humane technology and an upcoming field in
information technology. Resources in this space are tracked separately in
a curated list that is part of the
delightful project
on Codeberg.
- A curated list of humane design resources for UX designers and
developers.
- A curated list of open humane artificial intelligence resources.
- A Wikipedia and Quora-like system with a vetting mechanism to verify
facts from trash.
- The Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for sites and projects practicing
ethical design.
- Global initiative aimed to adopt our ethical framework and principles
into your data work.
- An optional oath for building ethically considered experiences.
Security is an important aspect of humane technology. It is also a vast field we leave to the experts. For a good top-level entrypoint please refer to:
- Knowledge and tools to protect your privacy against global mass
surveillance.
- Signal is a messaging app for simple private communication with
friends.
- An online tool that checks how a website is doing with regards to
privacy.
- A web privacy measurement platform.
- Browser extension that emulates Content Delivery Networks to improve
your online privacy.
- Browser extension allows posing as another browser by changing
User-Agent header.
- Browser extension that automatically hides the referer when changing
domains.
- Browser extension that prevents fingerprinting via Javascript Canvas
API.
- Browser extension to disable WebRTC to avoid leaking IP address from
behind a VPN.
- Replaces proprietary cloud services to synchronize files across
multiple devices, decentralized.
- A peer-to-peer instant messenger aimed at making security and privacy
easy to obtain for regular users.
- Android app that captures and encrypts texts you type, then passes it
to the actual app.
- Addon that enables to choose & block top 5 cloud companies based
on their IPv4/6 ranges.
- Browser extension to automatically redirect Accelerated Mobile Pages
(AMP) to the actual page.
- Privacy filters for shared location links.
- A privacy-minded iFrame placeholder (JS script). Only loads after user
consent.
- Easy to manage, privacy oriented home server.
- Secure, end-to-end encrypted, and privacy respecting sync for your
contacts, calendars and tasks.
- A browser extension that emulates Content Delivery Networks to improve
your online privacy.
- DNS over HTTPS and Tor, DNSCrypt client, firewall and connection
tracker for Android.
- Databunker is a network-based, self-hosted, GDPR compliant, secure
storage for personal data.
- A firewall that aims to block unknown outgoing connections, protecting
your privacy and your Mac.
- A DNS filter proxy to filter unwished hosts based on a host list.
- Privacy Badger by Electronic Frontier Foundation blocks spying ads and
invisible trackers.
- Analyzes privacy concerns in Android applications.
- Keep your online life separated into color-coded tabs that preserve
privacy.
- Isolates Facebook activity from the rest of your web activity, to
prevent tracking.
- Isolates your Google activity from the rest of your web activity, to
prevent tracking.
- An audio firewall to block ultrasound tracking applications.
- A compact, fast ad blocker for Android that works for all apps and
does not require root.
- A privacy tool for Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac that blocks
behavioral ads and trackers.
- A tool to create Firefox configuration profiles with good defaults.
- A trackerless, privacy-respecting metasearch engine that can be
self-hosted.
- A DNS-based Host Blocker (and lightweight ad blocker) for Android.
- Addon that removes tracking elements form address bar URLs using 130
rules.
- A DNS sinkhole to block ads or trackers on a local network without
installing any client-side software.
- Enables website users to share their favorite content without
compromising their privacy.
- jQuery plugin for adding social share buttons that don’t allow social
sites to track users.
- Browser extension that hides your real search-queries by adding noise
and obfuscation.
- Printer tracking Dots Extraction, Decoding and Anonymisation toolkit.
- An email tracker, read receipt and spy pixel blocker plugin for macOS
Apple Mail.
- Browser plugin to view / change the consent you have given to websites
for data processing.
- Customizable script that allow users to opt-in for cookies on a
case-by-case basis.
- Help for compliance to EU data protection & privacy rules.
- A simple and powerful tool to manage user consent on websites.
- The leading open alternative to Google Analytics that gives you full
control over your data.
- A real-time web log analyzer and interactive viewer that runs in a
terminal or in a browser.
- A real-time, mobile & web analytics, rich push notifications and
crash reporting platform.
- Self-hosted Node.js based analytics tool for those who care about
privacy.
- Plugin for WordPress that doesn’t use external services and respects
your visitors’ privacy.
- A self-hosted privacy-friendly, reliable and easy-to-deploy analytics
service.
- Simple, lightweight (< 1 KB) and privacy-friendly web analytics.
Hosted in the EU.
- Simple web statistics. No tracking of personal data.
- Stay in control of how you instrument and analyze the use of websites
and application.
- Developer-friendly, open-source product analytics.
- A simple, fast, website analytics alternative to Google Analytics.
- Free real-time logfile analyzer to get advanced statistics.
- Fair web analytics. Gain insights while your users have full control
over their data.
- Privacy focused website analytics made in Crystal - Hosted in the EU.
- Web Analytics made simple and therefore privacy friendly.
- Community-contributed blocklist of referrer spammers.
- Directory of filter and host lists for advertisements, trackers,
malware and annoyances.
- Adblock list that thoroughly blocks trackers, ads, unwanted cookies.
- Sets of rules that automatically remove unwanted content from the
internet.
The Fediverse is the place of hope for humane technology with regards to social networks. Only most well-known applications (taken from fediverse.party front-page) are shown. See Feneas Watchlists for a complete overview.
- Your self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community.
- A free, federated social microblogging server built on open protocols.
- A free and ethical photo sharing platform, powered by ActivityPub
federation.
- ActivityPub-federated video streaming platform using P2P directly in
your web browser.
- A federated social platform to enjoy and share music.
- A federated personal profile with social networking functionality.
- A forever evolving, sophisticated microblogging platform.
- A privacy-aware, distributed, open source social network.
- A decentralized social communications platform.
- The free/libre software social networking platform.
- A link aggregator / Reddit clone for the fediverse.
- A feature rich and highly flexible open-source Social Network Kit
written in PHP.
- A decentralized messaging and sharing app built on top of Secure
Scuttlebutt (SSB).
- A stream server that does most of what people really want from a
social network.
- A web browser extension that removes all the metrics from the Facebook
interface.
- A web browser extension that removes all the metrics on Twitter.
- The social web translator that breaks silo’s by converting data
between social networks.
- Social network that brings back the lost individual creativity of the
web.
- Minimal Theme for the new Twitter UI.
- An open-source commenting platform focused on better conversation.
- An alternative front-end to YouTube without Ads.
- Decentralized Whatsapp-like chat via email, without the tracking and
central control.
- An alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy.
- Firefox extension that redirects YouTube and Twitter requests to their
alternatives.
- An alternative front-end for Instagram.
- A private YouTube client for Windows, MacOS and Linux.
- A libre lightweight streaming YouTube alternative for Android.
- A libre, alternative, and lightweight Instagram client for Android.
- Firefox addon to fix search, de-clutter home page and make UI less
distracting.
- Alternative Reddit front-end focused on privacy.
- Private Reddit front-end written in Rust.
- An alternative front-end for Google Translate.
- A self-hosted Machine Translation API, no limits, no ties to
proprietary services.
- Open source neural machine translation.
- A collection of interesting new networks and tech aiming at
decentralization.
- Software intended to enable Secure and Anonymous Whistleblowing
initiatives.
- Whistleblower submission system to securily interact with anonymous
sources.
- Force Windows 10 to use your preferred web browser instead of
Microsoft Edge.
- Redirect all pages to snapshots in Wayback Machine and auto-save
pages.
- A list of free and open source software containing proprietary Google
binaries.
- A crowdsourced map of the world with many layers, free to use under an
open licence.
- API to get geolocation coordinates from other sources (Bluetooth, cell
or WiFi, GeoIP, etc).
- A map application, based on OpenStreetMap, that respects your privacy.
- A privacy-respecting mobile app that allows you to keep track of your
own location.
- The Stanford open, privacy-preserving virtual assistent.
- A fully offline voice assistant toolkit for many languages.
- The open and private voice assistant.
- Home automation that puts local control and privacy first.
- Replace gadget vendors’ closed source Android apps (Pebble, Mi Band,
Liveview, HPlus, etc).
- A privacy-first, open-source home assistant.
- Open source RGB lighting control that doesn’t depend on manufacturer
software.
- Gamify your life. Motivate yourself to achieve your goals.
- Change your online habits, set goals, try interventions, view
progress.
- Redshift adjusts the color temperature of your screen according to
your surroundings.
- Safe Eyes is a tool for Linux users to reduce and prevent repetitive
strain injury (RSI).
- App to strengthen relationship between people with memory loss and
people close to them.
- A community for mental health experiences encouraging people to share
their stories with loved ones.
- A cross-platform app that reminds you to take breaks when working with
your computer.
- An automated time-tracker that is cross-platform, extensible and
privacy-focused.
- A program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive
Strain Injury (RSI).
- A macOS menu bar app that gives you more control over Grayscale Mode.
- A privacy oriented Android fitness tracker for logging and viewing
your workouts.
- A sport tracking application that completely respects your privacy.
- Performance software for Cyclists, Runners and Triathletes that reads
from many devices.
- Helps you stay mindful of your breathing while using your computer.
- Internet blocker for Linux with allowLists/blockLists and timer to be
more productive at work.
- A ritual app for ending the work day inspired by Deep Work.
- Mindfulness bell and meditation timer for Android.
- Generate a fake app to replace any addictive app.
- A Chrome extension that makes the internet less addictive.
- A macOS app that lets you block your own access to distracting
websites and mail servers.
- A Firefox add-on that makes you wait before wasting time on the
internet.
- A simple productivity tool designed to block time-wasting sites at the
specified times.
- Audiovisual experience encouraging to do, to focus, to relax while it
generates a unique artwork.
- HappyDB is a corpus of 100,000+ crowd-sourced happy moments.
- Catch insensitive, inconsiderate writing.
- A community-driven effort to make web accessibility easier.
- Terminology for inclusive language conventions (latest version on
github).
Deaf and Hard of Hearing accessibility resources:
- A media literacy guide for software engineers.
- Bringing Transparency to online tracking - built by Cliqz and
Ghostery.
- Addon that visualizes Web requests between 1st and 3rd-party sites in
real time.
- Princeton Web Transparency & Accountability project, a privacy
measurement framework.
- Check your email provider and client protection against many tracking
techniques.
- Browser extension to help ProPublica collect political ads on
Facebook.
- Browser extension that tracks which entities are targeting which
demographics with ads.
- A program for detecting and mapping surveillance cameras.
- An Android app to detect IMSI-Catchers aka Stingrays (project in
Alpha).
- Export data from big companies (e.g. Google, Twitter) into Sqlite for
personal analytics.
- Research, browser addons on tracking, profiling, and influence of
algorithms.
- An open and intuitive way to scrutinize what’s trending on internet
platforms.
- A holiday on April 4th focused on the privacy concerns of today’s
Internet.
- Observation network to detect censorship, surveillance and traffic
manipulation (first read
risks).
- Alternative Wikipedia front-end focused on privacy and
anti-censorship.
This section is for inactive projects that are nonetheless still of interest regarding their topics or code.
- Track yourself on Facebook and analyze your data (server
discontinued, code still
usable).
- Take a moment to breathe. A Pebble app for breathing, written in C.
- A scanner that collects GPS and wireless network data for our
crowd-sourced location db.
Also check out these sites for great alternatives to the monopolistic, privacy-invading software you may now be using:
- A huge list of alternatives to Google products. Privacy tips, tricks,
and links.
- Ethical, easy-to-use and privacy-conscious alternatives to well-known
software.
- Privacy-conscious, ethical and safer alternatives to software for
developers.
- Similar to awesome project, but only for FOSS, Open Data and Open
Science.
Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.
To the extent possible under law, aschrijver (the maintainer) and other contributors have waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.