Privacy tools for India — 12 I actually use, no tracking, no ads

12 privacy tools I use daily in India. All free or cheap, all work on Indian ISPs (Jio/Airtel/BSNL), all legal. After 2 years of testing, here's the stack that actually sticks.

Browser — Brave + uBlock Origin

I switched from Chrome to Brave in 2024. The default shields block ads, trackers, and fingerprinting without needing extensions. Add uBlock Origin for the second layer — Brave misses some, uBlock catches the rest.

Why not Firefox? Firefox is great, but I do web dev work and Chrome-based browsers give me better DevTools parity with what users actually run.

Why not Tor Browser for daily use? Too slow for daily browsing. Use Tor only for sensitive research, not for reading Hacker News.

Config that matters: - Disable Brave News and Brave Rewards (ads in disguise) - Set shields to "Aggressive" for cross-site trackers - Use Brave Sync with a sync code (not account-based) to sync across devices without an account

Search — DuckDuckGo + SearXNG

DuckDuckGo for the default. For sensitive searches, I run a self-hosted SearXNG instance on a $5/month VPS that aggregates Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, and Brave Search results.

Setup SearXNG:

# Access at http://your-vps-ip:8080 # Add HTTPS with Caddy

The instance costs me $5/month on DigitalOcean, never sees my search terms (logs disabled), and gives me Google-quality results without Google tracking.

Email — ProtonMail + SimpleLogin aliases

ProtonMail for primary mail (encrypted at rest, Swiss jurisdiction). SimpleLogin for email aliases — every service gets a unique alias (amazon@mydomain.com, github@mydomain.com).

If one alias starts getting spam, I disable it without affecting anything else. If a service gets breached, my real email doesn't leak.

ProtonMail free tier is enough for most people (1GB storage, 150 messages/day). If you need more, the Mail Plus plan is €4/month.

VPN — Mullvad

Mullvad is the only VPN I trust. No accounts (you get a random account number), no email, accepts cash payments by mail, based in Sweden (strong privacy laws).

Works on Jio, Airtel, BSNL, and ACT Broadband without issues. Speeds: 80-200 Mbps on Mumbai/Singapore servers, 40-80 Mbps on EU servers.

€5/month, flat rate, no annual commitment. Cheaper and more trustworthy than NordVPN/ExpressVPN.

What about Indian VPN regulations? The 2022 CERT-In rules require VPN providers to log user data for 5 years. Mullvad's no-account model means there's nothing to log — they have no way to tie activity to an identity. Use at your own risk; I'm not a lawyer.

Messaging — Signal

WhatsApp is the default in India, but it logs metadata (who you talk to, when, how often) and shares it with Meta. Signal doesn't.

Signal setup: - Enable disappearing messages by default (24 hours for most chats) - Use Signal PIN for backup encryption - Set a username so people can add you without sharing your phone number

The friction: most contacts won't switch. I keep WhatsApp for groups (work, family) and Signal for one-on-one private conversations. About 30% of my close contacts now use Signal.

File sync — Syncthing

Dropbox and Google Drive scan your files for "abuse detection." Syncthing is peer-to-peer — files sync directly between your devices, no cloud intermediary.

Setup takes 10 minutes: 1. Install Syncthing on laptop, phone, desktop 2. Share a folder across devices 3. Set up port forwarding (or use the relay servers for NAT traversal)

I sync ~30GB across 3 devices. Zero cloud cost. Files never leave my network unless I'm away from home (then relay servers route encrypted traffic).

Passwords — Bitwarden (self-hosted Vaultwarden)

LastPass has been breached multiple times. 1Password is good but $36/year. Bitwarden is open-source, audited, and free if you self-host the server (Vaultwarden, a Rust reimplementation).

Costs me $0/month (runs alongside my SearXNG instance on the same $5 VPS).

Notes — Obsidian Sync (or just filesystem)

Notion scans your notes. Apple Notes syncs through iCloud. Obsidian is local-first, plain markdown files, end-to-end encrypted sync if you pay $8/month — or free with Syncthing.

I use Obsidian + Syncthing. My notes are plain markdown files in a folder that syncs across 3 devices. No subscription, no vendor lock-in.

Photos — Ente (Google Photos alternative)

Google Photos is convenient and a privacy nightmare. Ente is open-source, end-to-end encrypted, and you can self-host or pay €30/year for 100GB.

Self-hosting Ente is heavier than other tools (requires Postgres + S3-compatible storage), so I pay for the hosted version. Worth it — my photos stay mine.

RSS — FreshRSS