Awesome Humane Tech

Contents

• About this list
• Community
• Ethics
• Security
• Privacy
• Tracking
• Consent
• Analytics
• Blacklists
• Social networks
• Freedom
• Geolocation
• Gamification
• Health
• Mindfulness
• Inclusiveness
• Awareness
• Censorship
• Unmaintained
• Related awesomeness
• Contributing
• License

About this list

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 social media addiction, mental health issues, and social erosion. To address these problems, a world-class team of deeply concerned former tech insiders and CEOs have created The Center of Humane Technology. A community and website where you'll find solutions and best-practices!

Reversing the digital attention crisis and realigning technology with humanity's best interests

This list focuses on (mostly open-source) projects that are directly related to humane tech topics. Please read the guidelines for contributing before sending 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!

Community

We invite you to our Humane Tech Community Forum to read more about these interesting Humane Technology subjects. And if you want to participate in our discussions, help contribute to real solutions, then we'd gladly welcome you as one of our new members. Please come Join ❤️ Us and become a true Humane Tech Activist!

Ethics

• Machine Learning Ethics References - Machine Learning and Data Science discrimination, bias and ethics.
• WikiTruth - A Wikipedia and Quora-like system with a vetting mechanism to verify facts from trash.
• Programmer's Oath - An ethics oath for programmers, comparable to the Hippocratic Oath.
• Ethical Design Manifesto - The Maslov Pyramid of Needs redrawn for sites and projects practicing ethical design.
• Ethical OS Toolkit - A guide to anticipating the future impact of today's technology.
• ACM Code of Ethics - The Association for Computing Machinery's code of ethics and professional conduct.
• Ethics Pledge - Global initiative aimed to adopt our ethical framework and principles into your data work.
• Hippocratic Oath for Technologists - An optional oath for building ethically considered experiences.
• IoT Design Manifesto - A code of conduct for everyone involved in developing the Internet of Things
• switching.social - Ethical, easy-to-use and privacy-conscious alternatives to popular social apps.
• The Critical Engineering Manifesto - A manifesto of critical thinking concepts applied to engineering attitude.

Security

• NoScript Security Suite - Mozilla-based browser plugin to only allow active content from white-listed websites.
• HTTPS Everywhere - Encrypts your communications with many major websites, making your browsing more secure.
• Security Checklist - Checklist of resources designed to improve your online privacy and security.
• PRISM Break - Security and privacy-aware alternatives to proprietary software.
• Password Alert - Chrome extension by Google that warns about phishing attempts to your Google Account.

Privacy

• privacytools.io - Knowledge and tools to protect your privacy against global mass surveillance.
• Privacy Respecting - A curated list of privacy-respecting Services and Software.
• Ungoogled Chromium - Chromium without Google integration, enhancing privacy, control, transparency
• Signal - Signal is a messaging app for simple private communication with friends.
• Local Sheriff - A browser extension that helps identify what sensitive information (PII) is shared / leaked to 3rd-parties.
• Webbkoll - An online tool that checks how a website is doing with regards to privacy.
• PrivacyScore - A web privacy measurement platform.
• ghacks user.js - A user.js template for configuring and hardening Firefox privacy, security and anti-fingerprinting.
• user.js - Configuration for Firefox to harden browser settings and make it more secure.
• Decentraleyes - Browser extension that emulates Content Delivery Networks to improve your online privacy.
• User-Agent Switcher - Browser extension allowing to pose as another browser by changing the User-Agent header.
• Random User-Agent - Browser extension that automatically replaces the User-Agent after a specified time interval.
• Smart Referer - Browser extension that automatically hides the referer when changing domains.
• Canvas Blocker - Browser extension that prevents fingerprinting via Javascript Canvas API.
• Disable WebRTC - Browser extension to disable WebRTC to avoid leaking your IP address from behind a VPN.
• Syncthing - Replaces proprietary cloud services to synchronize files across multiple devices, decentralized.
• Tox - A peer-to-peer instant messenger aimed at making security and privacy easy to obtain for regular users.
• Oversec - Android app that captures and encrypts texts you type, then passes it to the actual app.

Tracking

• Privacy Badger - Privacy Badger by Electronic Frontier Foundation blocks spying ads and invisible trackers.
• uBlock Origin - An efficient wide-spectrum blocker for Chromium and Firefox. Fast and lean.
• Exodus Privacy - Analyzes privacy concerns in Android applications.
• Exodus Android App - App for Exodus Privacy that lets you know what trackers are embedded in apps.
• Exodify - Wondering if an app is tracking you? Now you can see it directly in the Play store.
• Firefox Multi-Account Containers - Keep your online life separated into color-coded tabs that preserve your privacy.
• Mozilla Facebook Container - Isolates your Facebook activity from the rest of your web activity, to prevent tracking.
• Google Container - Isolates your Google activity from the rest of your web activity, to prevent tracking.
• Tracking Token Stripper - Browser extension that strips Google Analytics (UTM) tokens from URL query strings.
• SilverDog - An audio firewall to block ultrasound tracking applications.
• Blokada - A compact, fast ad blocker for Android that works for all apps and does not require root.
• Better - A privacy tool for Safari on iPhone, iPad, and Mac that blocks behavioral ads and trackers.
• Firefox ProfileMaker - A tool to create Firefox configuration profiles with good defaults.
• Searx - A trackerless, privacy-respecting metasearch engine that can be self-hosted.
• DNS66 - A DNS-based Host Blocker (and lightweight ad blocker) for Android.

Consent

• re:consent - Browser plugin that lets you view / change the consent you have given to websites for data processing.
• Trackless - Add a GDPR-friendly Google Analytics opt-in/opt-out button to your site.
• ConsentCookie - Customizable script that allow users to opt-in for cookies on a case-by-case basis.
• GDPR Transparency and Consent Framework - Specifications to help comply to EU data protection and privacy rules.

Analytics

• Matomo - The leading open alternative to Google Analytics that gives you full control over your data.
• Fathom - A simpler and more privacy-focused alternative to Google Analytics.
• Fair Analytics - A Google Analytics-alike server that doesn't undermine user's privacy.
• Google Analytics Proxy - Proxy service for Google measurement protocol and client-side replacement of its analytics script.

Blacklists

• Hosts - Consolidates several reputable hosts files, and merges them into a single unified one.
• Blocklists - Shared lists of problem domains people may want to block with hosts files.
• Referrer Spam Blacklist - Community-contributed list of referrer spammers.

Social networks

• Mastodon - Your self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community.
• Diaspora - A privacy-aware, distributed, open source social network.
• Humnub - A feature rich and highly flexible open-source Social Network Kit written in PHP.
• Patchwork - A decentralized messaging and sharing app built on top of Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB).
• Pump.io - A stream server that does most of what people really want from a social network.
• Voten - An open-source, beautiful, highly customizable yet deadly simple, and warm community.
• Socialhome - A federated personal profile with social networking functionality.
• Facebook Demetricator - A web browser extension that removes all the metrics from the Facebook interface.
• Twitter Demetricator - A web browser extension that removes all the metrics on Twitter.
• News Feed Eradicator - A browser extension that replaces your Facebook news feed with a nice quote.
• Granary - The social web translator that breaks silo's by converting data between social networks.
• Neocities - Social network that brings back the lost individual creativity of the web.
• Osada - A social network designed to be the glue that binds much of the decentralised web.

Freedom

• Alternative Internet - A collection of interesting new networks and tech aiming at decentralisation (in some form).
• GlobaLeaks - Free and open source software intended to enable Secure and Anonymous Whistleblowing initiatives.
• SecureDrop - Whistleblower submission system to securily interact with anonymous sources.
• EdgeDeflector - Force Windows 10 to use your preferred web browser instead of Microsoft Edge.

Geolocation

• OpenStreetMap - A map of the world, created by people like you and free to use under an open licence.
• OSM StreetComplete - Surveyor app for Android to allow users to contribute to OpenStreetMap with ease.
• Mozilla Ichnaea - An API that gets geolocation coordinates from other sources (Bluetooth, cell or WiFi, GeoIP, etc).
• Mozilla Stumbler - A scanner that collects GPS and wireless network data for our crowd-sourced location database.

Gamification

• Security Belt - A framework for improving the IT-Security of your teams through gamification.
• Habitica - Gamify your life. Motivate yourself to achieve your goals.

Health

• Stanford HabitLab - Change your online habits, set goals, try interventions, view progress.
• redshift - Redshift adjusts the color temperature of your screen according to your surroundings.
• Safe Eyes - Safe Eyes is a tool for Linux users to reduce and prevent repetitive strain injury (RSI).
• Prisma Care - App that strengthens the relationship between people with memory loss and people close to them.
• Loop Habit Tracker - An Android app for creating and maintaining good habits.
• If me - A community for mental health experiences encouraging people to share their stories with loved ones.
• Stretchly - A cross-platform app that reminds you to take breaks when working with your computer.

Mindfulness

• Mindfulness at the Computer - Helps you stay mindful of your breathing while using your computer.
• Breathe - Take a moment to breathe. A Pebble app for breathing, written in C.
• Chomper - Internet blocker for Linux with whitelists/blacklists and timer to help you be more productive at work.
• Jobs Done - A ritual app for ending the work day inspired by Deep Work.
• Break Timer - A Chrome / Firefox extension for taking periodic breaks, prevent RSI, eye-strain and tiredness.

Happiness

• Happy DB - HappyDB is a corpus of 100,000+ crowd-sourced happy moments.

Inclusiveness

• Post-Meritocracy Manifesto - Values and principals of software developers in the post-meritocracy world.
• AlexJS - Catch insensitive, inconsiderate writing.

Awareness

• Hack the Media - A media literacy guide highlighting how our media sources can give us a flawed view of the world.
• Hack an Engineer - A media literacy guide for software engineers.
• Facebook Data Analyzer - Analyze the Facebook copy of your own data.
• HTTP Leaks - All possible ways, a website can leak HTTP requests.
• Who Tracks Me - Bringing Transparency to online tracking - built by Cliqz and Ghostery.
• Awful AI - A curated list to track current scary usages of AI - hoping to raise awareness.
• Firefox Lightbeam - Addon that visualizes Web requests between 1st and 3rd-party sites in real time.
• OpenWPM - Princeton Web Transparency & Accountability project, a privacy measurement framework.
• Email Privacy Tester - Check your email provider and client protection against many known tracking techniques.
• Browser Autofill Phishing - Demonstrates phishing for autofilled form fields that are hidden to the user.

Censorship

• OONI Probe - Observation network to detect censorship, surveillance and traffic manipulation (first read risks).

Unmaintained

This section is for inactive projects that are nonetheless still of interest regarding their topics or code.

• Wi-Fi Privacy Police - Prevents your smartphone or tablet from leaking privacy sensitive information via Wi-Fi networks.
• Data Selfie - Track yourself on Facebook and analyze your data (server discontinued, code still usable).

Related awesomeness

• Awesome Self-hosted - Locally hosting and managing applications instead of renting from SaaS providers.
• Awesome Decentralized - A curated list of decentralized, P2P, and distributed platforms and applications.
• Awesome Peer-to-peer - A curated list of peer-to-peer resources.
• Awesome Activism Tools - A curated list of awesome digital tools for activism.
• Awesome Empathy in Engineering - A curated list for building more compassionate engineering cultures.
• Awesome Diversity - A curated list of amazing articles, websites and resources about diversity in technology.
• Awesome Free Software - A curated list of free as in freedom software.
• Awesome Ad-Free - A curated list of ad-free alternatives to popular services on the web.

Contributing

Contributions welcome! Read the contribution guidelines first.

License

To the extent possible under law, aschrijver (the maintainer) and other conbributors have waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to this work.