Awesome Humane Technology – Massive Collection of Resources
Contents
- About this list
- Community
- Humane design
- Ethics
- Security
- Privacy
- Tracking
- Consent
- Analytics
- Blocklists
- Fediverse
- Social networks
- Freedom
- Geolocation
- Voice Assistants
- Internet of Things
- Gamification
- Health
- Mindfulness
- Inclusion
- 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 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.
Community
Our mission is: To Help Improve Wellbeing, Freedom and Society!
We gladly invite you to our Humane Tech Community Forum to read more about interesting Humane Technology subjects, participate in our discussions, and become a true ❤️ Humane Tech Activist!
You can also follow us on the fediverse at @humanetech@mastodon.social.
Humane design
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.
- delightful-humane-design
– A curated list of humane design resources for UX designers and developers.
- delightful-small-ai
– A curated list of open humane artificial intelligence resources.
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 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs 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.
- The Critical Engineering Manifesto – A manifesto of critical thinking concepts applied to engineering attitude.
- The Digital Product Ethics Canvas – Identify and mitigate the risk of digital products to individuals and society.
- Fairwork Foundation – A project working to set and measure standards and certification in the platform economy.
- Guidelines for Trustworthy AI – Guidelines based on fundamental rights and ethical principles for trustworthy AI.
- Ethical Web Dev – A guide for ethical website development and maintenance.
- Declaration of Digital Autonomy – Our technology must respect the rights and freedoms of people who use it.
- A New Digital Manifesto – Our inalienable rights within the digital age.
- Society Centered Design – Move beyond human-centered design. We must design for the collective, for society.
- The Hippocratic License – An open source license for developers to enforce the ethical use of their code.
- The Ethical Source Movement – A community that practices Ethical Open Source principles for its projects.
Security
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:
- awesome security – Software, libraries, documents, books, resources and cool stuff about security.
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 – Browser extension to help 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.
- arkenfox 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 allows posing as another browser by changing User-Agent header.
- Random User-Agent – Browser extension that automatically replaces 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 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.
- Cloud Firewall
– Addon that enables to choose & block top 5 cloud companies based on their IPv4/6 ranges.
- Librefox – A project that aims at enforcing privacy and security of Firefox without forking the project.
- amp2html
– Browser extension to automatically redirect Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) to the actual page.
- Location Privacy
– Privacy filters for shared location links.
- DeepPrivacy – A fully automatic face anonymization technique for images and video.
- PrivacyFlash Pro – Generate a privacy policy for your iOS app from its code.
- Reveal Frame Component
– A privacy-minded iFrame placeholder (JS script). Only loads after user consent.
- FreedomBox
– Easy to manage, privacy oriented home server.
- EteSync
– Secure, end-to-end encrypted, and privacy respecting sync for your contacts, calendars and tasks.
- Image Scrubber – A browser-based tool for anonymizing photographs and scrubbing EXIF metadata.
- LocalCDN
– A browser extension that emulates Content Delivery Networks to improve your online privacy.
- Universal Android Debloater – Debloat non-rooted smartphones, to improve privacy, security and battery life.
- RethinkDNS
– DNS over HTTPS and Tor, DNSCrypt client, firewall and connection tracker for Android.
Tracking
- Privacy Badger
– Privacy Badger by Electronic Frontier Foundation blocks spying ads and invisible trackers.
- uBlock Origin – An efficient blocker add-on for various browsers. Fast, potent, 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 privacy.
- Mozilla Facebook Container
– Isolates 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.
- Cookie-AutoDelete – Browser extension that deletes cookies as soon as the tab closes, unless site is allowListed.
- ClearURLs
– Addon that removes tracking elements form address bar URLs using 130 rules.
- Pi-hole
– A DNS sinkhole to block ads or trackers on a local network without installing any client-side software.
- Shariff
– Enables website users to share their favorite content without compromising their privacy.
- Social Share Privacy
– jQuery plugin for adding social share buttons that don’t allow social sites to track users.
- TrackMeNot
– Browser extension that hides your real search-queries by adding noise and obfuscation.
- Deda
– Printer tracking Dots Extraction, Decoding and Anonymisation toolkit.
- MailTrackerBlocker
– An email tracker, read receipt and spy pixel blocker plugin for macOS Apple Mail.
- Warden – App management utility for Android that detects and disables trackers and loggers.
Consent
- re:consent
– Browser plugin to 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
– Help for compliance to EU data protection & privacy rules.
- Klaro
– A simple and powerful tool to manage user consent on websites.
Analytics
- Matomo
– The leading open alternative to Google Analytics that gives you full control over your data.
- Fair Analytics – A Google Analytics-alike server that doesn’t undermine user’s privacy.
- GoAccess
– A real-time web log analyzer and interactive viewer that runs in a terminal or in a browser.
- Countly
– A real-time, mobile & web analytics, rich push notifications and crash reporting platform.
- Ackee
– Self-hosted Node.js based analytics tool for those who care about privacy.
- Koko Analytics
– Plugin for WordPress that doesn’t use external services and respects your visitors’ privacy.
- freshlytics
– A self-hosted privacy-friendly, reliable and easy-to-deploy analytics service.
- Plausible Analytics
– Simple, lightweight (< 1 KB) and privacy-friendly web analytics. Hosted in the EU.
- Goatcounter
– Simple web statistics. No tracking of personal data.
- Open Web Analytics
– Stay in control of how you instrument and analyze the use of websites and application.
- Shynet – Privacy-friendly and detailed web analytics that works without cookies or JS.
- PostHog
– Developer-friendly, open-source product analytics.
- umami
– A simple, fast, website analytics alternative to Google Analytics.
- AWStats
– Free real-time logfile analyzer to get advanced statistics.
- Offen
– Fair web analytics. Gain insights while your users have full control over their data.
- Kindmetrics
– Privacy focused website analytics made in Crystal – Hosted in the EU.
- Counter
– Web Analytics made simple and therefore privacy friendly.
Blocklists
- 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 List
– Community-contributed blocklist of referrer spammers.
- FilterLists
– Directory of filter and host lists for advertisements, trackers, malware and annoyances.
- hosts-blocklists – A host and domainname based blocklist specifically designed for use with dnsmasq.
- All In One Customized Adblock List
– Adblock list that thoroughly blocks trackers, ads, unwanted cookies.
- Web Annoyances Ultralist – Fix and remove annoying and distracting web elements from many websites.
- Wiper – Firefox extension that strips Google search results based on a blocklist you define.
- EasyList – Sets of rules that automatically remove unwanted content from the internet.
Fediverse
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.
- Mastodon
– Your self-hosted, globally interconnected microblogging community.
- Pleroma
– A free, federated social microblogging server built on open protocols.
- PixelFed
– A free and ethical photo sharing platform, powered by ActivityPub federation.
- PeerTube
– ActivityPub-federated video streaming platform using P2P directly in your web browser.
- Funkwhale
– A federated social platform to enjoy and share music.
- Socialhome
– A federated personal profile with social networking functionality.
- Misskey
– A forever evolving, sophisticated microblogging platform.
- Diaspora
– A privacy-aware, distributed, open source social network.
- friendica
– A decentralized social communications platform.
- GNU Social
– The free/libre software social networking platform.
- Lemmy
– A link aggregator / Reddit clone for the fediverse.
Social networks
- 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.
- 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.
- DeleteFB – Selenium script to delete all of your Facebook wall posts.
- Minimal Twitter
– Minimal Theme for the new Twitter UI.
- Talk
– An open-source commenting platform focused on better conversation.
- Invidious
– An alternative front-end to YouTube without Ads.
- Delta Chat
– Decentralized Whatsapp-like chat via email, without the tracking and central control.
- Nitter
– An alternative Twitter front-end focused on privacy.
- Invidition
– Firefox extension that redirects YouTube and Twitter requests to their alternatives.
- Bibliogram
– An alternative front-end for Instagram.
- Privacy Redirect – Redirects Twitter, YouTube, Instagram & Google Maps requests to privacy friendly alternatives.
- UnTrackMe – App that transforms Twitter, YouTube links to Nitter, Invidious and delegates to another app.
- FreeTube
– A private YouTube client for Windows, MacOS and Linux.
- NewPipe
– A libre lightweight streaming YouTube alternative for Android.
- Tweak New Twitter – Browser extension to stay on Latest Tweets timeline, reduce “engagement”, tone down UI.
- Barinsta
– A libre, alternative, and lightweight Instagram client for Android.
- SocialAmnesia – Electron app to ensure your social media accounts only show your posts from recent history.
- YouTubeSearchFixer
– Firefox addon to fix search, de-clutter home page and make UI less distracting.
- Teddit
– Alternative Reddit front-end focused on privacy.
- Libreddit
– Private Reddit front-end written in Rust.
- YouTube2PeerTube – A bot that automatically mirrors YouTube channels to PeerTube channels.
- Watomatic – Auto reply for WhatsApp so you can stop using it.
Freedom
- Alternative Internet
– A collection of interesting new networks and tech aiming at decentralization.
- GlobaLeaks
– 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.
- Wayback Everywhere
– Redirect all pages to snapshots in Wayback Machine and auto-save pages.
- 996.ICU – Collection of resources advocating against 996 work schedule (9am – 9pm, 6 days per week).
- DeGoogle-FOSS
– A list of free and open source software containing proprietary Google binaries.
Geolocation
- OpenStreetMap
– A crowdsourced map of the world with many layers, free to use under an open licence.
- OSM StreetComplete – Surveyor app for Android to allow users to contribute to OpenStreetMap with ease.
- Mozilla Ichnaea
– API to get geolocation coordinates from other sources (Bluetooth, cell or WiFi, GeoIP, etc).
- Qwant Maps
– A map application, based on OpenStreetMap, that respects your privacy.
- Owntracks
– A privacy-respecting mobile app that allows you to keep track of your own location.
- Hauk – A fully open source, self-hosted location sharing service.
Voice Assistants
- Almond
– The Stanford open, privacy-preserving virtual assistent.
- Rhasspy
– A fully offline voice assistant toolkit for many languages.
- Mycroft AI
– The open and private voice assistant.
Internet of Things
- Home Assistant
– Home automation that puts local control and privacy first.
- GadgetBridge
– Replace gadget vendors’ closed source Android apps (Pebble, Mi Band, Liveview, HPlus, etc).
- Gladys Assistant
– A privacy-first, open-source home assistant.
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 to strengthen 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.
- ActivityWatch
– An automated time-tracker that is cross-platform, extensible and privacy-focused.
- Red Moon – An android screen filter app for night time phone use.
- Workrave
– A program that assists in the recovery and prevention of Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI).
- Grayscale Mode
– A macOS menu bar app that gives you more control over Grayscale Mode.
- FitoTrack
– A privacy oriented Android fitness tracker for logging and viewing your workouts.
- OpenTracks
– A sport tracking application that completely respects your privacy.
- Winddown – Write code and stay healthy. A VS Code extension that encourages you to take a break.
- dijo – A scriptable habit tracker that runs in your terminal.
- Golden Cheetah
– Performance software for Cyclists, Runners and Triathletes that reads from many devices.
- gammastep – Linux tool to adjust the color temperature of your screen to your surroundings.
Mindfulness
- Mindfulness at the Computer
– Helps you stay mindful of your breathing while using your computer.
- Chomper
– Internet blocker for Linux with allowLists/blockLists and timer to be more productive at work.
- Jobs Done
– A ritual app for ending the work day inspired by Deep Work.
- Break Timer – An application for taking periodic breaks and preventing RSI, eye-strain and tiredness.
- MindBell
– Mindfulness bell and meditation timer for Android.
- Detoxify
– Generate a fake app to replace any addictive app.
- Nudge
– A Chrome extension that makes the internet less addictive.
- SelfControl
– A macOS app that lets you block your own access to distracting websites and mail servers.
- DelayWebPage
– A Firefox add-on that makes you wait before wasting time on the internet.
- Leechblock NG
– A simple productivity tool designed to block time-wasting sites at the specified times.
- Introvert
– Audiovisual experience encouraging to do, to focus, to relax while it generates a unique artwork.
- Slim Launcher – Replaces Android home screen with a minimalist version and a maximum of seven apps.
Happiness
- Happy DB
– HappyDB is a corpus of 100,000+ crowd-sourced happy moments.
Inclusion
- AlexJS
– Catch insensitive, inconsiderate writing.
- Buster – Browser extension and Captcha Solver for Humans.
- The A11Y Project
– A community-driven effort to make web accessibility easier.
- IETF Inclusive Language
– Terminology for inclusive language conventions (latest version on github).
Deaf and Hard of Hearing accessibility resources:
- Remote Workplace Communications Access – Recommendations for Employers In Times of Expanded Telework.
- Improving Virtual Workspace Meetings – Accessibility Tips for a Better Virtual Meeting Experience.
Awareness
- Hack the Media – Media literacy guide highlighting how our media sources can give a flawed worldview.
- 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 tracking techniques.
- Browser Autofill Phishing – Demonstrates phishing for autofilled form fields that are hidden to the user.
- Facebook Political Ad Collector
– Browser extension to help ProPublica collect political ads on Facebook.
- Who Targets Me?
– Browser extension that tracks which entities are targeting which demographics with ads.
- Where are the Eyes?
– A program for detecting and mapping surveillance cameras.
- IMSI-Catcher Detector
– An Android app to detect IMSI-Catchers aka Stingrays (project in Alpha).
- Dogsheep
– Export data from big companies (e.g. Google, Twitter) into Sqlite for personal analytics.
- Tracking Exposed
– Research, browser addons on tracking, profiling, and influence of algorithms.
- Social Media Awareness Toolkit
– An open and intuitive way to scrutinize what’s trending on internet platforms.
Censorship
- OONI Probe
– Observation network to detect censorship, surveillance and traffic manipulation (first read risks).
- Green Tunnel – An anti-censorship utility designed to bypass ISPs that block access to certain websites.
Unmaintained
This section is for inactive projects that are nonetheless still of interest regarding their topics or code.
- Wi-Fi Privacy Police – Prevent 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).
- Breathe
– Take a moment to breathe. A Pebble app for breathing, written in C.
- Mozilla Stumbler
– 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:
- degoogle
– A huge list of alternatives to Google products. Privacy tips, tricks, and links.
- switching.software
– Ethical, easy-to-use and privacy-conscious alternatives to well-known software.
- ReverseEagle-Developers
– Privacy-conscious, ethical and safer alternatives to software for developers.
- ethical.net – Ethical alternatives & resources.
- JustPrivacy – An in-depth list of alternatives to Google and its products.
- Tromjaro Apps – A curated collection of trade-free applications.
- delightful project
– Similar to awesome project, but only for FOSS, Open Data and Open Science.