The mission of Restore Privacy is to give you all the information and tools you need to restore your online privacy, secure your electronic devices, unblock restricted content, and defeat censorship.
Everything published on this site is honest, free of charge and open to everyone.
Nothing is locked behind a paid membership wall.
All of the reviews on Restore Privacy are brutally honest and based on extensive testing and research.
Keep it simple
One of the goals with Restore Privacy is to publish free guides that follow the KISS principle:
The KISS (Keep it simple, stupid) principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore simplicity should be a key goal in design and unnecessary complexity should be avoided.
Online privacy and security does not have to be overly complicated. Unnecessary complexity may also be a barrier for people who are interested in restoring their privacy. So to help with this process, and to reach a larger audience, the guides on Restore Privacy are written in a simple, yet informative style.
Regardless of your technical proficiency, you should be able to implement the solutions provided on this website for your unique situation.
So how else is Restore Privacy different from other websites you see online?
No invasive tracking
Restore Privacy does not use Google Analytics or any other invasive tracking software.
Instead, this site uses Matomo (formerly Piwik), which is a free and open source analytics tool that respects the privacy of our visitors. Matomo anonymizes and truncates all visitor IP address (non-identifiable), while also supporting “do not track” browser settings. This protects the privacy of our visitors, while also giving us information to improve the site – such as showing which articles/guides are most popular. (See how Matomo respects your privacy here.)
The site is SSL encrypted and hosted on Pressidium, which is security-focused hosting service.
No paid reviews
Restore Privacy does not do paid reviews.
Many websites are paid to write reviews by the companies/services they are “reviewing”. This can come in many forms, but essentially the product or service is buying a good review.
Example of paid reviews from one of the many “best VPN” sites:
Unfortunately, this is quite common online in most areas.
With Restore Privacy, all VPNs are reviewed independently and we are never paid to conduct a review or test the service.
No paid advertising
Restore Privacy does not accept payment for advertising.
Just like with paid reviews, paid advertising would create bias and an obvious conflict of interest.
If this website was dependent on revenue from paid advertising, and we found massive problems with our advertiser’s VPN, what are the chances of that information being published?
Furthermore, what are the chances that our top advertiser would be featured as the “best VPN”?
It is for this reason that we will not have any advertising on this website:
- NO banner ads!
- NO annoying pop-ups!
- NO advertising!
No paid rankings
Restore Privacy will never be paid to rank/recommend certain products or services over others.
Paid rankings seem to be a problem with “review” sites of all kinds. The internet is increasingly becoming a “pay to play” ecosystem – and this is a trend we hate to see unfolding.
There have even been numerous VPNs that have approached this site attempting to buy rankings (but we will not name names).
You get the point here.
Complete independence
Another disturbing trend you can see in online media is the tendency for the review website and the products being reviewed to be owned by the same entity.
There are various reports floating around about VPN companies creating or buying out review websites. There is also speculation of VPN review sites having direct ownership of a VPN that they consistently rank higher than others.
Needless to say, Restore Privacy website remains completely independent and has no ownership or financial stake in ANY of the products or services appearing here.
Support Restore Privacy
There are four main ways you can support Restore Privacy and the mission to bring you high-quality information on privacy and security:
- Link to Restore Privacy’s articles and guides.
- Share information from this site with others – spread the word.
- Purchase products/services through links on the site. (We may earn a small commission if you choose to buy, at no additional cost to you – not a penny!)
- Donate to Restore Privacy. Please keep in mind, Restore Privacy is not a non-profit, and as such, your donations are probably not tax deductible. Nonetheless, all donations are greatly appreciated!
Donate to Restore Privacy
If you want to support Restore Privacy with a donation, here is our Bitcoin address:
19Lzr4R36B9oFDnLb59q4oLWo5uThwUnkJ
All donations are appreciated!
Full transparency
Here are a few facts about RestorePrivacy.com in the interest of complete transparency:
RestorePrivacy.com is owned by Restore Privacy, LLC. Being an LLC (Limited Liability Company) helps to protect the people working on this project to give you honest and transparent information.
Restore Privacy, LLC is incorporated in the United States. Being incorporated in the United States allows us to be completely honest with everything, because free speech is protected under the US Constitution (1st Amendment).
Restore Privacy is independently owned and operated. All recommendations are based on extensive testing and research.
How does the site make money?
Restore Privacy relies mainly on affiliate commissions to cover the costs and expenses of running this site. If you purchase a router on Amazon or a VPN subscription through a link on this site, we may earn a small commission – at no additional cost to you.
Donation options were also added, but for whatever reason, most people do not donate. Nonetheless, we will continue on with our mission of providing free privacy and security guides while also testing various privacy tools. (There are no plans to ever restrict content.)
Aside from hosting and other fixed costs of running a website, an enormous amount of time is invested into researching and testing privacy tools. Time is not free – everyone needs to earn a living and the bills don’t pay themselves.
To maintain as much independence as possible, we do not allow any advertising, paid rankings, or paid reviews. While we do have affiliate relationships with some businesses discussed on this site (but not all), we work hard to maintain as much independence as possible and base all recommendations on extensive, unbiased testing and research.
If a VPN service does poorly in testing, it will not get recommended. Period. And we will never be paid to change or amend reviews to conceal information from our readers.
Who is Sven Taylor?
Sven is the main editor behind Restore Privacy.
One day, Sven finally had enough with the continual erosion of privacy at the hands of corporate and government entities.
Even worse, he realized that these exact same trends were unfolding throughout the world: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Europe…
At that point, Sven realized it was time to take action. He created Restore Privacy to provide people with effective privacy solutions, which seemed like a better idea than waiting around for someone to fix these growing problems.
Overall, Sven keeps a pretty low profile to protect his privacy. But the Danish fisherman in this painting is rumored to bear an uncanny resemblance to the the elusive editor 😉
Thanks for stopping by
This website is all about providing you with useful privacy and security information.
If you have any tips, feedback, or general suggestions, please use the contact page to get in touch. All feedback is appreciated because it helps keep the site focused on topics most important to you.