22 Oct 2021 | Updated 1 Nov 2021 [services]

Controversial website Privacytools.io adds Monero section

Privacytools.io website has added a section for Monero, Cake Wallet, Feather Wallet, Local Monero and other privacy-related projects:

Monero is now featured on privacytools.io. Spread the word! Added @monero @cakewallet @FeatherWallet @LocalMoneroCo @hodlhodl @bisq_network @LocalCryptosEN and of course Atomic Swaps.

It is worth noting here that the original team behind Privacytools.io, it’s contributors and community have recently moved on to create PrivacyGuides.org after prolonged inexplicable inactivity of its founder and other related controversies:

Our work maintaining PrivacyTools has been extremely difficult of late without access to key assets such as the domain and without the participation of its founder.

This was not an easy decision to make as we would of course have preferred to stick with PrivacyTools and take the organization to new heights, but without control or ownership over key assets such as the privacytools.io domain, that vision was impossible.

The version of PrivacyTools that currently exists is not the content that our project has worked on for the past few years, that information is available at privacyguides.org.

You can read more about Privacytools.io’s history and internal conflicts in the now archived blog post announcing the changes1 and in PrivacyGuides.org’s Twitter feed2.

The new PrivacyTools.io website is not really accessible through Tor, which only amplifies the already skeptical views of others in the Monero community towards the project and its founder:

Yeah. This must be the guy who was absent for 1+ year, but is the owner of the privacytools.io domain. The entire privacytools team forked away. So yeah, good this version is supporting Monero, but don’t think the takeover should be supported. -ErCiccione3

My experience with the rest of the privacytools team is not great as well. Especially if you read the conversations from few years ago when we asked to add Monero to their list. I avoid them since. -ErCiccione4

Yeah, the original founder is very active again. Those new mods act like a bunch of kids, shame because it’s one of those places where the privacy journey starts for a lot of people. -__sem__5

But it’s true about the owner disappearing for a year, mods taking care of the maintenance they could and coming back to reclaim ownership. Mods got tired of his behaviour and made privacyguides.org, or so I vaguely recall reading something along those lines. -GlassPipeSeries6


  1. https://web.archive.org/web/20210729184422/https://blog.privacytools.io/the-future-of-privacytools/ 

  2. https://nitter.net/privacy_guides/status/1443633412800225280#m 

  3. https://libredd.it/r/Monero/comments/qdfegb/there_is_a_whole_monero_section_on_privacytoolsio/hhm8ky2/?context=3 

  4. https://libredd.it/r/Monero/comments/qdfegb/there_is_a_whole_monero_section_on_privacytoolsio/hhmcf46/?context=3 

  5. https://libreddit.domain.glass/r/Monero/comments/qdfegb/there_is_a_whole_monero_section_on_privacytoolsio/hhmn4oq/?context=3 

  6. https://libreddit.domain.glass/r/Monero/comments/qdfegb/there_is_a_whole_monero_section_on_privacytoolsio/hhmcf56/?context=3