Privacy cleanup
Overview
This category contains privacy scripts for Linux.
These changes use Linux system commands to update your settings.
These scripts allow you to increase privacy by deleting collected data about you and your behavior.
Be careful running these scripts. This category includes scripts with high impact:
- 🔴 Some not recommended scripts. They should only be used by advanced users. They may break important functionality.
- 🟡 Some recommended scripts only if you understand its implications. Some non-critical or features may no longer function correctly after running this this category.
- 🟢 Some safely recommended scripts. Safe-to use for any user.
Implementation Details
-
Language: bash
-
Scripts Count: 64 scripts
-
Subcategories: 19
-
Required Privileges: Root/sudo access
-
Compatibility: Linux only
-
Reversibility: Some changes may be permanent
Apply now
These scripts are written using Bash (Shell script) scripting language.
Choose one of two ways to apply:
- Automatically via privacy.sexy: The easiest and safest option.
- Manually by downloading: Requires downloading a file.
Alternative 1. Apply with Privacy.sexy
privacy.sexy is free and open-source application that lets securely apply this action easily.
It allows selectively choose parts of this action to conduct. Additionally, you can apply only the recommended scripts, instead of applying all of the scripts.
privacy.sexy instructions
- Open or download the desktop application
- Search for the category name:
Privacy cleanup. - Check the category by clicking on the checkbox of the category.
- Click on Run button at the bottom of the page.
Alternative 2. Download
You can choose to apply only scripts with less impact or also those with higher impact:
Strict
Recommended if you understand its implications. It may cause some non-critical features to no longer function correctly.
All
Not recommended for daily use as it breaks important functionality. It provides military-grade privacy, for special use-cases. Do not run it without having backups and system snapshots.
Consider restarting your computer for all changes to take affect.
Some actions conducted are irreversible, meaning there is no straightforward method to restore changes once applied. Either run only reversible scripts or exercise caution before running, restoring it may not be possible.
Recommended: Create a system backup before doing any changes.
Standard
This script includes only Standard recommendation level.
Standard scripts in this category is recommended for all users. They help to improve privacy without affecting stability.
Download only standard scripts by clicking on the button:
Restore these changes if you decide to revert them by downloading the restore script:
Strict
This script includes Standard and Strict recommendation levels.
This script is only recommended if you understand their implications of every single change. Some non-critical or features may no longer function correctly after running this script.
Download Strict scripts:
Restore these changes if you decide to revert them by downloading the restore script:
All
This script includes Standard, Strict recommendation levels along with unrecommended scripts.
This script should only be used by advanced users. Some of these changes are NOT recommended for daily use as it breaks important functionality. Do not run it without having backups and system snapshots.
Download all scripts:
Restore these changes if you decide to revert them by downloading the restore script:
Explore further
This category includes total of 64 scripts and 19 subcategories.
Explore its 3 subscripts and 7 subcategories:
Clear terminal history
Reading terminal history is one of the attack techniques. The existence of bash history files is defined as an unsecured credential attack technique by MITRE.
Clear third-party application data
Scripts in this category clear data for third-party applications installed on the operating system. Third-party applications are not typically distributed as part of the operating system and are installed separately.
Clear browser history
A web browser (commonly just called a browser) is software that is used to visit websites. The browsing history, cache entries, and other potentially sensitive data are all stored by browsers.
Clear system and kernel usage data
Your system (operating system along with other software on it) and kernel store data that may reveal your behavior and can be considered sensitive. These scripts clean up the data that could potentially expose your user data.
Clear recently used files list
Revealing data about recent files used by a user has privacy risks, such as exposing your actions and files that you wish to keep private.
Clear package manager data
Package managers store caches, statistics, and logs that may reveal data on how you use the package managers and software downloaded from them, such as your choice of software.
Clear shared caches
The scripts in this category bulk delete all cache entries for the given scope. These scripts are designed to affect more than a single application and do a wide range of cleaning.
Empty trash
The trash location is standardized by "The FreeDesktop.org Trash specification". It uses the "$XDGDATAHOME/Trash" directory, which defaults to "$HOME/.local/share/Trash". Flatpak applications may use the same trash using special APIs. However, Snap applications do not have an API to use the global trash.
Clear global temporary folders
A temporary folder or temporary directory is a directory used to hold temporary files. In Unix and Linux, the global temporary directories are "/tmp" and "/var/tmp". Typically, "/var/tmp" is for persistent files (as it may be preserved over reboots), and "/tmp" is for more temporary files. Programs do not assume that any files or directories in temporary folders are preserved between invocations of the program, and these files may be deleted after reboot and in a site-specific manner. See also: ...
Clear screenshots
GNOME's default screenshot folder (as seen in Pop!OS and Elementary OS) is "~/Pictures/Screenshots/". Flameshot also uses the same default folder as GNOME. Despite being GNOME-based, Ubuntu changes this default to "~/Pictures/" with files that look like ""Screenshot from *.png"". KDE (Spectacle) saves screenshots in the "~/Pictures/" folder with the default name format of "Screenshot%Y%M%D_%H%m%S.". Other applica...
Support
This website relies on your support.
Your donation helps keep the project alive and improves its content ❤️.
Share this page: