delightful humane design

Humane design is a subset of humane technology and an upcoming field in information technology. This is a curated list of humane design resources for UX designers and developers.

Contents

• Principles
• Product design
• User experience design
• Ethics
• Security
• Privacy
• Tracking
• Consent
• Analytics
• Blocklists
• Fediverse
• Social networks
• Translation
• Freedom
• Geolocation
• Voice Assistants
• Internet of Things
• Gamification
• Health
• Mindfulness
• Inclusion
• Awareness
• Censorship
• Unmaintained
• Organizations
• Maintainers
• Contributors
• License

Principles

• Principles for Technologists - Principles for Humane Technology by the Center for Humane Technology.
• Ethical Design Manifesto - The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs for sites and projects practicing ethical design.

Product design

• Design guide - Design products that are more sophisticated about human nature.

User experience design

• Humane by Design - Guidance for designing ethically humane digital products through patterns focused on user well-being.

Social media

Patterns and practices to improve social media and mitigate harmful effects on society.

• De-Escalating Social Media - Designing humility and forgiveness into social media products.

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.

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

• Privacy Guides - 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.
• Databunker - Databunker is a network-based, self-hosted, GDPR compliant, secure storage for personal data.
• LuLu - A firewall that aims to block unknown outgoing connections, protecting your privacy and your Mac.
• pihole-antitelemetry - Block non-consensual telemetry Google and Apple are collecting using pihole.
• personalDNSfilter - A DNS filter proxy to filter unwished hosts based on a host list.
• JShelter - An anti-malware Firefox extension to mitigate potential threats from JavaScript.
• Firezone - A self-hosted VPN and Linux firewall manager. It's built on WireGuard to be fast and lightweight.

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.
• TrackerControl - Monitor and control trackers and ads.
• Tracker Zapper - A menubar app for Mac to remove link tracking parameters automatically.
• TBlock - A system-wide, platform-independent ad-blocker written in Python and released under GPLv3.

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.
• Swetrix - Privacy-oriented highly customisable & selfhostable analytics service.

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.
• Black Mirror - Automatically compiled and maintained malicious domain & IP blacklist.
• uBlacklist - Browser extension to block specific sites from appearing in search engine results.
• PiHoleBlocklist - Smart-TV blocklists for Pi-Hole and AGH.

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.
• Beatbump - An alternative front-end for Youtube Music 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.
• Proxigram - 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.
• 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.
• Scribe - Privacy-respecting and minimal alternative front end for Medium.com.
• Piped - An alternative privacy-friendly YouTube frontend which is efficient by design.
• Fedishare - Firefox addon to share the current tab on the fediverse.
• LibRedirect - A simple extension that redirects to alternative privacy-friendly frontends.
• Farside - A smart redirecting gateway for various frontend services.
• LibMedium - Privacy-focused, high-performance front end for Medium.com written in Rust.
• SponsorBlock - Browser extension that allows you to skip YouTube video sponsors.
• Quetre - A libre front-end for Quora.

Translation

• Lingva Translate - An alternative front-end for Google Translate.
• LibreTranslate - A self-hosted Machine Translation API, no limits, no ties to proprietary services.
• Argos Translate - Open source neural machine translation.
• gtranslate - Front-end for Google Translate that doesn't track you and works without JavaScript.
• SimplyTranslate - Simple front-end for SimplyTranslate, a facade to multiple search engines.
• Nekocap - Browser extension for creating & uploading community captions for YouTube, niconico and other video sharing sites.

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.
• S.E.P.I.A. - Your own digital 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.
• OpenRGB - Open source RGB lighting control that doesn't depend on manufacturer software.
• Jellyfin - A Software Media System that puts you in control of managing and streaming your media.
• OpenHAB - A vendor and technology agnostic open source automation software for your home.

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.
• MediLog - Android app to capture medical data, e.g. Blood Pressure and Weight as well as a simple Diary.
• Energize - Android app for tracking your food and nutrition easily and fast.

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.
• Breathing: Exercise your breathing.
• Mindful Google™ - Disables Autocomplete and other distracting elements on Google's pages.
• Unlauncher - Android minimalistic launcher.

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.
• Deletion Day - A holiday on April 4th focused on the privacy concerns of today’s Internet.
• quitsocialmedia.club - resources on why it is important to quit mainstream social media + wonderful alternatives, and much more.

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.
• Wikiless - Alternative Wikipedia front-end focused on privacy and anti-censorship.

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.

Organizations

Open communities and non-profits working in the field of humane technology.

• Humane Tech Community - Promoting Solutions That Improve Wellbeing, Freedom and Society.
• Center for Humane Technology - Envisioning a world where technology is realigned with humanity’s best interests.

Maintainers

If you have questions or feedback regarding this list, then please create an Issue in our tracker, and optionally @mention one or more of our maintainers:

• @circlebuilder
• @LeJun

Contributors

With delight we present you some of our delightful contributors (please add yourself if you are missing).

License