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Free software isnt free. Someones got to shell out for the expensive development, maintenance, bug fixes and updates for programs that so many of us who live online have come to see as almost natural resources. And increasingly, those taken-for-granted tools have become vital for the privacy and security of millions of people.

So as the end of 2014 approaches, this might be the time to add a few free software security projects like the ones weve listed below to your annual tax-deductible donations. Theres no way around it. If we want tools that are secure and usable, then these projects need funding, says Trevor Timm, executive director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a non-profit that has run fundraising campaigns for encryption software. They dont have a business model. Theyre not doing this to make money. Their first priority is the security of users.

A year of Snowden-fueled privacy interest, Timm adds, has driven a new crowd to cash-strapped free software privacy projects for whom every new user often represents a new demand on resources. When a lot of these projects started, there wasnt a giant user base. Now so many people depend on these tools for privacy, says Timm. If were going to use them, its important to give back to the projects that created them.

Here are a few of WIREDs suggestions for your yuletide crypto philanthropy:

Tor

Tor, whose name comes from the acronym The Onion Router, remains perhaps the worlds most effective tool for evading surveillance online. By encrypting a users traffic in layers and routing it through randomly chosen computers spread around the world, Tor makes it nearly impossible to track down a users identity or censor his or her Web browsing. In the wake of Snowdens revelations, the tool has nearly doubled in usage to around two million active users, straining its infrastructure.

Tor receives much of its funding from the U.S. military and the State Department. But Freedom of the Presss Timm says that government funding shouldnt dissuade individuals from donating. One part of the US government may the biggest funder of an encryption project, at the same time as other parts of the government want to see it outlawed, says Timm, referring in part to the FBI director James Comeys recent statements about encryptions dangers. If people really want to support projects like Tor, they should help them become less reliant on that government funding.

Tails

The operating system Tails, or The Amnesiac Incognito Live System, has all the properties of the ideal private operating system. It boots from a USB drive, leaving no trace on the computer its running on. And it routes all the users traffic over Tor, foiling even malware attacks that might be designed to cause a Tor users computer to leak identifying data.

Edward Snowden himself has praised Tails as a means to strengthen vulnerable communication endpoints. And filmmaker Laura Poitras used Tails when communicating with Snowden for months to arrange his unprecedented leak of NSA secrets. Despite all of that, Tails has received little mainstream support and may be the security software most in need of users donations.

Read more from the original source:
8 Free Privacy Programs Worth Your Year-End Donations