MAT alternatives

Looking for an alternative tool to replace MAT? During the review of MAT we looked at other open source tools. Based on their category, tags, and text, these are the ones that have the best match.

Top 3

  1. Decentraleyes (local CDN emulation for privacy)
  2. Privacy Badger (privacy protection for browsers)
  3. hBlock (ad blocking and tracker/malware protection)

These tools are ranked as the best alternatives to MAT.

Alternatives (by score)

63

Decentraleyes

Introduction

Most websites consist of HTML show the structure of a website. Together with CSS for styling, and JavaScript for interactive functionality, the website can provide value for its visitors. Some of the used JavaScript libraries are heavy on bandwidth, so website owner may use a content delivery network (CDN). The primary goal for a CDN is to get data closer to the end-user, which results in faster downloads and increasing the performance of the website.

Some common JavaScript libraries are used on many websites. As not every single website creator can pay the costs of a CDN, bigger companies might actually sponsor bandwidth on their CDN edge servers. While this is great from a cost perspective, it also introduces a privacy concern. The owner of the CDN can exactly see what websites a user is visiting by looking at the related requests to the CDN and the related referrer. This is where Decentraleyes comes into place, by intercepting requests to content delivery networks (CDN).

Project details

Decentraleyes is written in JavaScript.

Strengths and weaknesses

  • + More than 1000 GitHub stars
  • + The source code of this software is available

    Typical usage

    • Privacy enhancement

    Decentraleyes review

    100

    Privacy Badger

    Introduction

    Privacy Badger provides protection against website visitor trackers. These trackers come in the form of beacons or invisible pixels and have the goal to collect information about the browser. This data is often shared by third parties and used to create a profile of a particular browser. As minor differences for each user may lead to an individual user, these third parties may even link some of the data to the related individual. Tools like Privacy Badger do not provide guarantees that they block everything, yet can decrease the amount of data greatly.

    Project details

    Privacy Badger is written in JavaScript.

    Strengths and weaknesses

    • + More than 50 contributors
    • + The source code of this software is available
    • + Supported by a large company
    • + Well-known tool
    • - Many provided pull requests are still open

    Typical usage

    • Privacy enhancement

    Privacy Badger review

    97

    hBlock

    Introduction

    For the privacy-aware users, tools like hBlock can be helpful to block malicious domains, malware, advertisements, and trackers. Trackers could be pixels added to websites to track which pages you visited, which might invade your privacy.

    Project details

    hBlock is written in shell script.

    Strengths and weaknesses

    • + Used language is shell script
    • + The source code of this software is available

      Typical usage

      • Malware protection
      • Privacy enhancement
      • Provide anonymity

      hBlock review

      64

      Algo VPN

      Introduction

      Algo VPN allows you to run your own VPN service using common cloud providers. Most devices do not need client software, as it uses generic VPN components. For security reasons, Algo VPN supports only IKEv2 using strong cryptographic protocols (AES-GCM, SHA2, and P-256) and WireGuard. It can block advertisements, tunnel traffic via SSH, and helps to automate configuration.

      Project details

      Algo VPN is written in Python.

      Strengths and weaknesses

      • + More than 50 contributors
      • + More than 9000 stars
      • + The source code of this software is available
      • - No releases on GitHub available

      Typical usage

      • Data encryption
      • Privacy enhancement

      Algo VPN review

      56

      Metagoofil

      Introduction

      Metagoofil will perform a search in Google based on the given domain name. Any public documents will be downloaded and analyzed. For this task it uses libraries like Hachoir, PdfMiner, and others. Useful details include username, software versions, hostnames, etc.

      File types: pdf, doc, xls, ppt, docx, pptx, xlsx

      Project details

      Metagoofil is written in Python.

      Strengths and weaknesses

      • + The source code of this software is available

        Typical usage

        • Information gathering
        • Penetration testing

        Metagoofil review

        93

        BleachBit

        Introduction

        With the help of BleachBit, the system can be kept clean and increase privacy in the process.

        Items that can be cleaned by BleachBit include:

        • Browser cache
        • Cookies
        • Internet history
        • Temporary files
        • Log files

        The tool can 'shred' files to ensure the data can no longer be retrieved, opposed to just deleting it.

        Project details

        89

        OnionShare

        Introduction

        This tool is useful for sharing sensitive data, including information to be shared with journalists where you rather stay anonymously. It can also be helpful for sharing bigger amounts of data, without having to use a typical cloud service like Dropbox.

        Project details

        OnionShare is written in Python.

        Strengths and weaknesses

        • + More than 50 contributors
        • + More than 2000 GitHub stars
        • + Many releases available
        • + The source code of this software is available

          Typical usage

          • File sharing

          OnionShare review

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