Privacy Guardian

Privacy Guardian is a custom-built privacy router that protects users from digital tracking by controlling and filtering all network traffic between their devices and the internet. Instead of connecting directly to a regular router, user devices connect to the Privacy Guardian, which acts as a secure intermediary.

The system creates its own Wi-Fi network using a Raspberry Pi running Linux. When a device connects, the router assigns it a private IP address and routes all traffic through its internal security layers. It uses DNS filtering to block known tracking, analytics, and telemetry domains, preventing apps, websites, and smart devices from sending user data to external tracking servers.

The router also uses Network Address Translation (NAT) to hide the identities of connected devices. External servers only see the router’s identity, not the individual devices, which prevents device-level tracking and identity correlation. Firewall rules are implemented to monitor and control incoming and outgoing packets, blocking unauthorized or suspicious connections.

The system is built using tools such as hostapd (for creating the Wi-Fi access point), dnsmasq (for IP assignment and DNS handling), Pi-hole or similar DNS filtering tools (for blocking tracking domains), and iptables or nftables (for firewall and traffic control). These components work together to provide network-level privacy protection.

Overall, Privacy Guardian reduces tracking by blocking telemetry, hiding device identities, filtering network traffic, and preventing direct communication between user devices and tracking servers. It demonstrates practical implementation of network security, privacy protection, and traffic control using embedded hardware and open-source tools.