# shred privacy rating

A CLI utility that overwrites files and devices so their contents are difficult to recover.

## Summary

shred scores 80 out of 100 (grade B) on the data erasers criteria. It meets 3 of 4 criteria: open source, no trackers or telemetry and no ads or data sales. It does not meet independent audit.

- Website: https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/html_node/shred-invocation.html
- Source code: https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git
- Home page trackers: none found
- Category: [Data erasers](https://privacyratings.com/data-erasers/)
- Also rated: [IceCat](https://privacyratings.com/browsers/icecat/) (Browsers), [GNU Emacs](https://privacyratings.com/code-editors/gnu-emacs/) (Code editors)
- Grade: B (80/100)

## Criteria

| Criterion | Answer | Note | Evidence |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Open source | Yes | Part of GNU coreutils, GPL-3.0 or later. | https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git/tree/COPYING |
| No trackers or telemetry | Yes | No telemetry or analytics in the source code. | https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git |
| No ads or data sales | Yes | Free software from the GNU Project with no ads. | https://cgit.git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/coreutils.git |
| Independent audit | No | No independent audit is published. |  |

Source: https://privacyratings.com/data-erasers/shred/
Edit: https://github.com/privacyratings/privacyratings.com/edit/main/ratings/data-erasers/shred.md