Shredding files and wiping unallocated disk space to minimize data remanence.
BleachBit
bleachbit.org
Our take
Open-source and free, with the one feature that actually matters for privacy here: shredding files and wiping free space so deleted data doesn’t linger. That focus is its strength and its limit, since it’s a cleaner that can erase, not a polished tune-up suite. The interface is utilitarian and it’ll happily let you delete something you wanted if you tick the wrong box. Pick it when secure deletion is the point, not when you want a pretty Mac optimizer.
GitHub at a glance
bleachbit/bleachbit
Stars
5,994
+ 130 this week
Last commit
today
healthy
License
GPL-3.0
Latest release
v6.0.0
2mo ago
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BleachBit license, in plain English
GPL-3.0 Strong copyleft
Free to use and modify, but anything you distribute that is built on it must also be open under the same license.
Permits
- Commercial use
- Modification
- Distribution
- Patent use
- Private use
Requires
- Disclose source
- Same license
- State changes
- License and copyright notice
Does not provide
- Liability cover
- Warranty
Why it matters: Strong copyleft keeps every distributed version open. A vendor cannot fold this into a closed product and ship it without releasing their changes.
Plain-language summary of the project's license, not legal advice. Read the full text for the exact terms.