RethinkDNS (formerly BraveDNS) is an open-source Android firewall and DNS client built by Celzero, a small GitHub-based developer organization (created 2020, verified org, no legal entity or jurisdiction disclosed) that describes itself as building 'anti-censorship and anti-surveillance tools for Android' and is part of the Mozilla Builders MVP program. Its privacy policy states across app, DNS-resolver, and website sections that it does not collect, sell, license, or share personal data in any form, and its DNS resolvers 'do not log requests' per a published data-handling table. The F-Droid build of the app is free of any trackers, spyware, ads, or loggers, independently corroborated by F-Droid's own listing; the Google Play build additionally depends on Crashlytics, a third-party crash-reporting SDK that is opt-in by default. The codebase is Apache-2.0 licensed and public on GitHub, with no security advisories filed against the main app repository at draft time. No independent third-party privacy or security audit was found in this research.
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[2026-08-30] · NEW RECEIPTS
7 new sources on file for RethinkDNS.
RethinkDNS's file gained 7 new sourced claims since its last review.
RethinkDNS's Privacy Policy publishes a data-handling table for its DNS resolvers showing 'No' for whether domain name, client IP, user agent, device ID, or anything else is sold/shared or collected, and states plainly that its DNS resolvers do not log requests. The same policy states the rethinkdns.com website itself sets no cookies, does not attempt to track visitors, embeds no third-party analytics, and does not log visitor interactions.
RethinkDNS's own homepage discloses that the project is part of the Mozilla Builders MVP program, an outside-vetted accelerator affiliation beyond the operator's own self-description.
GitHub's public API record for the celzero organization, which builds RethinkDNS, describes it as a verified organization built around 'Anti-censorship and anti-surveillance tools for Android,' created in July 2020, discloses no named company entity or jurisdiction, and separately confirms the main app repository is published under the Apache License 2.0.
RethinkDNS's Privacy Policy states it is against the project's ethos to track users of its apps and services or sell any information whatsoever to any third party, in any form -- pseudo-anonymized, de-anonymized, anonymized, aggregated, or otherwise.
GitHub's public API record for the celzero/rethink-app repository confirms the codebase is published under the Apache License 2.0, allowing anyone to independently inspect the actual running app code rather than relying solely on the operator's own description of it.
F-Droid's independent listing for the RethinkDNS app (published under F-Droid's own vetting process, which screens submitted apps for anti-features such as trackers) describes it as open source and free of any trackers, corroborating the operator's own privacy-policy claim.
RethinkDNS's Privacy Policy states the F-Droid build of the app is free of any trackers, spyware, ads, or loggers, verifiable from its open-source code, while disclosing that the Google Play build depends on Crashlytics, a third-party crash-reporting service that is opt-in by default, plus Stripe and Google Play Services for in-app purchases.