Official help, country by country
A page that links to guidance from CISA and ENISA and to official reporting bodies in 20 countries and territories, for anyone who has lost money to fraud online. October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month in the United States and European Cybersecurity Month in Europe.
Private Files has been retired
Its tools, Redaction Studio, Compress PDF and iPhone Photo Converter, are in AI Tools for Work and Family Safety Tools.
Release Check
Checks PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files before release: words under black boxes, hidden sheets and rows, tracked changes, comments, speaker notes and author details. Free to check; $29 for the full version with exact locations, folders and a dated release record.
AI Tools for Work and Family Safety Tools
Every tool in one download, arranged by team for organisations ($119, with Release Check, the AI use policy, staff training and a Public Office Supplement) or by need for families and students (pay what you want).
Subscription Check is more careful
Two shops at the same supermarket a month apart no longer count as a subscription. It now looks for the same amount each time, or a single price rise, the way subscriptions really charge.
The benchmark download is now 0.8 MB
It was 10.5 MB. The one large test file is now made on your own computer by the script that comes with it, so the benchmark downloads quickly on a phone.
Seven more kinds of work, and new warning signs
Tools for your work now covers publishers, PR and communications, social media creators, tourism and travel, education technology, humanitarian organisations and fintech. Before You Pay now spots fake recruiters who move to WhatsApp, jobs that ask you to pay first, fake brand deals and holiday rentals that ask you to pay away from the booking site. Before You Buy a Course now spots “comment a keyword” sales, income requirements and pushy call bookings. Every tool on the homepage shows when to use it, and teams can ask about UtilForge in three short questions.
Five tools now say what they do
Swap and Return is now Hide Names from AI, Check before you send it to an AI is now Before You Paste into AI, Did the black boxes work? is now Is It Really Blacked Out?, Omelette is now Sort My Saved-for-Later Reading, and the Take-Down Kit is now Delete My Details. Old links still work.
New free tool: Sort My Saved-for-Later Reading
Paste or open your newsletters, saved emails, bookmarks and notes, and get one document sorted by the topics you choose, with repeats removed, the rest set aside and a list of newsletters you could unsubscribe from.
Insurance brokers, accountants and property agents
New sections on Tools for your work for insurance and financial advice, accountants and bookkeepers, and property and letting agents, and a full page for insurance.
New free tool: Subscription Check
Paste your own bank statement, or type your subscriptions, to find every repeat payment, the yearly total, overlaps, price rises and payments nobody agreed to, and how to cancel.
Pages for healthcare, HR and small businesses
What the tools do for healthcare staff, HR and people teams and small businesses, and what they cannot do.
What’s new, with no mailing list
This page and its feed, so you can follow new tools without giving anyone an email address.
New free tool: Before You Buy a Course
Check a money-making course, coaching offer, side hustle or trading academy for the warning signs consumer regulators describe, see how many sales it takes to earn the price back, and get help with a refund if you have already paid.
New free tool: Can I Afford This?
See what a loan, a credit card or buy now pay later really costs, plan your pay around your bills, compare two ways of paying off debts, and find free debt help where you live.
New free tool: Before You Invest
Check a trading app, crypto coin, forex course, loan or pension offer for the tricks financial regulators warn about, and find the official register of firms in your country.
Before You Pay now checks messages
Paste a text, email or WhatsApp that asks you to pay a fee, tap a link, send a code or move money, and it points out the signs of a scam.
Hide Names from AI knows more kinds of numbers
Phone numbers, number plates, ID numbers and currencies from English-speaking countries across North America, the UK and Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, Europe and Africa, plus health, hotel room and booking numbers.
Tools for your work
How the tools help people in healthcare, legal work, retail, hospitality, schools, universities, the arts, museums, journalism, charities, government, investing and families, and what they cannot do.
Follow without an email address
Copy this address into any feed reader app. New tools appear there as they arrive, and you never give us a name or an email address.
https://utilforge.org/feed.xml
A feed reader is a free app that collects updates from the websites you choose. The app fetches each website’s list of updates, the same way a browser opens a page, so there is no sign-up and nothing to unsubscribe from.