5 Apps That Will Protect Your Privacy Online

Updated on

Nowadays, online surfing can be likened to navigating a minefield; everywhere you go, you risk getting your online privacy jeopardized.

The good news is, there‘re several measures that you can take to limit your exposure and hide your online footprint.

Get Our Activist Investing Case Study!

Get The Full Activist Investing Study In PDF

Q4 2019 hedge fund letters, conferences and more

And today, we shall be looking at some of the essential apps that you can install, on your desktop, or mobile to protect your privacy online.

SurfShark VPN

The first line of defense that should guarantee you absolute anonymity is the use of a Virtual Private Network, popularly known as a VPN.

VPN works by masking your real IP address, and this means that hackers won't get an idea of your geographical location.

More importantly, however, VPNs will all encrypt all the traffic flowing to and from your device, by routing it to an intermediary server outside your location, and this helps to hide your digital footprint completely.

But the benefits of VPN go more than hiding your digital footprint, but VPN can unlock geo-restricted content such as Netflix and Hulu, but it’s the encryption aspect that endears VPN to the safety-conscious user.

For far, SurfShark VPN is the most popular VPN app because of its military-grade encryption, fast speed, and a vast server network. You can read their review here, and see how SurShark works to hide your digital trail.

Norton Antivirus

Many of us aren't into the habit of installing an antivirus app on our gadgets, but doing so would act as the first line of defense against would-be hackers or virus entities.

See, anti-virus apps aren't merely for securing your privacy, but they also can detect and remove malware threats that pose a security threat.

In the world of anti-virus, Norton is a well-known name because it comes packed with a bunch of incredible safety features, and will help to routinely scan your device as well as block the unwanted files.

DuckDuckGo

Google is an incredible surfing tool, and without it, our world would be a living hell, to say at the least.

However, it does ingest vast trove of data, and this is what allows it to deliver the extremely retargeted ads every time we visit a website.

To some, this can be mildly discomforting since Google is essentially tracking your online activities, including the sites you visit, what you purchase, and more.

If you're always feeling violated by the downright invasive Google, you can opt or DuckDuckGo, an alternative browser with protection features that block advertisers from tracking you. Additionally, this browser doesn't store any data, including IP addresses, or even personal information. Even better, it requires all websites to use an encrypted connection whenever it is a session.

Cryptomator

One of the easiest ways to get your online safety compromised in storing confidential data on public cloud storage services.

iClod Drive, OnDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive are all incredible cloud storage services that will let you store a vast amount of data and will let you easily access data from anywhere.

However, none of these public storage services offers end-to-end encryption, meaning that hackers with the basics of coding can easily access your documents.

And this is where Cryptomator comes in; this app lets you automatically encrypt your documents before uploading them to your cloud account, and it means if your account is breached, hackers can't read the contents of your Cryptomator account.

ProtonMail

Google’s Invasive feature doesn’t just extend on the search function, but also to Gmail, too, and this is a reason why Google can provide highly targeted ads and tailored recommendation.

Even more worrying is the fact that Gmail is not end-to-end encrypted, meaning once hackers breach your Gmail, they can access all its contents.

Protonmail, however, is a more secure alternative that supports end-to-end encryption and self-destruct of contents after a certain timeframe, and even the company itself cannot decipher the contents of your communication.

Conclusion

This list is by no means definitive, but at least, these apps should give you a head start in your quest for securing your online safety.

Leave a Comment