In today’s digital world, we spend most of our time online. From office work to checking emails, performing research, watching movies, or playing games online, we are using apps and visiting websites that collect our personal information for various reasons.
Although not all, there may be some apps/websites that sell your information to advertising companies. Even Google uses our search behaviors to target ads, while Apple uses this information to sell hardware. To ensure your information remains secure, check out these 5 data privacy apps!
1. ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is an all-in-one app for your privacy protection in the digital world. It secures all your digital activity without leaving any trace of your information behind. You can also access censored websites and get access to your favorite content from anywhere around the globe.
For instance, if you want to leverage secure streaming on Roku or any other device, ExpressVPN will help you do so without fear of privacy leaks. At the same time, it will grant binge-watchers the ability to unblock sites like Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer, and more! Learn how to do that through this guide by VPNRanks.
ExpressVPN even has more than 3,000+ servers in about 94 countries around the world. It encrypts your online traffic with military-grade AES-256 encryption and sends this encrypted data back and forth through a series of secret tunnels, allowing you to leverage maximum anonymity!
2. ProtonMail
ProtonMail is a secure email management service based in Switzerland. It encrypts your emails and allows you to secure end to end communication. ProtonMail was founded back in 2013 by the collaboration of some scientists who met at CERN.
Being an alternative to normal mail systems we use in our daily lives, its dashboard is an engineer call designed to let you work faster and with ease. Its advanced inbox design is optimized for productivity, whether on Desktop or Android/iOS devices!
It uses end-to-end and zeroes access encryption to protect your emails. All the user data is protected by strict Swiss privacy laws, even though they don’t keep any IP logs of the users’ devices. Its infrastructure is based under 1000 meters of rock in one of the most secure data centers of Europe.
3. DuckDuckGo
Major search engines like ‘Microsoft Bing’ and ‘Google’ may sometimes track your searches and share them with websites you visit. Moreover, they also store some virtual cookies in your browser to get a glimpse of your search habits to show more targeted ads.
DuckDuckGo, on the other hand, is a privacy protected search engine, which does not track any search queries, and you are completely anonymous to the search engine itself. You can also use it with “Orbot” and hide your location from the websites you’re visiting.
It is a free search engine and its earning is based on ads. These ads are totally based on the search results pages shown to you and not based on your personal data. For example, if a result page is about home interiors, it will show you ads related to gardening and home appliances.
4. Firefox
Firefox browser is the most secure browser with built-in privacy features for private internet surfing. Most browsers use your search data to show you more ads, but this isn’t the case with Firefox. You have control over who can see your personal info, reducing the risk of data breaches.
Moreover, you can install additional security add-ons on your firefox apps. For example, on the Mozilla Store, go to the tools menu, and click on add-ons. You can see many add-ons including Ghostery, which prevents websites from storing cookies on your browser for monitoring your search habits.
5. Jumbo
Jumbo (for android and iOS) is a social media management app that helps you secure your social media networks. It enables you to auto-delete some of the posts after a certain amount of time has passed. You may not want to leave a long trail of your posts and tweets behind you on social platforms.
Jumbo completely covers 3 major social media networks, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at the time. Although a few features require a paid subscription but most of the features it offer are completely free and don’t need any subscription.
The tool also offers features to disable photo tags or facial recognition on your photos for limiting your profile exposure and even secure your privacy on social platforms.
6. Tor
Tor is the best free and open-source software that enables you to communicate anonymously by channeling your internet traffic through a worldwide overlay network which includes more than seven thousand hops and relays. These relays help perfectly in hiding a user’s location and internet activity from anyone who is spying on your network, whether a hacker or the Government.
Tor is one of the most popular browser apps to be used for browsing on the dark web. The Tor browser’s network is also useful for hosting websites that can only be accessed by other users who are using the Tor app. Thus, the dark web. These sites can’t be indexed by the regular search engine crawlers that are used for everyday searching of animal pictures, celebrity birthdays, and medical diagnosis.
Made specifically for users’ data privacy, the Tor browser is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux; Tor is also in the testing version for android. Tor is currently available on the PlayStore as an alpha release. Its vast compatibility with all types of devices makes it the best option for all kinds of users who are paranoid about their privacy.
Wrapping Up
If you want to leverage better privacy online, you do need to invest in some tools. The above recommendations are a good starting point, but apart from that, you also need to familiarize yourself with some safe practices for using the internet, as cyberthreats increase amidst COVID-19!
