4 Must-Have Privacy and Security Apps in 2019

As of 2018, 51.2% of the world population is online. They are transmitting information on the internet, using financial services, sending and receiving emails, sharing videos on social media, and more. More and more aspects of our lives are now going online. Naturally, so has crime.  Cyberattacks are on the rise.

While the likes of Equifax and Facebook stayed in the headlines, many other significant breaches affected millions of people that sadly never got much attention. These included breaches at PumpUp (6 million records), Ticketfly (27 million records), Panera Bread (37 million records), and many more. However, people still have the power to protect their privacy. There are many apps to choose from that will help you safeguard your data online.

NOTE: Intratem is not affiliated or is promoting any of the services mentioned below.

1.      Express VPN

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) have been around for a while. but, with cybercrimes on the rise, they have become mainstream in the past couple of years. VPNs encrypt all the traffic sent and received by your smart device while bouncing it off an external server away from your real location. They allow you to mask your online activities and help you avoid data theft and surveillance.

When it comes to enterprise security, Express VPN offers state-of-the-art encryption protocols, an extensive network of servers and high speeds, which is usually an issue with VPNs. The service also does not keep extensive logs of user activity, which cannot be said for many of the free VPN services

2.      Wickr

WhatsApp is undoubtedly the most popular messaging app out there. Facebook acquired it for $19 billion in 2014. The co-founder of WhatsApp, Brian Acton, left Facebook in 2017. In 2018, when Facebook was already facing heat for the leaked information of millions of users His own creation – WhatsApp – is not the best messaging app when it comes to privacy.

If you are concerned about your privacy, use apps like Wickr or even Signal. Wickr offers special features for business users and features zero knowledge encryption (same as Signal), which is simply the best security you can get.

3.      DuckDuckGo

Google dominates the search engine space, and most people use it for the convenience it brings them. But the company has designed its terms to ensure that they can follow your digital footprint, everywhere you go. After all, that is how they can offer you the targeted ads.

If you are privacy conscious, then use search engines like DuckDuckGo. They do not track your usage and delete all the information any website may store about you on the browser. In fact, it blocks all kinds of advertisements too.

4.      ProtonMail

Created by the scientists at CERN, ProtonMail is a massive upgrade from any other popular mail services when it comes to privacy. The mail service allows you to send encrypted emails that are password protected. Not only that, but you also can set your message to self-destruct after a stipulated period. Only you and the intended recipient can read the message and no one else.

ProtonMail offers some powerful features for enterprise users. Most “secure” email providers do a great job of protecting your email account from outside interferences. However, not all your contacts use the same email provider. So, confidential corporate information may find its way into not-so-secure email providers’ servers. How do you protect that? Well, ProtonMail allows you to send password-protected emails to your recipients. The recipients can view your emails by clicking on the link provided in the email which redirects them to ProtonMail’s servers. Thus, the data in the email never reaches the servers of third-party email providers.