If the recent revelations about the federal government’s interest in your activities has jolted you out of complacency regarding your online privacy you might be interested to know that there are a number of free or almost free apps that will help cover your tracks.  Once considered the domain of conspiracy theorists, these services and apps that focus on privacy, encryption and preventing online tracking have experienced surges in popularity in the last few weeks.  Revelations that private companies that collect user information including Google, Facebook and Apple are turning over data to the government has propelled many propelled many privacy tools from the fringes into the limelight.

DuckDuckGo, a search engine that, unlike Google, Yahoo, and Bing doesn’t collect or store user data, has experienced a 33% increase in traffic while downloads of DoNotTrackMe,  a free browser plugin that blocks commercial web tracking, increased 42% in recent weeks.  Users concerned about privacy of video calls, phone calls and text messages have flocked to applications like Seecrypt,  a communications app that encrypts calls and text messages, and Silent Circle, a communications service that provides encryption of video and phone calls, as well as text messages and email.

Users of Chrome or Firefox might be interested in Privacyfix, an application that scans Facebook and Google accounts, showing which privacy tweaks you need to make, along with instructions on how to fix each one. It’ll also show other web sites you’ve visited that are sharing your data or tracking your activity.

If you use public WiFi networks, Hotspot Shield encrypts your traffic and turns all HTTP traffic to the safer HTTPS. It reroutes your web traffic and provides your with a new IP address hosted by the application to ensure that your data isn’t breached and to protect you from wireless network spoofing.

These are just a sampling of some of the privacy-friendly service options available.  It’s important to take some time to evaluate the different tools that defend against different threats to determine which might work best to help protect your personal information.

For more information on solutions for running your businesses’ technology more efficiently, visit our website or contact Megan Meisner at mmeisner@launchpadonline.com or 813 920 0788 x210