With so many prying eyes, as well as innumerable apps, keen to invade your privacy these days, your personal information and private life are probably nowhere near as private as you’d like to think. But you can take control of your privacy again. Here are some of the best privacy apps to help you get started.
Safety Photo+Video
This app lets you keep personal and/or confidential images and videos private. With Safety Photo+Video you can passcode protect your most sensitive media so that prying eyes never see anything you don’t want them to see. You can even upload new pics and videos from your PC, via web browser or iTunes file sharing.
What its creator says: "How many times has this happened to you? You lend someone your phone, and they just rifle through your pictures and videos as if it was their own. Don’t you hate that? If you have photos or videos that you would rather not have other people looking at, then you need Safety Photo+Video. With this app you can quickly and easily passcode protect your most private or sensitive media so that nobody but you can find them."
Key features include: Dot pattern lock style for higher security; Full Retina display support; Create albums for your photos; Supports Video; Take private photos and videos from within the app; Easily import photos and videos from your photo library.
oneSafe
oneSafe is a password manager app that allows you to store all your confidential information – be it passwords, internet accounts, ID numbers, bank account details, pictures or private documents – in one safe place.
It’s a cross-platforms app (Android version and iOS version are also available) so that you can access your information whenever you need and wherever you are.
What its creator says: "oneSafe incorporates the strongest encryption algorithm available (AES- 256) and all your data is automatically encrypted as soon as it’s saved in the app (even the synced content).
And we make your entry password unhackable using standards with very complex calculations. oneSafe also comes with advanced security options allowing you to manage your security level: double-protected categories, auto-lock feature, password generator, decoy safe, self-destruct option, break-in attempts monitoring and a password change reminder."
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Key features include: Ready-made and customisable templates to easily enter your details; Backup options (through email, iTunes or Wifi) to keep the app safe; iCloud sync of your content between the different versions of oneSafe on your devices (iPhone, iPad and Mac); Dropbox sync of your data between Apple and Android versions.
Clueful
Clueful for Android shows you how installed apps use, and possibly abuse, your personal information and treat your privacy. You’d be surprised how many things an app can learn about you – without you ever knowing it.
Clueful is like your own personal "Privacy Consultant" giving you detailed info as to what your installed apps are doing in the background without your knowledge. It checks your apps against Bitdefender’s constantly updated Cloud database, calculates your device’s "Privacy Score", and then informs you as to which apps are sacrificing your privacy.
What its creator says: "Benefit from Clueful’s extended database of verified apps. Curious to find out more about an app? Look for it using Clueful’s newest Search feature. Now you are able to check whether an app does more than it says in the background before installing it. If we’ve already scanned the app we will display a list of clues from the Cloud allowing you to make informed decisions when it comes to the apps you’re downloading."
Key features include: Detailed analysis of apps; immediately informs you about absuive apps; updates 24/7 via Bitdefender Cloud.
Ghostery
Ghostery is a free privacy browser extension for Internet Explorer, Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, and Google Chrome owned by the advertising and privacy technology company, Evidon. It enables its users to easily detect and control web bugs which are objects embedded in a web page, invisible to the user, that allow the collection of data on the user’s browsing habits. Ghostery also has a privacy team that creates profiles of page elements and companies for educational purposes.
What its creator says: "Ghostery blocks HTTP requests and redirects according to their source address in two ways: cookie blocking and cookie protection (where available). When cookie protection is enabled, if a cookie is selected from Ghostery’s list, it is not accessible to anyone but the user and thus unable to be read when called upon."
Key features include: The ‘largest’ tracker database on the Internet; Block how you want, when you want; Use Ghostery on every browser and every device; in-depth tracker profiles.
Orbot
Orbot is a free proxy app that empowers other apps to use the Internet more securely. It uses Tor to encrypt your Internet traffic and then hides it by bouncing through a series of computers around the world. Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis. It can enable to you do various things, including browsing the web and private messaging, privately, although you may have to download certain add-ons. Check its website to find out exactly what you’ll need.
What is creator says: "Orbot is essentially Tor for Android. It’s an application that allows mobile phone users to access the web, instant messaging and email without being monitored or blocked by their mobile internet service provider. Orbot brings the features and functionality of Tor to the Android mobile operating system. It contains Tor and libevent. It also provides a local HTTP proxy and the standard SOCKS4A/SOCKS5 proxy interfaces into the Tor network. Orbot has the ability to transparently torify all of the TCP traffic on your Android device when it has the correct permissions and system libraries."
Key features include: Can be used with Orweb, the most anonymous way to access any website, even if it’s normally blocked, monitored, or on the hidden web; Use Gibberbot with Orbot to chat confidentially with anyone, anywhere for free; Tor can help you confidentially research a competitor, get around the Facebook block at school, or circumvent a firewall to watch sports at work.
