Privacy has finally became a dinner-table topic. After years of being utter indifference by the general public, privacy is now regarded as a major future concern. It could be Snowden. It could be WannaCry ransomware. It could be that average Joe finally notices that advertisers know him a bit too well. Whichever reason Otherwise, how can you explain the rise of decentralized cryptocurrencies? In my opinion, the reason people are so drawn into an idea they do not completely grasp is that it’s anonymous. Plain and simple – when you hold it, you are out sight of government and regulators.
It could that we are amidst a drastic change of perception. After years of enslavement by the establishment, people want to break loose from the claws of the Big Brother and its servant – the taxman. Perhaps the poor realize that taxation rules are leaning towards increasing the inequality or they just understand that the world is already there’s already enough inequality in the world today. It could be that people don’t believe in copyrights anymore (how else would have MegaUpload become so successful?), and there is no way to legally or technologically bind them into respecting them. It could also be that people just afraid that their hidden secrets will leak out with lack of sufficient means of security.
Whatever the reason is, it is apparent that online privacy is more of a concern than it was previously. Here are some of the staple products that internet users who are concerned
VPN Software
A VPN was a fairly technological word until not long ago, but nowadays it’s quite common to use. The idea is to conceal your electronic footstep with a single click, and it works pretty well. A commercial VPN will probably not protect you if the NSA is on your tail, but it’s plenty enough to stay in clandestine for websites with content that can be accessed only from certain countries, or keep away from the eyes of online advertisers.
Top-notch VPN providers across the world will offer up to 200,000 IPs to choose from for the cost of about $5 monthly, which makes it a must-use tool. Non-recommended VPNs can charge up to $50 a month, just based on the fact a lot of people aren’t aware they can find excellent VPN providers who are ten times cheaper.
VPN is a simple program to use, and it enhances your protection online significantly, so it is my #1 staple for internet security.
Firewall
Firewall was something that was used exclusively by large corporations before but with the penetration of easy-to-hack WiFi internet, it became a necessity. Indeed, most routers already have firewall hardware commissioned into their backbone, and the popular operating systems have a firewall enabled on default (but you definitely need to verify that). Thus, the average internet user does not need to acquire any additional hardware or software for firewall (but corporations should consider another layer of protection).
Anti-Virus
Many Anti Viruses are nothing short of scams. Once you download them, you can’t get rid of them. You could say that they are a malicious software by itself in many ways. On the other hand, it is a necessary evil in the sense that you do need a software to scan your computer against unwanted software that may be found there.
Malwarebytes is a freebie software that you should use and is free of all of those. I also use Reason Core Security as my main Anti Virus but PCMag recommended against it, so I’m not sure what to think. At the very least I can tell you it is not a malicious software and it did detect malwares I had.
Summary
Online privacy is picking up and for a good reason. People should be selective about the software they choose to keep protected.
