Best Internet Privacy Tools and a Privacy Guide You Need to Use to Secure Your Data in 2021

It seems everywhere you go online, someone wants to get your private information. Sometimes they are transparent about it and ask you straight up to fill an online form or similar, but often they just take your information without your knowledge or consent.

That’s why we’ve created this online privacy guide to help keep your personal and other important and sensitive data secure in 2021. If you want to be secure in 2021 on the Internet, take a look at these privacy tools.

VPN

Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is providing you with a very valuable service, namely Internet access. However, it is very likely spying on you and sharing your information with the government.

In many countries, this is even mandatory by law.

You can stop your ISP from doing this by using a Virtual Private Network (VPN).

In addition to putting a stop to ISP spying by encrypting and anonymizing your connection and making the traffic unreadable to 3rd parties, VPN will also allow you to access blocked content (like a streaming service that is blocked in your region) and prevent IP tracking as your IP will be replaced by the VPN’s IP.

Privacy Browser

Popular web browsers like Chrome or Safari do a very poor job of protecting your privacy. That’s often the opposite of what they do and they will happily collect data from you by monitoring your browsing behavior, what sites you like to visit and what device you use and then sell that information to advertisers.

Luckily, not all browsers are like that and some of them are actually created with privacy and anonymity in mind.

We already published an article on the best privacy browsers for 2021, so you can check that article to find the one that works for you whether you’re a mainstream user (Mozilla Firefox) or a power user (Tor).

Anonymous Email

Although created in the 1970s and based on very old protocols, email is still one of the most often used communication channels today.

The problem with email is that it was never designed to be secure and anonymous. It was designed to be easy and quick to use (which it is).

However, as more and more people started using email ( there are 4.03 billion email users around the world, which are sending 306.4 billion emails per day, according to Stat i sta) email has become one of the biggest targets for hackers and data theft.

In the past decade or so, people have become more aware of the deficiencies of regular email like Gmail and are turning to private email services that offer better protection for their email data and communication. One such email service is CTemplar.

Private Search Engine

It would be difficult to get anywhere on the Internet without the help of a search engine. However, imagine a cab driver taking you to the desired location and then instead of leaving to get another customer, walks in with you and starts looking at what you do.

That’s pretty much what search engines like Google and Yahoo are doing as they record and track your searches. This allows them to build a profile of you and sell your information to advertisers.

The problem is that many people aren’t even aware that there is another option of using a non-intrusive, privacy-oriented search engine. For instance, you can try DuckDuckGo or Startpage instead.

Password Management Tools

An average person has probably at least 10 passwords that he has to remember. Because of this a lot of people make one or both of the following mistakes:

They are using weak passwords that are easy to remember, but also to crack or;
They store their passwords somewhere that is not safe, allowing hackers easy access (like a plaintext document on their computer)

Both of these problems can be easily solved by using a password manager like LastPass.

With a password manager, you only have one password to remember (that of the password manager itself), while it will remember all the other passwords for you and let you log in to websites much faster (no need to enter your username and password every time).

You can also use a password generator to create more secure passwords that are less likely to be cracked.

How to Protect Your Online Privacy in 2021?

These 5 privacy tools will help you stay safe and protect your online privacy, but that this online privacy guide wouldn’t be complete without looking at some privacy tips that you should use when online:

Regularly Update Your Security Software

Having antivirus and antimalware software installed is important, but it won’t help you much if the last time you updated it was last year. Cyberattackers come up with new ways to attack your device all the time so making sure to update your security software regularly is a must.

Avoid Using Public WiFi

Imagine waiting for someone in the coffee shop or an airplane at an airport. What do you do to pass time?

You probably log on to the free WiFi to go online.

But are you aware of the dangers that come with public WiFi? The security here is not nearly what you have when you use WiFi at home or work and cybercriminals are often monitoring these connections for gullible people.

Should you completely avoid public WiFi? Not necessarily. You can still use it to find a nearby place to eat or some sites worth seeing where you are visiting, read online articles and such, but by all means please avoid using public WiFi to log in to your email or to check your bank account.

Regularly Change Your Passwords

When was the last time you changed your email password for example? You probably haven’t done this in quite a while, if ever.

No matter how strong your passwords are, every password can be cracked given even time. So why risk it and give that time to a determined hacker when you can change the password in just a few seconds and make them start all over again?

Be Wise to Phishing Scams

According to Retruster, phishing the number one cause of data breaches.

Phishing is any malicious attempt on the part of the cybercriminal to obtain your sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, or financial details like credit card numbers by pretending they are someone they’re not such as a person or organization you may know.

Phishing has been around since almost the beginning of the email and you’d think people would be wise to it by now, but scammers are always finding new ways to trick more victims with their schemes.

However, if you are smart and know what to look for, you can easily avoid being a phishing scam victim. For instance, check out our article on how to identify a malicious or phishing email.

Be Careful What You Share Online

This especially goes for social media, which is today such a huge part of our lives.

Of course, Facebook and the like want you to share every little detail of your life, but you don’t have to.

In fact, you shouldn’t. Some things, like letting the people know what movie you’ve just watched or who is your favorite writer, are perfectly fine to share with everyone, but others, like your travel plans, are better kept secret and shared only with the select people you know you can trust.

How to fully secure your privacy online?

There is no single way or magic bullet that will allow you to fully secure your online privacy, but using the right privacy tools like a secure email service, VPN, private browser and search engine, as well as making sure your passwords are strong are some of the best ways to protect your privacy.

Conclusion

Protecting your privacy is very important as numerous bad actors want to steal your private and sensitive information, from your government, advertisers, hackers, ISP, websites you’re visiting and more.

This is why it’s so crucial to use these privacy tools and to follow this online privacy guide to protect your privacy.

Using a secure end-to-end encrypted email service is one of the best ways to secure your online privacy and avoid prying eyes from getting your data. CTemplar is a secure and private email service that is dedicated to helping you protect your right to anonymity online.