Not just a VPN: what are the other tools that can protect your privacy?

by iNinja Marketing Team

Alright, so we all remember that we should use a VPN to keep our privacy safe? iNinja VPN app will hide your IP address allowing you to remain anonymous online. That’s why we advise using it when you want to have that extra layer of protection, and in public places as WiFis there are rarely safe. And, obviously, we all are aware of the importance of an antivirus program that can safeguard us from malware that could sniff out sensitive data and give it to malefactors.

But as the number of cyber threats grows, we want to have even more ways to protect our privacy. And the good news is that there are quite a lot of instruments that can safeguard us from malefactors. Most of them are free and rather straightforward. We bet, you already know some of them, so let’s dive into the list.

The Onion Network

Also known as TOR, the Onion Network seems to be rather popular. But if you ask the majority of internet users, they will just shrug their shoulders. TOR encrypts and routes user data so that both the sender and the receiver remain unaware of each other’s identity. Thus, this network allows users to remain completely anonymous. Additionally, using the Onion Network, website owners can implement hidden services being sure those couldn’t be tracked.

Here are the most popular tools that will let you use the Onion Network:

TOR browser

It’s a free and rather simple browser that looks similar to Firefox because it’s built on the base of Firefox. If you browse the internet through the TOR browser, all your data gets routed through TOR. Therefore, you remain anonymous and gain the ability to find hidden services and websites — these usually end in .onion.

While the TOR browser gives you much-desired anonymity and more freedom online, it might eat into your bandwidth as the traffic gets routed. You could reach the same level of anonymity with the iNinja VPN Chrome extension if you don’t want to sacrifice the speed for privacy. Yet, if you want to access hidden websites, the TOR browser is a more suitable tool.

OnionShare

Wanna share something that you couldn’t trust to Dropbox or Google Drive? Then OnionShare is your solution. It will let you share files through the Onion Network with other users. This tool establishes a peer-to-peer connection and requires users to have the TOR browser. There are no limits for the size and number of files, and users don’t need to sign up or share any private information. However, considering that TOR makes things slower, you might wait quite a lot to send or receive very large files.

Browser plugins for privacy

You can add not just a VPN in Google Chrome or other browsers. Despite the popularity of extensions, most online users don’t really know that there are plugins that could improve their privacy online. Here are the best ones.

Privacy Badger

This is a plugin that inspects domains you’re connecting to when entering websites. Then Privacy Badger lets you decide which connections to allow, and with which domains to share cookies. It is a very useful instrument, yet it needs a user to figure out all the settings, Otherwise, you might face interruptions and other issues when browsing websites. You can get this plugin here.

Unblock Origin

It’s a free ad blocker with an extra feature — it also blocks trackers. It doesn’t require any configuration, so you can just install it and enjoy the way it protects your privacy. Get this extension from its website.

Canvas Defender

This plugin will block canvas fingerprinting for you making your actions online more difficult to track. Canvas Defender will safeguard you from identity spoof without needing you to set up this tool. The only downside is that this extension is available only for Firefox now. You can get it here.

For data breach victims

We read quite often about data leaks. Numerous companies suffer from this cuber threat as hackers steal sensitive data following their malicious goals. There are various reasons why they want to leak some information from a certain company. And even though it’s curious to know the motivation of hackers, the result of their actions is always the same — a lot of users suffer from their information getting exposed.

It would be careless to think that you never became a victim of a data breach. We have tens of accounts on different platforms and websites. What are the odds none of those services suffered from a hacker’s attack? Quite likely, we all have some of our data exposed by malefactors.

So, how to check if you became a victim? You can go to the Have I Been Pwned website and see if your email got exposed during one of the data breaches.

Additional safety measures

It’s not that hard to keep your privacy intact. Follow these simple rules:

  • Use unique and complex combinations for your passwords
  • Use a password manager to keep all those combinations safe and available for you
  • Share as little information as possible both during signing up for services and on social media platforms
  • Use an iNinja VPN app when your connection is unsafe
  • Avoid suspicious websites
  • Use an antivirus program
  • Use multi-factor authentication when it’s available
  • Keep your mobile gadgets locked with PINs
  • Turn off Bluetooth and GPS when you don’t need these services

Make these guidelines your habits, and you will lower your risks of becoming a victim of malefactors!