With people up in arms about the government keeping records of phone calls, emails and other communication that should be considered private, the issues of security and privacy have become paramount. But it isn’t just the government that has the potential to access your personal and private communications. Scammers, spammers and eavesdroppers seek that same information too! Recently a number of apps, software programs and more have surfaced to help keep your secrets yours. We’ll take a look at a few of these. (Keep in mind though, that all of these programs to keep your secrets safe advertise freely that they cooperate with law enforcement. If your secrets involve illegal activities, your secrets are not safe with them.)
Cell Phone Privacy
A new app for smartphones called Seecrypt is a voice encryption app that protects the contents of your phone conversations and texts from those who have monitoring equipment close by. They do this via a Virtual Private Network that uses the phone’s handset data or WiFi connection. The encryption used is of military grade quality. A Seecrypt user is assigned a private Seecrypt number, for the call to be successful, the recipient of the call must have a private Seecrypt number as well. You can also send invitations to anyone who you desire secure phone calls with.
E-Mail Privacy
Similar to the cell phone app, an email app called Infoencrypt is a free web-based service that encrypts out-going emails that can be decoded only by those who have a password that you give them prior to the communication. Type the content of the email into your page on Infoencrypt’s site, the message is encrypted and you cut and paste it into your regular email program. The recipient enters the password to decrypt the content on the same site and the message is able to be read.
Online Privacy
With a simple search of your computer’s internet browsing history someone can learn a lot more about you than you want them to know. Some internet companies have introduced advanced security measures to guard against these types of intrusions. Google Chrome for instance has their Incognito mode. When you use the Incognito mode, the pages you visit do not appear in the browser history or search history. The mode blocks all temporary traces of your visit to the site by blocking cookies that identify your computer to the site when you return.
Virtual Private Networks
For the ultimate in online privacy, using a virtual private network or VPN enables users through a paid proxy service to reroute their inquiries online through the proxy server which leaves their identities anonymous to all sites they visit. The IP address that ‘tells’ the website that it is your computer visiting the site again comes from the proxy, not from your computer. This is a way to get around sites that are blocked at work or at school.
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