Surveys have revealed that more than 86% of employees in the United States believe that they are more productive when they work remotely. Employers have also started to believe that they can save a lot of money by allowing employees to work from home. This change has made the Internet a place densely populated by people with malicious intent, who constantly look for ways to steal your data.
Big corporations adopt advanced technologies of various kinds to keep such unscrupulous attempts at bay. However, those security features will not be accessible to you when you are working remotely. This makes using certain privacy tools and apps extremely important for you. The section below talks about five such tools.
Table of Contents
1. Network Encryption Tool
When you work from home and don’t have an encrypted network, you are highly vulnerable to cyberattacks. Cybercriminals might be active on your network and keep a close eye on all your activities. If this continues to happen, you might become a victim of identity theft. You may even end up losing all your money. This makes it mandatory for you to use a network encryption tool.
This is where a VPN comes in handy. This tool will allow you to maintain the security of digital data on any computers’ network. Using this tool you are automatically restricting access to your personal, sensitive data from the prying eyes by encrypting your network.
A VPN works by defeating censorship and content restrictions and provides users with access to music, videos, social media, etc. from any given location. Protect yourself with a VPN and start reclaiming your anonymity online!
2. Ad and Tracker Blocker
When working online, you should be wary of omnipresent web trackers. These trackers tend to follow users and keep track of all their online activities. They know which eCommerce stores you are visiting, what items you have saved in your cart, and which bank you have an account in.
As these trackers allow third parties to gather so much info about you, you should use a tracker blocker when working from home. If it’s a high-quality tracker blocker like Privacy Badger, you can also expect it to block the majority of the ads bothering you during your visit to different websites.
Privacy Badger will not only stop trackers from tracking your online activities but will also decrease the time a web page requires to load.
3. HTTPS Connection
When you work online, you need to visit numerous websites. Today, it’s mandatory for you to ensure that the websites you are visiting are fully secured. It will not be enough only if the login page and the cart page boast a Secure label.
Even search engines like Google have started to rank websites using HTTPS higher than the ones that are still using HTTP. So, most top websites have shifted from HTTP to HTTPs. You should always work on websites that use HTTPS on all its pages. A tool that can make the job a bit easier for you is HTTPS Everywhere.
HTTPS Everywhere is a free browser extension for Opera, Mozilla Firefox, Brave, and of course Google Chrome. It forces websites to use an HTTPS connection (if they support it) instead of the backdated HTTP connection. The tool will allow you to encrypt every eligible website and thereby block all non-HTTPS sites.
4. Secure Messenger Tool
You may end up making your personal data public even when using a messenger. The absence of end-to-end encryption can allow cybercriminals to gain access to your conversations and sensitive data. This is a major problem as we use messengers to discuss remunerations, share bank info, and even exchange crucial company data.
According to experts, the only way to defeat this issue is by using a secure messenger tool. One tool you may consider using if you are looking for maximum security is Signal. This free messaging application uses end-to-end encryption for securely sending and receiving all forms of communications.
Some of the most prominent features of Signal include secure connection indicators, instant emoji reactions, disappearing text messages, videos, and photos, safety numbers, etc.
5. Password Manager
If you want to make your home network fully secure, you must have strong passwords. The biggest problem is that most of us fail to create passwords that are strong and complex. This makes us extremely susceptible to password leaks and thefts. It might be surprising but still, 17% of users use a password as basic and simple as 123456.
If you don’t want your password to be weak, start using a password manager today. One tool that you can try is LastPass. The tool will show you whether your passwords are strong or weak and create fresh passwords for you. Other than that, you can also use the tool for storing all your passwords and usernames in a safe place.
Conclusion
When you work remotely, you need to spend several hours online. This makes it mandatory for you to take the necessary steps to protect your online privacy. The tools we have discussed above will protect you against all sorts of online privacy breaches.
