Much like you need to secure your home with some pretty good smart home security systems which doesn’t have to cost you a leg and a kidney, the same goes with securing your internet presence because the internet has somehow become the real virtual world which everyone needed to embrace since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

With so many stories about identity theft, hacking and even scarier news about privacy concerns especially with social media companies such as Facebook and even big search giants like Google knowing too much about you might just be a really disturbing thing to be aware of and that is why there is the need to use a really secured tool to help anonymize your web presence in order to keep your data safe from these data-hungry tech giants.

Taking responsibilities for your very own cyber security and web presence means that you’ll have to ditch some so-called “Free” services because most services aren’t exactly as free as you might have think of them to be.

Take Facebook for example, the service offer some really amazing tools to keep your meeting up with old and new friends much easy but again, the service is also built to make you scroll through its newsfeed endlessly and worst enough, the Facebook AI follows you around the internet to different sites and there are in fact occurrences whereby Facebook knows where you’ve been.

The endgame is to target you with personalized ads which is reasonably a good thing but can I just be left alone and not be followed around the internet to wherever I go – literally!

Long story short, it’s highly possible to secure your internet usage and web presence using these 5 amazing tools most of which are entirely free to use.

Brave Browser

I’ve written about the Brave Browser in the past and big shout-out to the team behind this project. Much like Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, the Brave browser is a really feature-rich web browser application that comes for both desktop and mobile platforms but with the exception of being entirely free of tracking and monitoring from big tech companies such as Google.

I made the first tool to secure your web presence an internet browser because its very evident that web browsers are like the gateway to the internet. I mean how do you surf the web without an internet browser right? And there are literally hundreds of web browsers out there from big names like Google Chrome, Opera, Microsoft Edge to unpopular ones like Maxton and so on and so forth.

Brave browser’s come a really long way to become a household name in terms of internet privacy and anonymity which is something that many of us wants.

Brave browser is so good at it that it also allows you to donate to your favorite blog/site which is essentially how the service makes its money. The team behind the web browser are very open and transparent about their policy which is why the Brave Browser is the first step towards internet security.

DuckDuckGo

Not a web browser but a search engine which has taken upon Google as the privacy-centric search engine but its not very popular first because its name is too generic…I mean who would remember “DuckDuckGo” if they’re hearing it for the first time but apparently, Google bought the domain name “Duck.com” and just put it on the internet while the DuckDuckGo team begged the giant Search engine enterprise to sell them the domain but well, Google refused which ultimately landed them in some hot waters in Europe over anti-competitive practices but up till now, Duck.com is just a blank white page that leads nowhere – OH! Google eventually transferred the domain name to DuckDuckGo so “Duck.com” redirects to “Duckduckgo.com” COOL!

Now back to privacy, DuckDuckGo is one of the very few search engines that do not store your data or search queries on its system and doesn’t sell your privacy and data to advertisers which is the business models of majority of these so-called “Free” services.

And if you don’t want to give up your Chrome for Brave Browser, then you can install the DuckDuckGo privacy extension on Chrome and just use it as your default browser in Chrome instead.

1.1.1.1 from CloudFlare

This is a free VPN service that also offer some pretty decent features such as speed to make your internet experience amazing. We all know Cloudflare is all about speed but if you don’t know what Cloudflare is, this is a content deliver network that helps make website access fast.

One other thing fascinating about the 1.1.1.1 w/WARP is that the application adds up it’s control system to your notification center in Android so it can be turned on with ease directly by merely swiping down the notification center on Android so you don’t need to be looking about for the installed application whenever you want to use it which is a really great thing to consider.

Other important things this service takes out of the way is that it eliminates all lags and leaks through to your data. The network is always about speed and security and they really deliver well in this respect and you wonder why more than 10 million people have the application installed on their device including me.

Free Adblocker Browser

AdBlockers are really amazing and what could be more annoying than getting unsolicited advertisements which randomly bloat your smartphone’s interface and affect its overall performance. That is where the
Free Adblocker Browser comes in.

Even though this application can also be your Brave browser alternative because it also offer privacy browsing that is free from racking and data-hungry AI all across the web, this application can come very handy for those that just want to keep their smartphone’s interface and web experience clean from horrible pop-up ads.

Worst enough, some smartphone makers are now found to be baking ads inside their operating systems which in turn bloat out the device with so many unwanted ads and so forth. But with a cool application like this, you’re certain to never get unwanted ads popping across your device as well as websites that you may visit.

VPNS

Virtual private network or VPN are basically services that further help to secure your internet. If you combine all these five, you’ll definitely become invincible and untraceable on the web.

First of all, VPN services works by using virtual IP address for your outgoing network which is routed through the virtual private network. With that said, you can always route your network from any location in the world which further give you access to services that are geo-location based – for example, some Netflix shows might not be available in the US but in Germany. You just route your network to Germany and Boom! Netflix thinks you’re accessing their service from Germany so you get German-related shows and movies.

VPN are not only used for masking and routing locations around the web, its also a safe haven for internet surfing which keeps your data safe from these data-hungry big tech firms which is why you might want to consider using them.

I have compiled a list of the best VPN applications for 2021 most of which are entirely free and can be tried out. Use the button below to view the list.

As you can se, it doesn’t necessarily take too much to stay secured on the internet but its all about ditching some of these so-called “Free” big tech services because what you pay with is your data and personal information which are then used to service ads service providers across the web to re-target you with ads.