Or a dedicated identity thief can just buy your profile from a data broker.

A determined researcher can find out about you, with some effort. Some things about you and your activities are public information, whether you like it or not. Online spies can still steal your private data, but at least they won’t just receive your personal profile on a platter. If you’re willing to do the grunt work yourself, manually opting out of the brokers Optery finds, you don’t even have to pay for the service. Then it acts as your agent to get your data removed. Optery checks an ever-growing list of data brokers and flags those that have your information. If you ask them to remove your profile, they must comply, but figuring out who to ask, and how, is tough. By the same token, data brokers don’t steal your personal info they obtain it from legitimate sources and use it to build profiles that they can sell. But in truth, plenty of agents work behind the scenes, sifting useful data from public sources.

The movies would have you believe that intelligence agents are bold, dashing types, infiltrating enemy assets and exfiltrating intel…or defectors. Rather than deal with figuring out separate spyware protection tools, you may prefer to just pick an award-winning security suite that has spyware protection baked in. Sure, spyware is a worry, but maybe you’ve got enough worries already. Don’t forget the privacy protection from its VPN (though you’ll have to pay extra for unlimited features). And its file shredder lets you rub out all traces of sensitive files, foiling even spies with forensic recovery software. If an unauthorized program tries to peek through the webcam, Bitdefender offers to block it. Its SafePay hardened browser isolates your financial transactions from interference using a separate desktop that’s not accessible to other processes. Like Abine Blur, it actively puts an end to tracking systems that profile your online activity by embedding ads and other trackers in the web pages you visit. But it also boasts a big collection of spyware-fighting features. Of course, it includes all the expected suite mainstays: award-winning antivirus, unobtrusive firewall, parental control, spam filtering, and so on.

How to Set Up Two-Factor Authenticationīitdefender Total Security is our Editors’ Choice pick for security mega-suite, in no small part due to its amazing breadth of features.How to Record the Screen on Your Windows PC or Mac.How to Convert YouTube Videos to MP3 Files.How to Save Money on Your Cell Phone Bill.How to Free Up Space on Your iPhone or iPad.How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages.

Best free antivirus for mac reddit