At the tail end of last month, the world celebrated ‘Data Privacy Day’. This is an international event that raises awareness and promotes internet privacy, and in many ways, it has only grown in popularity since its designation in 2006 – because the challenges that it seeks to counteract have only got more complex.

In 2024, internet users are faced with everything from cyber criminals to data miners who are looking to take and utilise their personal information. In response to this, developers have been working hard to come up with tools and solutions that can serve as a defence. In this article, we’re going to take a look at three of the most advanced, helping you to kickstart a fresh era of data privacy in the midst of an un-private internet landscape.

The first – and perhaps most effective – solution to data privacy is offered by Incogni. In 2024, around 3.7 billion people will use the internet every day, which is 7.5% more than in 2016. Add to this that nearly 100,000 Google Chrome searches are processed every second, and it becomes clear just how big a digital footprint we are all leaving behind.

According to recent figures, around 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are created each day, and this offers data brokers a minefield of data to assimilate and harness. With Incogni, internet users are given a way to erase their digital footprint as they go, simply by giving them the right to contact data brokers on your behalf. By doing this, your information can be removed from databases, and brokers are refused access to any data you leave in the future.

One of the most popular tools that internet users have downloaded is known as a VPN. This is a virtual private network that can not only protect a user’s IP, but encrypt their internet history to ensure they’re safe from bad actors attempting to take advantage of their data.

According to recent projections, the global VPN market is set to grow to around $135 billion by 2030, with around 32% of mobile users currently using VPNs every day. Surfshark, specifically, is one of the leading VPN services. Offering convenience, accessibility, and robustness, both experienced and inexperienced users are given the opportunity to privatise their internet browsing experience, making it far harder for them to be tracked online.

One more privacy tool that is growing in notoriety is known as IronVest. With around 2.71 billion people expected to shop online in 2024 – while using their email addresses, phone numbers, and credit card details to do it – it’s become more important than ever to make the online shopping experience as safe as possible. IronVest ensures that this is the case.

By letting you shop and communicate online without revealing any of your personal data, you can minimise the data that you are offering companies and leave behind for data brokers to pick up. This offers far more than a simple password manager – it’s more of a complete, holistic online security tool. A must for anyone who wants the convenience and speed of shopping online, without sacrificing their privacy.