Apps that protect users' privacy

Today, the mobile phone may be one of the greatest assets of human beings; a device that has all our data (banking, email, images...) and facilitates access to it, would mean being at the mercy of any hacker. What's more, many of us have applications that interrupt our privacy with our own consent. This quest for better data protection has led many companies to question some of their foundations, as is the case with Google. The Internet giant has launched a challenge to those applications that do not meet minimum requirements, which, if not changed, will be removed from Google Play as of March 15.

Facebook dominates the field of instant messaging

For some time now, the SMS have moved on to another life, leaving a power vacuum in which WhatsApp has achieved dominance (almost) from day one. Facebook's purchase has helped it stay at the top more easily, and it currently has more than 600 million active users. According to the latest study by Amnesty International Regarding the messaging applications that best protect the user, the Facebook company is the safest (it has WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger), while on the other hand, both Snapchat as Skype are very affected in this regard. But it seems that the most secure messaging application has emerged, so much so that it has the President of the United States as one of its users, as well as the rest of its team. Confide It emerged three years ago, and can currently be downloaded both in iOS as in Android in its free version. Among the features of this application, the way of reading messages stands out, and the text will appear opaque block encryption. To unlock them, the user must hold finger The app will delete the blocks one by one, so that a text longer than four lines will never be able to be seen in full or taken screenshots. The same happens with images, as they will appear blurry at first, but after moving your finger, the image will become clearer. Once a message has been read or an image viewed, these will be destroyed and the app ensures that they will not be stored anywhere. Signal, the app that uses Snowden, is very similar, except for this last detail (the data is stored).

Unlock your phone with a wink or an emotion

How many different ways are known to unlock a phone? Passwords with numbers, patterns, fingerprints… all these options open up a huge range of ways to protect our phone from other people, but Google wanted to take a step forward with easy recognition. FaceLock for Apps It was one of the tools that introduced Google a few years ago, with which we can block and unlock applications from the gestures of our face, such as a wink. This Google tool has the same final function as AppLock, one of the most well-known applications in terms of security, where you can protect the applications you want with a password (or pattern). But what seemed like an incredible advance with facial recognition has become obsolete because of emotions, and as the author states Emotional Research LAB, the market for applications that are capable of measuring emotions, through facial recognition, is increasing 30% each year. In this quest to find a new philosopher's stone, Apple He hit the table after paying out more than 20 million euros for Emotional, company that has developed a cutting-edge emotional coding system. But it is not only the Apple company that has an investment in this field, and that is Microsoft also seeks its place with Project Oxford.

Photo gallery: because a picture is worth a thousand words

The photo gallery on our phone contains a huge flow of information about us, and it is possibly where we keep the most secrets; a place where the photos we take, those sent to us or downloaded from the Internet converge. It seems, therefore, that it is of vital importance to protect this folder on our mobile phone. The tool mentioned above, AppLock, can offer a fairly accepted variant to help us better secure our photos, although there are some more specialized ones. KeepSafe This may be the number one in this section, and its methodology is quite simple: you enter a PIN that will protect all your photos and then hide them from the photo gallery so that no one has access to them. Another option is Vault, whose mechanics are very similar to KeepSafe, except for the fact that, If someone enters an incorrect password, the application will automatically photograph to the “nosy” with the front camera. When creating your own app, try to offer features that increase user privacy. A security-conscious app will allow you to increase the engagement and user retention. Here are some tips to help you Increase your user retention. Creating your application with King of App You will be able to design your own module, adding privacy features.

Which app do you trust the most when it comes to protecting your phone?

David Vern Buckley of the Arch