Web security firm AVG have launched another app to go in their portfolio of mobile security apps, AVG PrivacyFix is designed to help you crack down on the amount of information you share online. (Almost) all of us have got Facebook, LinkedIn and Google accounts where we put, sometimes on a daily basis, large amounts of information about ourselves to share with friends. Quite often though some of this data can be shared with people who you might not necessarily want to have it (certain co-workers, advertising companies, Google themselves) this app helps you tweak the security settings easily.
It’s quite a simple app, once installed you have to give it access to your Facebook, LinkedIn and Google accounts and it will run a diagnostic to let you know how much information you are sharing through each social network. An orange circle with an exclamation mark quite clearly shows you which setting you might need to edit if you want to tighten up your security settings. You can then edit all of these settings in the app, there’s no need to navigate out of the app, change it and open it back up again to see what else needs changing.
Once you have made all of the changes that you want to make, leave the app installed on your phone and it will notify you every time any social media security settings are changed and prompt you to make new changes to your preferences, keeping you as secure as possible at all times. That is pretty much the limitation of the app, however if you really want to beef up your phones security then take a look at the collection of apps that AVG have launched for both iOS and Android, there are plenty to help keep your phone as safe as possible.
Overall it’s a really useful app, you can make all of these changes anyway using the control panel for Facebook, LinkedIn and Google, but it’s just easier to keep it all in one place. Everything is presented in really simple English and it’s so easy to do which makes this app aimed more at the less tech savvy smartphone owner. No matter how good you would say you are with online security though, I would recommend you download this just for a try – it’s free so you have nothing to lose really and you could be surprised at how much information you are sharing.