Now that the FCC net neutrality regulations are negated, apps like Abine's Blur will have to be implemented to protect your online data and privacy.

Blur is an all-in-one security tool that offers to protect your data while surfing the Internet, such as your identifying information, passwords, and online payment records.

Identity Fraud Incidences Reach Record Highs

Starting in 2015, credit cards equipped with microchips began annoying cashiers and customers alike.

Aside from the bother, these chips make counterfeit difficult, yet this hasn’t stop cyber criminals. They instead turned their focus to new account fraud: usurping the identity of a customer to open a credit card or a financial account using stolen personal information.

Javelin Strategy & Research is an advisory firm that has tracked identity fraud since 2003 and conducts related studies every year. In their latest 2017 Identity Fraud Study, they found that cyber criminality has reached unprecedented heights. In 2016, fraud incidence rose by 16% to effect 15.4 million U.S. victims (6.15% of all U.S. consumers), against 13.1 million victims in 2015. All in all, in 2016 $16 billion USD were stolen from U.S. consumers ($15.3 billion USD in 2015), and a total of $107 billion USD has been lost to identity thieves in the past six years.

In a report by the Identity Theft Resource Center, it was revealed that 38-48% of identity theft victims don’t find out about the incidence until 3 to 4 months have passed. 9-18% of victims take up to 4 years to notice their identity has been usurped.

Blur app: Blur Your Online Identity

Abine is a company that develops online privacy solutions. They have two main products: DeleteMe, as the name suggests, is a service that stops data sites from collecting and selling your info, and Blur.

Abine’s Blur is presented as an all-in-one online privacy tool. Blur accompanies you while you browse the web to make sure all your personal data is safe. The tool works both on a desktop computer (as an extension for Firefox), and on other devices as an app compatible with iOS and Android. Either way, Blur makes it easy and safe to log in and out from the browser, the app or the device you are using.

Blur secures all your accounts including your passwords, usernames, e-mail address, your payments and your overall online data history. Coming in two versions (free or monthly subscription), Blur enables you to create instant virtual cards to make payments without compromising your credit card info. It also has a built-in password generator to suggest strong and complex passwords that sync automatically across all your devices, and which you don’t have to memorize.

Among the myriad of features offered by Blur, is the auto-fill function (for tedious online forms) and a function to block trackers and secret data collectors, both scammers and “legit” entities (Yes, your online privacy is at the mercy of Google, Facebook and the like.)