As stories of hacking and cyber security breaches proliferate, it is perhaps no surprise that more and more people are concerned about keeping their privacy intact when they browse the Internet.  A new EU-funded project aims to help by providing a user-friendly monitoring and protection system, which includes some interesting free tools that we can use.

The platform, known as Privacy Flag, consists of a smartphone app, a browser add-on and a website, all of which are connected to a common, shared database to help users monitor and control their privacy.  Each of the free tools comes with an automatic alert system that notifies the user whenever their privacy has been breached.

“The Privacy Flag project and its outputs and spin-offs represent a new generation of technology-supported initiatives designed to enable citizens to understand and control the ways in which their personal data may be captured and reused in the digital environment, as well as to create support mechanisms for businesses that aim to develop and supply transparently privacy-compliant services,” the team explain.

As you might expect from an EU-backed project, it works closely with the General Data Protection Regulation that was introduced recently to help protect citizens’ rights within the EU.  The Privacy Flag aims to extend this protection via a voluntary system, that’s known as the Privacy Pact, which allows any company operating outside the EU to commit to those same European standards.

“One example of the sustainability of the project’s outputs is the creation of the EuroPrivacy certification scheme on data protection, designed to enable a systematic and comprehensive analysis of compliance with the GDPR, applicable to products, services and data protection management systems, and encompassing emerging technologies such as data analytics and Internet of Things,” the team explain.

If you’re interested in data protection and privacy, either as an individual or as an organization, it’s worth checking out.