Achieving online privacy becomes more of a moving target every day as software and app developers scramble to stay ahead of hackers. Meanwhile, Facebook and its ilk seem to change the rules of “privacy” as often as a teenage girl updates her status.

Each year some 2 billion e-mail messages are sniffed, putting both sender and receiver at risk. Beyond hackers, there’s also the risk for internal “peeping” from IT staff or service providers with access to account details. In 2008, Verizon Wireless workers helped themselves to then president-elect Barack Obama’s personal cell-phone records.

The Mobile Challenge

The proliferation of mobile devices has made it even tougher to maintain online privacy, especially for activities and transmissions for which a high level of security is critical. Most mobile e-mail encryption services only go so far as protecting the message, leaving sensitive attachments vulnerable to peeping or theft. And, mobile browsing remains one of the least secure computing activities. Firewall protection for smart phones simply doesn’t exist, and Wi-Fi capability makes it easy for nearby thieves to eavesdrop on browsing activity.

Data Security for a Mobile Generation

For e-mail security, ConnectInPrivate.com’s S/MIME protocol technology in a mobile app encrypts both the content of the message and its attachments. StrongVPN.com, Anonymizer.com, and GoTrusted.com also offer e-mail protection, but only ConnectInPrivate hosts its encrypted e-mail traffic offshore in Panama City, Panama, one of the most popular and secure locations in the world for conducting offshore business.

Messages sent through its offshore datacenter leave zero residue on the device used, protecting the transmission from view in the event the device is lost or stolen. The system offers security so tight that only the intended recipient is able to open the message, ensuring discrete communications between the parties.

Mobile Browsing Behind the Firewall

Private virtual private network (VPN) browsing allows mobile users to surf behind the firewall for secure Web browsing from anywhere in the world. But in the world of mobile, achieving security is one thing. Matching that with performance is another. In the mobile market, it’s all about speed and efficiency.

A secure, mobile VPN must offer the download speed and latency requirements that fulfill the basic tenets of the mobile advantage. The top performers can deliver latency as low as 17 ms, with download speeds in excess of a 6.5-Mbyte/s rate, compared to the clunky 220-ms latency and 1.19 Mbytes/s of some of the more bloated solutions.

The Free Isn’t Always Better

Among the converted, achieving Web anonymity is worthwhile at any reasonable cost. But one of the biggest hurdles in the adoption of Web-privacy tools is convincing users to pay for privacy services.

Tor, a freeware software and open network that essentially bounces traffic around a network of volunteer-run relays, provides some veil of anonymity. However, its open-source model and traffic bounce tactic introduces room for error and a higher latency that may not be acceptable to efficiency-minded and performance-minded business users.

Finally, terrorists and other bad buys who think that Web anonymity tools may be the ideal solution for transmitting the seedy details of the next attack should think again. Unlike BTGuard.com, which basically provides anonymous BitTorrent downloading to skirt copyright laws, ConnectInPrivate.com not only blocks access to their service from areas known to be hotbeds for extremism, but also requires the use of a credit card to enroll to verify identity at the outset.

Whether we like it or not, the convenience and speed of online and mobile connectivity inherently involves specific privacy risks. For businesses and individuals that depend on secure communications—in the financial, medical, legal, law enforcement/security and government services sectors, for example—mobile Web and email anonymity solutions can help protect a user’s inalienable right to privacy with a quick and easy system that won’t break the bank.