Category Archives: Privacy

6 Reasons to Skip Signing Up on a New Social Media App

In the earlier days of social media, it was simple. People created an account on Facebook first to connect with their old college buddies. Then, perhaps they got LinkedIn or Twitter. And in many cases, that was it!

Today it seems like there’s a new social media app popping up every month. And when they do keep showing up in your feed oh boy do most of them get overhyped.

If it’s a casual platform it’s where all the cool kids are at. If it can benefit your career, thought leaders want you to believe if you’re not investing in it, you’re falling behind.

The social media craze isn’t going away anytime soon. Knowing when to pass on a new app can put you ahead of the pack.

1. The Time Sink

Just as the number of social media apps has increased, the hours we spend on them have too.

From 2012 to today the time people spent on social media has been steadily trending upwards. The stats get downright alarming when we look at young age groups. In fact, a study by Real Research found that over 38% of teens use social media for over 8 hours a day.

Do you wish you watched more TV as a kid? Of course not, right? It makes you wonder how we’ll view our social media use today in the future. Eventually, social media and heavy smartphone usage will be dethroned by the next big thing. And at that point, we’re bound to gain more clarity about how much value social media brought to our lives in comparison with the time we spent on it.

Social media is a powerful tool with plenty of benefits. But no activity is so important that it should consume our lives.

2. Privacy Concerns

When people think about online privacy, they often think about how their personal data is gathered, how their data is used, and privacy policies.

It encompasses so much more than that.

On many new social media platforms, anyone can follow you and not all of them have the best intentions. There’s so much personal information that can potentially be leaked by the content you post itself.

Employers use social media to screen candidates. Posting photos of children is something that needs to be carefully considered for their safety. One slip-up can give away your location, or reveal parts of your life not everyone should be trusted to know. The list of privacy concerns is quite endless.

New social media apps haven’t been around long enough to put robust privacy options in place. If it allows you to make your account private that greatly impacts the number of people you can reach. Ultimately, it’s a blunt instrument.

Mature platforms allow you to manage privacy on a more granular level. For example, Facebook allows you to create lists and exclude groups of coworkers or acquaintances from seeing certain content. Advanced privacy features like this aren’t available on new apps and likely will never be available.

Some new social media sites track your web traffic, mine data from your profile and private messages, or share your data with third parties. Review the app’s privacy policy and trust your gut when it comes to whether you trust the company with your data or not.

3. Flash in the Pan or Here to Stay?

Getting in early is a big part of success. Influencers, celebrities, and authors that have built massive followings on apps like Instagram, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) have proven it time and time again.

As time passes it tends to get harder to make your mark on a platform as it gets more saturated with creators. The best time to dive in is when many users are still spectators. More people that consume but don’t make content means more attention for those who do create.

So, why would you ever wait on the sidelines?

The truth is we easily forget all the social media apps that had a brief moment in the sun and then lost the interest of most of its users and failed to get new ones.

Maybe you remember when it was common to hear about Clubhouse, BeReal, and Mastodon. Going further back, you might recall when Google+ shut down, or when Myspace lost its appeal and transformed into a glitter and spam-filled abandoned amusement park.

Social media apps that remain popular for several years or decades are actually the exception, not the rule.

4. Is This Mic On?

When it comes to your potential audience, it pays to look beyond the hype and study the numbers.

Established platforms like Instagram have been adding active users for many years. Thus, even new apps that had an incredibly successful launch have nowhere near the audience as older social media sites do.

Of the people that have created an account, most are not fully invested in the new platform. Like you, they’re testing the waters and determining if it’s worth it to stick around. If the app gained a user base quickly it can lose it just as fast.

Let’s study a bit of social media history, shall we?

Meta launched Threads in July 2023 to compete with Twitter. It got up to 100 million users in less than a week which looked incredibly promising. However, by the end of July over 50% of its users had already left.

With so many established alternatives, it’s challenging for new apps to retain their user base.

5. Barebones, Isn’t It?

No social media app is launched with a full set of advanced features. The options you considered to be basic on mature platforms simply aren’t present on new apps.

It takes years for apps to hit their stride when it comes to their features and identity. Just think about how much Instagram has changed over the years. It started as a basic photo-sharing app. Over time, Instagram added Stories, improved video capabilities, and Reels to stay competitive with other apps.

Giving up features doesn’t seem like a big deal until you experience it. It usually feels like going backward. You may find that you’re not willing to accept a lesser user experience just to jump on the latest bandwagon.

6. Technical Woes

If there’s one constant with technology, it’s that not everything works as it should all the time.

New social media sites haven’t been rigorously tested by users. So, there are bound to be issues the developers missed. Its early users become the app’s beta testers and arguably its guinea pigs.

Spammers can scammers are always looking for new opportunities. And there are fewer tools at a new app’s disposal to curtail undesirable behaviour. Dealing with bad actors inevitably leads to situations in which legitimate users face frustrating hurdles.

Apps are incredibly complex and challenging to manage. Thus, solving tech issues is like a game of whack-a-mole. And the newer the app, the more moles tend to pop up.

Conclusion

Feel like you’re missing out because you’re not using one of the latest social media apps? Don’t sweat it because you’re dodging the headaches as well.

Sometimes watching and waiting is the wise move. The perfect time to invest in a new app typically isn’t when it first becomes available. It’s good to get in early, but best to skip the days when the app hasn’t made its long-term potential clear.

The Best Web Browsers for Privacy

Ever noticed an ad for a product you just talked about appear while you were browsing the internet?

Once ads for the same thing follow you around the web, you start to wonder what caused it. And you wonder if tech companies know more about you than you’re comfortable with.

Often the easiest way to boost your online privacy is simply to switch your browser. Today there are privacy-focused browsers that don’t require tweaks or extensions to block trackers.

Mainstream browsers are a mixed bag. Some have adapted well to people’s growing concerns about being tracked online. Understandably it’s challenging for big companies to make changes that might hurt their bottom line, even if it’s in the short term. Apple’s Safari and Mozilla Firefox are two examples of well-known browsers that have managed to put the privacy needs of their users first.

Now that we’ve covered the primer, let’s dive in! Here are the best browsers available today for people that value online privacy.

Brave

If Brave isn’t one of the first browsers that come to mind for the best online privacy features it should be.

Mozilla Firefox has been around for quite a while and most have heard of it or used it. Well, guess what? There’s a connection here. Brendan Eich is the CEO of Brave, and he was also one of the co-founders of Mozilla.

By default, Brave blocks display ads and trackers. The concept behind it is unique as its purpose isn’t to eliminate all ads. Rather, it displays its own native ads that look like browser notifications and it rewards its users with Basic Attention Token. And yes, BAT is a token built on Ethereum with real value. Suddenly, ads aren’t a nuisance because internet users are compensated for their attention.

If you rarely want to see ads or don’t want to see ads at all regardless of the rewards, there are settings for all of that.

Brave is a great everyday browser for people that value privacy, but you can’t use it for everything. Some websites are set up to require certain data and important functions might refuse to work with Brave. In this situation, it’s best to launch a mainstream browser like Chrome or Safari for the sake of convenience.

Tor Browser

Many online privacy aficionados haven’t tried Tor Browser yet, but they’re probably used Tor at some point in their journey. Tor, which is short for “The Onion Router,” is free software that enhances privacy and hides your online activity from prying eyes.

Tor Browser takes the unique privacy technology established in Tor and builds it into a web browser. It sends web data through a multistep encrypted route that includes at least three nodes.

The downside of Tor has always been speed. It’s the price you pay for its thorough approach to anonymous browsing. Thus, Tor Browser is a good choice for tasks with privacy of utmost concern, but it’s not going to replace your go-to browser.

VPNs also encrypt your data like Tor. So, if you’re looking for a good balance between anonymity and browsing speed a VPN is the best option. Check out LetMeBy’s reviews of the top 3 VPNs.

DuckDuckGo Browser

DuckDuckGo is a privacy-focused search engine that doesn’t collect or share private information about its users. Other search engines have tried to find their niche and have faded over the years, but DuckDuckGo is stronger than ever because it promises a benefit people actually care about.

Its latest offering is its web browser. Its looks and most of its basic functions will look familiar to users of Chrome and Edge. And it’s based on the same idea as the DuckDuckGo search engine. The browser blocks trackers and ads that follow you around the web.

People that visit YouTube frequently will appreciate its unique video feature called Duck Player. It opens YouTube videos in a view free from distractions such as recommendations.

It removes ad targeting and tracking, but it doesn’t remove YouTube ads altogether. Rather, the ads won’t be based on your activity and browsing history.

Firefox

Mozilla is a not-for-profit Foundation that aims to put people before profit and fight for an internet that’s accessible and open to everyone. Although that may sound idealistic Mozilla has proven over the years that it can make software just as good as big corporations.

These days nearly everyone uses Chrome or Safari. Back in 2009, Firefox was at its peak with over 32% browser market share. Many stuck with Firefox for years but once they switched to Chrome, they never looked back.

We can speculate about all the reasons Firefox lost popularity over the years. One thing is certain. Google preinstalls Chrome on its Chromebooks. Apple preinstalls Safari on its devices. And Microsoft preinstalls Edge in its operating system. People always needed to make the conscious decision to download Firefox, and with so many good options most stopped bothering.

It’s time to give Firefox another look.

Firefox has privacy features mainstream browsers don’t have such as automatic DNS over HTTPS and cookie blocking.

Blocking everything that tracks you doesn’t always lead to a good user experience. Firefox’s Enhanced Tracking Protection allows you to block or allow certain types of cookies and content.

Network settings are integrated right into Firefox, which allows you to use a proxy with it without affecting other apps. Other browsers such as Chrome and Safari approach this differently. To use a proxy or VPN you have to apply it system-wide.

Safari

Apple disrupted the tech world when it first released App Tracking Transparency in iOS. For the first time ever, Apple users could easily opt out of being tracked. And given the choice, most people did.

Although it’s less talked about, you can also prevent cross-site tracking in Safari on Mac OS. You merely go to Safari’s privacy settings, select “Prevent cross-site tracking” and you’re done.

Most popular browsers have a private browsing mode. Safari has an edge over many because it uses DuckDuckGo by default. With it enabled, beyond your browser not remembering the sites you visited, the search engine itself won’t collect data based on your searches.

Another handy feature in Safari that encourages good habits is its password generator. It suggests strong passwords, saving you time and confirming that your passwords are keeping up with current standards.

Safari’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention limits the amount of your data that’s sent to Apple and third parties. This means that long-term cookies are only stored on your device for sites you use regularly.

Chrome with Privacy Extensions

If you prefer to deploy online privacy features a la carte, don’t mind tweaking settings, and enjoy Google’s ecosystem, this could be the right option for you.

Google Chrome is by far the most widely used browser and that means it’s one of the best when it comes to customizing its features with extensions. Simply put, Chrome isn’t a privacy-first browser out of the box, but you can make it into one.

Want to block trackers? Add an extension such as Privacy Badger or Ghostery. Don’t want to see ads? Install Adblock Plus or uBlock Origin.

There’s a slight catch. Extensions can break, lose their support, or lose their effectiveness as technology progresses.

One of the biggest pluses is that you can experiment and find the extensions you like the most. You’re not married to built-in features that may not offer the approach to privacy you want.

Why Companies Want Your Data

Data is a huge industry, and it’s a growing one. The global big data market was estimated to be worth $162.6 billion in 2021. It’s forecasted to reach $273.4 billion by 2026.

The concept is simple. You more businesses know about consumers’ likes, dislikes, interests, careers, hobbies, and a multitude of other things, the more they can sell.

Many people don’t think marketing works on them. But the evidence says otherwise. Clicks on targeted ads can be as much as 670% higher. Additionally, 80% of users actually reported to prefer tailored ads. People notice what interests them, and data makes it possible to serve people both the content and ads most likely to be relevant to their interests.

The Tug of War Between the Wants of Advertisers and of Users

Some of the biggest tech companies are in a challenging spot. If users aren’t happy their business is in jeopardy. And if advertisers aren’t happy it’s in trouble too.

Apple’s move to allow users to easily control if they wanted to see targeted ads or not was part of a big shift in the industry.

It’s become standard practice to collect data about users and also to give them tools to manage their data on different platforms. In other words, if you want better privacy you typically have to drill down into the settings to make it happen.

Conclusion

As more become aware of the importance of online privacy, more are taking another look at the web browser they use every day.

For too long popular browsers have been synonymous with good. And while the most used browsers are excellent, they’re usually not the top choices in terms of privacy.

Any browser’s privacy can be leveled up significantly by enabling a VPN. If you take the time to choose a browser with robust privacy features as well those ads that follow people around will be far behind you.

Should You Use a VPN with a Router or Your Devices?

Many home routers have VPN features built-in. The question is, should you use them?

In years past, the ability to configure your router to use a VPN was seen as a premium feature. It was found in top-end models and routers for business exclusively. Since VPNs have become so popular for everyday use, it’s now easy to find VPN-ready home routers.

Tech writers often love the idea of using VPNs with routers. After all, why wouldn’t you want to skip installing VPN software on each device? To many, leveraging a VPN at the router level is an exciting option. It’s convenient, and in many ways, it’s easier to manage. However, it isn’t always the best approach.

Ways to Use Your VPN

First, let’s look at the alternatives. There are two primary ways to enable a VPN on your devices:

  1. Install VPN apps on each device and manage them individually
  2. Install a VPN on your router so that every device goes through a VPN

The purpose of this article is to walk you through the pros and cons of these two approaches so you can determine what works best for you.

You may opt to use a VPN extension with your web browser but that won’t be a focus here.

Lastly, have a look at LetMeBy’s top VPN picks if you’re researching the services out there.

Pros and Cons of Using a VPN with Your Router

Pros

1. No VPN Software is Required

By using your router to manage your VPN you save yourself time upfront.

Most households have tons of devices: from smart TVs and game consoles, to smartphones. And your router admin panel allows you to manage everything in one place. All devices are protected by the VPN whether that device supports VPN software or not.

2. Better for Parents and Families

If you have teens or elderly family members in the home, it allows you to protect their smartphones or laptops without interfering too much.

Family members may not see the importance of using a VPN, but they won’t protest if their device automatically connects to it.

Cons

1. It’s a One Size Fits All Solution

Whether it’s Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, or Dropbox, each online service has its own policy about VPNs. Sometimes VPNs are approved of, sometimes they’re tolerated, and sometimes the service won’t function with it enabled.

Thus, enabling a VPN across your entire home network can make managing it with precision challenging. For example, if you want to disable the VPN to use a certain service, you’ll need to disable it across all devices via the router. And if other people in the house are using a device at the same time, they won’t be protected by the VPN.

2. Limited Access to the VPN’s Features

Routers with VPN features allow you to log in and use your VPN and that’s pretty much it.

If you want to change your IP address, switch to a different type of encryption, or see a map with all the available server locations marked on a map, you’ll need to access the VPN’s admin panel online.

3. Best for Tech Savvy Users

The software packaged with many routers such as Asus’ Merlin or DD-WRT makes it fairly painless to disable a VPN. It typically comes down to accessing the advanced settings and clicking a button.

Still, that means each user in your home will need access to the router settings. And you may not want to grant them that. Additionally, not everyone will be comfortable with drilling down into advanced settings. At the end of the day, this approach is best for tech savvy people.

Pros and Cons of Using a VPN App

Pros

1. Full Control of VPN on Each Device

There are so many scenarios in which it’s best to install VPN software on each device. Maybe you don’t want or need it on every device. Maybe you use a VPN for work exclusively and only need to install it on your laptop.

Leveraging software allows you to enable or disable the VPN on that device only. For example, if you want to watch Netflix on your home theater PC and need to turn off your VPN to continue, it makes sense to disable it on that one device rather than the entire network.

2. Access to Advanced Features and VPN User Interface

The top VPN services have amazing apps! They take something highly technical and make it look straightforward with a clean user interface.

It’s great to have access to a map that shows you where your VPN’s IP address is located. You can also change the IP, region, or country, easily from the app. None of that is possible when the VPN is configured at the router level, not to mention other advanced features.

Cons

1. More Apps and More Management Tasks

Each individual in a household typically has at least a few devices. And for efficiency’s sake, the fewer apps you need to install on them the better.

Installing VPN software is easy enough. And then you upgrade your phone, or have to reinstall your operating system on your PC. The time you spend managing software on several devices is often underestimated.

2. Not Ideal for Managing a Network for the Entire Family

If you handle the IT tasks in your family, you need to be able to manage as much of it as you can from one place.

Installing VPN software on each device is great if they’re all yours, but in situations where many devices in the home belong to family members, it’s nice to give them the benefits of a VPN without interfering with how they use their technology.

It’s Best to Use a VPN but It’s Not Always Practical

Most people use online services offered by major corporations every day. Some of our online activity is consequently tracked. It happens when we play online video games, when we check our email, and when we stream movies.

People naturally want as much online privacy as they can get. However, companies need to know certain things about their customers to operate. As a result, using a VPN with some online services isn’t always advisable.

Using a VPN can result in getting a message from an online service that tells you to disable it. Or the VPN can interfere with some of the functionality of apps.

Thus, it’s important that you can quickly and easily enable and disable your VPN.

Here are two examples of scenarios where you would want to turn off your VPN on the fly.

Netflix has cracked down on more than password-sharing. The video streaming services is also aware that people use VPNs to view content intended for countries different than their own. Some VPNs aren’t detected by Netflix. However, you could also get a message like this:

“You seem to be using a VPN or proxy. Please turn off any of these services and try again.”

Online games like Fortnite can also detect if you’re using a VPN and could ask you to turn it off to continue. The reason for this is its developer, Epic Games, needs to do everything it can to stop cheating in the game and to keep banned players out. Most people use VPNs to gain better online privacy but some gamers use VPNs to bend the rules.

Conclusion

When you have a router with VPN features it’s tempting to go in that direction. However, just as many people and households are better served by using VPN software instead.

Remind yourself that one approach isn’t better than the other when reviewing the pros and cons. It all comes down to your usage patterns and needs.

Check out LetMeBy’s roundup of the top VPN-ready routers. And if you want better online privacy on the road, see the roundup of the best mobile Wi-Fi routers.

Stopping Cheaters in Fortnite Is a Game of Whack-A-Mole

Ever gotten beaten by a player that never missed once in Fortnite? If you’re like most players, it happens too often.

It probably wasn’t a player with superhuman skills, or your imagination, or luck. Odds are you encountered an aim-botter. And it’s one of the most common ways players cheat in the game.

Fortnite Tops the List for the Most Cheaters

A recent study by Surfshark found that Fortnite has the biggest cheating problem out of any online game.

It looked at how many views videos about cheating have on YouTube. Fortnite was number one by a wide margin, followed by Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

As much as it’s disconcerting for Fortnite players it’s also a testament of its incredible popularity. Fortnite is one of the biggest games in the world right now. And the more players, the higher the headcount of cheaters.

The Types of Hacks on Fortnite

The Fortnite cheats you often hear about from game journalists and frustrated players are aimbot and wallhack.

A website that sells Fortnite cheats stated its top hacks include “Aimbot, ESP, Wallhack, Radar Hack, Trigger Bot, No Recoil and more.” They are being sold for around $10.

Aimbot

Aimbot is a cheat that shows no mercy. Every shot hits its target. Players can run, duck, or jump to try to save themselves but their every movement is perfectly tracked. And the cheater’s opponents are blasted away without hesitation. In fact, aimbots are so precise that they can target parts of the body such as the head, neck, chest, or leg.

Wallhack aka ESP

Wallhack makes it impossible for players to hide and use the element of surprise to their advantage. It allows cheaters to see behind walls, structures, and parts of the terrain like mountains and boulders. It’s a devastating hack because Fortnite is all about building forts and using them in battle. Coupled with aimbot this puts cheaters in “god mode” so other players don’t stand a chance.

Epic Games Takes A Stand

So, is developer Epic Games dropping the ball? Although it can seem like it when emotions are riding high after getting blasted by an aim-botter, the company is actually pulling out all the stops to make it difficult for cheaters.

Community Coordinator Nathan Mooney had this to say on Fortnite’s official blog:

To start, addressing cheaters in Fortnite is the highest priority across Epic Games. We are constantly working against both the cheaters themselves and the cheat providers. And it’s ongoing, we’re exploring every measure to ensure these cheaters are removed and stay removed from Fortnite Battle Royale and the Epic ecosystem. We don’t want to give too many clues about what we’re doing, but we are rolling out tools and will continue to do so. Thousands have been banned and we have no plans to stop!

Note that he says it’s ongoing. The sad reality is every time Epic Games implements a new way to thwart cheating the Fortnite communities’ bad apples eventually figure out how to get around it.

In 2022 Epic rolled out new anti-cheat software called Byfron. And it made tampering with the game harder than ever.

Soon after, hackers voiced their irritation in a Discord server when it prevented them from accessing the game entirely:

“FN will be down for a while. Fortnite after three years has decided to add s**t that will make it hard to cheat,” one hacker said. “They have greatly protected things that we need to make a cheat.”

“Before this update nothing was protected, now everything is.”

Epic is now protecting Fortnite with three layers of anti-cheat software: EasyAntiCheat, Battle Eye, and Byfron.

Detecting the Cheaters

One of Epic’s latest moves is to remove players that use tools to conceal or alter their device’s hardware IDs. These hardware IDs are used to track the parts of a computer a player uses with Epic Games. Thus, anybody hiding it is in almost all cases banned from Fortnite or is up to no good.

Unfortunately, soft hacks are being replaced with hardware hacks to avoid being detected in the first place.

Some players are now using a device called Cronus Zen. It’s a new, advanced take on those old SNES controllers with turbo buttons. It acts as an emulator that can run custom mods for game controllers. The mods improve building and take aim assist to the next level.

Protecting Yourself with a VPN in Fortnite

Using a VPN is an effective way to preserve your online privacy and protect yourself from malicious players. It hides your IP address and by doing so it eliminates the possibility of other players using tools to find it.

The catch is Epic Games doesn’t recommend using a VPN in Fortnite. This is because players with banned IP addresses use VPNs to access the game.

You could get this popup message from Epic Games if you have a VPN enabled, “You were removed from the match due to internet lag, your IP or machine, VPN usage, or for cheating. We recommend not utilizing VPN or proxy services while attempting to play Fortnite.”

For many, the benefits outweigh the possibility of getting removed from matches. See LetMeBy’s reviews of the top VPNs to learn more.

Conclusion

Online multiplayer games will always have cheaters. They’ve been around since the early days in games like Doom and Unreal Tournament.

They’ve infested plenty of titles over the years such as the multiplayer in old versions of Call of Duty. Epic Games has a monumental task on its hands. But they’ll be willing to keep it up as long as Fortnite is a cash cow for Epic.

Your Private Data Could Be at Risk in Call of Duty. What to Do.

The Call of Duty franchise is so popular that it practically put online multiplayer on the map in first-person shooters.

Games like the rebooted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare have big maps that support over 100 players. It’s thrilling to compete with so many players and an amazing technical achievement, but it also has its risks.

There are over 22 main Call of Duty games in existence. On average at least one Call of Duty title is released every year. And since multiplayer is the highlight, all those titles create a maintenance challenge for its developers.

The reality is newer games get updates, and older games are abandoned. COD games that are no longer updated become breeding grounds for cheaters and malicious users.

Many players move to the newest versions of Call of Duty. But sometimes the community prefers to stick with their favorite version. And over time these older games become dodgier by the day in their multiplayer mode.

Fans Fix Black Ops III

By most people’s definition, Black Ops III [Amazon] is a modern game still worth playing but to its developer Treyarch, it’s old news.

Released in 2015, Black Ops III’s community is very much alive. And while it still receives some vulnerability patches and updates, the game is no longer a priority. Due to its long-lived popularity, it’s a real trap for COD fans.

TechCrunch dedicated a piece to how dangerous Black Ops III is and how gamers are taking action to fix it. Here’s why you should be concerned if you play it:

“The game has become infested with hackers. There are tons of security vulnerabilities which have a severe impact,” Maurice Heumann, one of the two hackers behind the effort to fix the game, told TechCrunch. “You can get hacked just by playing the game. Your data can be stolen and so much more.”

Maurice Heumann first created a modified version of Black Ops III to fix its bugs and is now working on his own version of the game’s launcher. His project can be found on GitHub here.

The downside is that by using this custom launcher players can’t interact with nearly everyone else using the official game.

Players like Heumann are also reporting bugs to the game’s publisher, Activision. The company has acknowledged some of these bug reports but largely hasn’t taken action on many of the bugs yet.

Activision has stated that it’s committed to continuing support of Black Ops III. However, players are wise to take precautions before playing as its flawed online security has been an ongoing issue.

How to Protect Yourself in Call of Duty

For most, the best thing to do is connect to Call of Duty games with a VPN.

Hackers in the game hone in on their target by using a tool to find the player’s IP address. And by using a VPN you replace your true IP with one supplied by a VPN service provider. Thus, malicious users can’t get any further if they aim to gain access to your private data.

Learn about the best VPNs by visiting this page.

Trick to Avoid Hackers in Call of Duty

Modern Warfare 2 [Amazon] pro player Gabriel Hamshaw, aka Aroma, shared his top tip for avoiding malicious users in Call of Duty.

As the lobby fills up note the handles of other players. If a hacker Is present simply leave the lobby to figurately or literally dodge a bullet.

It’s effective but of course is only feasible for dedicated COD players. You need to be able to spot them based on only their handle, and as there are so many it’s not like you can easily pull up a list of hackers.

Games with the Most Cheaters

If you’re considering trying a different FPS franchise to avoid cheaters in Call of Duty, think twice.

According to a recent study by Surfshark, Fortnite had the most cheaters followed by Overwatch and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. There are three Call of Duty games further down on the list: Call of Duty: Warzone, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War.

Considering how active its community is, Call of Duty games actually fared better than many of the alternatives.

Conclusion

The multiplayer in Call of Duty is a blast to play. Unfortunately, competitive FPS games attract people with bad intentions. And they can potentially even access your private data by exploiting vulnerabilities in the game.

You’ll probably want to stay away from the multiplayer in old versions of Call of Duty that are no longer updated. Be on the lookout for hackers and cheaters, note their handles, and avoid them in future play sessions.

Additionally, don’t be an easy target. Use a VPN to hide your IP whenever you play online.