SAFE and Anti-tracker

Hello,

Is there an anti-tracker in SAFE?

I think the general answer is "no". However, it may depend on the platform (Windows, macOS, iOS, Android) and the specific type of "SAFE" solution.

For example, up-to-date F-Secure SAFE is no longer available under that name. It is now known as F-Secure Internet Security. Some older versions may have had different features than current versions. As well as different set of modules (like VPN). So it is relatively difficult to give a precise answer, but as such "anti-tracker" was never available outside of F-Secure Freedome (VPN) at its initial stages.

But there are a number of features that generally give the same result (or similar / sufficient enough).

For Windows, iOS and macOS - there is Blocking advertisements on websites possibility. Feature is known as "Ad Blocker" and advertised as "eliminate excessive online ads and speed up page loading, while also decreasing exposure to scams that utilize fake ads". In general, most of tracking things will be part of advertisement activities. The tricky ones are most likely can be rated as suspicious or dangerous and so blocked as harmful or unwanted.

Another feature is "Cookie Popup Blocker". Advertised as "encounter less cookie consent prompts and protect your privacy by automatically rejecting non-essential cookies from common cookie consent providers", which will also generally reduce the number of reasons for tracking.

If the solution includes a module such as VPN, then this also provides conditional advantages (such as hiding the real IP).

For modern solutions on Android - I don't quite know the capabilities, but most likely they will also have certain capabilities to tweak something to increase the level of security.

However, I would like to point out an important thing that most modern browsers have impressive capabilities for both increasing security and privacy, as well as the ability to customize protection from 'tracking'. I would recommend checking the Settings of the browser you are using and see what you can improve. This generally also applies to the operating system you are using. If all this is not enough and your requirements are quite high, then most likely you will need to look at some specialized solutions or even browsers tailored to such needs.

// my understanding of why there is no anti-tracker is that the simplest implementation would be for HTTP - and now, when HTTPS is used almost exclusively, it is somewhat more difficult to implement such functionality (especially to maintain the proper level of privacy and user security). As I imagine, F-Secure's Ad Blocker feature primarily performs the role of not only blocking some advertising, but also a number of tracking resources. There is also a way to 'manually' block certain domains by using "Blocking websites manually" feature (Windows platform).

how to activate it ?

So, F-Secure TOTAL app with VPN module or current F-Secure VPN for Android has:

This Online GUIDE article, although I am not sure if it is still applied to latest versions.

Thanks.