I didnt know which subreddit to post this question on. I hope it’s not a big deal. I can understand having an antivirus on your computer as long as you are not playing yourself paying a full year protection and wasting your money. But I’m wondering if you think it is necessary to use a paid vpn or anti-virus on your android phone?
Antivirus software in 2019 is useless and security is an illusion. Even big companies with lots of staff in IT and IT security do have data breaches. The only thing you can do is:
Don’t browse shady websites.
Don’t use shady sources for APKs or Windows/Linux applications.
For Windows, Windows Defender does a good job and you don’t need anything else. In a lot of tests, Defender came out on top. So, you might use that on Windows, if you use Windows anyway. No need for a 3rd party snakeoil "anti"virus software.
On Android? As I said. No APKs from outside Playstore. No rooting your phone. And, if you want that extra layer of security, only enable Javascript for Websites that need it. Active scripting is basically the main security flaw of any browser out there.
r/security
r/privacy
Considering those two things have absolutely nothing in common, you can’t really answer this question as is. A VPN is going to help protect your data AFTER it leaves your phone from people or businesses snooping on it. An antivirus is going to prevent malicious software from running on your device. A VPN is absolutely worth it to keep your data safe. However the best antivirus is common sense and using your brain.
No, but I use firewall (AFWall+ with root privileges)
Thank you for the response. I’m pretty confident in my ability to not search up the weird side of the internet or even click on dumb links so I think I’m okay not to use an antivirus. A VPN may be a good option. May I ask if you personally use a VPN?
I do. I’m currently using ProtonVPN but there are always others to try. The Secure Core feature is pretty cool.