You can choose from a basic shred that overwrites the data twice, all the way up to a “complete” shred that overwrites it ten times, but takes longer. It also lives in a browser plugin, and there are mobile apps so you can access your passwords on your phone or tablet too.įile shredding allows you to securely delete data to minimise the risk of it being undeleted and used by a potential attacker. The true key password manager makes this easy, suggesting strong passwords and saving them for you so you don’t need to remember a different string of characters for every site you use. Getting tipped off by a service like this is often an early warning that someone might try to access your accounts, so you know it’s time to change your password and, where available, turn on two-factor authorisation. There’s ID protection that checks the dark web to see if your information has been included in a data breach that’s circulating among criminals.

Your privacy is a large part of the McAfee total security offering. While the extension is available for Edge and Firefox, another function, web boost – which blocks annoying autoplaying videos that slow down your browsing – works with Chrome only. While most of the app’s functions, except for parental controls, can be accessed from one place – the main hub app – web browser security is handled through an extension, so it’s worth looking through the options and installing things like that once you’ve installed the main app.

Did we really need that PC optimiser when there are so many others on the market and their usefulness is questionable? Well, it saves paying for another subscription, we suppose.

It’s a broad package, and it’s hard to see what more they could have shoehorned in. What you get for your subscription money is an antivirus app, a firewall and internet security suite, a password manager, secure file deletion (shredding), identity protection, a secure VPN, PC optimisation features, and parental controls. It’s worth shopping around to see which antivirus service is cheaper in the long term rather than being drawn in by a first-year, new-customer offer, as you’re unlikely to use the software for a year and then stop. The price for the first year varies – we’ve seen it as low as £15, and there’s a free trial available – but the renewal price is always at least twice what you initially paid. As is now standard in the sector, McAfee total protection is a subscription service you pay for every year, and which can cover a number of different devices.

Mcafee internet security 2017 revieqw