Browse in your own little safe cocoon - mangrumwillart88

At a Glance

Expert's Military rating

Pros

Slowly to use
Many features
easy to economic consumption; many features

Cons

slows down browsing slightly

Our Finding of fact

Cocoon lets you browse the Web privately and securely.

The Web is a scary place. Betwixt the advertisers looking to succeed your all move, hackers eyeing your passwords, and viruses threatening to ruin your PC, it's enough to make you depone off surfboarding forever. Oregon, you could retributive download Cocoon, a browser add-on for Internet Explorer and Firefox that helps you range the Web. Cocoon is forthcoming in two versions: the free (only ad-supported) standard Cocoon and the $5 per month (or $48 per year) Cocoon+, which is A.D.-free and offers password storage in addition to the cadre of privacy and security features found in the canonic version.

Cocoon / Cocoon+ screenshot — Cocoon's password manager is bound up in its Notes feature, which is non an recherche solution.

To use the obnubilate-based service, you sign up for an account then install the add-on to your browser of selection. (If you'Re using an iOS device, you too can download a free Cocoon app from Apple's App Storage.) Once installed, Cocoon appears as a little toolbar in your web browser. Click its power button to turn it on, login, and you're well behaved to go. When Cocoon is reversed on, complete of your browsing is done privately.

Cocoon uses a proxy service, so that complete of your browsing is through through Cocoon's servers — Web sites see their information instead of your Information processing address or ISP. The tradeoff for exploitation a proxy server is, of course, a slowdown in your browsing speed. And browse the Web patc using Cocoon is noticeably slower than doing so without it, but IT was not enough to turn me off from the service.

But that's just the tip of Cocoon's concealment and security crisphead lettuce. The military service also encrypts your browsing history and personal entropy, which is especially useful if you're surfing over a public Wi-Fi connecter. Cocoon also includes integral antivirus protection, as it scans totally of your downloads before allowing them to reach your computer. You can delete your browse history and any cookies.

Cocoon+ includes a notes feature article that doubles as a password manager. If you want to store a Web password, you can create a secure line for that site, and use it to store your password. This solution is not as elegant as victimization a dedicated password handler like the superior LastPass, but luckily, you john use LastPass while browsing with Cocoon.

More impressive are two of Cocoon's privacy features. Mailslots is a feature that allows you to create a disposable email address when you ask one to sign upfield for an online service or make a buy online. Rather than entering your real emailaddress, and possibly subjecting yourself to spam, the Mailslots boast will create an netmail address for you, which you put up save in your Cocoon account for atomic number 3 unsound A you penury. Equally useful is a feature that allows you to block Facebook tracking, so that your online activities cannot be reported backrest to the multiethnic network after your sign out.

You could get many of Cocoon's features by installing several different applications and utilities. But why bother? Cocoon offers such in one easy-to-usage package. Its password handler could be a spot more elegant, but that's a youngster complaint compared to the rest of the features it offers.

—Liane Cassavoy