Is Guardio an antivirus?

No, Guardio is not an antivirus. It won’t scan your computer or phone for malware, nor will it eliminate any active threats on your device. Guardio isn’t meant to replace an antivirus, but instead complement one by enhancing your internet browser’s security. Guardio is best used for blocking harmful websites and for its excellent identity monitoring tools. While those are great features, there’s still no substitute for a quality antivirus like Norton or Bitdefender , which provide comprehensive protection against malware.

What does Guardio do?

Guardio provides excellent identity monitoring tools and backs them up with up to $1,000,000 of anti-theft insurance (in the US and Canada). You can enter up to 5 email addresses and a phone number, after which Guardio will begin scanning the dark web, searching for forums where your credentials were posted. It also protects your browser from dangerous websites and hijacking attempts by alerting you to dangerous websites and blocking you from entering them. After blocking the website, you can review whether it was flagged as suspicious or harmful. If you know the website is safe, you can create an exception for it in one click (though I usually recommend trusting your web protection).

There is a free version of Guardio , but it’s not very good. It only includes manual security scans and a lightweight version of the Premium version’s web protection. It won’t block you from entering an unsafe site, as many free web protection extensions do; it just gives you an alert if you’re on an unsafe site. Guardio Basic is missing features that I’d expect to see in a free browser extension. This fault is highlighted when you compare it to other free extensions like Norton ‘s, which blocks as many harmful websites as the paid version of Guardio, marks suspicious emails, and comes with built-in IPS protection.

How does Guardio manage my data?

Guardio has a good data management policy, though it isn’t exactly no-logs. Before recommending Guardio, I combed through its privacy policy to make sure it had responsible policies. Guardio won’t sell your information to any third-party sources, but it will collect data that it deems important to provide its services and metadata for how users found the product. Guardio can also send you marketing materials, but you can opt out of that at any time. Overall, it’s not a perfect data management policy, but it’s fully GDPR-compliant and your data won’t be sold to a third party.