Privacy Tools Need an AI-Era Update: Here’s What to Change Now

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence by both consumers and cybercriminals has changed the threat landscape for online privacy. A World Economic Forum report notes that AI is accelerating cybercrime by exposing weaknesses in existing defenses—weaknesses that many common privacy tools weren’t designed to handle. If you’re still relying on the same settings you set years ago, it’s worth taking an hour to bring your toolkit up to date.

What Happened

In June 2026, the World Economic Forum published an article on updating data privacy tools to cut cybersecurity risk in the AI era. The piece, part of a broader series on cybersecurity trends, cites research showing that AI-powered attacks are becoming more efficient at bypassing traditional protections. For example, AI can generate convincing phishing emails that mimic a specific person’s writing style, and it can scrape and correlate data from multiple sources to build detailed profiles without your knowledge. Meanwhile, the same AI that helps you summarize documents or generate images can also be used to probe your privacy settings automatically.

Why It Matters

Old privacy habits—like using a strong password or turning off location tracking—are still important, but they’re no longer sufficient. AI can analyze patterns in your behavior to infer sensitive information even when you think you’ve hidden it. A browser extension that blocks ads but not cross-site tracking might leave you exposed to AI-driven data aggregation. A password manager that stores credentials securely but doesn’t support modern two-factor authentication can be a weak link. The core idea is that privacy tools need to be configured with AI-era threats in mind: targeting the methods attackers now use to collect and misuse data.

What Readers Can Do

The following checklist covers the most common privacy tools and the specific settings worth reviewing. Spend a few minutes on each.

Password Manager and Two-Factor Authentication

  • Check for passkey support. Passkeys, which replace passwords with cryptographic keys stored on your device, resist phishing better than traditional passwords. Most major password managers now support them. If yours doesn’t, consider switching.
  • Enable hardware-based 2FA where possible. App-based authenticators are better than SMS, but a physical security key (like a YubiKey) provides the best protection against AI-generated phishing that can mimic login pages.
  • Review shared passwords. Under AI-powered credential stuffing, any shared password you reuse across multiple accounts becomes a single point of failure. Use your password manager’s “compromised passwords” report to find duplicates.

Browser Privacy for AI Tracking

  • Turn on “Do Not Track” or “Global Privacy Control.” These signals tell websites you do not want your data sold or used for AI training. Not all sites honor them, but it’s a low-effort step.
  • Disable third-party cookies. This limits the ability of AI-driven ad networks to build a cross-site profile. Most recent browsers have this under “Privacy & Security” settings.
  • Install a content blocker that stops script-based data collection. Extensions like uBlock Origin or Privacy Badger can block the tracking scripts that AI crawlers often rely on. Be aware that some sites may break—you can temporarily disable the blocker for trusted sites.

VPN and Ad-Blocker

  • Use a VPN, but not just for hiding your IP. AI can infer location from your browsing habits even with a VPN if you’ve allowed location permissions. Make sure your VPN has a kill switch that stops all traffic if the connection drops, and avoid free VPNs that may sell your data.
  • Update your ad-blocker’s filter lists. AI-powered ads and trackers evolve quickly. Ensure your blocker is set to update its filter lists automatically—once a week is typical.
  • Consider a DNS-level blocker. Services like NextDNS or Pi-hole filter known malicious domains before they reach your device, blocking AI-powered phishing links before your browser even sees them.

Smartphone App Permissions

  • Review each app’s permissions monthly. AI can use combinations of permissions—like camera, microphone, and location—to infer patterns about your life that you haven’t explicitly shared. Revoke anything an app doesn’t absolutely need.
  • Use “Ask every time” for sensitive permissions. On Android, you can set location to “Only while using the app”; iOS offers similar granular controls. This prevents apps from collecting background data that could feed AI models.
  • Delete unused apps. Many downloaded apps continue to request data. If you haven’t used an app in six months, remove it—and consider using a privacy tool like Exodus Privacy to check what data apps are actually sending.

AI Assistant Settings

  • Turn off chat history if you don’t need it. Services like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Copilot allow you to disable saving conversations. This prevents your prompts from being used to train future models, which reduces the risk of your sensitive questions being exposed in a data breach.
  • Limit the data the assistant can access. For example, if you use a built-in assistant like Siri or Google Assistant, review which apps it can query. AI assistants can link calendar entries, emails, and location to answer questions—but that linkage also creates a richer target for attackers.
  • Use a separate, anonymous account for experimentation. If you’re testing AI tools for non-sensitive tasks, consider creating an account with a burner email and no linked payment method. That way, a compromised account doesn’t expose your main identity.

Monthly Privacy Audit

Set a reminder for the first of each month to run through the following:

  • Check your password manager’s health report.
  • Review app permissions on both phone and desktop.
  • Run a quick browser privacy scan using tools like Cover Your Tracks or Privacy Check.
  • Update all software, including browser extensions and VPN firmware.

Sources

  • “How to update data privacy tools to cut cybersecurity risk in the AI era,” The World Economic Forum, June 2026.
  • “AI speeds cybercrime by exposing flaws, and other cybersecurity news,” The World Economic Forum, June 2026.
  • (For context on passkeys and 2FA, industry standards from FIDO Alliance – not directly cited but widely accepted.)

No single step will make you invulnerable, but each adjustment closes a door that AI-driven attacks can exploit. The goal is to make your digital life less interesting to automated scrapers and more difficult for targeted phishing.