The Ultimate Privacy Gift Guide for 2024

The holidays are rapidly approaching – which means it’s time to think about holiday shopping. If you have someone on your list who is concerned about their privacy, it could be hard to figure out what to get them. After all, you’ll want to get them something they’ll like – and that they won’t consider a risk to their personal privacy. If that sounds like your holiday shopping challenge, look no further than this privacy gift guide for 2024. No matter what your privacy-focused gift recipient is concerned about, you can find something they’ll appreciate on this list.

Subscriptions

Chances are good that that privacy-focused person on your list is already subscribed to a service like a VPN or password manager to protect themselves online. What better way to show that you also care about their privacy by giving them the gift of online protection in 2024? If you can figure out which service they use, you can buy them a year’s subscription as a gift. Not only is it something you know they’ll use, it’s a gift that keeps on giving all year long.

Bonus: You can renew that subscription as a gift every year. They get great online privacy that they don’t have to pay for, and you never have to worry about what to get them for the holidays. It’s a win-win!

Virtual Private Network (VPN) Subscription

Price: $60-$130 depending on VPN and plan

If your privacy-focused loved one doesn’t already have a VPN, give them the gift of online privacy! Consider gifting them a subscription to a quality VPN that will protect their online activity. We recommend CyberGhost, ExpressVPN, or NordVPN. Click the buttons below for more information.

Password Manager Subscription

Price: $30-$80 depending on password manager and plan

Just like a VPN, if your privacy-focused loved one doesn’t have a password manager yet, or are relying on a free one, consider gifting them a year’s subscription to one of the top password managers to keep their information safe. Buying them a year of password safety and security is bound to be appreciated. We recommend 1Password, LastPass, or NordPass.

People Search Removal Subscription

Price: $100

Anyone concerned about privacy probably doesn’t want their personal data freely available on the internet. But that’s what people search websites do. By using data brokers, they may have an individual’s name, address, birthday, family members, social media profiles, property records, contact information, police records, employment information, financial records, or even more. Give your loved ones the gift of keeping their personal information personal with a subscription to a people search removal service. These services will hunt down the websites that have your information. Then they send “opt-out” requests for them to take your information down. We highly recommend Delete Me’s people search removal service.

A Security Key

Price: $50-$75

Anyone concerned about privacy knows that passwords just aren’t enough anymore – hackers can get them easily. That’s why many places are now requiring a code from an app or a text message in addition to a password in order to log in. A security key goes one step further. It plugs into a computer or a phone’s charging port to prove you are who you say you are. A hacker may be able to get your password, but without the key, they still can’t get in. That’s what makes security keys such a good privacy gift in 2024.

Webcam Covers

Price: $4-$6

With the concern about webcam spies and hackers accessing webcam videos, no privacy gift guide in 2024 would be complete without webcam covers. Stickers are hard to remove if you ever need to use your webcam, and sticky notes will eventually lose their stickiness and fall off. But a webcam cover can slide off if you ever need to use the webcam, and cover the lens when you don’t. A good webcam cover is small enough to go on a phone and thin enough to not damage a laptop when it’s closed. And as a bonus, they often come in packs of multiple, making it easy for that privacy-concerned person on your list to block the cameras on all of their devices.

Microphone Blocker

Price: $15-$30

Your camera isn’t the only thing that’s at risk – most of our devices have built-in microphones that hackers could use to listen in. That’s why a microphone blocker makes a great gift for your privacy-focused friend. These devices plug into phones and computers and trick your tech into thinking they’re a microphone, but they don’t actually have the ability to pick up audio. Anyone hacking in won’t be able to hear a thing.

Privacy Screen for their Screens

Price: $10-$50

Have you heard of “visual hacking”? It’s where someone steals your information just by watching your phone or laptop screen over your shoulder. Privacy screens make it almost impossible for anyone to do that. If you have someone privacy-focused in your life who wishes they could look at their devices without worrying about someone looking over their shoulder, a privacy screen is a great gift. The only challenge is that you’ll need to know the size of their screen to get one that fits their device.

Burner Phone

Price: $30-$50

If that privacy-focused person on your holiday shopping list leans towards the paranoid, or if they regularly use burner phones, they would probably appreciate a new one. Burner phones don’t stay anonymous for long, so they need replaced regularly. And you buying it adds an extra layer of anonymity for them, which they’re sure to appreciate. The best choice is something cheap and low-tech – the fewer features it has, the less likely it is to be hacked.

Portable SSD

Price: $70-$200, or more for larger amounts of storage

There’s risks to keeping your files on a computer. The device could be hacked, compromised, lost, or stolen. It could just die and make your data unrecoverable. There’s also risks to storing files in the cloud. It’s often even easier to hack or compromise than a computer. And the cloud service might be selling your data to others. That’s why no privacy gift guide in 2024 would be complete without a portable Solid State Drive (SSD). A portable SSD lets your privacy-concerned loved one keep all their files safe without relying on a computer or cloud serivce.

USB Condoms

Price: $8-$10

A very silly name for a very useful device, USB condoms prevent all data transmission through cables but allow power through. With the rise of “juice jackers” and other malicious cables that use your attempts to charge your device to steal your data, these make a great privacy gift in 2024. They are especially great for people who travel a lot or who, for any reason, may need to charge their devices with power sources that may not be completely safe.

Fashion to Fight the Cameras

Price: $25-$35

We’re being watched all the time. Security cameras and CCTV are everywhere. And since everyone has a camera in their hand, there’s always the chance of being photographed or videoed in public and posted to social media. That’s why no privacy gift guide in 2024 would be complete without something that protects you from all those cameras. If that privacy-focused person on your list is concerned about being captured on camera, why not get them some clothing that will confuse the camera’s sensors?

A hyper-reflective garment will ruin photos and make it hard for video cameras to get more than a dark outline of a face. (As a bonus, reflective clothing is also great for safety when walking or biking outside.) And an anti-facial-recognition neck gaiter will help protect their identity from humans and from facial recognition software.

RFID Blockers

Price: $10-$20

RFID blockers are a classic of safety and privacy gift guides, but they’re still worth giving in 2024. Our private info is being broadcast through RFID more and more. An enterprising hacker with the right tech could skim your credit cards or swipe identity information just by walking past you. A case that blocks RFID signals makes that impossible.

Portable Faraday Bag

Price: $15-$50

Our phones have a lot of information about us. If you have someone in your life who cares about privacy, they’re probably concerned about what their phone is tracking and broadcasting. Even if you have as many settings as possible turned off, it may still be broadcasting your location with GPS, tracking biometrics through accessories, or transmitting who-knows-what through wifi or Bluetooth. A Faraday bag will prevent that. Just like a Faraday cage, a Faraday bag doesn’t let signals out, but it’s small enough to carry with you. If your privacy-focused friend puts their phone in a Faraday bag, it doesn’t matter what the phone knows about them – those signals aren’t getting out of the bag.

Books

If you’ve read through this whole privacy gift guide for 2024 and aren’t sure any of the previous products are a good fit, consider a book. There are always new threats to privacy, and there are always experts coming up with new ways to defend it. One of these books about privacy, security, and safety topics might just be of interest to that hard-to-buy-for loved one who cares deeply about their privacy.

• Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons: A Step-by-Step Guide to Computer Security for Non-Technies by Carey Parker
• FAIK: A Practical Guide to Living in a World of Deepfakes, Disinformation, and AI-Generated Deceptions by Perry Carpenter
• Parenting in the Digital World: A Step-by-Step Guide to Internet Safety by Clayton Cranford
• Social Engineering: The Science of Human Hacking by Christopher Hadnagy
• Nobody’s Fool: Why We Get Taken In and What We Can Do About It by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris
• Six-Minute X-Ray: Rapid Behavior Profiling by Chase Hughes
• Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects Our Minds and How to Build Immunity by Sander van der Linden
• A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules, and How to Bend Them Back by Bruce Schneier
• The Psychology of Fraud, Persuasion and Scam Techniques: Understanding What Makes Us Vulnerable by Martina Dove