Privacy Screen Filter

There is this new trend by using a laptop and go online in public such as Starbucks, Coffee Bean, cafe and so on. I wonder how many people actually did think of information security and data privacy.

Apart from network security, I am going to talk about physical security first. Do you know or even aware that when you online in public places, other people might look at your screen and peep at what you are doing? Maybe you would say it is only a “normal” website such as facebook or twitter and you are not a famous people that others are interested in. But for information spy, they might not think it this way, while they are doing data mining, any information come across to them is valuable. Maybe after surfing a while, you have forgotten where you are and you login to your bank to do something. Now the information is very sensitive, remember that.

That’s why I only use my iPhone to online in public because of the screen size is smaller than laptop and thus increased my privacy, at least it is not easy for others to see the information displayed on the screen.

One day when I was sitting beside my friend, he was using his laptop to surf net and guess what? When I looked at his screen, it was totally black, I can’t see anything on it. I was curious then I started to ask him and found out that he is using this thing called “privacy screen filter”. I was like “wow, amazing, how come I have never heard of this before?”.

After knowing this amazing magical screen filter, I tried to asked around in lowyat plaza and almost none of them know what is it about. Finally, after walking up and down for a few hours, I came to this shop and got the filter, I was so happy and bought it immediately.

If you would like to get one, please make sure you are buying a privacy screen filter but not the normal screen filter. How do you differentiate them? Easy, the price will tell the difference. A normal screen filter will only cost you RM20-50 (depends on your screen size and brand) but a privacy screen filter will cost you more than RM100. My screen size is 14.1”WA and the cost is RM130.

Oh ya, how the magic worked on this screen filter? It is actually a polarizer. it filtered out lights at certain angle only. Simply means if people stand behind you or look at the screen at 90 degree angle, they can see everything clearly. From 45 degree downwards, people will see the screen as total darkness.

From the photo below, you can see half of the screen but the other half is totally dark from certain angle.

  

Although the screen filter is not able to total eliminate people from seeing what’s on your screen but at least cut down the viewable angle and thus reducing the risk of information leakage.