On my journey through cyber space to identify the top security apps for iPhone 6, I quickly realized that in order to determine the absolute top apps, we must first identify exactly how people are using their smartphones. Below are the 5 most common uses of the smartphone and a corresponding safety app or two to protect iPhone 6 users.
Browsing the Internet, or doing anything that involves Internet Access – Just look around in a public place such as a mall – mostly it’s a sea of people, heads bent forward with a rectangular box of some kind in their hands as their thumbs wildly move about the device. I do it; you do it; we all do it: use our phones to surf the Internet. So, we need the peace of mind to do so.
TunnelBear VPN by TunnelBear (FREE; $4.99; $49.99; Bonus Twitter offer)
TunnelBear helps users privately browse the Internet by giving you more privacy from websites and advertisers that track your browsing and physical location. It blocks ads, analytics, scripts and social buttons. This app also has the ability to “tunnel” around censorship and blocked sites to another country. TunnelBear is simple to use; simply switch it “on” or “off.” *Currently 3,000,000 people are using TunnelBear in 176 countries according to iTunes profile.
Detailed Pricing
- Little Bear (FREE and includes 500MBs of free data monthly.)
- Giant Bear: $4.99/month and includes unlimited tunneling on 3 computers or mobile devices.
- Grizzly Bear: $49.99/year and includes the same as the Giant Bear while saving 17%.
- Twitter Special: Receive 1 FREE GB of data!
34 Current iPhone Version ratings of 3.5 stars; 1,087 All iPhone Versions ratings of 4.5 stars.
VirusBarrier by Intego ($0.99) 
At only 99 cents, this little jewel of an app stops viruses and malware from passing through your iPhone, using award-winning VirusBarrier technology. It detects and eradicates threats BEFORE harm can be done. Basically, VirusBarrier is an on-demand scanner that searches iPhone6 for viruses, worms, Trojan horses and all other known MAC OS X and Windows malware so you can validate, view and save email attachments or files without worry.
48 Current iPhone Version ratings of 2.5 stars; 286 All iPhone Versions ratings of 2.5 stars.
Storing Private Data – Our smartphones hold so much revealing data it’s no wonder that attackers are constantly trying to gain access. Think of how much information is revealed about us through our smartphone-stored photos and videos. It’s time to make it impossible to see our digital data!
Keep Safe Private Photo Vault (FREE)
This freebie is a must to hide photos and lock videos on iPhone6 with a PIN pad. This app allows creation and naming of custom albums, rotate and zoom, slideshows, sharing pictures as well as sharing photos for only a limited amount of time.
With the in-app purchase of $4.99 to upgrade to the premium version, you will be able to create a fake PIN, a second PIN that opens a decoy KeepSafe if someone pressures you to show your pictures. Secret Door is another premium feature that masks your KeepSafe app as another app. And, you will receive break-in alerts complete with a snapped photo of the potential intruder with the time they attempted to access and the PIN they entered.
68 Current iPhone Version ratings of 4 stars; 11,504 All iPhone Versions ratings of 4.5 stars.
Logging into Multiple Accounts Daily AND Making Online Purchases – Okay, seriously…wouldn’t it be nice to be able to easily access all your accounts without having to remember funky strings of characters – upper case letters, lower case letters, symbols, numbers – also known as passwords? Or, what about making online purchases without typing in your private credit card information? That would be living the dream!
1Password by AgileBits Inc. (FREE or $9.99 for Pro Version)
What I love about this app is that it’s a password manager and secure wallet in one, a two for one! It creates strong, unique passwords for every site, remembers these passwords and even logs you in with a single tap! What?! Sounds pretty neat, huh? I think so too! But, even more, along with storing passwords, 1Password stores credit cards, identities and security notes that allows users to make credit card purchases without typing any information!
1182 Current iPhone Version ratings of 5 stars; 8872 All iPhone Versions ratings of 4.5 stars.
Using the iPhone 6 as a Phone – Now, while this may be a mystery to those of us who are all thumbs, the iPhone 6 can actually be used as a phone, to call people, by dialing their phone number. Gasp! I joke, but we need to be careful about who hears what we say, or sees what we text for that matter.
Silent Phone (FREE app with calling plans $12.95, $19.95, $24.95 and $39.95/month)
Silent Phone is the app for Silent Circle, an end-to-end, encrypted calling, texting or video chatting plan, making communication transmission secure and private on the Silent Circle network. This service doesn’t use servers to store or transfer messages; everything happens between the devices.
NOTE: According to iTunes, this app requires iOS 7.0 or later and has been optimized for iPhone5. Hopefully, it will soon be optimized for iPhone6.
Calling Plans
- Starter: 100 calling minutes; unlimited received calls from anywhere; unlimited talk and text with members; no roaming charges - $12.95/month.
- Intermediate: 250 calling minutes; unlimited received calls from anywhere; unlimited talk and text with members; no roaming charges - $19.95/month.
- Best Value: 500 calling minutes; unlimited received calls from anywhere; unlimited talk and text with members; no roaming charges - $24.95/month.
- Power User: 1000 calling minutes; unlimited received calls from anywhere; unlimited talk and text with members; no roaming charges - $39.95/month.
6 Current iPhone Version ratings of 2 stars; 61 All iPhone Versions ratings of 3.2 stars.
(Top and Slideshow Image: Hadrian / Shutterstock.com)