F-Secure’s popular Freedome VPN earns award recognizing its value in delivering an online experience that people can trust.
F-Secure’s efforts in bolstering consumer trust in the Internet was recognized by the Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) at an awards ceremony in London on Monday night. F-Secure received the 2015 Meffy award in the Consumer Trust category for the company’s popular Freedome VPN, confirming the app’s success in helping people control their online privacy.
Studies have shown that trust in online services is a consistent concern for consumers. 63 percent of respondents to a recent Eurobarometer survey said they do not trust online businesses to protect their personal data.* And a recent PEW Research Center study conducted in the US found that “online services are among the least trusted entities when it comes to keeping information private and secure.” 66 to 79 percent of PEW’s survey respondents said they were not confident that records of their activities collected by various online service providers would remain private and secure.**
“MEF has long championed best practices in Consumer Trust,” said Rimma Perelmuter, MEF CEO. “Congratulations to F-Secure, receiving this year’s Meffy for Consumer Trust in recognition of their critical role in the ecosystem – helping consumers develop greater trust when they use mobile apps and services.”
Freedome is a privacy and security app that lets people encrypt their communications, block Internet tracking and malicious websites, and change their virtual location to access geo-blocked services and content. Protection measures like these allow people to regain control over how information about them becomes exposed online. Such control measures help build people’s confidence in using digital services, and are an important part of developing a digital ecosystem that people feel comfortable using.
“We are very delighted to win the MEF Consumer Trust Award with Freedome,” said F-Secure’s Samu Konttinen, Executive Vice President of Consumer Security. “Consumer trust and privacy are central to our strategy in creating a safer Internet. This award is a great achievement for F-Secure and our fight for digital freedom, and it establishes Freedome as a leading consumer privacy product.”
Consumer Trust was added as a Meffy category in 2012, and is given to organizations working to create a more trusted environment and experience for mobile device users. Judges choose winners based on their compliance with industry best practices, transparency of processes, ease of use and user control, and evidence of how growing trust has increased the uptake of a mobile service.
F-Secure Freedome is currently available for a free 14-day trial for PCs running Windows or OS X, as well as Android, iOS, and Amazon Fire mobile devices.