Disconnect (company)

Disconnect is a developer of privacy tools for online and digital activity. This includes online privacy and security software to give people greater transparency and control over personal information shared online. This includes a toolbar in a browser to prohibit the mass collection of online activity and trackers to protect users and their privacy. The company's products are available for iPhone and Android. Disconnect was used as the default search engine of the security-focused Tor Browser before the browser switched to DuckDuckGo.

The company was founded in 2011 by Casey Oppenheim, Brian Kennish, and Austin Chau and has a stated principle on which the company was founded: that people should have the freedom to move about the internet, and their lives, without anyone else looking and tracking.

Disconnect's platform offers different privacy-focused features for users. These include the ability for users to encrypt their traffic and secure it from unwanted surveillance or to mask their IP address when using public Wi-Fi or travel in order to keep their online activity more private. Further, Disconnect's anti-tracking tools keep personal data from those tracking and collecting personal information. As well, the platform offers a faster online experience through its tools for blocking pop-ups and third-party requests, which often slow down websites and put users at risk.

Similarly, the platform includes blocking for malicious ads and content, including blocking malware-laced advertising (malvertising), phishing attempts, cryptocurrency scams, and social engineering. Disconnect's platform works to keep those different attacks from reaching a device in order to ensure they do not reach a user, who may still click on and infect their devices without understanding.

The platform and related products, accessed through mobile applications or as a software suite, are available in four tiers: Basic, Pro, Premium, and Enterprise. As well, Disconnect offers a Privacy DNS and a Do Not Track as stand-alone products.