Cloaked vs Norton

Cloaked is a privacy-masking service with a strong mission, an 'encrypted even from us' architecture claim, and explicit commitments to never sell data, read emails, read texts, or listen to calls — but significant product complexity means multiple features are governed by third-party policies rather than Cloaked's own: the VPN is powered by PureVPN (and PureVPN's policy governs it), financial account connections use Plaid/Stripe/PayPal under their own policies, and the Inbox Cleaner requires Gmail access despite the high-profile 'never read your emails' pledge; additionally, it is a US company governed by Massachusetts law, no security certifications are named, data retention is vague, and it ignores Do Not Track signals.

Norton (Gen Digital) collects some of the most sensitive personal data of any consumer service — Social Security numbers, bank account details, driver's licence numbers, and mother's maiden name for LifeLock identity monitoring — while simultaneously running a targeted advertising business that shares user, device, and website data with advertising partners; network traffic and screen activity are monitored for security purposes; and data flows broadly across Gen Digital's corporate group, distributors, resellers, marketing partners, and analytics providers, all retained for vaguely defined periods.