Tech companies are scraping your personal data to train their AI – here’s how to block aggressive trackers and lock down your privacy

(Image credit: Future)

The web has always been full of trackers, but the AI boom has made personal data feel even more valuable. Every click, search, sign-up, or payment can feed the systems building profiles around your online behavior, whether that’s for advertising, analytics, or the next wave of AI tools.The best VPNs alone won’t stop every company from scraping public web data, but NordVPN Plus gives you a stronger layer of protection where it counts. It includes NordVPN’s core privacy tools alongside its newly rebranded "next-generation antivirus," which blocks ads, trackers, phishing links, malware, and suspicious downloads before they get too close.At $3.59 per month ($96.93 upfront, pre-tax) for 27 months, NordVPN Plus costs more than budget picks like Surfshark and PIA, but it gives you a broader security bundle than a standard VPN deal. You get antivirus, NordPass, and Dark Web Monitoring.Protect your data from AI scrapingNordVPN Plus is built for people who want more than a private connection. The main attraction here is Threat Protection Pro, now styled as NordVPN’s next-generation antivirus, which works in the background while you browse.Its job is simple: block the junk before it reaches you. That means fewer ads, fewer trackers, fewer phishing pages, and stronger protection against malicious files. In our testing, NordVPN’s Threat Protection Pro was the best VPN-based threat-protection tool, blocking 92% of phishing sites and 80% of malware sites.That tracker blocking is the part that feels especially timely. AI companies, advertisers, and analytics platforms all rely on data trails to understand what people read, click, search, and share online. NordVPN won’t erase you from the internet, but it can help cut down the amount of tracking activity attached to your browsing.NordVPN Plus also covers browser and email protections. NordVPN’s email protection scans visible links in open emails on supported web browsers, then flags suspicious URLs before you click. If it spots a phishing, scam, or malware link, you’ll see a red shield icon and a warning banner, without NordVPN needing to scan the actual content of your emails.NordVPN Basic still gets you the VPN, but Plus is the tier built for everyday web protection – it throws in the NordPass password manager too. If your main concern is trackers, phishing links, suspicious downloads, and breach alerts, this is the NordVPN plan to go for.