The Domain Name System (DNS) is an old and troubled thing. Used for turning an address like makeuseof.com into an IP address your computer can connect to, it was built in a happier time when people didn’t expect that anyone would spy or tamper with it. It has no encryption built in, and generally no assurance the response hasn’t been maliciously altered on the wire.

This leads to unhappy consequences: in some parts of the world (including the US) ISPs whose servers handle customer DNS requests can use that data for advertising. They are free to snoop and can make a profit from it.

Fortunately, there are solutions. Mozilla came up with DNS over HTTPS, a way of cutting out the ISP’s view of people’s traffic. That only works in browsers though, and isn’t on by default in all regions.

A more far reaching solution is DNSCrypt, which (as the name suggests) encrypts your queries to DNS servers and again, cuts out middlemen to make your online experience safer and more secure.

There is a problem though, because historically this has been hard to set up.

That is no longer the case: Quad9, a Swiss foundation that runs the DNS resolver 9.9.9.9, has an app for Android which will secure your phone’s DNS, whatever the app. It works by acting as a VPN, but only for your DNS traffic. Everything else passes through, giving none of the lag or battery drain that can often come with a full-blooded VPN.

Better yet, Quad9 also has options for malware protection. Malware often dials home, connecting to malicious servers for command and control, or to pull data out of your phone. It is hard to detect, but Quad9’s DNS servers use threat intelligence systems to block bad domain names, and the app tells you when it has done this.

The security that Quad9 offers is a real bargain given that it is free. You don’t pay with your personal information, either: the whole thing is sponsored by the likes of IBM, the Packet Clearing House, and the Global Cyber Alliance.

The funding Quad9 receives is the result of those corporate sponsors knowing that better security benefits everyone, but only if everyone can access it. Quad9 is a huge leap forward for Android users on that basis, and will leave users a little safer than they were before they found it.