If you are at all worried about your security when traveling or handling your chores around town, make sure that you are equipping your devices with a Virtual Private Network (VPN). It is a service that connects people’s devices with an offsite secure server using an encrypted connection. The server will reroute all traffic through it before sending data back to your device, which allows the user to remain anonymous online through IP anonymity.
While you might have heard about them originally in a business setting, if at all, they have become enormously popular in consumer markets due to their availability and versatility. You’ll have a plethora of options to choose from, and all of them will make you safer than you are now and give you more freedom online.
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Here are five of the main reasons you will want to use a VPN:
Public Networks
The common security use for VPNs in today’s modern world is protection from hackers on unprotected public networks. They are the kind you find in cafes or airports, and they always seem incredibly convenient at the time and a great way to save on your data usage. What most people don’t know is that hackers can easily intercept your data on these networks using “sniffer” programs that are easy to get and nearly impossible to notice. Data interception of this nature can lead to identity theft and the breach of any account you access on the network.
A VPN protects against this particular problem by encrypting your device’s connection to the network, only letting the hacker see that you are using a VPN if anything at all. Most hackers will move on and forget about you, but even those who continue to try to get at your data will find themselves lacking the few years of time necessary to break the encryption.
Regional Content Blocks
The other major purpose of VPNs is to get around many of the content blocks companies put up based on your location. It might be on a streaming website, a news website or any content delivery website that has to deal with rights or trade issues. A VPN is much like a passport for your personal device, keeping it unchained from the physical location of its IP address.
A common example of this is Netflix and the restrictions it places on travelers who are outside the country they subscribed from. A VPN allows them to appear as though they’re at home so they can access the content they paid for, effectively unblocking the site.
Government Censorship and Restrictions
Much like the regional restrictions companies put up to prevent people from accessing content, oppressive governments around the world put up blocks and restrictions intended to keep people from accessing information and services the government doesn’t like.
A VPN is one of the main tools that people can use to fight back and keep themselves informed. If you are traveling to such a country, you will want to invest in a VPN to maintain access to your social media accounts and communications.
A VPN is one of the main tools that people can use to fight back and keep themselves informed. If you are traveling to such a country, you will want to invest in a VPN to maintain access to your social media accounts and communications.
Privacy and Anonymity
Governments might not always restrict your access to the internet, but they could very well track your activities online and breach your privacy in ways no person would be comfortable with. You have a right to anonymity online, and a VPN masks your IP address so the popular method of IP tracking becomes useless to interested parties.
Individuals and organizations will find themselves impeded as well. Activity on your online accounts and anything you write online still appear as usual, but if you want to remain mostly anonymous online, the option is there for you.
Information Protection
Just as a VPN will protect you on public networks, it will also protect your connection via encryption on any other network. If you have sensitive data that requires every security precaution you can think of, you can’t go wrong with using a VPN. You will be able to mask your activities online to make the data even safer, and no one will even know you’re handling sensitive data, much less what it is.
VPNs also tend to have security measures in place so that even if someone was trying to breach the connection, the connection reorganizes itself to avoid the hacker. If governments can’t crack them, you can rest assured that nothing will happen to your important information. For the price, there really isn’t any other tool that can help you so much.
Do you feel as though there are any other uses of a VPN that people should know about?
Technology professionals have become extremely creative with them and the features different services offer change over time. Do you have any experiences with VPNs that you want to share? Please leave a comment below in either case, as we would love to hear what you have to say.
