There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding VPNs lately.
It’s true that some service providers are overselling the advantages of encryption on the modern HTTPS internet and omitting to mention that all of the trust you once placed in your ISP now rests with them, a third party corporation. However, there are still several good reasons to use a VPN, which we’ll go through in this post.
But first…
How A VPN Works ?
A virtual private network (VPN) is made up of two elements: a client and a server.
The client is a piece of software that you install on your computer.
The server is the computer that receives all traffic from the client and redirects it to your intended destination, which may be located anywhere on earth.
Consider a VPN to be a sort of mail forwarder. You address your network packet to a website. The client takes the packet and envelopes it in an encrypted envelope addressed to the VPN server, which is sent by your ISP to the VPN server.
The ISP is unable to open and read what’s inside the wrapped envelope while it delivers it to the VPN server. The server unwraps the package and sends it on to the intended recipient once it arrives. See how a virtual private network (VPN) disrupts the chain between your computer, Internet service provider (ISP) – and the website you’re visiting?
How Private is A VPN
Many providers promote that their VPNs are the magic black box of online privacy and security. They will hide your IP address from the site you’re visiting, and hide the site you’re visiting from your ISP.
If the CIA, FBI, NSA, or Interpol wants to know what you are doing online they’ll work it out.
Throughout the layers of the OSI model, there’s a wealth of data about you and your device.
Everything you do on the application layer is visible. Your VPN won’t protect you if you have malware on your computer.
WPS addressing information is employed by internet technology firms to verify your actual location via Wi-Fi positioning. There are millions of known devices that can triangulate your position based on the strength of your router’s signal.
Cookies, device session tokens, and hardware tokens are all used by large IT companies. E-tags and HTML5 local storage, single-pixel web beacons, and other technologies are all utilized.
Furthermore, since the packet is larger than usual, your ISP will know you are utilizing a VPN due to the increase in size. They may have a list of known VPNs, and they can correlate the IP address of your VPN with an IP on this list.
A VPN is all that is needed to keep your surfing history private unless you give law enforcement a cause to investigate. Unless someone is actively looking for you, the only thing you should be concerned about is keeping your browsing history of your ISP’s records.
You might believe, “but I trust my ISP,” and that’s acceptable, but if your ISP’s records are stolen, your surfing habits may be leaked. Similarly, if a VPN server is hacked, so is the entire network. That’s why you should always request a no-log VPN. Surfshark is an excellent option.
VPNs Avoid Geo Blocking to Let you Watch Movies and Access Services
Geo-restricted sites include Netflix, Hulu, Sky Sports, Amazon Prime, Vevo, and YouTube.
You can access US Netflix by connecting to a server in the United States, or Japan, Argentina, or any one of 20 – 40 countries depending on the provider. When you’re traveling and miss shows from home, or if you just want to upgrade the content available to you, a VPN will do this for a few dollars a month.
These limitations are worth overcoming since the broadcasting regulations make no sense. When everyone watched TV programs and movies on their living room set it made perfect sense, but in today’s environment when material can travel around the world in a fraction of a second, they don’t make sense. If you decide not to use a VPN, you’re just waiting for reality to catch up with the law.
VPNs also allow you to access websites and services that are restricted by your ISP. VPNs can also unblock various services. In certain regions, cryptocurrency exchanges, saas products, and blogging platforms aren’t accessible. Derivative crypto markets in the US are difficult to get into. Medium, a popular Vietnamese blogging site, is difficult to access in Vietnam. A VPN is a simple method to get around this situation.
Avoid Cease and Desist Notices If Torrenting
Even if you despise torrenting, up to 10% of global internet traffic comes from bittorrent and similar clients. VPNs are frequently employed while torrenting since public IP addresses may be seen by everyone if you don’t use a VPN. Because rights holders may track IP addresses and send disturbing emails to ISPs with cease and desist warnings,
In Summary
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) isn’t the black box of internet security that many providers make it out to be, but there are still times when they come in handy. Hiding your public IP address from your ISP and everyone else other than a VPN, as well as getting around geo blocking.
