Many of us spend many hours a day using the internet to do everyday things like working on office projects, watch videos, shopping, gaming, paying utility bills and making confidential video calls. A virtual private network (VPN) is one of the best ways to stay private and secure online and keep your personal data protected. VPN is a tool that allows you to access the internet securely wherever you are by creating a secure tunnel between your computer and your vpn provider, it protects you in two major ways:
Encrypting your traffic between you and your vpn provider so that no one on your local network can decipher or modify it and by concealing your IP address, protecting your identity and location. In the past, VPNs were mainly used by corporations to allow secure remote access to their internal services and proprietary data. Now, VPNs are available to anyone who wants to protect their connection to the internet, especially when it’s over porous networks like public wi-fi, and other networks. VPN will protect traffic whether through your browser, apps or other services. To use this service you’ll need to create an account with a vpn provider and install a software on your computer or phone, when enabled, vpn will handle traffic from all apps and software running on your device so you can browse and communicate freely over a secure private network connection.
A virtual private network provider typically offers a number of connection gateways in different global locations which allows you to use an IP address from a different locale. Since we all know that connecting to public wi-fi can be a risky endeavor and if you’re using an app that doesn’t have encryption then they your personal details may be in danger. Even when you’re at home, the risk of bad actors showing up on your home network can’t be denied. Your internet service provider can track and share your online activities because all the data that you access on the web is routed through your ISP’s network some of which may not be encrypted. It’s true that most connections to websites these days are secured by https: which means the content but not the source or destination address is encrypted.
There are a number of legitimate reasons you may want to use a VPN, including your banking details and password, corporate contracts, medico-legal documents, etc, but make sure you find a trustworthy VPN that keeps your info safe, respects your privacy and have reputation as a brand. Installing and using a VPN is currently legal in most countries, including the US, UK and Canada, and before such installation it’s your responsibility to check the state’s law to determine whether using it is legal or not.
Stay safe, happy and secure.