Hackers are becoming sophisticated by the day and innocents are falling victims. This makes getting a VPN (Virtual Private Network) essential. Basically, it transforms you into a ghost online with your digital footprint invisible. Your data is safe and so is your browsing history thus, digital criminals will not have access.
Even if you think you are a law abiding citizen with nothing to hide, not every internet user is nice. Thus, a VPN essentially protects you, making your activities very hard to read if intercepted. However, many people are still curious of what is VPN is and why they should get one. In the article I will be exploring various reasons on why getting VPN might worth the while.
1.Google is a Spy
It is no longer news that Google keeps track of your online activities. Your every move, search and activities on the net through their search engine is documented. While we all appreciate the free services of google, few people are comfortable with their effort of tracking our every move. Aside Google, most search engines also logs down every bit of your activities online. This is where having a VPN come to the rescue. With VPN, you can cruise the internet without the fear of being spied on!
2.Access to Favorite Program in a Different Country
With a VPN, every form of geo-restriction is removed. In other words, you have the capacity to access any of your favorite shows over the net. A VPN basically gives access to video feeds not provided by the host country. A VPN has the capacity to mask your IP address such that it appears you are in the country of broadcast. With a VPN, you wouldn't miss your favorite shows or sporting events.
3.Safely Use a Public Wi-Fi
Humans generally love freebies. However, many are unaware of the risk factor involved with public Wi-Fi. Public Wi-Fi is in no way safe for private and confidential browsing. It has no encryption available to users and any internet savvy criminal or hacker in training can easily access your information. As a matter of fact, it has been said that the easiest way to get yourself hacked is by using a public Wi-Fi. In the words of Scott Langdon, "in order to guide against fraudulent activities, it is important to avoid the use of public Wi-Fi. This is applicable for anyone trying to transfer credit card balances as well." This explains why a lot of banks will warn against using a public Wi-Fi to access your account.
Public Wi-Fi is grossly insecure. However with some dollars investment in VPN, you are safe. By using a personal VPN, all your services and connections are encrypted from ravaging wolves. A frequent traveler who uses the hotel Wi-Fi should consider investing in a VPN.
4.Bypass a restrictive Network
More often than not, schools, companies etc, places restriction on some particular webpage. The institutions do have a network security in place that prevents access to some sites. Usually, this means that there is an "acceptable use" policy for accessing the internet by this organization. Although, the concept is debatable, it has not stopped many organizations from establishing this severe restriction.
However, with a VPN connection, you would have acquired the ability to tunnel out of such restrictions. The VPN "deceives" your network administrator such that evidences of your website will be unavailable. Thus, you are able to connect to the "restricted" websites.
However, it should be noted that we do not advice violating acceptable use policy of your organization. Should you however have genuine reasons to; a VPN connection will do the trick.
5.Anonymity is Vital
There are circumstances where you cannot afford third parties knowing your whereabouts on the internet. A researcher, for example having some market research needs to be in a 'ghost mode' to prevent opposition from being alerted on your visit. Google analytics, as you might be aware logs down our IP address on every visit. This might be undesirable when anonymity is vital.
Quite a number of professions are better performed in ghost mode operation, thus a VPN connection is needed to cover your tracks. For example
- Having a market research on your immediate competitor
- A reporter covering very sensitive issues like greenhouse effect, aftermath of wars, human trafficking etc.
- A detective investigating cyber criminals,
- FBI tracking a terrorist video feed and many more
All these are activities where anonymity is key. Thus, having a VPN connection to make you untraceable is very essential. According to Jeff Martin of Love Vape Plus Ejuice (LVPE), "having a VPN enables small scales businesses to carry out the kind of market research that would have been otherwise be impossible to do".
The importance of VPN is worth much more. A few dollar investments in this "track-covering" software will safe you much more at the long run. Bear in mind you might not be able to tell who is after you. However, with a quality VPN investment, you are not only protected, you get to do much more!