Gone are the days when what you did on the internet was no one’s concern. Today, even with a whole internet suite, your web activity isn’t guaranteed to be secure. Snoopers, ISPs, and governments have become increasingly active in monitoring our online activities.
That being the case, prioritizing our online privacy is now a matter of utmost importance, and the best and easiest way to do this is by using a VPN.
What is a VPN?
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a tool that encrypts your internet traffic and hides your online identity by assigning your device an IP address different from your real IP address. You can think of it as a secure tunnel that transfers data between your devices and the sites and pages you visit. When you use Surfshark VPN, no third-party, not even your ISP, can see the data that is being sent to and from your device.
Although some providers can’t be trusted on their VPN services offer incredibly reliable services. To ensure you get the right product, here’s a comprehensive overview of the best VPN providers.
Why do you need a VPN?
To Secure Public Wi-Fi
If you often use public Wi-Fi say at the airport, hotel, or coffee shop, a VPN is super important. This is because public hotspots are usually unsecured, something that makes it easier for hackers to access your information when you connect to the network.
To prevent this, you can employ a VPN to encrypt your data. With encryption, nobody will be able to access your device or steal your data and/ or personal information.
You can bypass a restrictive network with a VPN
If you reside in a ‘high-risk’ country, the services and sites you can access on the internet are limited. ISPs and governments can impose restrictions on different sites to cater to their interest.
A VPN is particularly helpful in sidestepping these restrictions. It will allow you to connect to a server outside your country, making it appear as if you are accessing the internet from a different location and consequently circumventing any. This also applies to corporate and school networks.
It gives you access to blocked content
Streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime geo-restrict the content they offer. For instance, the content available to a Netflix subscriber in the UK is different from that available to a subscriber in the US. If you are in Australia and need to access US Netflix to follow up on the latest episodes of your favorite show, a VPN is all you need.
Just remember to choose a VPN capable of unlocking the media service you are subscribed to. Once you set up the VPN, connect to a US server and you’ll get access to US-only Netflix shows.
Download & share files privately
Over the past few years, we have witnessed crackdowns in file downloading and sharing. And although we do not in any way support torrenting or sharing of copyrighted data, it’s never easy differentiating between free and pirated content.
For that reason, it’s highly advisable that you use a VPN whenever you want to stream using free apps such as Kodi or you want to download/ stream torrent files. The VPN will let you do so privately, securely, and anonymously.
You can avoid throttling using a VPN
Internet service providers are known to throttle your speeds intentionally, especially when you are making heavy downloads. Others do so when they notice you are using a lot of bandwidth through torrents.
A VPN can easily help you get past this. It will encrypt your web traffic, and your ISP wouldn’t know what you are accessing. All they’ll know is that you are connected to a VPN.
Wrap up
There are several other reasons to use a VPN, such as making purchases from locations where products are on discount, but the above are reasons enough to get a VPN. You can start enjoying your right to privacy by subscribing to one of the top VPNs.
