What is A VPN and Why Do You Need One?
A VPN aka a Virtual Private Network. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll likely have heard something about this tool. Probably from an advert where someone explains the unending benefits of having one. Adverts that you probably just dismiss. After all, you’ve gotten this far without one. Why bother now?
Before we explain just why you do need one, and you do, Surfshark download being one of the market leaders, let’s go into detail about just what a VPN is.
In the simplest terms possible, it’s a way for an organization or person to upgrade their online security and privacy. A VPN does this by creating an encrypted connection to the internet. All your traffic is filtered through a private network server where all your online activities are hidden from prying eyes. Even from your ISP, Internet Service Provider.
It almost sounds unsavoury, like you’re up to something naughty. Yet, that is so far from the case.
Think of it like this:
Imagine you’re in a shop on a high street. As you browse the aisles, a shop employee is following you around. Every time you stop to look at an item, put it in your basket or just want to read the ingredients, this person is noting down what you picked up. When you get to the checkout point, the items you didn’t buy, but perhaps considered, are there and the staff are doing everything possible to sell them to you now.
If that wasn’t bad enough, they’re also taking note of your how you pay, what your details are and how much money you pull out of your pocket.
It’s incredibly intrusive but also dangerous as you don’t actually know that the person wearing the uniform and with the name tag is a legitimate employee. What if they are a criminal looking to get all your details so they can use that information for nefarious reasons?
Take that analogy and apply it to the internet, where anonymity is encouraged and your information is flying around between servers all over the world. It’s near uncontrollable and, over the past few years, the rise in cyber-fraud has risen to eye-watering levels.
Remember, in many countries it is completely legal for ISPs to sell your personal data and there are a lot of companies willing to pay for it.
If this sort of malicious behaviour worries you, and it should, then a VPN is the safest way to be online. The peace of mind that having all your traffic and online activity immediately encrypted offers, makes the premium services pay for themselves. It’s like throwing an invisibility cloak over yourself as you go online.
The internet doesn’t have to be like the Wild West anymore but it’s not just anonymity that VPNs offer. Services also have servers around the globe in different regions allowing you to bypass content blocks. A great example of this is Netflix and how they have different content in different regions.
Turn your VPN on, log into a server located in a different region and as far as your traffic is aware, that’s where you are. You can be in the UK and streaming something only available in the US!
The benefits of a VPN far outweigh any negatives and thanks to the riding popularity of the services, getting started has never been easier. Feel safe online once again.
