It’s the VPN, Stupid: How to Be Safe, Anonymous, and Entertained Online

Imagine if all of your online profile pics showed your exact location on a map, your email address was tattooed to your forehead, and your licence plate was clearly just your social security number. 

Your life would probably suck. 

A computer or smartphone connected to the internet without one of the best VPNs isn’t exactly like those things, but it’s closer than you might imagine. 

And yet, there’s a decent chance that you don’t have a VPN installed. After all, the majority of internet users worldwide don’t—and an even bigger majority don’t have a VPN on their smartphones. 

What makes this ratio particularly mystifying is that mobile users are the ones most at risk. 

When you’re out and about with your smartphone you’re all but guaranteed to pass through an untold number of public networks. And connecting to a public network exposes you to malware, snooping, sniffing, phishing, man-in-the-middle attacks, and other forms of internet skullduggery.

Nobody likes skullduggery, so read on to find out how a VPN keeps you safe—and then read on a bit further to find out how a VPN keeps you entertained.  

How Does a VPN Work?

The letters VPN stand for Virtual Private Network, with “private” being the operative word. 

A VPN works by “tunnelling” your traffic through private servers in countries around the world, rather than through your ISP (Internet Service Provider). 

This has the effect of shielding you entirely from prying eyes, since there’s no way of distinguishing one user from another. Devices connected to a VPN server represent nothing more than anonymous packets of data. 

Not even your ISP knows what’s going on.

Naturally, this means it’s impossible for anybody to latch onto your device on a public network, and equally impossible for hackers to dredge up your private business at home. 

Unlocking the World

VPNs are essential for keeping you safe online, but that doesn’t mean a VPN is just a boring old safety tool like an antivirus program.

Because a VPN works by connecting your device with a server in another country—and all good VPNs will give you a choice of which country to connect to—it also allows you to fool the internet into thinking you’re somewhere that you’re not. 

This has radical implications for stuff like censorship, free speech, and just good old-fashioned entertainment. 

It’s no surprise that VPN use is relatively high in places where access to the internet is heavily restricted. While certain governments do what they can to restrict VPN use, many of their citizens are still able to use them to bypass local restrictions on information and free speech.

For the rest of us, VPNs provide the opportunity to overcome regional restrictions on platforms like Netflix. 

Ever been infuriated to discover that a film or series is available in another country’s Netflix library but not yours? We certainly have. Well a VPN consigns this frustration to the past, by allowing you to spoof your location.

The same goes for region-restricted YouTube content, local news sites, regional videogame betas, censored videogames, and so much more. 

In terms of access to content on the internet, a VPN is the closest thing you’ll find to a flying carpet that can magically (and invisibly) take you anywhere you want to go in less than a split second.

If you’re not already using a VPN, in other words, you really should be. 

Maria Alexander