Today, around 4.7 billion active internet users across the world, and 25% of them use a VPN, for different reasons. A VPN is just a private network that help make your connection, between your device (mobile, laptop or tablet) and the Internet, more secured, by encrypting the traffic.
Let’s discover three reasons why VPNs can be useful when you browse the web.
VPN Secures Your Privacy
VPN Keeps Your Online Activity Secured
Unbeknown to you, a website or an application can keep a record of your online activities, but also your location. Your data can be analysed by your ISP (Internet Service Provider), the institutions from the country you live in or even worse, by malicious individuals who can hack a network and, for instance, spy your device.
Indeed, a VPN can block websites, software, and people from accessing your internet connection by encrypting the information exchanged between your device and the web.
Moreover, VPN not only helps you securely transfer data files but also prevents data leakages, especially if you work remotely.
VPN Keeps Your Sensitive Information Safe
Hackers are always on the go to intercept sensitive information (read financial, but it can be also passwords or files like videos and photos), that we share online. Once the information is retrieved, a hacker can impersonate you to gain access to your credit cards and bank accounts, but also to generate ransomware attacks.
For instance, small companies that did not secure their system enough might face a situation where an intruder would encrypt their files, making them unusable, before asking for a ransom.
Therefore, a trustworthy VPN like NordVPN can help secure a network, by offering an extra layer of security.
VPN Helps You Unlock Geo-restricted Content
Restricting content on the Internet is quite common by ISPs, States, or just because of copyrighting laws that might apply in a given country. Most of the time, the content will be blocked based on your IP, in other words, access based on our geographical location.
For instance, if you live in Hong Kong but you want to access European online streaming programs like BBC iPlayer, MyTF1 or Ray Play or other catalogues available in popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime or Disney+, then, a VPN might be useful since these apps are either not available for Hong Kong users or have different content available.
In such a scenario, a good-quality VPN saves your day and mood through geo-spoofing, which is the action of hiding your location, when you connect to the Internet.
VPN Allows You to Prevent Data or Bandwidth Throttling
Data Throttling
When you consume a specified portion of your allotted data, your ISP slows down your connection through data throttling. However, a solid VPN can help you avoid data capping by masking your IP address, which then disables your ISP from viewing your data usage.
This VPN feature is especially useful for people accessing the internet on a mobile data plan.
Bandwidth Throttling
When your internet service provider or network administrator deliberately slows your internet speed, you are experiencing bandwidth throttling. It is occasionally done when an individual engages in certain activities online or browses specific websites.
Yet, if you are using a trustworthy VPN, it can encrypt the traffic transporting from your device. Once the traffic is encrypted, your ISP is unable to spot the websites you are visiting because they cannot see the data coming back and forth from your computer or device.
Remember that without the comfort of a trustworthy VPN, every bit of your online activity is logged by your ISP, who may share it with the government, advertisers, or third parties.
Conclusion
Without a VPN, you can suffer unwanted pop-up ads, data leakages, and even identity theft. With such software, you can enjoy 256-bit encryption, which disables intruders from accessing your connection. Moreover, VPN enables you to access geo-blocked content through geo-spoofing – a process that changes your online location to one of your choosing.