A VPN: What you Should Know about it in 2021 (Like for Real)
As I man whose personal data has been stolen a couple of times.. Well, imagine this: a lucky duck from Germany with his laptop and web design ideas, working and traveling around the world.. with no precautions done and the public WiFi usage. Should I say I am glad I withdrew money from my card 3 hours prior to the hacker attack? Yikes!
But let’s not turn it into a pity party, ok? I have learned my lesson and don’t want you to feel it on your back. Here’s what you should know about a VPN in 2021 (I recommend checking out the info about free VPNs here and here for starters).
What is a VPN?
VPN is an abbreviation for Virtual Private Network. The Internet has become global. There are often many other people between you and the information you are requesting online: a provider or a provider and a public Wi-Fi hotspot. In this way, all data is transmitted in unencrypted form from you as a user to a provider.
Imagine the following: you have found a cute cat meme on the Internet and send it to your friend while using a VPN. The meme will end up in a kind of “private tunnel”, where no one will be able to track who has sent what to whom. The information coming to this tunnel is encrypted, known only to you and the final recipient.
If you use a VPN during Internet browsing, your actual IP address changes to the VPN server address. So all the websites you visit, see it. For example, suppose you choose Germany from the list of recommended servers. In that case, the site will “assume” that the traffic is coming from Germany, which complicates the process of collecting and analyzing information about you.
Why should you encrypt your data?
There are dozens of reasons for this, but one of the most obvious: to protect your data from “hacking”. When you connect to public WiFi somewhere in a coffee shop or a train station, people who work there see that the user №8 read the news, checked the mail, and so on. Worse, if you buy something online through public networks — then you risk exposing your card data.
In addition to protecting your data, thanks to VPN services you can:
- hide the actual geographical location for confidentiality reasons;
- buy in foreign online stores cheaper at a lower price;
- hide your browsing history;
- leave no digital trace of your identity;
- bypass the restrictions or blacklist of your IP address.
What will be your reason for using a VPN? (In case you need some help with choosing the best one for you).
