VPN is short for Virtual Private Network. It can hide your real IP address so others won’t identify and track you. You may be wondering if it’s worth spending your hard-earn money on a VPN, as you have nothing to hide. Actually, the main purpose of a VPN is not to hide something. The main purpose of a VPN is to protect your privacy and prevent others stealing your important data, like your bank account info. Of course, other than that, there are some other reasons why you need a VPN.
Before we move to the reason section, let’s figure out how a VPN works. If you don’t care, you can skip this section and move to The 4 reasons why you need a VPN.
How does a VPN work?
When you use a VPN service, and visit a website, you are connected to the VPN server directly instead of the website. And the data delivered between you and the VPN server is encrypted. Let’s say there is a tunnel between you and the target website. It’s hard for others, for example, your ISP and the government, to enter the tunnel to get your data information.
In addition, your IP address will be hidden. After you connect to the internet, your ISP will assign an unique IP address for you. Without a VPN, the websites can identify and track you with the IP address. But with a VPN, all the websites can see is the IP address of the VPN server you’re using. For example, if you’re living in UK, and you’re connecting to the USA server of a VPN, the websites you visit can see the USA IP address but not the UK IP address.
In a word, a VPN sits between you and the websites. Since the data is encrypted and the IP address is hidden, you’re safer with a VPN than without a VPN.
Why do you need a VPN? Here are the 4 reasons.
You can use a VPN to do many things without being spied. You can use a VPN to bypass the censorship, to access the geo-registration websites, to protect your privacy over public WiFi and to download files safely.
1. To protect your privacy over public WiFi
When you’re in the hotel, in the coffee shop or at the airport, you may want to use the public WiFi. But you may not notice that you’re taking a risk when you’re using the public WiFi especially the free WiFi. Why does the public WiFi put you at risk?
Because someone may use a phony WiFi to spy on your data. Since the data is not encrypted, they can steal your data easily. They can steal your bank account and the password, your email address and the password, and other important private information. So to prevent your private data being stolen, it’s necessary to use a VPN when you use a public WiFi.
2. To bypass the censorship
If some content you’re trying to access is blocked by your school, your company or the government, you can use a VPN to bypass the censorship. Most VPNs run VPN servers in various locations around the world. Find out what location allows the blocked website, then connect to the right server of the VPN.
3. To access the geo-registration websites
Many countries have their own geo-registration websites. If you want to access a geo-registration website a country, you need to be located in that country. For example, if you want to access Netflix and Hulu, you need to stay in USA. If you want to access BBC iPlayer, you need to stay in UK. It seems impossible to access your favourite websites without a VPN. But with a VPN, you can access the geo-registration websites easily. Just connect to a VPN server located in the country where the geo-registration websites can be accessed. When you connect to the VPN server successfully, the VPN server will connect you to the target website with their server IP address.
4. To allow you to download files safely
If you want to download files on torrent websites, it’s recommended you use a VPN. A VPN can prevent you from receiving warning letters from your ISP. You may already hear that some users had received a warning letter from their ISP after they downloaded a file from a torrent website. The chances are these users downloaded a copyrighted file without even knowing.
So to avoid that happen to you, you should use a VPN when downloading torrent files. The VPN can hide your real IP address so that the ISP can’t track you. Better safe than trying to defend yourself in court or paying a massive fine for something you may or may not have even done, right?
How to pick a reliable VPN
There are many VPN providers out there. Some provide free VPN services, and some provide paid VPN services. It’s very important to pick a trustworthy VPN, as dishonest VPN providers may steal your data and sell it to advertisers. If you’re not sure how to pick a reliable VPN, you can refer the 2019 Best VPN Services review. We’ve reviewed many VPNs on the market and pick out the best VPNs for you to choose.
Hopefully you find this post helpful. If you have any questions, ideas or suggestions, feel free to leave your comments.