These Are The Things VPNs Protect Us From

UPDATED Mar. 2024

It does not matter if you are a paranoid person by nature or not, we live in a world where we are being monitored 24/7. OK, maybe things aren’t that serious yet, but we do live in a world where certain organizations have the ability to monitor us 24/7. It is only thanks to sheer numbers and the fact most of us lead very boring lives that they do not.

vpn protection

That does not mean the potential is not there, though. This is even more pronounced online where every action can be tracked and where it is possible to access a person’s entire history without breaking a sweat. It is only logical that many people feel uneasy about this. It is probably a biological imperative to stay hidden as much as possible. Being in the open to such an extent makes us feel uncomfortable on a genetic level, if you wish.

The good news is that we have VPN companies and services that protect us from the prying eyes that are all over the place online. Essentially, top VPNs make it impossible (or at least incredibly difficult) for individuals and organizations to track our online activity. But, let’s dig a bit deeper.

vpn defenseFirst of all, VPNs protect us from being easily identifiable as a specific internet user who can be easily assigned a name and a face. If you don’t have a VPN, someone that is interested in figuring out who you are based on your IP address needs little more than a friend in the right place or perhaps a warrant.

In addition to this, a VPN will protect your online activities from prying eyes. Without a VPN, anyone who has some knowledge (and not that much really) about you, can track every single thing you do online. They can see the websites that you visit, the searches that you type in, the purchases that you make and much, much more. How do you think Google knows what you are looking for even before you do? How do you think suggested purchases are made? How do you think you are always bombarded with a specific kind of advertisements online?

With a VPN, all of this becomes history. A VPN will also protect you from ending up on a blacklist of some kind just because ten years ago you downloaded a song from an illegal website. Things are even worse if you have a piece of torrenting software on your system. If you do and you are not using a VPN, the chances are you are being monitored by some legal watchdog agency, a vague branch of government or someone else.

man-at-computer1Furthermore, a VPN service also protects you from being discriminated based on your location. For instance, if you are traveling to a foreign country, you might find it impossible to watch our favorite online programs or access certain services. For example, if you go to China, you cannot access Google. In some other countries, you can only get access to very localized online content. With a bit of help from a VPN, this is no longer a problem.

Finally, a good VPN is also going to act as the outer-most layer of defense when your system is in question. This is especially true if you are a commercial user and someone who might be of interest to people who make a living hacking into company systems. Also, if you use Wi-Fi hotspots very often and you are not as disciplined as you should be, a VPN will help you be at least somewhat secure.