Is Your Online Activity Safer With A VPN?

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Virtual Private Network (VPN)

Recently, the Congress voted to repeal a law that would have stopped Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from selling your online browsing data without your prior consent.

With your data now possibly landing in the hands of the highest bidder, it’s an unfortunate scenario for those individuals who really care about their online privacy and certainly don’t want corporations to profit off of their personal data.

Vpn Protection Cyber Security Technology Network
Source: Maxpixel

In a situation like this where you find yourself cornered, what should you do? Well, many tools exist online like the Tor browser where you can privately carry on with your online activities. However, there are several limitations as the Tor browser can’t be a substitute for your native browser such as Google Chrome or Safari – where you can use extensions, etc.

The most convenient and safest option is a globally recognized online privacy tool known as a Virtual Private Network (VPN). While a VPN won’t answer to all your privacy concerns, it’s surely a fair start. Now, let’s learn how a VPN can secure your online activities but before we begin, let’s understand what a VPN service is.

Assuming you’re not familiar with a VPN, a Virtual Private Network is a private, restricted network that connects you to the worldwide internet. A VPN service offers encrypted servers based in various parts of the world to provide seamless unblocking and streaming capabilities with all while your data is secured with its highest graded encryption.

Once connected to the VPN network, your internet connection is completely encrypted, and if you’re browsing the internet through this controlled, secure network, it’s nearly impossible for any person to pry on your online activities. You can go around working on the internet without worrying about third-parties or hackers tracking your online browsing habits.

So, how do VPNs make it happen? VPNs take your ISP out of the loop by assigning you a virtual IP that is remotely based around the globe. With that virtual IP, you can endlessly browse the internet anonymously and remain safe from ad-trackers who continually track your browsing habits to serve you targeted ads.

With VPNs being your last resort, trust and reliability become major factors when choosing a reliable VPN service. Even though it’s true that VPNs can protect you from surveillance, but they also have the power to possibly do all the same things you were worried about in the first place like accessing and tracking all of your online browsing activities.

VPN Virtual Private Network
Source: wikimedia.org

Therefore, for a VPN to be any more private than your Internet Service Provider, the VPN service must offer you an iron-clad commitment. Searching for such VPN is very difficult and time-consuming. However, one firm measure is to check whether the VPN keeps logs of its user activity.

Nearly all privacy-centric VPN services are forthright about their strict no-logging policy but some VPN services do lurk in the shadows and we’ve made that distinguish for you.

PureVPN

The industry-leading VPN giant is renowned for providing exceptional service to its users. PureVPN boasts a global server network of 750+ servers based in 140+ locations with a huge pool of 80,000+ IPs which provide seamless connectivity and online anonymity.

It’s wise to check a company’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy in detail. Although it isn’t humanly possible to go through the entire document but just search for the keyword (log) and read up a bit about the company’s stance.

PureVPN’s subscription comes packed with AES 256-bit encryption as standard which serves as a basis to strengthen your online activities. Additionally, whitelisted IPs keep your real identity masked at all times.

You can connect up to 5 devices simultaneously on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, router, Amazon Firestick, Android TV among many more. Check out the PureVPN review if you aren’t convinced.

As discussed, there are further vigorous ways of masking your online browsing activities. The most obvious option is to use the Tor anonymous browser. However, using Tor for all browsing and communication is difficult and complicated for many users. It also not an ideal way of online browsing.

Final Verdict

Using a VPN does indeed make you much safer online, given you’re using the right VPN service. And remember, common sense goes a long way to secure your data and privacy. Start with limiting the sharing of your personal data online and actively update your OS, browser and other software.

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