Internet privacy has become a hot topic in recent years. With news of large corporations being hacked, consumers are beginning to take their privacy online seriously.
This trend has led to an increase in the usage of VPNs. Reports show that the VPN market is expected to grow to a value of $36 billion by 2022. People everywhere are beginning to hide their tracks online.
With all the talk about VPNs, the question is, is a VPN worth it? Keep reading to learn the answer to your question
What Is a VPN?
When you load a website, you don’t just make a request directly there. Your request has to do some traveling first.
Your internet request will travel through your ISP, a DNS server, and then reach the website you’re trying to access. The question is, who can see what you’re doing during this time?
You can think of a VPN as a way to hide what you’re doing. All internet traffic you send is sent to your VPN service first.
Your data will be encrypted, so nobody will be able to figure out what you’re doing. Not only that, but it will also make it appear like you’re browsing the internet from another location.
Your VPN will give you an application to download and install it on your computer. If you’re using Windows, it’s a simple executable. Mac users can visit https://setapp.com/how-to/how-to-setup-vpn-on-mac to see instructions for their machines.
Is a VPN Worth It?
A VPN sounds cool when you first hear about it, but is it worth investing in for the average person? Below are six reasons you should consider using a VPN.
- Stay Safe on Public WiFi
We’ve gotten to the point where WiFi is now available in most public places that you travel to. While this is convenient, it does come with risks.
You need to trust the WiFi that you connect to in public. Hackers misuse this trust to hijack your WiFi connection. This attack is called a man-in-the-middle attack.
Once you log on to a hacker’s WiFi hotspot, an attacker can put fake pages up for popular sites that people visit. Say you visit Facebook. Your login page there will be replaced with one created by the attacker, even if you use the real domain name in your web browser.
A VPN will stop this by bypassing fake pages from hackers. You won’t need to worry about these phishing attacks when you’re on a VPN.
- Get Faster Speeds
Depending on where you live, you might have situations where your internet speed is throttled. Throttling happens when your ISP sees you visit a popular site that uses a lot of bandwidth. They want to save resources, so they slow down your speed.
A VPN can help by hiding the sites you visit from your ISP. Since your internet traffic is encrypted, they won’t know when you visit your favorite streaming service.
This practice isn’t restricted to your ISP, either. If you get your internet connection from a third-party, they have complete control over how they handle their internet traffic. If they don’t like a website, they are free to throttle it as much as they wish.
While a VPN might be slightly slower than your connection at full speed, it will be much faster than a throttled connection.
- Work Around Country Filters
Not every country has complete internet freedom. They will block access to specific sites that they deem inappropriate for their citizens. This means you won’t have access to these sites if you live there, or plan on traveling in the future.
A 먹튀검증 will hide your internet traffic from the country you’re using the internet in. This privacy is great for countries where political expression isn’t allowed. You can go online to organize with people with similar viewpoints to yours.
- Stream Content From Another Country
Streaming content has made entertainment more available than ever. The problem is, these services don’t have all the licenses they need to stream their material in every country.
A streaming service can block content from you by determining where your physical location is. Streaming services do this by using the IP address that you use to connect to their service. Think of your IP address like your physical mailing address.
Using a VPN will make it appear like you’re located in your VPN server’s location. It will give you an IP address of the country of your choice. This IP address will let you access any show from your chosen country.
- Buy Cheaper Airline Tickets
If you’re planning on traveling in the future, you’ve probably already logged into the airline websites to check on ticket prices. The problem is, those prices will change very quickly.
Airlines factor a lot of data into their prices. This includes your location, date of travel, how long in advance you buy, and several other things. A VPN can help by making you appear as if you live in another area.
With a VPN, you can log into the airline ticket sites and find the locations that offer the best rates. You’ll be able to save money on air travel and spend more at your destination.
- Stop Your ISP From Gathering Data
Data is gold in the information age. Instead of making revenue from selling products, businesses sell data to generate income. ISPs are no different.
Your ISP can see everything you do on the internet. They take that data and sell it to anybody willing to pay. You don’t have any say in the matter, either.
Since a VPN encrypts your internet traffic, your ISP won’t be able to see anything. You’ll keep your privacy and not need to worry about your data being exposed because of a data breach.
Try a VPN Today
You should now know the answer to the question, “is a VPN worth it?” Most VPN services will offer you a free trial. Sign up today to see the benefits of a VPN for yourself.
Of course, a VPN won’t help you stay completely safe online. Keep reading our blog for more tips on staying safe on the internet.
