A VPN is a tool that offers you security of you use open Wi-Fi networks. Apart from that, it also offers additional security if you are using an internet connection on a trusted network as well. Whenever you do an online transaction, you are at a risk as the hackers can take advantage of your sensitive information. Therefore, in order to protect yourself against the hackers, you can use a VPN service. But one might ask how effective a VPN actually is, how can you run a VPN and what information is it able to hide?
In this article, we will explain what kind of information is protected by a VPN and how can someone track you even if you are using a VPN.
Are VPN worth it?
Yes they are. As we all know, nothing is a 100% perfect. In the same way, there is nothing that can offer a 100% protection against the threats that are present online. Even if you put up firewalls, experienced hackers can get through them as well. VPN is just another way in which you can provide a little protection to your information. It has the ability to offer resistance to hackers.
But since the various VPN services are paid, it is your right to know that how much protection it will offer when you are paying for it. But you can take our word for it when we say that VPN is worth it. Your top priority is to stay safe on the internet and VPN is one way to do that.
For instance, if you run a business online, you will obviously do a lot of transactions online as well. Therefore, you will need to keep your information safe from the various hackers or from leaking to your competitors. Therefore, if you use a VPN service, all that sensitive information will be safe from any risks. You can do all the necessary tasks online without any worry of having your ISP breathing down your neck.
What does a VPN hide?
Whenever you are using a VPN service, it will hide your IP address. With your hidden IP address, all the searches that you do on the internet will be hidden as well. Therefore, you internet provider will not be able to keep tabs on your social activity and the sites that you visit.
VPN is a sort of a mask. When someone is using a VPN, all his searches are hidden not only from the service provider, but also from various search engines, government services and hackers. For example, you might have seen that whenever you search something on google, you will see the ad for same thing on Facebook as well. How is that possible?
This is possible because the various search engines keep track of your activity by using the IP address of your device. Therefore, the marketers use this information and present to you the ads that are related to your searches. In order to save yourself from this, you can use a VPN service.
Not only will the VPN hide your IP address, but it will also hide all your login information as well. Whether it is your login information for any social media platform or your bank account. But keep one thing in mind, it will not be able to hide the information that you give to the various sites willingly and in the future, those sites are breached.
According to Forbes, even though the VPN offers you security, but it cannot protect you if you yourself go around telling your personal information to various websites and social media platforms like Facebook etc. In case they are breached, your VPN will be rendered useless.
Does a VPN hide everything?
The main thing that you need to hide is the IP address of your device. If you are able to hide that, the rest of the information of your online activity is hidden automatically. The most common way in which the various search engines or the hackers can cause damage to your personal information is through your IP address. Therefore, if that is hidden, all your activity is hidden from you service provider, as well as the hackers that are present online. In order to understand how that works is to consider a private tunnel. All the information of your online activity passes through that tunnel. Therefore, no one, except you will be able to what passes through that tunnel.
Can you be tracked if you use a VPN?
It is very unlikely, but still nothing is impossible. Hacking a VPN protected server is very difficult, but as explained earlier, nothing is a 100% perfect. Therefore, although very little, but there are still chances that you can get hacked. Another thing to remember here that the VPN you are using has been given to you from a VPN service provider. Therefore, if you are doing something illegal, and the government or the authorities are after you, the VPN provider is obligated to present all the information of your online activity to the authorities. Apart from that, the government has a number of other ways to track people that are involved in illegal activities on the dark web that include terrorism, piracy or illegal pornography etc.
Can your Internet provider see your history with a VPN?
When you use a VPN, it also protects all history of your online activity from the service provider as well. But there are some other ways as well through which you can hide your browser history from your ISP. You can also use proxy services as they will hide your IP address from the service provider which will in turn hide your browser history.
Although there are a number of benefits of using a VPN, but there are a number of things that you need to consider. In a number of countries, the use of VPN services are banned from the government. Therefore, if you belong to such a country, using VPN can have legal consequences. You might have to pay fines or even face jail time as well.
Apart from that, using a VPN service will also slow down your browsing speed. The reasons for that is that the VPN connects you to a private server. Therefore, when you want to go to a site, there will be a little delay in the connection and the pages will take longer to load.
Finally, as explained a number of times earlier, VPN does not provide you a 100% protection. It rather reduces the chances of being hacked or traced while using the internet. Therefore, if you are using the VPN services for any illegal activities, you need to think again.