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Scary Isn’t It?
Your IP address lets snoops find out lots of information about you. That’s because your online activities and everyone else’s are being tracked, combined, cross-referenced and shared among even more snoops, whether “harmless” advertisers, greedy data mining ISPs, criminal hacking syndicates or scheming government agencies.
This means the profiles about you and your online habits are detailed, accurate and ever growing. These profiles can harm you in many ways:
- blocked content
- embarrassing ads
- higher prices
- denied credit or coverage
- other types of discrimination
- becoming the target of hackers & identity thieves
- being screened from jobs, insurance, loans, security clearance, etc
- catching the attention of government agencies, both whether domestic or foreign
Be Smart, Hide Your IP Address
To fool the snoops and stay protected, hide your IP address. This scrambles your online activities and helps you to stay under or even completely off the radar.
You can hide your true IP address for free with The Onion Router (Tor). Tor is great but a bit complicated. 🙁 Free web proxies exist too which can also help conceal your IP address, but can be unreliable and be a security risk. 🙁 🙁
Top Tip - It’s far better, safer and easier to hide your IP address with a reasonably-priced virtual private network (VPN) provider. You simply can't go wrong with PIA VPN, the most highly -rated VPN service you will find.
A reliable, trusted VPN is great for everything from:
- hiding your true IP address
- keeping you safe on Wi-Fi
- letting you access restricted content via geo-spoofing and
- encrypting your traffic so your ISP and snoops cannot ever see what you are doing online, whether that’s watching cat videos, downloading torrents or checking out the Internet’s darker corners.
And because PIA VPN keeps no logs, you are as safe as safe can be. This means no matter how hard snoops try, they can't get at the identity of one of PIA VPN's customers.
With a full 30-day money-back guarantee your satisfaction is assured. PIA VPN's industry-leading no-hassle satisfaction guaranteed or your money back speaks for itself.
Many people don’t know or realize, but a VPN has LOTS of uses. For that small investment, you get a lot of bang for your buck.
Below we list the top 10 best things we like to answer when asked, “why use a VPN?”
But First: What’s a VPN Exactly?
In case we’ve assumed too much thus far and you’re still wondering, “what‘s a VPN?”, a VPN is an online service you access through a small app installed on your computer or device that re-routes your Internet traffic.
The VPN acts as an intermediary (“middle man”) for your Internet connection, encrypting your online traffic, masking the IP address of your online activities and preventing you from being detected and tracked online.
A VPN makes your Internet connection seem like it originates from somewhere else, helping protect your identity and your activities from any adverse disclosure, whether now or in the future (for example, if records are being kept and saved for later).
A VPN can protect and hide all of your online activities from your nosy ISP and other snoops too. Without a VPN your ISP can see, monitor and know about everything you do online. This makes sense if you think about it because essentially all of your Internet traffic is travelling through the ISP on its way to and from your computer and devices. This exposes you to all the risks we mentioned at the start of this post.
Top 10 Best Uses for Why Use a VPN?
Here are the top 10 reasons why you should use a VPN:
1) Hiding your IP Address (Masking your Online Presence)
You can hide behind a VPN when engaging in sensitive activities on the web, whether checking topics you want to keep private (health, financial problems, sexuality etc.), arranging a surprise holiday, conducting research on rivals or competitors or any other circumstances where you would rather not leave behind a trail of your IP address “breadcrumbs”.
2) Preventing Online Tracking & Profiling
A VPN can stop third parties from detecting your online presence, tracking your activities and profiling you. When many hundreds or thousands of other VPN customers are sharing the same IP addresses with you, this “confuses” Internet profiling firms and hides your activities from online detection, monitoring and tracking.
If you don't think online tracking and profiling is a big deal, take these online privacy checks to see just how easily you and your activities can be followed across the Internet.
3) Wi-Fi Hotspot Security
A VPN can protect your passwords, banking data and other sensitive information from eavesdroppers and criminals at airports, cafes and anywhere else you use open or public wireless (Wi-Fi) Internet hotspots.
4) Unlimited Online Streaming
A VPN lets you watch the online TV shows, movies and live webcasts anywhere and anytime you want. This is because a VPN lets you choose (and change) the geographic locations of your Internet connection.
This means you can use a VPN to dissolve national boundaries when it comes to watching streaming online content, especially for live sporting events and entertainment. You can also use it to obtain a better and wider selection from premium streaming services such as Netflix, HBO and Hulu.
5) Anonymous Torrent File-sharing
Another reason to why use a VPN is that it can keep your torrent file-sharing private and safe from snooping whether by your ISP or third-parties. Increasingly, torrent file-sharers are coming under scrutiny and their torrenting activities are subject to monitoring and surveillance.
The right VPN can even anonymize your torrent file-sharing and protect you from these invasions of your privacy.
6) Preventing ISP Slow Downs (Bypassing Throttling & Shaping)
ISP's are prone to throttling and shaping (slowing down) their customers' Internet connection and speeds based on your activities. ISP's also issue warnings and in some cases cancel accounts if they don't approve of your online activities.
With a VPN, all of your activities are sent via an encrypted tunnel, which even your own ISP cannot see inside of, protecting you from these potential outcomes and keeping your connection fast and unaltered by your ISP.
7) Circumventing Censorship
A VPN allows you to access sites and content otherwise blocked from your location.
Perhaps you live in a place where the authorities don't believe in free speech and government censors limit your ability to access certain websites. Or perhaps you are travelling and want to access websites or content located “back home” that are blocked from where you are currently staying.
With a VPN you can get around this kind of censorship and access blocked websites and censored content. Choosing the right VPN can even let you enjoy the same kind of censor busting benefits of Tor (the Onion Router).
8) Enjoying Price Bargains and Other “Geo Shifting” Benefits
You would be amazed to learn how much prices and selection for the same goods and services vary by location. This happens because many businesses charge different prices and rates depending on where you live.
With a VPN, you can choose your country location and make it seem like you are based somewhere else. By doing this you can access better prices and rates, and/or a wider selection of online services and goods.
For example, you can use a VPN to obtain preferential prices for airfares, hotels, online games, VOIP providers and software apps.
9) Anonymous Signups and Purchases
If you use the right VPN (one that doesn't log its customers activities) together with a non-traceable email address and payment method such as Bitcoin, gift cards or temporary credit cards, you can pay for goods and services that can't be linked back to you.
- read more about Anonymous Payment Methods
10) An Extra Layer of Protection
A VPN also acts as a virtual firewall that provides you with further protection against attacks from hackers and malware.
Because your traffic is being routed via the VPN, you benefit from the extra security afforded by your VPN provider's superior and often cutting edge hardware equipment and software.
Heard enough? For the small investment in a VPN service you can unleash all of the benefits and protections above. Grab the right VPN service for you.
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You do know what there is other good FREE vpn’s out there. I use ProtonVPN its free and its good. I mean if you use the free one you cant go to lots of places but you can go to the U.S. so that universal because nothing is blocked there. So before you go telling people they have to pay to keep them safe make sure to give them a unlimited free one that they can use, you will benefit a lot. Giving people the free version allows them to try the VPN, plus I am not old enuf to pay for a VPN yet but I also like computers and know about people who want to steel things from me and others. So for me a free version to grate to use because it lets me try it out. It made me want to buy ProtonVPN so it will help people get yours.
Thank you for your comment. We stick by our advice that in general free VPN services should be avoided. Regarding ProtonVPN, the same company’s secure email product, ProtonMail, is well respected. In fact, we recommend them as a free secure email provider. So, perhaps they will turn out to be a trustworthy free VPN. However, it’s still too early to say and we would much prefer to see a court case that proves ProtonVPN’s no-logging claims.
You may be young, but we are impressed that you are already focused on Internet privacy!