VPNs provide you with the much-needed online privacy without which you can easily fall prey to hackers and the prying eyes of the government. Cybercrimes are very real and it is our duty to ensure our anonymity online so that we can avoid such mishaps. Virtual private networks hide our identity by concealing our location and manipulating our IP address.
However, VPNs themselves aren’t always trustworthy. There are many different VPN companies out there and some of them value their own monetary gains more than your privacy. Here is some insight into how you can avoid unreliable VPN networks and choose the one that works best for you. In order to understand if VPNs can be a reliable security protocol, it must be understood how a VPN works.
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How Secure is a VPN?
You can know how trustworthy a VPN is by considering how clearly they state their privacy policies. If a VPN is just working with the aim to protect your privacy online, they would have stated their terms and conditions regarding privacy very clearly.
A trustworthy VPN would also be efficient in maintaining the service quality as promised and so will timely fix all leaks and issues. Moreover, a reliable VPN will never track your online activity or share that data with other companies.
If we were not using a VPN our Internet connection would work in the following procedure. After we insert a web address in the search bar of the browser our Internet service provider (ISP) taps this web address into the router attached in close proximity to the devices. The router then passes on your connection to that website and your ISP provides your devices with an IP address to surf that website. This IP address is precisely the information used by prying eyes with ulterior motives to track your online traffic and find out your location as well.
A VPN connects your device to a different server and so the IP address that appears when someone tries to log the data of your online activity is totally different. This way your own IP address and location are concealed and you browse online anonymously. VPNs also encrypt your searches which means that they distort the search queries making them incomprehensible to others.
The InternetPrivacy Solution: VirtualPrivate Networks
With the alarming rise in cybercrimes and chatter about government surveillance over the population’s online activity many people have shown genuine concern for their online privacy and rightfully so. Typically, people opt for VPNs for cyber security but the services of VPN exceed this limitation. Many people use VPNs to access geo-blocked websites.
In many countries, it is not illegal for ISPs to keep logs of your online activity and until that changes, browsing anonymously is the only safe choice.
What Factors Create a Safe VPN?
VPN companies have the same profit and loss mindset as all other businesses. How is this relevant? Well, if a VPN is free of cost, it should raise suspicion because if you aren’t paying them then who is? Many VPNs that are free use this tactic to lure in more clients and then they don’t shy away from sharing their data with advertising agencies and governments for some economic benefit.
It is wise to either opt for a paid VPN you will see it as money well spent later on or at least a very thorough background check of the free VPN service you decide to opt for. Trustworthy VPNs also offer a few extra perks which you should look for while picking out the VPN for you.
No IP address leaks
The main job of a VPN is to conceal your IP address, it is plausible that sometimes security breaches lead to your IP address being leaked despite the VPN service but a good VPN would ensure that the leak is fixed timely and also do everything to prevent such a mishap from happening in the first place.
No-logs
A VPN that has no plans of selling your data to other organizations has no business keeping track of your online activity, for example, your search history or downloads. VPNs that have a no-log policy are more trustworthy than VPN providers that keep logs of their client’s online data.
Prior to committing to a VPN provider check for the No-log feature in their terms and conditions if you see that they keep logs then you should really consider opting for a different VPN service.
Kill switch
In the event of your VPN connection falling through while browsing, a good VPN would automatically exit from websites and close all activities that you were doing online on a VPN. This is a necessary measure and should be checked for in all VPNs because once the VPN is disconnected your identity, location, and IP address are revealed. If the kill switch works your activity is still concealed when the connection falters.
Multi-Factor authentication
Verifying your identity while signing in to a VPN is crucial, it’s even better if VPNs ask for two-step verification or even multi factor authentication, it is an added security measure, and since it involves sending a code through email or text message you can know right away if someone unwanted is trying to access your VPN server. This also decreases the chances of being hacked.
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