VPNs and Your Online Privacy

By Denise | November 19, 2014

As more ISPs and government entities monitor Internet activity, users rely on services such as virtual private networks (VPNs) to protect against monitoring Internet browsing. Several VPN services offer users a way to browse the Internet anonymously and avoid being tracked to their home or office. If you don’t want your information “sniffed” on the Internet, a VPN adds privacy to your browsing.

As more ISPs and government entities monitor Internet activity, users rely on services such as virtual private networks (VPNs) to protect their online privacy. Several VPN services offer users a way to browse the Internet anonymously and avoid being tracked to their home or office. If you don’t want your information “sniffed” on the Internet, a VPN might be for you.

VPNs and your Online Privacy

All traffic can be logged on the Internet. When you access a website, each router hop and connection to the web server is visible to others. If someone is eavesdropping on the connection they could gain access to your data, which would include any information sent along with your IP address.

To avoid these types of activities, a VPN allows you to “tunnel” over the Internet. Tunneling refers to packaging the data, encrypting that data, and sending the data to the intended recipient through the VPN server. Your connection and your data are protected. If someone is eavesdropping on any of these connections they won’t be able to use the data, or to decipher its origin.

Additional Benefits of VPNs

VPNs provide complete, open access to the Internet without the filters imposed by an ISP or work Internet connection. Your work or ISP will not be able to log your activity, and they will not be able to see any website or application you connect to through the VPN service provider.

Additionally many VPN providers offer proxy services. A proxy is a server that acts as a middleman for your Internet access. Each time you access a website, the VPN’s IP address is used and your home or office IP address is shielded. This is great when you want to access sites from work, but you do not want those sites to have logs of your work IP address.

Final thoughts

It may sound as if the use of a VPN would provide foolproof anonymity, but there is a final weak link to consider: the VPN service itself. Such services may be keeping logs of your activities. These activities are likely to be tied to your account, which typically have some type of identifiable information such as billing information or your email address, which can be traced back to you.

Some VPN services keep such logs for only a few days, and other services do not keep logs at all. If logs are only kept for a few days, this is usually not enough time for someone to gain access to the VPN service’s logs to see your information. However, a VPN service that does not log at all is the most secure and anonymous for most users. Each VPN service should tell you what type of logs they use and how long the logs stay active.

If you want some anonymity on the Internet, find a VPN service that not only offers the encryption and proxy services you need, but one that does not keep any logs for a long length of time. The protection will provide you with the ability to keep your connections private even if someone accesses your VPN account.

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