But, we are lucky enough to take advantage of a VPN service that deals with our privacy loopholes and security threats. Do you know- how does a VPN protect you and what does a VPN hide? From your identity to your IP address, from personal information to browsing history, VPN is such a network that keeps all of these hidden. All of your internet activities, including web searches, browsing history, social media chats, etc., can be tracked through web browser cookies and cached data. Your ISPs, the government, hackers, and other third-party websites and apps have access to your device if not using a VPN. Most people believe using incognito mode will save them from this tracking, but it’s true. Still, your IP address is public. Do you feel safe in this situation? The best thing to ensure safety and sustain privacy is to download and use a VPN. You should enable a VPN during your internet access in any form. A VPN encrypts your internet traffic and hides the real IP. Intruders will only see the spoofed IP address. Who does not want privacy? I am sure everyone wants it. Every person on this earth needs safety and privacy. If you want it, you need to use a VPN (Virtual Private Network). Your location, browser history, and personal details will be encrypted and secured, which are the main advantages of a VPN. A third person can’t access it without deciphering.
How Does A VPN Protect You?
What does a VPN hide? Can VPN traffic be monitored? Does a VPN protect you? Does VPN hide IP address? Will a VPN protect me from my ISP? Will a VPN prevent my ISP from seeing what I download? What does a VPN protect against? How does a VPN protect me? Can your ISP tell if you’re using a VPN? Can you be tracked with a VPN?
You will certainly get the answer to your questions here, and you will come to know what it hides. Coming toward the hidden secrets, let’s understand the things that what do VPNs hide.
1. A VPN Hides Your IP Address
An IP address is a unique address of your computer on the internet, and it allows the computers to send and receive information. It enables a person to track a user’s physical location. An IP address can reveal your physical location, ISP, web browsing history, and users’ personal data like name, address, phone number, and card details. Does a VPN hide your IP address? You can use a VPN to hide your IP address and protect your privacy with a few clicks. Do VPNs change your IP? Yes, VPNs change your IP address. You can appear to be connecting the server through a different country instead of your local country.
2. A VPN Hides Your Geolocation
You are fortunate enough if you are a VPN user. You might be thinking, how, because a VPN hides your geo-location. Your IP address helps you find your location by locating your city, state, or country to which you belong. Does VPN hide from the internet service provider? Through a VPN, no ISP or third party can find out your location. Perhaps, you have ever noticed when Google Maps and websites ask to access your location to give your more accurate information. Most people hit the YES button to share their location without a second thought about what can happen to them. VPNs hide your location, and it is called geo-spoofing. This technology does not allow access to your real location to websites and other apps. This way, you can access geo-restricted content, blacklisted websites, and VoIP services. Don’t forget to read the service terms and conditions and comply with the government rules and regulations. Some content can be possible to access through a VPN, but the government does not allow access to it even with a VPN. Different countries have different laws.
3. A VPN hides Your Internet Traffic
You can encrypt your internet traffic with a VPN. No doubt, paid VPNs are better than free ones. Technology brought different encryptions for untampered internet access. How does a VPN protect you? A VPN encrypts your internet traffic through a secure virtual tunnel. An algorithm is used to cipher human-readable data to an unreadable format. This ciphered information can only be deciphered with the right decryption key.
It means hackers, ISPs, government agencies, and advertisers don’t know what you do on the internet. They can’t log any data in human-readable form if you are using a VPN. AES-256 is considered the best encryption among other VPN encryption.
4. A VPN Hides Your Web Browsing History
Every web browser has the option to clear the browsing history and incognito mode. Our major concern is that ISPs and third parties usually keep track of our IP address, all web browsing history, and internet cookies and log all the information. A VPN hides your IP address, browsing history, cookies, and other internet activities like visited websites, searched terms, downloaded content, or clicked links. Is this possible to delete web browsing history or not? The answer to it is a big NO. What happens is that when you remove the history, only your file references are removed and not your data. Your data gets stored on your PC’s hard drive. Does a VPN hide your history? If you are smart enough and use a VPN service, you can certainly hide your search history, and only your IP address of the remote VPN will be visible. So, no person can see your location, internet service provider, or any other personal information.
5. A VPN Hides Personally Identifiable Information
A VPN can hide our personal identity, sensitive data, and personal information everything by hiding our IP address. A VPN encrypts your data through which your personally identifiable information remains unrevealed. If you are not using a VPN, then you are posing a great problem yourself. Anything, your bank credentials, card number, passwords, social security number, and everything, can be hacked by cybercriminals. A software bug or secure website can become vulnerable to cyberattack. You need to use the best VPN to protect yourself. It’s totally up to you whether you need your data to be protected and safe or you want yourself to be in great danger and worry every time thinking about your safety.
6. A VPN Hides P2P Traffic or Torrenting
P2P file-sharing networks are not illegal. Uploading and downloading pirated software through torrenting is illegal. Torrent helps users download movies, music, and other data online. These files are shared among users on a server. Your ISP and even government agencies can track your activities, as you all know. Downloading copyright content can lead you to a problem, warning, or hefty fine. If I use a VPN, can my ISP track what I download? You can use a VPN, and ISP won’t track your download through a torrent. Does a VPN hide you from your ISP? A VPN can save and protect you from the ISP and government in tracking your activities and IP address. Keep in mind VPNs do not stop downloading unknown files containing malware. If you install and use these files, they may infect your computer and corrupt your files. You may become a victim of ransomware. But thanks to VPN, at least they don’t share your real IP address online.
7. A VPN Hides Your Social Media Identity
Nowadays, we are socializing over the internet. Researches show some people are spending more time on social media. They are getting disconnected from real life and friends. There are lost in the virtual world. We should always remember two important things-
- Social media platforms log your personal information and all activities. 2. Anonymous browsing and commenting with pseudo-names don’t work. A pseudo-name can’t hide your identity from others. You think you are anonymous but can’t hide your IP address and personal information from website owners or app developers. So, a pseudo name does not help, even if you are using incognito or private mode. Does a VPN protect you from your ISP? You can anonymously post your comments without leaving a footprint. Those websites and apps will log a spoofed IP address only, nothing else. It is hard to track you if you are using a paid VPN. Even if you have freedom of speech, sometimes commenting on social media platforms can become a serious offense. Social media platforms can share your personal information with third parties and government authorities, which means they know your location and track you in a minute. It’s time to use a VPN to protect your information on social media accounts. You may like to read about
How to hack WhatsApp? How to hack a Snapchat account?
8. A VPN Hides Your Online Spending Habits
Every time you purchase online from a website, that e-commerce website can easily get a lot of detail about your lifestyle and spending habits. With the help of a VPN, you can easily create a barrier between your system and that particular website through which your IP address remains hidden. If you want to keep your purchases secret, then you need to use a VPN. It helps to sustain privacy by stopping the websites from following you through advertisements and targeting to increase their sales.
8. A VPN Hides Online Activities on Your Smartphone
In today’s world, we cannot even think of taking a break from social media and mobile phones as we are so used to it and addicted to accessing the internet every day, now and then. We are exposed to online privacy and security risks while surfing the internet on mobile phones, similar to desktop browsing. Your IP address, location, search history, and private information are accessible to intruders. Don’t you like to keep it personal? If you want your data to be protected and your anonymity to be sustained, don’t forget to use a VPN app on your smartphone, either in your home, office, or public network.
9. A VPN Hides Your Activities on Public WiFi
We have already discussed the security risks of a public WiFi network. We use a public network in airports, railway stations, hotels, cafes, and other locations. It’s easy for hackers to steal your personal information if you are on public WiFi. They can get access to your login credentials, social media account, and private conversations. More worsen, they can install malware to hack your phone or laptop. A VPN is the best choice to keep your sensitive information private and safe. It uses algorithms to create a VPN tunnel. When your information passes through, it gets ciphered on public WiFi. No one can decipher it to steal your personal information. Hence, a VPN protects you on public networks.
10. A VPN Hides Your Activities on Office WiFi
Most people use office WiFi without hesitation. They often check their social media updates, listen to music on YouTube, download files, or send emails. Perhaps, you don’t care, but your office network department may log all your activities. They actually monitor how many hours you are wasting in their office. You can use a VPN on your mobile if you want to keep your data private from your office and co-workers.
11. A VPN Hides Unwanted Online Advertisements
We usually see ads on our mobile and desktop screen during internet browsing. These ads are mostly contextual or user-interest-based. A VPN hides unwanted ads for a faster and risk-free internet experience. Most shopping websites and blogs use cookies to get your interest and geo-location so that they can serve you targeted ads. You can use a VPN to control these activities. It will hide your IP address and cipher your data to protect your identity and spending habits from internet marketers. Our online buying habits can reveal our personal life to advertisers. Thus, we should keep our purchases private. You can use a VPN to hide this purchase from advertisers.
12. A VPN Hides Travel Search History
If you are a VPN user, your online travel search history remains hidden. Travel and airline websites can track your IP address. How often you visit travel websites, your data automatically gets recorded in the form of a cookie. These websites download cookies on your computer to set a ticket price for you. Now, you might be wondering what a cookie is. A website cookie is a text file that stores your past travel searches, online profiles, and your home address. When you browse a website, it creates cookies on your computer to record your online activities. Your web browser sent this file to the website server. It helps in tracking the user’s access to the same website. With the help of a cookie, websites can access your previous search history. It is an analytics tool to track website traffic. Users see different interest-based advertisements all because of internet cookies. VPN discards all tracking activities to purchase tickets and other things at the best price.
13. A VPN Hides Your Medical Reports
A VPN serves as a great help in medical diagnosis and health conditions. HIPPA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability) has created certain rules and regulations to keep health information safe and secure for privacy and security. Medical diagnosis, consultation, and procedures between doctors, patients, and medical health facilities operate through private client portals. Healthcare facilities should operate on a secured private network. It is required to comply with HIPPA standards. Encrypted medical information is never revealed to third parties without concern. Both medical professionals and patients safely access medical records through VPN without losing confidentiality. These are the most surprising things that a VPN hides knowingly or unknowingly.
