It will not be a quirky and overly familiar ad, like at the beginning of your favorite podcast (although if any VPN provider is reading, * tip, tip *), but a real breakdown of what a VPN is, why you might use one and our recommendations for long and short term options.
What is a VPN?
In short, a VPN hides from where you surf the Internet. If you live in the United States or Canada and want a website to think you’re in Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, or the United Kingdom, a VPN is a great tool. This makes you much less traceable and therefore makes your data more secure. While we would never recommend it (and I can’t stress it enough), some unscrupulous guys also use VPNs to navigate to geographic blocks of streaming service content like Netflix, Amazon Prime, or … no, actually.
So how does it work? Well, before we get into VPNs, we need to understand what an Internet Protocol (IP) address is. Your IP address is a unique identifier that is linked to all your Internet activity, and just as the post office needs a postal address to deliver a package, a router needs an IP address to send it to. the requested web address.
A VPN, or virtual private network, is a privacy tool that masks your IP address. After installing a VPN, you can choose in which country you want your IP address to appear and continue browsing normally. Most of the time it is recommended to use VPN to protect yourself when using insecure public networks.
Which VPN should I use?
There are free and paid VPNs and which one you choose is up to you. However, nothing is completely free and you should keep in mind that not paying for a VPN will have some drawbacks which may include displaying ads or compromising your data and security. Other VPNs can only offer a limited service that restricts the amount of data you can use and the speed at which you can make it useless for live event streaming, unless you pay for an upgrade. We would be wary of any free VPN that claims to provide unlimited services, as they are usually the riskiest. A list of free VPNs is available on TechRadar.
Another free way to change your location is using the Opera browser. After downloading the browser, it is easy to enable the built-in VPN. Go to “Settings” (or “Preferences” on Mac), choose “Privacy and security”, and then change the free VPN. An icon labeled “VPN” will appear in the browser, from which you can turn the VPN on and off and choose a location.
There are also paid VPNs that usually offer better service. Paid VPNs can cost as little as $ 2 a month and give you more peace of mind about privacy than a free VPN. A list of paid VPNs is back on TechRadar, here. Most paid VPNs also offer a free trial, which would be a good way to try them out temporarily just to see if it’s the right choice for you.
What would we do?
A VPN is a sensible thing to have on your computer or phone all the time, but if you’re only going to use it temporarily, the best thing you can do is probably get a free paid trial. VPN, and then cancel it before you receive billing. NordVPN, Express VPN and SurfShark offer free trials and we’re sure others will too.
So there you have it, a Pinkbike article on how to protect your data while browsing online, just because we are absolutely concerned about your security on the internet.