5 Practical Uses of a VPN

There are a lot of misconceptions about VPNs. Many people believe that they are only used by scam artists, torrenters and other shady people. Nothing could be further from the truth!

The worldwide market for VPNs is expected to reach $70 billion by 2019. There are plenty of legitimate reasons people are using them.

1.    Protect Online Privacy

Over the last few years, protecting online privacy has become one of the biggest concerns for many people throughout the world. In 2010, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg enraged many people by stating that privacy is no longer a social norm in the age of digital media. Three years later, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden revealed that the United States Department of Defense was spying on citizens around the world.

People are more worried about protecting their privacy than ever before. Fortunately, VPNs can help people protect their online identities. They use encrypted servers to exchange information and use an intermediary network to hide your real IP address.

2.    Access Geo Restricted Content

Geo-blocking is a common problem in many areas. It is often used by oppressive governments as a form of censorship. For example, the Chinese government has banned citizens from accessing foreign media sites and other information the government deems inappropriate.

Geo blocking can also be used for commercial reasons. HBO Now is only contracted to serve viewers in the United States. Netflix serves customers in a variety of countries, but often limits the types of movies some people in some regions are allowed to watch.

You can use a VPN to make it look you are accessing the site from a different region. If you are traveling to Switzerland, you can use a VPN to watch HBO Now by connecting to a server in the United States. You can also use one to access Pirate Bay during a trip to Australia.

3.    More Secure Online Shopping

Ecommerce is transforming the world in many ways. On Cyber Monday this year, American retailers generated nearly $3.5 billion in online sales.

Unfortunately, the rapid growth of online retail has introduced some new security risks. Earlier this year, experts learned of a cyber crime network that stole millions of credit cards.

 "We found in one breach that we linked to FIN6 there were about 20 million cards sold, primarily from the U.S., and the data was selling for approximately $21 a card at the time," said John Miller, director of ThreatScape Cyber Crime in iSIGHT Partners. "So if all the cards were sold for $21 a card, that would have been a return of over $400 million."

Online shoppers need to be on their guard to avoid being scammed. Fortunately, they can keep their credit card information safe by using a VPN.

4.    Securely Access Public WiFi

According to a recent study, 70% of desktop and tablet owners use public WiFi to access the Internet. Unfortunately, many WiFi hotspots are unsecured or have outdated SSL certificates, which means the data can be easily intercepted by malicious hackers. Some hackers also setup their own hotspots specifically to steal data.

Accessing the Internet with a public WiFi connection is very risky –unless you use a reliable VPN. IT security consultant Larry Seltzer claims that VPNs are safer than relying on SSL.

“By now, any sentient IT person knows the perils of open Wi-Fi… But for broader protection, many people use a virtual private network (VPN)… It's a better solution than relying on SSL from websites for a number of reasons: with a VPN, all of the traffic from your device is encrypted, whether the site you are visiting has SSL or not. Even if the Wi-Fi access point to which you are connected is malicious, it can't see the traffic. Any party that is in a position to monitor your traffic can't even see the addresses and URLs of the sites with which you are communicating, something they can do with SSL over open Wi-Fi.”

However, Seltzer still states that VPN users must take a couple precautions when connecting to a public WiFi network. They must connect to the Internet before they can use their VPN. It also takes a moment for their VPN to take over after establishing a connection, so they must wait for it to be activated before using email or exchanging any sensitive information.

5.    Gaming

It isn’t illegal for American citizens to access online gaming sites in other countries. However, it is illegal for those sites to serve them. They setup strict firewalls to block Americans and people in other restricted countries.

Fortunately, you can use a VPN to access them. You aren’t breaking the law yourself, but you are gaining access to a service that you enjoy.