Maintaining privacy while navigating the online world can feel like carefully traversing a tightrope. Striking a balance between revealing enough information for relevant results and remaining secure is crucial. A virtual private network (VPN) safeguards your information and conceals your digital footprints. However, it’s important to note that a VPN doesn’t make you completely invisible. We look into what a VPN can hide and what it can’t.
Table of Contents
What Does a VPN Hide?
#1 IP address
IP addresses, unique identifiers assigned to internet-connected or network-connected devices, facilitate communication between devices. However, they can pose privacy and security risks. Hackers can exploit your IP address to expose sensitive or personal data.
Does a VPN hide your IP? Thankfully, VPNs can hide your real IP address by routing internet traffic through a different device. Some VPN apps offer an additional IP address protection feature. VeePN has this, it’s called IP leak protection. If the VeePN server becomes unavailable or the device crashes, the connection will be interrupted. The function serves as a guarantee that the IP address will not be disclosed.
#2 Search History
When connected to the internet without a VPN, your internet service provider (ISP) has visibility into every website you visit and every search you make. This occurs because your search requests traverse through the ISP’s servers before reaching the intended destination. Consequently, ISPs can record this information and potentially sell it to advertisers or other third parties.
However, when utilizing a VPN, your internet traffic becomes encrypted and routed through the VPN server. As a result, your ISP loses the ability to monitor your online activities, only being able to detect your connection to the VPN. This effectively conceals your browsing history from your ISP.
#3 Geo-Location
Using a VPN can effectively hide your actual physical location by connecting to a server in another country. If you’re in Austria but connect to a US VPN server, outsiders will mistakenly perceive your location as being in the US.
Masking your location also offers the following advantages:
#4 Personal Data
Your information is at risk from data breaches, malware attacks, and other online threats. These threats target sensitive details like login information, credit card details, and email conversations.
To protect all this personal information efficiently, a VPN is an ideal tool. It utilizes a secure tunneling process and impenetrable 256-AES-bit encryption to enhance security. Even the fastest and smartest computers will struggle to crack this encryption.
#5 Downloads
When downloading files via a torrent, all peers within the same torrent swarm can see your IP address, leaving you vulnerable to potential security risks and legal consequences. Using a VPN during torrenting masks your real IP address with one from the VPN server, making it extremely challenging for anyone to discover your actual IP address and location.
Furthermore, a VPN encrypts your data, ensuring that your ISP or any potential eavesdroppers cannot read or log your download and upload activity. It is important to note that while a VPN can provide anonymity and security when torrenting, it does not make downloading copyrighted content legal.
What Doesn’t a VPN Hide?
#1 Online Identity
Using a VPN can help conceal your search history from your ISP, enhancing privacy. However, it does not guarantee complete online anonymity. Online platforms can still track your activity if you are signed in to your accounts. For example, Google can record your search history even if you use a VPN while signing in. Social media platforms also have the ability to track your actions on their sites.
To enhance privacy, it is recommended to combine various privacy tools and practices. These include using privacy-focused search engines, browsing in private or incognito mode, and regularly clearing cookies.
#2 Personality on Social Networks
VPNs do not provide anonymity for your activities on social media platforms or any other online platforms where you willingly disclose personal information. Remember that any information you post or share while logged into your account can be seen by the platform and anyone who views your profile. No paid or free extension VPN will help you hide your identity if you use your account. You have already transferred your data to him; your IP address or data encryption is not important here.
#3 Cookies
VPNs offer a level of privacy by encrypting your data and masking your IP address. However, they do not inherently shield against cookies.
Cookies track your activities, remember preferences, and may be used for targeted advertising. A VPN encrypts data and changes your IP address, hiding activities from your ISP and potential eavesdroppers. However, cookies are managed by your web browser, separate from the VPN’s network connection. Therefore, VPNs cannot safeguard against cookies.
Conclusion
VPN hides most information from third parties. What it cannot hide are cookies (they are stored separately), data in your accounts (you disclose them yourself), and online identity. However, when combined with other security measures, you can protect even this data. They just lie outside the scope of the VPN.
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