Virtual Private Networks have been gaining popularity for a number of years.
This is partially due to increasing public knowledge of governmental surveillance programs and partially because of the need to feel safe from criminal hackers. More than ever, our existence takes place over the internet. We are a more networked society than at any other point in human history, but this communicative singularity comes with some startling security risks. Virtual Private Networks claim to be able to give internet users a degree of privacy that was thought to have been taken away from them as the internet grew up during the war on terror and states began to take action to monitor the World Wide Web. What, then, is a Virtual Private Network?
IP Addresses And Privacy
The main function of a VPN is to hide a user’s IP address. An IP address – short for Internet Protocol address – is a unique string of digits that can be used to identify a computer. It is unique for each computer and allows for the sending and receiving of information. It can be used to physically locate a computer as it sends and receives this information. Preventing a user’s physical location from being tracked is one of the key tasks of any VPN. A VPN service provider usually owns or rents servers in a number of regions. These servers each have their own IP addresses. When a VPN is turned on, information will be sent back and forth via these remote servers’ IP instead of the VPN user’s one. This effectively replaces their IP address with an address in a location of their choice. Check out surfshark.com for more information of what a VPN exactly is, how it hides your IP and why it’s important. Surfshark is one of the many companies that offer VPN services using servers dotted all around the world.
Data Encryption
Crafty hackers and government agencies can still harvest data regardless of the IP being used to send and receive data. In order to really throw them off, data needs to be fully encrypted. Encryption is a process that involves the scrambling of information before it is sent. It can then only be unscrambled when the correct decryption key is either typed in or provided automatically by a program.
A good VPN encrypts data and then sends it to and from remote servers via secure ‘data tunnels’. Encryption is an incredibly important part of online privacy. Of course, it is not completely foolproof. If an agency really wants to target an individual, they can try and decrypt their data. Unless you are doing something very, very bad it is unlikely that any agency would dedicate resources to decrypting the data of an individual.
Who Are VPNs Useful For?
VPN services are useful to lots of people, but are especially crucial for political activists, peer-to-peer uploaders and people who want to watch streamed content that is not available in their own country. It is likely that VPNs will become standard in the future as awareness of surveillance and hacking increases.
