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How A VPN Can Protect Your Digital Privacy

VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network” – a term that very nearly defines itself. It allows the average user to access the internet freely while shielding the contents of their browsing, their identity, and their location from most normal means of detection.

How Does A VPN Work?

The easiest way to explain what a VPN does is to get a bit metaphorical and use a simplified physical description for what is, in reality, an array of digital processes. It’s what Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska was trying to do way back in 2006 when he described the internet as a “series of tubes” (which were at that time apparently getting way too filled up with messages). He was roundly mocked by those better informed and substantially hipper than himself – which was most people.

Hopefully, this metaphor will prove slightly more successful.

Faith Based Events

A VPN creates a virtual “tunnel” between the user and the VPN provider and between the provider and the site or user at the other end. It’s as if there were a secured, exclusive physical pathway between the various sites, even though of course there’s not. This figurative tunnel uses the same physical connections as everything else out there;  no one shows up in coveralls with a toolbox to connect anything to the side of the house.

Additionally, the information traveling through this virtual “tunnel” is encrypted, so that even if an unintended party somehow managed to access it, all they’d be able to see is gibberish. It wouldn’t mean anything to them and would thus be useless. Anyone looking for the IP address associated with VPN-protected information would at best find the IP address of the VPN provider – who probably doesn’t mind.

When the information arrives, it leaves the “tunnel” and is unencrypted for its intended audience and no one else. VPN providers also store the minimum amount of information allowed by applicable laws and required for practical functionality, meaning your private transactions aren’t lying around on a hard drive somewhere waiting to be hacked years later.

Why Would Someone Want to Use a VPN?

1. Online Security

This one is fundamental, and something too many users simply don’t seriously consider until problems arise. Whether at home on a personal network or sitting at the sandwich shop hoping ‘SlicesConnectFree’ is what it says it is, a VPN keeps personal information as secure as anything can be on the wonderful world wide web.

While ideally most users would access their medical records and do their online shopping in less public settings, it’s nice to have such a substantial layer of protection should they choose to tackle such tasks while sipping overpriced lattes.

2. Masking Location

For someone residing outside of the United States, using a USA VPN with US IP address allows access to streaming services or other websites as if they were in the states. The reverse is true as well. Many sites offer different access or distinct content based on one’s location. A VPN also hides the user’s IP (Internet Protocol) address – that long series of numbers that uniquely identifies a specific device to the rest of cyberspace and allows its physical location to be determined.

Lest it sounds as if VPNs are primarily intended to circumvent user agreements or local laws, there are numerous legitimate situations in which users have paid for a service they wish to utilize (i.e., the streaming service they use at home) or wish to access information (i.e., they have a medical condition involving particular body parts) but can’t because of someone’s well-intentioned filter.

3. Protecting Your Information

A good VPN makes it far more difficult for third parties to collect information about users for marketing or for sale to fourth, fifth, or sixth parties and whatever nefarious purposes they have in mind. That doesn’t mean that Facebook or Google doesn’t still know who’s who when logged in and active, but VPNs prevent most nefarious snooping from interested parties you haven’t specifically agreed to share such things with.

What a VPN Doesn’t Do

At the risk of being blunt, no VPN can protect you from your own reckless behavior. If someone insists on sending that “Nigerian Prince” their banking information, sharing their passwords with that “representative” from Twitter, or otherwise revealing themselves and their private affairs online, there’s little a VPN or any other form of internet security can do.

A VPN does not prevent companies from using cookies to track your visits to their site. It’s not difficult to address this issue separately, but it’s a different creature. And sites you’ve willingly logged into and agreed to share certain information with will naturally have access to whatever you’ve agreed to let them have. Again, this is fixable, but not a VPN issue.

In short, while there are minor limitations and few absolute guarantees, a VPN is one of the most practical and powerful ways to retain the wonders of the modern internet while minimizing the headaches and risks of so much connection and potential exposure.


SouthFloridaReporter is an affiliate dealer for VPN vendor SurfShark. You can find their ads on our website. SouthFloridaReporter receives compensation if you purchase any of their products.


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