A VPN is an easy way to improve your privacy online. We break down what they do, how to pick the best fit for you, and how to get started with a VPN.
Not long ago, virtual private networks (VPNs) were the exclusive realm of businesses and a certain type of privacy-minded person. Today, there’s a thriving market of commercial VPNs with slick apps at affordable prices that require no network know-how to use. Picking your way through the marketing hype (and there’s a lot of it) is difficult, and once you find a VPN that you like, how do you even use it? We’ll help you understand what VPNs do best, how to pick a good one, and how to use it to improve your online privacy. Do You Need a VPN? VPNs are easier to use than ever, while explaining what they’re useful for is not. But in 2021, the Federal Trade Commission issued a report outlining just how much internet service providers (ISPs) know about their customers (you). One particular paragraph in the report makes a powerful case for VPNs: This means a single ISP has the ability to track the websites their subscribers visit, the shows they watch, the apps they use, their energy habits, their realtime whereabouts and historical location, the search queries they make, and the contents of their email communications. […] They use this data to create advertising segments, including segments that reveal sensitive data such as race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, financial status, health status, and political beliefs. This is what VPNs excel at: keeping people with privileged access from seeing your data. But, as with any tool, it’s important to understand the limitations of a VPN. After all, you wouldn’t expect a Kevlar vest to save you from falling out of an airplane or a parachute to stop a bullet. When you switch on a VPN, your traffic is routed through an encrypted tunnel to a server operated by the VPN company. That means that your ISP won’t be able to see your web traffic. Even the operators of the network you’re using won’t be able to peek into your activities. Because your traffic appears to come from the VPN’s server, your real IP address is effectively hidden. This makes it harder to track you as you move across the web and, because IP addresses are distributed geographically, hides your true location. This can come in handy if you want to spoof your location. By connecting to a VPN server in London, you can make it appear as if you were accessing the internet from the UK. What a VPN won’t do is completely anonymize your traffic. For that, you’ll want to use the free Tor anonymization network. Instead of just piping your data through a single intermediary (such as a VPN server) Tor bounces your data through several different volunteer computers. This makes it much harder for someone trying to track your activities to see what you’re up to, but note that it will slow down your web traffic in the process. Additionally, websites can track your movements through cookies, browser fingerprinting, online trackers, and other tricky tools. Installing an ad-blocker, such as Privacy Badger, and engaging all the privacy tools found in most modern browsers can make it much harder for advertisers to follow your movements across the web. Finally, just because you have a VPN doesn’t mean you can forget about the security basics. While some VPN services claim they can block malware, we recommend standalone antivirus software for your computer, because these tools are designed specifically to protect your computer from malicious software. You can protect against password breaches by using a password manager, because recycled passwords are a major point of failure. We’re particularly fond of the Keeper and Zoho Vault password managers. While you’re locking down your passwords, be sure to switch on multi-factor authentication wherever possible. How to Choose a VPN When we review VPNs, there are a few key metrics we consider. For one, a VPN service should allow you to connect at least five devices simultaneously. The best services now easily surpass this requirement, and some now place no limit on simultaneous connections. Another is whether the VPN service allows BitTorrent or P2P traffic on its servers—if you’re planning to use either of these technologies. Nearly VPNs allow them on at least some of their servers, but you don’t want to run afoul of the company to which you’re paying a monthly fee. Speaking of fees, the average cost I’ve seen across the VPN services PCMag has reviewed is $9.96 for a monthly subscription. A VPN service that is charging more per month isn’t necessarily ripping you off, but it should offer something significant, such as a great interface or lots of server locations to sweeten the deal. You can usually get a discount if you buy longer-term contracts. The average price of an annual VPN subscription I’ve seen across 38 products is $68.49. However, we recommend avoiding long commitments until you’re certain that you’re happy with the service. Start instead with a short-term subscription or, better yet, a free subscription, so you can test a VPN in your own home. It’s also useful to know where a VPN company is based. Keep in mind that this isn’t always the physical location of the business, but a legal distinction that outlines what jurisdiction the company operates under. The local laws may (or may not) mean that these companies are not beholden to data retention laws, which would require them to hold on to certain information that could be obtained by law enforcement.
