How to Choose a VPN For Privacy and Security
If you’re worried about all the news stories about surveillance, censorship and malicious websites, then you need a VPN (Virtual Private Network) with solid security and privacy features.
Why You Need a VPN
When you surf the internet all of your data – including your sensitive financial and personal information – is vulnerable to interception and surveillance. Indeed, your IP address – which identifies your specific internet connection’s location is easily visible to others.
When you log in to a VPN all of the data your computer sends and receives online is encrypted for complete security, and your personal IP address is hidden so that you remain totally anonymous online. You can find out exactly how VPN security works here.
What You Should Look For in an Anonymous VPN
So, you really should be using a VPN. But with so many hundreds of VPN services plying their trade online it can be difficult to know which to choose to ensure you’re using the best secure VPN.
Here are some of the key considerations to take into account when deciding which of our recommended VPN security providers to choose:
Choice of Protocols – A VPN protocol is simply the method used to package and encrypt the data traveling between you and the VPN server to which you are connected. Most VPNs offer a handful of different VPN protocols, including, but not limited to OpenVPN, PPTP, L2TP/IPsec and SSTP. All of these offer slightly different combinations of security, speed and compatibility.
Data Logging – While VPNs will keep your data and activities secure and private, your VPN service will generally have access to your connection records, home IP address and whatever details you gave when signing up. If anonymity is your main concern then you will want to choose a VPN service that categorically states that it does not keep your activity logs or session data. This is often referred to as a ‘No-logging’ policy.
Shared IPs – While dedicated IP VPN services have their advantages, if you’re looking for anonymity you will want to choose a VPN service that offers shared IP VPNs. With a shared IP, you will be using the same IP address as hundreds of other users at the same time, which makes it near impossible to single out you or any other user.