What Is a Virtual Private Network & How Does It Work?

A good VPN hides your IP address and replaces it with an anonymous one, which makes it much harder for websites to identify you.

A VPN also encrypts your web browsing data, meaning your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is unable to see the websites and apps you use.

Without a VPN, your ISP can see all the websites you visit, and will almost certainly log that information.

In some countries, local laws require ISPs to collect and store customers’ internet activity data for long periods of time.

This is the case in the US, UK, Australia, and much of Europe, where governments can then access this information whenever they like.

Often, these countries are also members of international agreements like the Five Eyes Alliance, which are designed to collect mass surveillance data and share it among themselves.

Streaming services like Netflix and Prime Video have different content libraries based on your online location.

These platforms use your IP address to determine your location, and therefore which content to show you.

You can use a VPN to replace your IP address with one in a country of your choice, allowing you to bypass geographic restrictions and unblock ‘hidden’ content on Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and many other content platforms.

Torrenting files without a VPN is risky since your IP address is visible to other peers in the torrent swarm.

Moreover, your ISP can see all the files you’re seeding and downloading. It can then work with content owners and authorities to issue legal notices for copyright infringement.

VPNs protect your identity and activity while torrenting by encrypting your P2P traffic and masking your public IP address.

This prevents your ISP, copyright holders, and other peers in the swarm from seeing what you download or share.

Authoritarian governments block thousands of websites in order to limit their citizens’ access to information.

Our research shows that these intentional internet shutdowns cost the world economy billions every year.

China, for example, uses its infamous “Great Firewall of China” to block popular websites like Google, Facebook, and YouTube.

Citizens (and tourists) in countries affected by internet censorship can use a VPN to bypass website restrictions and access the global internet.

The VPNs that work best in these situations are those with advanced VPN obfuscation (stealth) technology, which evades more sophisticated internet filtering systems by making VPN traffic appear like normal non-VPN data.

While most public WiFi networks are now relatively secure, some risks persist, especially if you connect to a fake WiFi network.

A VPN is a great tool to stay safe on public WiFi. A trustworthy VPN used on public WiFi protects you against a number of threats that still exist.

Since a VPN encrypts all internet data leaving your device, it makes it undecipherable through encryption. If a hacker intercepts your connection, they’ll only see strings of unintelligible letters.

An added benefit is that this will also stop the WiFi owner seeing your web activity.

Some ISPs deliberately slow down your internet connection to avoid network congestion at peak times. Others do it to prevent you from using more data than they like. This is called bandwidth throttling.

ISPs usually choose to throttle your internet connection when you perform bandwidth-heavy activities like downloading (or torrenting) large files, streaming, and online gaming.

VPN encryption stops ISPs from throttling your connection because it prevents them from seeing what you’re doing.

Some online products are cheaper in some countries than others. Online retailers use your IP address location to change the price of goods.

We see this especially with streaming subscription services (e.g. Netflix), and online videogames on platforms like Steam.

Country or state tax rates applied at checkout can also affect the price of a product depending on where you’re connecting from.

Thanks to a VPN, you can quickly change your online location and potentially access cheaper prices.

For security purposes, many office/company networks only allow access to approved IP addresses.

If you have a dynamic home IP address that changes frequently, or you’re often traveling, you’ll constantly have to ask the network administrator to whitelist your new IP address.

Some VPN services offer dedicated VPN IP addresses that are unique to you and no other customer can use.

Dedicated IPs cost extra, but allow you to keep the same IP address wherever you are, and therefore access any web service that uses IP whitelisting.