The 10 Best VPN For Privacy & Security In 2023

Privacy on the internet used to be a given. However with the end of Net Neutrality the increase in sophisticated hackers who are compromising the data and customer information of larger corporations third party sources mining personal data and a rise in censorship in many countries many net users are seeking ways to protect their browsing history, location and personal information from prying eyes.

The answer? A Virtual Private Network (VPN) a service that creates a secure, shielded connection between you and any internet site. A good VPN can protect you at home and on the go ensuring your privacy. How does a VPN protect privacy? We will walk you through the whole process and give you tips on selecting the right VPN for privacy service.

Table Of Contents

• Why Should I Install A VPN?
• How Does A VPN Work?
• How A VPN Encrypts Data
• How A VPN Disguises Your IP Address
• Where Do I Get A VPN?
• Why Should I Choose A Paid Subscription VPN Service?
• Can I Use A VPN On My Mobile Device?
• Can A VPN Be Compromised?
• What Are Common VPN Privacy Policies?

Another reason to use a VPN for privacy to connect to a website instead of your regular ISP is the end of net neutrality. Net neutrality ensured that all internet sites were equally accessible, free, and without artificial “throttling” that slows down access. Now that Net Neutrality has been repealed, ISPs can select which sites to allow full ease of access and which sites are difficult to load or access for users.

Internet providers may also choose to make certain sites accessible for a subscription or may opt to allow larger sites to be free, while either throttling the connectivity to smaller competitors or making these smaller competitors paid sites. You can guess who benefits from that. Revoking net neutrality is essentially economic censorship, but accessing websites through Virtual Private Network servers bypasses restrictions that your ISP puts in place.

VPN for privacy also protects you from internet censorship and allows users to access sites blocked by their government. On a more fun note, using a VPN to access certain streaming services allows subscribers to gain access to the full catalog of shows, movies, music, and videos, by masking their location. Want to see all 5 seasons of Community if you aren’t a UK resident? Get a VPN for privacy.

VPNs also allow BitTorrent, or P2P file sharing, allowing users to work around internet bottlenecks stemming from servers hosting popular media files. The secure Virtual Private Network connection allows each client’s computer quick, easy access to the other, making it cheaper and faster to download larger files.

How Does A VPN Work?

How A VPN Encrypts Data

Encryption is the method by which a VPN for privacy “hides” the data. Think of encryption as a virtually unbreakable code that scrambles your information from one place to another. Only the right decoding key can unscramble the information and thus allow you access to a website through the Virtual Private Network. With a secure, private “tunnel,” there are decryption keys on both ends, unscrambling the data and allowing the uploads and downloads from you, the client, to the website host. These decoders are the “keys” but a Virtual Private Network needs more than that to encrypt and decrypt your data.

Here’s where we’re getting a little technical. VPNs can use one of two protocols to package and transport your data, generic routing encapsulation (GRE), or internet protocol security protocol (IPSec). IPSec is fairly common and creates both the secure tunnel and the data package itself. These two sub-protocols work together to transfer your data securely.

Remote access VPNs use the same connection protocols that regular internet connections do, Point-to-point Protocol (PPP). For a Virtual Private Network, there are three different types of protocols based on the PPP connectivity. These are L2F (Layer 2 Forwarding), which can use any programming supported by a PPP connection; PPTP (Point-to-point Tunneling Protocol), which supports any type of PPP connection plus 40- and 128-bit encryptions; and L2TP (Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol), which combines the first two and is capable of fully supporting IPSec execution.

How A VPN Disguises Your IP Address

Moreover, Virtual Private Network servers don’t restrict the number of users that an IP address can have. Instead of one user and one IP address, hundreds or thousands of users can “share” the IP address of each VPN server. When you connect from a VPN for privacy, you “borrow” the IP address and location of the server you select to connect from, and that’s what is displayed to the website you access (and anyone else who’s looking).

Essentially, when you connect through a VPN for privacy, you “leave” the server of your regular internet service provider and instead use the servers of the Virtual Private Network provider. To anyone from a website host to a hacker to your government and even a streaming website validating that you’re accessing it from a certain country, your IP address will appear to be the one associated with the Virtual Private Network server you chose.

If you know you want to access a website or media service that’s only available in certain countries, or if you want to watch content only available in certain countries (Netflix, for example, has different licensing agreements with different countries, and so has a different catalog depending on which country you’re in), then when you log into your VPN for privacy, select a server based in the country you want to be from.

Where Do I Get A VPN?

Subscribing to a VPN for privacy service is simple. They’re available online – simply go to the company website and sign up for the service you want. Then, sign up for the plan that suits your needs best, download the manual to install the VPN for privacy on your devices, and follow the instructions from there to select a username, and password, and pick a server you want to connect through. When you connect to the internet, you have options to always connect through a Virtual Private Network (recommended if you’re putting a VPN for privacy on your mobile devices – hotspots are notorious for being hackable) or just straight through your internet service provider (ISP).

Some VPNs for privacy are free, and, while free is great, their services may be limited. Many free VPNs limited the number of devices you can add to your account and the amount of bandwidth per day or per month you can use. For people who want a Virtual Private Network for streaming media, limited bandwidth may be an issue.

Paid subscription VPNs are accessible online, too. Either pay upfront or leave a credit card on file for a recurring subscription. You won’t need a separate device for regular VPN for privacy use, although there are routers sold with VPNs pre-installed.

Why Should I Choose A Paid Subscription VPN Service?

There’s an old adage that you can’t get something for anything, which is why many users opt for a paid VPN for a privacy account. With a paid Virtual Private Network, especially one of the most highly rated like NordVPN or ExpressVPN, you’ll get top-of-the-line service and protection, as well as access to hundreds of servers. Plus, paid Virtual Private Network services make their money off subscribers – they don’t have to rely on other income streams to stay in business. Free VPN for privacy services still have operating costs, and they need to make money somehow, usually through selling ads or selling data.

Larger VPN for privacy companies have more money to purchase new servers as some become compromised (remember those streaming services have a constant game of cat-and-mouse with VPN for privacy servers) as well as the resources to get servers back online once their Virtual Private Network IP address has been exposed. Plus, larger VPN for privacy companies with more revenue also have the wherewithal to hire the best programmers, ensuring that their services stay one step ahead of hackers and sites that block VPN for privacy access.

Can I Use A VPN On My Mobile Device?

Can A VPN Be Compromised?

Well, yes. Virtual Private Network servers are as vulnerable as others to hackers. In fact, the service Hotspot Shield had a bug in its protocols a few years back that allowed users’ locations and WiFi network names to be leaked. Using that data, it could be pretty easy to determine who was using the service. However, Hotspot Shield isn’t the only one wavers have been compromised. NordVPN, TorGuard, and VikingVirtual Private Network servers all experienced breaches in 2018, although no data was compromised. NordVPN, in a transparent announcement, did indicate that their encryption keys were exposed, but the amount of time it would take to break 256-bit encryption reaches hundreds of years.

Beyond third parties having access to a Virtual Private Network server, the VPN for privacy service itself may also compromise your data. Some VPNs, despite their “no log” policies for your browsing history, may log other things. These can include personal user data, such as their email address and username, personal mobile ID, and their real IP address (although this is deleted after logging off each session). These terms come from the privacy policy of a paid VPN for privacy service. And, not to pick on Hotspot Shield VPN again, but their free service also tracks data about the user’s city location, the MAC address, and the wireless carrier.

It’s also important to note that while the private connection of a Virtual Private Network won’t be compromised, this doesn’t mean that the websites that you connect to aren’t phishing or fraudulent. While a VPN for privacy typically protects a user against attacks wherein a sketchy DNS protocol would redirect you to a fraudulent or phishing site, a VPN for privacy won’t protect you against a carefully constructed site that resembles the real thing. Look for the “s” after the HTTP in a web address, especially if you’re entering personal or financial data, and use your best judgment online.

Also, you may note that some Virtual Private Network services list malware protection as part of their services. Many of these services do have a list of “blacklisted’ sites that are known for viruses and malware, but a Virtual Private Network isn’t as effective against these types of computer bugs as reputable anti-virus software. Make sure that your VPN for privacy and antivirus software work well together, otherwise you may experience a slow connection.

What Are Common VPN Privacy Policies?

When registering for a service it is crucial to study the privacy rules of each VPN company as they vary. Indeed if you are unhappy not receiving your monthly dollars refunded may be the least of your concerns. You might discover that your personal information has been disclosed to third parties or in some countries your government as well if you did not carefully read the policies before signing up for the service.

All VPNs are required by law to state their privacy policies including what information they collect and how that information is used.

That being said there are a few common threads among VPN privacy policies:

• No Log policy – this means that the Virtual Private Network does not log your browsing history. While VPN providers do not keep logs while you are connected to a website through a VPN the service does have to know where you are going in order to connect you. Once you are connected however a VPN would not keep a record of where you are
• The Virtual Private Network will have a timestamp of when you log on and when you log off. Also the IP address you use to connect to the VPN and the IP addresses of the Virtual Private Network server you select is stored
• The amount of data you upload and download – usually measured in bytes used – is logged
• The username and email that you used to enroll in the subscription as well as payment information are often kept on file. Some Virtual Private Network providers state this is in order to process billing or in cases of a refund request. (It is important to note here that many VPNs take Bitcoin instead of credit cards and some may even take gift cards for payment)
• DNS (Domain Name System) leak protection. A good Virtual Private Network should protect the DNS (the domain name and corresponding unique number) of any website you visit through a VPN for privacy from your internet service provider
• Killswitch provisions. A killswitch (also called a network lock) automatically disconnects you from the internet if your Virtual Private Network server is compromised or goes offline. Some VPNs also have manual kill switches that a subscriber can use for a single-click disconnect
• For Virtual Private Network providers that have a cap on daily or monthly bandwidth the amount of bandwidth you use may be logged in order to ensure that you are not going over. This is most common among free Virtual Private Network services as paid VPNs typically have unlimited bandwidth

Protect Your Internet Privacy With A VPN Today

Internet privacy without a VPN is a thing of the past. Choosing the right VPN for your needs whether you simply have a desktop at home or you need full coverage access on your mobile devices too means evaluating the pros and cons of each service. With a solid understanding of how VPNs ensure privacy however you are in a better position to accurately evaluate whichever service you need. At VPN.com we are here to help. Our expertise and dedication to the privacy of our clients mean that we’re here to work for you.