No, VPNs don’t guarantee absolute anonymity – but too many users still think they do
More and more people are using VPN tools every day to improve their online experience. In a few clicks, a VPN application can increase your online confidentiality, unlock foreign streaming content and even ensure more reliable play performance.
As VPNs become general public, Techradar criticisms have regularly tried and tested hundreds of applications to recommend only the best VPN services on the market. Meanwhile, however, we have noticed that some providers could open an operation of what their products really provide.
Last May, we decided to conduct an investigation to have a better idea of knowing if our readers really know what a VPN can do. While most respondents (97%) claim to have an idea of what a VPN is doing, 3 in 10 techradar readers always believe that VPNs make you completely anonymous – but that is not true. Clarifions what a VPN can And can’t TO DO.
Online confidentiality vs anonymity online
Let’s start by distinguishing two concepts that are often confused: privacy and anonymity.
Confidentiality Defines the level of control you have on your data, which means the lack of unauthorized intrusion. Privacy is a human right, which is mainly protected by law.
On the other hand, anonymity is not recognized as a human right. Anonymity refers more broadly to the concealment of your identity by ensuring that it is not connected to your online actions or information.
Although the two concepts are not interchangeable, they certainly overlap sometimes. Indeed, you can have an anonymity confidentiality – think of a private social media account connected to your real name, image and email address – but you cannot have anonymity without a certain level of confidentiality.
What a VPN does
A virtual private network (VPN) is security software that essentially does two separate things: encrypting your Internet connections and usurping your IP address.
When you use a secure and reliable product, VPN encryption should prevent any third -party snake from monitoring your activities online and following you on the web. Encryption is, in fact, technology that blurs the data in an illegible form to keep it private.
A VPN makes you More private online By reducing your digital footprint. It makes you more anonymous Because it also reduces the chances that your identity is linked to your online activities.
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A VPN also makes you more secure on the internet By protecting yourself from pirates and other malicious actors – this is particularly important when you are connected to vulnerable public Wi -Fi.
In addition to encryption, a VPN also usurping your real IP address – which means the number chain which, among other things, defines your location – by releasing your internet traffic via one of its international VPN servers. And being able to hide your real intellectual property comes with additional advantages.
To start, IP usurpation allows you to Get around geo-restaurants imposed on online content. It could be a foreign streaming catalog (such as Netflix and other streaming giants all apply the blocking according to your location) or to avoid the censorship imposed by the government and access to applications, websites otherwise blocked.
IP usurpation is also beneficial for players. A reliable gaming VPN can Protect yourself against DDOS attacks which target your server to disrupt your connection.
What a VPN does not do
Although a VPN can certainly increase your anonymity online, it cannot make you completely anonymous – And there are several reasons why.
As we have seen, a VPN crypt the content of your communications and usurpation of your real IP address. However, he does not encrypt nor masks other metadata linked to your activities.
The metadata refers to all the details that are not the content, including the IP, the type of device, the location parameter, with whom you talked, and when the size of the data packets, and more. With the progress of the analysis of the data fueled by AI, these details speak a lot about you, even without breaking the contents of encryption. The metadata is also increasingly the target of the police.
At the time of writing the editorial staff, only one VPN supplier promises to hide your metadata – NYMVPN, thanks to its innovative Mixnet technology. The supplier of Sweden Mullvad also developed Daita, a new tool to help the fight against metadata monitoring.
It should also be noted that you will not be completely anonymous each time you log into your social media account, that you did it under a VPN connection.
Then, although increasing VPN applications are delivered with malware, tracker and blocking tools of integrated advertisements, you always need a reliable antivirus to maximize your protection against these threats.
To summarize – it’s true, a VPN cannot make you completely anonymous online.
What it can do, however, helps you take control of the data you share online and increase your global internet experience.
Whether you travel abroad, whether you are a passionate streamer, a player or you are just looking to be more private online, a VPN is an easy -to -use versatile tool that lends itself to many different uses.
Although I suggest subscribing to a premium service to have access to a complete power station, if you are looking for a secure gift, I strongly recommend checking our guide on the best free VPN applications on the market.
We test and examine the VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1 and 1 Access a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of this service). 2 Protect your online safety and strengthen your confidentiality online abroad. We do not support or tolerate the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. The consumption of hacked content that is paid is neither approved nor approved by the future publication.
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