or Mac, you will be completely protected.<\/span><\/p>\nThe Technology Behind VPNs<\/b><\/h3>\n When you have a VPN on your device, web traffic is sent to an encrypted tunnel. Most VPN services use symmetric AES-256 encryption for tunneling. In turn, users’ online activities and their actual IP addresses are hidden from prying eyes. Your encrypted data ricochets between the device and the internet ensuring invisibility.\u00a0 Governments and malicious hackers will be out of luck!<\/span><\/p>\nVPN History<\/b><\/h3>\n PPTP or Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol was developed by Microsoft and debuted in 1996. Originally, it was only available to large enterprises for internal use. Consumer VPNs started to appear during the second half of the 2000s.<\/span><\/p>\nToday, the market for VPN services is extremely competitive and continues to expand. New services are offering a higher quality of services with additional perks including increased data transfer rates when downloading and streaming.<\/span><\/p>\nIn 2017, one-quarter of users chose VPN. By the end of 2021, every third user was protecting their online activities through a VPN. According to Statista, the VPN market grew by $4.5 billion in 2021 in comparison to $2.5 billion in the previous years. Statista is a German company that specializes in market and consumer data.<\/span><\/p>\nStatistics<\/b><\/h3>\n Due to COVID-19, lockdowns, social distancing, and teleworking rose internationally. Many people spent time online using a VPN service. More than half of all customers are using a VPN connection at least once a month. Approximately 42% of these users are male and 37 years of age or younger. According to GlobalWebIndex, 25% of VPN users are between 38 and 55 while only 16% are over 55.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMost people using VPNs said they want to protect their privacy. Surprisingly, secure access to a work network only came in at fifth place on the following list of reasons for using a VPN:<\/span><\/p>\n\nProtecting privacy when using public Wi-Fi – 51%.<\/span><\/li>\nAnonymous web surfing – 44%.<\/span><\/li>\nSecure communication – 37%.<\/span><\/li>\nAccessing blocked sites – 23%.<\/span><\/li>\nAccessing work resources – 22%.<\/span><\/li>\nHiding activities online from the government – 21%.<\/span><\/li>\nAccessing censored content – 18%.<\/span><\/li>\nDiscounts when shopping online – 18%.<\/span><\/li>\nAccessing Tor browser – 14%.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nActive people using VPN on their mobile devices came in at 64% while 14% use their desktop computers.<\/span><\/p>\nExpressVPN has the highest server counts in the entire world. Today, there are more than 3,000 servers in 94 countries. Next in line is CyberGhost with servers in 91 countries and PIA (Private Internet Access) in 78 countries.<\/span><\/p>\nAccording to Statista, due to the pandemic, Italy showed a spike growth of 160% with the U.S coming in at second place with 124%. Countries that were hit the hardest by the pandemic showed sharp increases in VPN use in 2021 over 2020. Google searches for VPN doubled in 2020 when the first major wave of COVID-19 struck.<\/span><\/p>\nOther stats show that 29% of companies used a VPN for the first time during the pandemic. Companies were trying to outdo each other by getting a VPN because almost a third of these companies discovered they were in a strange environment.<\/span><\/p>\nIPVanish was considered one of the most reliable VPN services but misled users by claiming to be committed to a strict no-log policy. In 2016, under a court order, they put together logs of perpetrators’ online activities.\u00a0 Further investigation showed they kept a record of users’ activities which undermines privacy.<\/span><\/p>\nMany free VPN services were free VPN but ended up being sold online because of scandals. It showed that even the most reliable services should not be trusted completely.<\/span><\/p>\nThe competition between VPN services will continue to rise after reports revealed that by 2027, the market will be worth over $92 billion!<\/span><\/p>\nReasons For Using VPN Connection<\/b><\/h3>\n Wi-Fi Security –<\/span><\/p>\nWhen you are online in public places, you can become a victim of cyber-attacks. Unwanted people can track your activities but VPN will encrypt all web traffic.<\/span><\/p>\nPrivacy –\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nISPs can see all users on local networks and collect data about them. A VPN connection will increase your privacy through encryption. This is especially true with SEO services. Your competitors will go out of their way to keep you down. Therefore, you must hide your movements when visiting their sites.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSecure Online Payments –<\/span><\/p>\nThink about it, if you don’t have a VPN, your money transfers, and personal information such as your name and account number can be intercepted by hackers. They can grab your identity and your money. A VPN will keep your activities secure and safe.<\/span><\/p>\nAccess Content Anywhere –<\/span><\/p>\nA VPN replaces the external IP address with the IP address of a chosen server, you can get around most location-based restrictions.<\/span><\/p>\nRemote Work Security –<\/span><\/p>\nVPN traffic is encrypted, making data inaccessible to third parties.<\/span><\/p>\nSingle & Clear Interface –<\/span><\/p>\nDevelopers make interfaces more intuitive meaning a user without technical skills can increase their online privacy quite easily whether you run on <\/span>VPN for windows<\/span><\/a> or Mac.<\/span><\/p>\nCross-Platform –<\/span><\/p>\nA good VPN service offers apps for the latest devices and platforms. You can have an account with the same features as a desktop, mobile, or other devices.<\/span><\/p>\nChoosing A VPN<\/b><\/h3>\n Some services offer a free trial so you can check them out before making a decision. Also, you can see what VPN services they provide:<\/span><\/p>\n\nServer locations<\/span><\/li>\nSpeed<\/span><\/li>\nDNS\/WebRTC<\/span><\/li>\nEncryption<\/span><\/li>\nSecurity Policies<\/span><\/li>\nCompany Headquarters<\/span><\/li>\nDevice Compatibility<\/span><\/li>\nOffer a Kill Switch<\/span><\/li>\nStreaming & Torrents<\/span><\/li>\nDynamic IP Address<\/span><\/li>\nCost<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nThe VPN market is continually growing dramatically. Searching for the best VPN service should protect you from unwanted eyes including ISPs or cybercriminals. A VPN connection will allow you to visit sites that are blocked or access restricted content.\u00a0 Keep in mind, the connection speed will go down slightly when the VPN is activated but the user’s security will increase.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VPN (Virtual Private Network is an excellent technology that will protect data from being intercepted by a third party as it travels on the Internet. Changing your location will allow you to bypass online censorship, use torrents safely, and avoid high prices in some areas. Many people are working remotely because of the pandemic. Many <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[12892],"tags":[14944],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Your Checklist When Choosing A VPN<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n