What you'll learn 👉
About your internet privacy
The internet of today is a place that certainly has its charms, but it also comes with an array of negatives. While it gives you an ability to easily find information about/connect to virtually anything and anyone, the road goes both ways; it’s really not that hard to have your personal information (information that you’d prefer it stays private) exposed to anything and anyone on the internet. The truth of the matter is, your privacy is a commodity, and is likely being traded between third parties without your control.
The data most often exposed to external eyes is one about what you search online. Google is notorious for tracking this data and making it rather complicated to turn these tracking features off (there were reports of users having their data tracked even after turning off said features). This data is then sold to online marketing agencies that use it to create personalized advertisements suited for you. Remember how you once “Googled” a review of that used car you wanted to buy? This was the reason why you likely saw numerous car dealership advertisements in your browser afterwards. Data tracked often includes your actual location, which is why the ads in the example will show local car dealerships as well.
Your data isn’t always used to give you something that someone else thinks you want; it is often times used to take away something that you know you want. Modern day legislation of the Internet is set up by baby boomers whose online content consuming experiences come down to watching Facebook videos (content which is, for the most part and quite ironically, stolen from other platforms). These people are often times lobbied by major content producing/owning companies whose executives are almost equally clueless and are mostly interested in old school profit making.
This creates a climate where access to content that should be easily accessible to you becomes limited, or even impossible. People are forced to deal with incredibly harsh and complicated, geographic location-based rules and restrictions that have no real reason to exist. Want to check out that new Netflix show or that cool new video game while paying for them with your hard earned money? Want to access a foreign website to engage in perfectly legal activities as someone who hasn’t committed a crime in their life? Sorry bud but your third world country and currency aren’t good enough for the big lawmakers.
This, again quite ironically, creates a perfect climate for the development of piracy and similar measures, thus undercutting the original lobbyist’s profits even more. People have and will keep finding ways to protect their online privacy against the desires of monolithic regulators and profit chasers; one of the most popular ways to do so are VPN services.
About VPNs
A VPN (or a virtual private network) is a service that lets an individual control his online identity. Originally envisioned as a way to connect businesses online through a safe, unbreachable network, VPN’s have found its commercial application and broke into the regular user markets as well.
Here is a list of best bitcoin VPNs (VPNs that accept cryptocurrency payments).
In simple terms, a VPN connects your device to a computer located somewhere on the internet and lets you use that computer’s IP address to browse the web. While browsing, your computer will appear to have the VPN server’s IP address, thus keeping your identity and your location safe. There are several use cases for VPN’s in this day and age:
- accessing geographically blocked services like Netflix
- accessing blocked websites (China, for example, bans its countrymen access to websites like Google, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube and forces them to use local competition products instead)
- protecting your data when accessing the internet through public hotspots (passwords, banking data, credit card numbers etc. can be accessed by a malicious public hotspot operator)
- protection against strict piracy laws
- staying anonymous online
It is important to note that VPN services help only with location-based restrictions and tracking; your internet browser can still track your data and limit your privacy through cookies even with a VPN on. There are several guides online that explain how to turn off cookie tracking from your browser.
VPNs have gone a long way since they initially hit the markets; once slow and complicated to set up, the service became as simple as installing an app and clicking a couple of buttons and as fast as if you were browsing directly from the computer you are connected to. One such service that we will review today is called VeePN.
About VeePN
VeePN.com is a VPN service provider which does exactly what you’d expect it to do: it provides a way to connect to the internet via an encrypted channel which limits your data exposure to third parties. Thanks to VeePN, only you and your VPN server can see your digital activity. Marketing themselves as the app that lets you “make the Internet free again”, VeePN can be downloaded for iOS, Windows, Mac, Android, Linux operating systems. It can be used on Chrome/Firefox/Opera browsers and even installed on your internet router.
VeePN offers an intuitive, user friendly interface that is easy to set up and use. You’ll need to download the desired installer, go through the simple installation process and you’re good to go. From the moment you install the application and verify your e-mail, your 7-day trial period will begin; during this period, you’ll be given access to the full list of features VeePN has on offer. These features include:
- DNS Leak Prevention: VeePN routes DNS queries via encrypted tunnel and doesn’t interact with external DNS providers. This allows them to offer its users full protection, shielding both your traffic and your DNS queries from being exposed.
- Unlimited Bandwidth and Speed: Browsing can be done at “light speed” and doesn’t depend on your location. This speed will however depend on the plan your ISP has set up for you. Still, VeePN does offer high-speed native server support which lets you enjoy global web surfing without traffic limits, throttling and restrictions.
- Limitless Server Switching: VeePN offers a network of 2500+ VPN servers privately owned by the company, located in more than 48 locations around the world. The service will offer you access to proxies from USA, France, Canada, Germany, Poland, UK, Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Israel, Argentina, Sweden and several other countries and regions. Overall, there are 1168 servers in Europe, 1153 in the Americas, 226 in Asia-Pacific region and 102 in Africa, the Middle East and India. Full subscription to the service gives you an ability to limitlessly switch between these servers.
- Military-grade encryption: VeePN offers services like the impenetrable 256-bit encryption, automatic public Wi-Fi security, and the built-in Kill Switch which lets you turn your VPN on and off with a single action.
- Multiple VPN Protocols: VeePN uses OpenVPN and IKEv2 VPN protocols, as well as an in-house developed Smart VeePN that breaks through geo-restrictions these other protocols can’t.
With the VeePN service, you can have all of your important data protected through VPN encryption. VeePN protects the following from unauthorized third party access:
- Social media profiles and photos
- Passwords to a target website/account
- Financial and credit card data
- Emails, personal messages, private photos
- Health insurance plans
- Business information
- Physical location
And while the service is a third party itself, they promise they don’t log any of the information listed above. They do log some information regarding your account registration and purchases which can be reviewed here. At the same time, their online reviews suggest that they are legitimate. The average score on the Google Play Store of 4.5 stars is accompanied by a similar TrustPilot score of 4 stars. Some users reported issues with the app but the customer service has been responsive and helpful in most of those cases.
With the help of VeePN, you can also access content that normally cannot be accessed from your native IP address due to government, workplace or content owner placed restrictions. Surfing websites, accessing online video/music streams, downloading apps, playing video games etc. are all made possible by this service. Alongside the VPN service itself, VeePN’s website offers quality guides on how to set up and perform each of the abovementioned activities.
The app also helps its users save money when performing online purchases. Many companies track your location, or at least your region, and put different price tags on their goods and services. Airline tickets, car rentals, software discounts, streaming services are most often the “victims” of these pricing policies. With VeePN, you can purchase your product from the most favorable geolocation which can sometimes save you 50% of what you’d have originally paid.
Conclusion
VPNs aren’t the be-all, end-all solution for online privacy. Your activity and location can be logged in ways that cannot be affected by a VPN protection. Malware infections, browser cookies and trackers, active tracking of user activity, smart devices that log more than what you wish to be tracked can all expose your data. At the same time, regulators and content owners actively look for ways to block VPN servers from accessing protected content. Still, VPNs remain a reliable way of encrypting your internet traffic and VeePN looks like a provider you won’t go wrong with.
