This type of info could be used in a wide variety of ways, from legitimately serving targeted ads to nefarious social engineering. Can a VPN protect my search history?Ī VPN protects your search history through the secure connection you share. When you search for a website, or type a URL into your navigation bar, your device sends something called a DNS request, which translates the website into the IP address of the web server this is how your browser can find the website and serve its content to you. By encrypting your DNS requests, a VPN can hide your search habits and history from those that might use that info as part of building a profile of you. For example, 39% of users understand public Wi-Fi is unsafe but still do sensitive things, like banking or shopping on public WiFi, so using a VPN when you’re at the airport, or a café is a great use case.Īs I mentioned before, a lot of people use a VPN for privacy reasons, like stopping advertisers from tracking them. Searches you perform, or websites you visit won’t be trackable, which means you’ll be able to surprise your spouse with a vacation you researched and planned on a computer you both use. Targeted ads could spoil things if your spouse is bombarded with ads for plane tickets and hotels while they browse. When to use a VPN really depends on what you want it for. If you’d like to make sure your IP has changed, open up a browser and search for “What’s my IP address” and click on one of the results. You’re now browsing with a new IP address.
To change your IP address, you simply open your VPN app, select the server location you’d like to connect to, and you’re done. Does a VPN change my IP address?Įvery internet connection (like your cable modem) is assigned a unique set of numbers called an IP address, which is tied to information such as geographic location, ISP, etc. A VPN replaces your actual IP address to make it look like you’ve connected to the internet from a different location: the physical location of the VPN server, rather than your real location. This is just one reason why so many people use VPNs. This can be handy when you want to hide from advertising trackers or protect your search history.
What that means is, when you turn your VPN app on, your device makes a secure connection to a specialized computer that routes internet traffic, called a VPN server. You also may have heard that your connection is “wrapped in an encrypted tunnel” which means your device and the server share a secure connection so only you can see what you’re doing on the internet. You may have heard that VPN apps live on your device and allow you to connect to the internet securely.
#Vpn hide for mac install#
What is a VPN and how does it protect me?Ī VPN is an app that you install on your device to help keep your personal data safe as you browse the internet There’s a lot of misinformation about Virtual Private Networks, what they do, and the security benefits they offer. For this article, I’d like to do some myth-busting about how a VPN actually works and why you should use one.
0 kommentar(er)
