VPNs are some of my favorite tools for maintaining privacy online. They offer a multitude of benefits to users even aside from keeping your browsing habits private. The first major one of course, is anonymity. This means that while your VPN is activated, no one, not even your internet provider can view which sites you access or what your internet traffic is. This is great for those who don’t trust government oversight on such things. Another benefit is the ability of some VPNs to block adds by directly attacking connections to ad servers. This comes with some benefits in and of itself, like less data usage and faster loading times. VPNs also can bypass region-locked content like certain Netflix content and game preorders. This can also be used to fight government censorship. Finally, VPNs can protect your network from hackers and malicious trackers, as they utilize a different IP than your own.

            While this makes VPNs sound good, there are issues as well. The first major caveat is trust. Most VPN services sometimes log your activity and even sell it off to third parties for ad targeting, which is exactly what you’re using the VPN to avoid. The ones that don’t do this can often cost a lot of money as well. And even then, the setup process for a VPN could prove impossible for those not well-acquainted with networking software, especially depending on the platform. Another drawback is that they can sometimes be much slower than your normal internet connection. Finally, VPNs often rely on servers hosted by other companies and institutions which can lead to outages and other issues that the VPN provider itself to rectify.

            Overall, VPNs are very useful tools, and I think there are more benefits than drawbacks, but only for those experienced enough to use them.