Fighting back for internet privacy

By Jason McNicholas

Cyber Security Apprentice

For years, governments and companies have slowly, but surely,  attempted to stamp out internet anonymity for users, from legislation to small print on Terms and Conditions, data is constantly being gathered on everyone.

Within the last few years, VPN (Virtual Private Network) usage, to disguise the user’s IP address and encrypt communications, has become commonplace for internet users to push back against a potential “Big Brother” scenario.

A third party VPN Service routes the internet traffic of a user to a different router, meaning that the IP address used is not the one that a device is directly connected to.

This connection is usually encrypted, meaning that it is extremely difficult to intercept the traffic between the device and the router.

This virtual connection to a different router also means that, whilst browsing the internet etc. a different IP address is used meaning any activity carried out while using a VPN cannot be tracked easily back to the user.

VPNs can be used for a variety of different things including; securely accessing a corporate network externally for remote workers, masking identity to access the web anonymously or as a workaround for accessing content that may be blocked in certain countries.

If you’re thinking of getting a VPN for personal use a good site to use is https://thatoneprivacysite.net/ which gives a basic and detailed breakdown of features for VPNs.

Please do your research before using a VPN service and we recommend you stay away from free offers – remember they are probably in a position to see the data you are trying to hide – so act cautiously.