Prior to 2020, many people would have been unsure about what a VPN was. Now that so many of us are working from home and are needing to conduct most of our personal business online, people are becoming increasingly aware that they need to use VPNs to protect their privacy when they are working and shopping online.
Cybersecurity is more and more necessary these days to protect you and your home network from cyberattacks. It is no longer enough to use basic virus and malware protections when you are spending time online. This is especially true if you are a remote worker who might have to log onto the hotel or café internet to work when you are traveling.
Here’s a VPN guide with some important reasons that you need this service to protect yourself when you are online.
Reasons Why You Need a VPN
1. Access No Matter Where You Are
If you have to travel for work or you need to be in touch when you are on a vacation, you need to be sure that your internet connection is secure enough to let you access your personal or work information while you are away. A VPN can make sure that you are able to access and utilize any information that you need to complete your work or handle any personal business that needs to be attended to.
As an added benefit, many people find that VPNs allow you to stream television or other content when you are away from your home network.
2. Security Even in Public Places
If you need to work on something personal or for your job in a public location on public WIFI, you cannot be sure that your information or your work information is safe. A VPN can make this possible for you. The VPN will protect your data and your personal information to make sure that you can work safely, even when you are connected to public or free WIFI.
For travelers or for digital nomads, this is an essential piece of protection that cannot be skipped over. There was a time where you could work online without too much concern about data theft or hacking, but those days have long passed. A VPN is the standard for many remote work environments these days, but you can use a VPN to protect you personally for all the same reasons.
3. Secure VoIP Calls
This may not apply to all remote workers, but if you need to use a VoIP phone for your work tasks, you want to be sure that your calls cannot be hacked. You may experience slightly slower VoIP speeds, but it is well worth it to prevent hackers and other back actors from getting access to your phone conversations or to your overall network through your VoIP application.
VoIP has long been a source of network weakness, but VPNs allow you to avoid any kinds of issues related to your VOIP business needs.
4. Bypass Government Censorship
If you work when you are away from the US, there are certain countries where internet censorship may prevent you from completing your daily work tasks or handling your personal needs while you are not at home. This can be very frustrating if you are trying to get work done and are being prevented from doing so, or if you need to look at a video or other information online for some reason while you are not in the states.
A VPN will allow you to have access to the censored sites in the country you are visiting. This can make work much easier for you and your team and it can also eliminate problems with the local government while you are staying in another country. These kinds of restrictions can cause sensitive interactions that you would be better off avoiding.
5. Stop Google From Tracking You
If you want to hide your IP for a whole variety of reasons, you might want to use a VPN. There are many kinds of applications that track us and know everything about us these days and sometimes this can cause issues. It might also just make you uncomfortable that so many applications and entities know everything about you and have access to all of your personal information.
If you want to prevent these entities like Google from tracking you and your information, you can use a VPN to prevent this. It can be hard to get true privacy online these days, but a VPN can take care of this need for you with ease.
6. Bypass Network Restrictions
While the restrictions that are placed on network access can be helpful for organizations like schools and work, you might need to have access to videos or other information that is online in order to do your job or to take care of personal business.
You should not break the rules of your organization or your school and a VPN can make it possible for you to access information that you would not be able to get when using the access allowed by your school or your company.
This can be a great way to make sure that you keep your private browsing needs separate from your work or school browsing needs.
Interesting related article: “What is VoIP?“