VPNs have been in existence for multiple years now, but only the last couple of years did they become extremely popular. More and more people are getting ready to install a VPN on their computers and mobile devices.

But why exactly would anyone need a VPN? Should you even need a VPN at all? And is it difficult to install a VPN on a device?

Below you will find a list of reasons why using a VPN is recommended these days.

1. It stops websites from tracking you

In 2017 and especially this year, 2018, much news came to light about various companies such as Facebook invasively tracking people. If you still want to use these websites but at the same time preventing them from tracking you or at least preventing them from identifying you, then you should use a VPN.

A VPN does two things to prevent websites like Facebook from tracking you. First, it will make it look like you are actually located in a different country than the country you are really located in. A VPN lets you switch your IP address to that of a different country.

Second, all your internet communications will be encrypted, meaning that even if your data is intercepted no one will not what websites you have visited. So Facebook will not know what other websites you have visited and as such will not be able to gather data on you.

You can read more here on how VPNs actually work.

2. Prevent your online data from being stolen

Any time you access a website or click on an unknown link there is a chance that you may install a virus or Trojan on your computer. While using an antivirus program is always recommended, with a VPN any data captured by such a virus will be useless because the VPN app will encrypt all your data.

3. Protect yourself when on a public wifi

If you are using your mobile device a lot it means that you will either use your mobile carrier data plan or a public wifi very frequently. The huge problem with wireless networks that are not your own is that you will have no idea who else is on them.

Anyone else who has access to a wireless network will be able to extremely easily hijack all your data including your passwords and login details to any website like social media or even online banking.

This will be completely impossible if you use a VPN because, as said above, a VPN will encrypt all your data, meaning that even if all of it is intercepted no one will be able to decipher it.

Only if someone has physical access to your device will that person be able to actually see the content in your data. So, even if you are on a public wifi if you are using a VPN all your data will be 100% safe every time, no exception.

4. Access content not available in your country

Another reason why a VPN is great is that you will be able to access content that’s not available in your own country. Many websites, especially streaming websites will show different content for different countries.

The way these sites can do this is by identifying visitors based on IP address. As said in the first segment, a VPN can change your IP to that of another country, meaning you can access content not available in your country if you change your IP address to that of a different one.

A VPN is always better than a regular proxy in these cases because proxy IP addresses are usually banned by streaming sites. VPN sites will regularly update their IPs so that the banned ones get replaced by new ones.

How to get a good VPN? 

There are a number of sites out there that are focused on reviewing VPN applications. You should browse around in Google and find more of such sites, especially sites with real user reviews. After looking at multiple such sites you will be able to form an opinion of what the best VPN apps are.