7 Pros And Cons Of VPN
Virtual Private Network (VPN) is the most efficient security software for protecting a user’s privacy on the internet. It creates a private network masking the user’s network and creating an alternative IP address to bypass the user ISP. In this way, the ISP can not track the user’s online activity. VPN also masks the user from different website trackers and targeted advertisements. It is an extraordinary service for safeguarding the privacy of the users and safer browsing online.
Though VPN is mostly known for its good, there are a lot of cons to it. There are a lot of VPNs out there. Some are free, some are costly. Some are certified while some are not so trustworthy. The best VPNs can also cause problems like slowing down the internet speed. So, even though VPN is useful in protecting our online presence, one can find a lot of issues with VPN. To have a better knowledge of its benefits and issues let’s look through 7 pros and cons of VPN.
7 Pros of Using VPN
VPN is the line of defense when users connect to the internet. It protects the identity, data, and location of a user making them invisible for trackers. There are a lot of pros to using a VPN. Let’s discuss 7 such pros of using VPN.
1. VPN Creates A Secure Online Connection
There are a lot of public networks and wifis users connect to. None of these networks is usually secured or protected. For that, hackers can hack into the network and start tracking user information or data. Most cyber thefts and hacking are made possible because of not having a secured online connection.
VPN creates a secured online connection, making all the data on the network encrypted. As the data is encrypted the hackers can’t gain access to it and read the data. This encrypted data can only be decrypted by the VPN server for safer browsing.
2. Masks User’s Online Identity
The IP address of a user is their online identity. One can easily track the user’s movement through their IP address and hack or collect their personal data. Even the ISP has all the data of a user’s online movement. By using a VPN, a masked IP address is created, which doesn’t allow the ISP or any hackers.
3. Gives Location Access
A lot of content has specific location access. While many contents are banned in specific countries. To access all these contents, the only hope is VPN. It bypasses geo-blocking and helps the user to gain access to any content online. VPN hides your IP and gives you an accessible IP for the contents.
4. Keeps The User Anonymous
VPN gives total anonymity to the user. Not even the ISP can track or identify the user if the user uses a good VPN. The user can access any website on the internet with full anonymity. This helps to protect the user from any cyber attack on the internet. The user can securely surf the internet without worries.
5. Protected Torrenting
Torrent users can always see the IP of the other users as it is a shared platform. So it becomes very easy to hack using that IP address. So having the user’s IP address out in the open like that makes the user vulnerable to attacks. So when a user uses VPN, the private IP of the user is no more available for the other users. So there is no way to hack the user with the VPN IP.
6. Enhanced Online Gaming
VPN can help a gamer to gain access to any games around the world. Even the games that are banned or restricted in the user’s country can be accessed using a VPN. Also, the gaming experience varies from place to place. So the user can easily gain access to a better location for an enhanced gaming experience.
7. Bypasses Firewall
Firewalls are set up in different internet connections across different institutions. Such as an office, school, library, or community meeting place. These firewalls are set so the users can’t get access to restricted websites. Using a VPN, the users can easily bypass these firewalls.
7 Cons Of Using VPN
Even though VPN has a lot of advantages, it does have its cons. Let’s discuss the 7 cons of using a VPN.
1. Free VPNs Can’t Be Trusted
While VPN is used to provide security to the users and safeguard their private data, it can do the exact opposite of that. Free VPNs tend to store the data of their user and later sell it. Most of the free VPNs keep a log of the user’s online activity so it is better to use a paid one.
2. VPNs Are Not Cheap
The users generally choose free VPNs because paid VPNs can be very costly. Paid VPNs tend to give the best data encryption and security. But it also comes at a good price. For better services, VPNs tend to cost a lot.
3. VPNs Can Be Blocked
Just as the users use VPN to keep their information secret, websites or different applications also use VPN blocking applications. This blocks the access through VPN and can easily identify if the user is using VPN.
4. VPNs Can Contain Malware
There are chances when the user is using a free VPN, that might have malware. This malware is mostly in the form of advertisements and will surely annoy the users. Sometimes, it might even collect user data.
5. VPNs Can Slow Down Internet Speed
Using VPN contains a lot of data encryption and redirection to servers. This process can affect this malware’s internet speed and the user might find internet browsing slower than before.
6. Free VPNs Contains Online Advertisements
Free VPNs come with many costs. One of them is online advertisements. Not only will the application show online advertisements to the users, but the VPN itself can also sometimes redirect the user to pages to show advertisements.
7. Crashing Can Expose The User
If VPN stops functioning or crashes while browsing, the real IP of the user is then exposed. This will make the operation risky for the user. So, it is better to use a VPN with an automatic kill switch.
Summary
Here is a table to summarise the pros and cons of VPN:
| Pros | Cons | |
| 1. | VPN creates a secure online connection | Free VPNs can’t be trusted |
| 2. | Masks user’s online identity | VPNs are not cheap |
| 3. | Gives location access | VPNs can be blocked |
| 4. | Keeps the user anonymous | VPNs can contain malware |
| 5. | Protected torrenting | VPNs can slow down internet speed |
| 6. | Enhanced online gaming | Free VPNs contains online advertisements |
| 7. | Bypasses Firewall | Crashing can expose the user |
