Too many people seem to think that no one would ever want to steal their data or hack them. If you think you’re nobody and that no one would be interested in you, think about your online banking, your passwords, your online shipping, and the access you have to the iTunes store. Those are all points of attack for a hacker.
All those reasons, and many more, will be explored in this article on 10 reasons to use a
1: When doing P2P and file sharing
If you’d rather not have a DMCA notice showing up from your ISP, and a possible ban from their service, a
2: Public Wifi in hotels, convention centre, and coffee shops
That’s a narrow view as any public WiFi poses a potential risk to you through man in the middle attacks. This is when a hacker sets up a fake WiFi access point and spies on your activity. A
3: You don’t want to be part of Spy vs. Spy
It’s no secret that the GCHQ and NSA are spying on citizens in their country, and across the world in conjunction with other governments. While the NSA have claimed to be able to break
4: Travelling internationally
Travelling outside of your home country can be a problem as different countries have different censorship and geo-blocking restrictions. We wrote our Best VPNs in China for a reason, they are the worst example of censorship online at a country level.
Other countries have different levels of restrictions, having a
5: Because school networks suck
This is related to the point above about international travel geo-blocks. Here the problem is with your school, or even employer, putting blocks on websites. Say you want to check MLSSoccer.com on your lunch break on your own phone over your work WiFi, but you can’t because of a block on that website. A
If the school wifi blocked Pokémon I'm going to be livid
— Zaria Guignard (@zariaG_) August 1, 2016
Don’t mess with people’s Pokemon Go…
6: For online gaming
Do you and your friends like to get together and play FIFA online together? A
7. Because you’re not online just to be advertised to
Every search you do online is logged according to your IP address. More and more companies are getting in on harvesting this data and selling it to advertisers so that they can advertise to you.
I don’t know about you, but I’m more than tired of always feeling like I’m nothing but a consumer. A
8: Those doing online research
You may be an employee doing research on a competitor. You could be a reporter researching a story. Either way, you may not want certain websites to know your IP address and be able to track you down. A
9: Because your VOIP calls should be private
If you use Skype, or any other VOIP tool, it can be pretty easy to listen in on your conversation. A
10: Because privacy is a basic human right
Despite the efforts of totalitarian governments the world over, your privacy as a free human is a right you should have everywhere you go. Yes, they claim again and again that it’s for your own good. That it will help them catch bad guys. But you can make the same argument that cameras in every bathroom will help them catch bad guys doing things in bathrooms. Do you want cameras there?
Out of all the reasons to use a
Feature image via Shutterstock / Imagentle.