What are VPNs, and should everyone be using them?

Anyone with the right tools can eavesdrop on unencrypted data travelling between devices via the internet but will not be able to do so if it's encrypted with a VPN.

Copyright: Dwayne Hards.

VPNs are designed to stop people — like hackers, your ISP, and even the authorities — from monitoring what you do online and interfering with your web traffic. However, they will only encrypt data sent over the internet and not through other means. They work by routing your internet activity through a remote server instead of the one provided by your broadband provider, but your ISP can tell that you're using a VPN and how much bandwidth is being used but cannot see what's being sent/received.

Anyone using a VPN will be keeping their online activity secure and should, therefore, be less vulnerable to data breaches if using a reliable service, such as: NordVPN. Also, you can bypass internet restrictions — like parental controls and state censorship — when connected to a VPN server.