Your IP address is one of the most valuable pieces of currency on the internet – and for good reason. The IP address tells a whole lot about your computer, your location, who you are, and who your service provider is. Your IP address also tells websites who you are – it is an individual marker that allows sites to customize their advertising for you and determine if you are someone who is visiting their site a lot along with how much time you are spending on the site. These are massive incentives for sites and ISPs to get information related to your IP address. However, there are many benefits to keeping your IP address hidden, and this article will give you several reasons and ways to hide your IP address.
Privacy is something really important, and if you have your IP address out there in the public there are many people who can take advantage of this, including hackers and government agencies. There are plenty of ways to make your IP address private. Perhaps the easiest way is with a VPN. The reality is you should always use a VPN, but especially so if you are on a public network. These 5 reasons will definitely make you think twice about leaving your IP address unprotected.
Keep Ad Networks from Tracking Where You Go and What You Do
The reality is Google and Facebook know more about you than you know all about yourself – and that is thanks to them tracking where you go based on your IP address. This may seem convenient – after all you are getting relevant advertisements and great suggestions. But the truth is, this means Google and Facebook along with others know everything you’re doing. Doesn’t seem so convenient now.
The good news is using a VPN will make sure that you are not dealing with the nonsense that comes with being a part of someone’s network. The reason for this is a VPN disguises your IP address. When you connect with a VPN, what happens is the VPN essentially slips on a mask of a fake IP address and that fake address is what communicates with sites. The bottom line, thanks to the encryption, these sites don’t know you are browsing on their networks.
Keep Your ISP Out of the Loop
Your ISP knows everything that you are doing if you are not using a VPN to keep your IP address hidden. The reality is there are no restrictions in the United States to keep your ISP from looking at everything that you do. The reality is if you are someone who is using torrents or doing a lot of downloading or gaming, your ISP is aware, and they are reading to use this data to justify price hikes and a whole lot of other nuisance issues as well.
Many ISPs advertise how they protect data, but the reality is they can sell your data to anyone of their choosing, and that means not only are they getting money for your internet usage, but they are also getting money from the sale of your data.
The reality is your ISP in many ways is working against you as they give you access to the internet, and that is where the VPN can be quite helpful. Your ISP will see that you are connected to the VPN, but they will not see any more data. Instead, the encryption means that all your ISP will see is a long string of unintelligible numbers. There are a great many things your ISP would rather do than try and unspool something that is essentially unspoolable, such as the data from a VPN’s server.
Your Research that Should Be for Your Eyes Only Stays That Way
There are so many jobs where sensitive work is done and the last thing you need is an ISP or someone with worse intentions being able to see what you are working on and expose it. Some professions that have these concerns are law enforcement, politicians, journalists, celebrities, and people working in areas like national defense. When you hide your IP address through a VPN, what you are doing is ensuring that your private research is solely for your own eyes instead of having people who have no reason to know what you are doing involved in your business.
Keep the Government Out of Your Business
The reality is that the government is always interested in knowing what its citizens are doing, and when it comes to internet activity, this is no different. The thing is, you could be doing nothing wrong, but the government is able to look at your activity really easily with your ISP’s consent. Sometimes, they don’t even need warrants or subpoenas – the ISP would rather stay on the good side of the government by acquiescing to a search instead of making sure that your information remains private.
That being said, there is some good news if you have a VPN. The best VPNs do not store your data – while some might log your data, as soon as you disconnect, they wipe it away. This is vitally important. If the VPN is served with a subpoena or the government attempts to collect your data from the VPN, there is nothing to collect. So, your IP address is protected from a government that is looking to know just too much about its citizens.
Visit Whatever You Want, Wherever You Are
The reality is unless you live in the US or any country that is an open society, it is really difficult to access the sites that you may want to see, especially when it comes to streaming services like Netflix and other stuff in that realm. There are also other copyright laws, so the reality is that when you are in another country, you may need a VPN in order to get around the geographical restrictions.
Getting around the geographical restrictions is actually fairly easy. Your VPN will have options to connect in a variety of different countries. This allows you to essentially connect to a server in the country of your choice, and when that happens, you have the ease of getting where you need to do when you want to go there.
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