64 PCWorld JANUARY 2022REVIEWS BEST VPN SERVICES
from that server’s location, and not from your
actual location.
When you’re using a VPN, it’s difficult for
others to snoop on your web-browsing
activity. Only you, the VPN service, and the
website you’re visiting will know what you’re
up to.
A VPN can be a great response to a variety
of concerns, such as online privacy,
anonymity, greater security on public Wi-Fi,
and, of course, spoofing locations.
While a VPN can aid privacy and
anonymity, I wouldn’t recommend fomenting
the next great political revolution by relying
solely on a VPN. To become an internet
phantom (or as close as you can realistically
get to being one), it takes a lot more than a $5
monthly subscription to a VPN.
Beyond that, a VPN is an excellent choice
for staying secure while using Wi-Fi at the
airport or your local café. Hackers sitting on
public Wi-Fi can try to hack your PC, but a
VPN makes that task much harder.
Finally, you may want a VPN to spoof your
location to download content you shouldn’t
have access to, but this too has limits. A VPN
used to be the go-to solution to watch U.S.
Netflix overseas. That changed in 2016 when
Netflix opened up to almost every country on
Earth (fave.co/3mjYx8V). Since then, the
company has invested a lot in detecting and
blocking VPN users. Even people using a VPN
inside their own country will be blocked by
Netflix if detected. There are VPNs that canfool Netflix, but they are rare and there are no
guarantees that these services will outsmart
Netflix forever.
Beyond Netflix, a VPN can help you
download an Android app that is only
available on a foreign version of Google Play,
or stream content from regionally restricted
services such as the U.K.-bound BBC iPlayer
or Disney+.
One final note of caution: Do not rely on
your VPN to protect banking information on
an open Wi-Fi connection. Whenever
possible, leave online financial dealings for
home over a hard-wired connection.WHAT TO LOOK FOR
IN A VPN
Before anything else, understand that if you
want to use a VPN you should be paying for it.
Free VPNs typically sell your browsing data in
aggregated form to researchers and
marketers, or give you a paltry amount of data
transfer allocation every month. Either way, a
basic rule of thumb is that a free VPN will not
protect your privacy in any meaningful way.
The next thing to consider is a VPN’s
logging policies. In other words, what kind
of data is a service collecting about you and
your VPN activity, and how long does it save
that data? AFter all, privacy is the basic
principle of a VPN, and what good is it to
avoid passive government surveillance only
to have a VPN provider record all your
website visits?