There
are a lot of VPN service providers, and tens or even hundreds of applications
and programs for various devices that provide this service, and every time you
browse what one of these programs offers, you will find many, many promises and
guarantees that focus on several critical issues for you, such as ensuring that
no Knowing your situation, not monitoring your online activity, and remaining
anonymous while using these programs. But should such programs be used
permanently? What are the cases that really require resorting to such a
solution? In today's article, I have collected for you the 5 most important
cases that require the use of VPN programs or add-ons, so let us begin by
reviewing them.
A quick overview of the VPN
Before
I go through the five cases, I have to briefly explain how VPN works and what
this technology means. VPN is an abbreviation for Virtual Private Network
(Virtual Private Network) that is considered one of the very popular
technologies in the world of networks and it can be said that it is a private
network that uses a public network to access websites or to connect users to
each other, and the name “virtual” came from the use of this technology for
virtual connections via The Internet through a private network, or by using a
third party that secures that connection, such as well-known VPN software and
applications.
The
most important thing this technology really offers is to ensure that you remain
partially (and I will explain in future paragraphs why partially and not
completely as the service providers claim) anonymous when connected to the Internet,
not to mention protect you from monitoring, hacking, and malware.
As
for the VPN applications and programs that we deal with, they are only a third
party or an intermediary as I mentioned earlier to enable you to use that
service, as it enables you to connect to the Internet without knowing your
current location. As long as this service is running, all your information,
including your identity, current geographic location, and the sites you browse
will remain partially anonymous even to your service provider.
Situations that require the use of a VPN
1- circumvention of censorship
Perhaps
this is the most common reason for using a VPN. In some countries, there are
restrictions on internet connection and blocking access to certain IP addresses
and thus blocking access to certain sites and services. For example, Russia,
Iran, and China are among the 7 most censored countries on the Internet and
restrict the freedom of users, The solution provided by the VPN service is to
circumvent these restrictions, and this is done with a mechanism that I will
explain through the following example:
When
China blocked access to Facebook, any server (server) trying to access the site
was directly blocked, and this was done by blocking access to the IP address of
Facebook, and as a solution to get around that restriction it was necessary to
connect to a server outside China and then access through it For Facebook,
which makes it an easy solution to a rather complex problem like this, and to
implement that solution in a practical way, you need a VPN service provider
that secures you with the connection with the external server and then enters
the site, and all VPN programs and applications do this task and connect you to
the server from which you will enter any A banned site in your country, and I
must note that using such a method exposes you to legal accountability in some
countries where you consider it against the law within them.
So,
we find that these programs provided an excellent solution to the problem of
the ban, but in addition to that they provided a solution to another problem no
less important than the ban, which is to monitor you while you are connected to
the Internet and know what you are doing and what you are browsing, and in the
next case I will explain how it did that.
2- evading surveillance
One
of the most exciting topics of rumors and news is the subject of monitoring. It
is possible that you have read news about the monitoring of technology
companies and even governments of people’s activities on the Internet, and in
this sense, the VPN service provided a guarantee that no one knows your current
location and therefore you cannot be monitored, not to mention that even the
provider of The service will not be able to track you, by providing this
service a certain amount of confidentiality associated with your data and your
online activity.
I
mentioned at the beginning of the article that what this service does is to
keep you anonymous, but partially and not completely. When you look at what a
particular VPN program will offer you, you will be amazed by the number of
promises made, which are summed up in attractive terms such as “complete
confidentiality”, “You will remain anonymous and no one will be able to Your
knowledge or observation” and so on, but the reality here comes to drop some of
the accuracies of these promises. Through it.
The
IP address is one of the parameters through which your activity can be
monitored, but it is not limited to it. For example, if you log in to Facebook
or Google services from a specific device, it will become easy to track your
activity despite the presence of a VPN connection, and therefore When someone
claims in front of you the possibility of remaining completely anonymous, there
is no accuracy in his words, all these programs do is make the subject of
surveillance more difficult than the normal case.
So,
while VPN services are certainly part of any strategy aimed at staying
anonymous online, they are far from an all-encompassing solution and you'll
need to get used to using an incognito mode alongside the VPN if you want it to
be more difficult to track while browsing...
3- Dealing with torrent files
Surely
you have heard of or even used torrent sites to download content, and the idea
behind their existence and use are that you can download copyright-protected
content such as series, movies, and even paid courses, and in many countries
this is illegal and exposes you to serious legal problems that cannot be taken
lightly as it is considered a kind From theft, an example is North America and
all countries of the European Union.
The
role of VPN programs, in this case, is to provide facilities while you use
torrent sites, as a first and basic step you will connect through one of these
programs and then access torrent sites, thus avoiding you from falling into
legal problems if you deal with programs such as BitTorrent, except if the
torrent file that You upload it amalgamated with viruses.
4- Access to all entertainment services
By
entertainment services, I mean the famous streaming sites and platforms such as
Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and HBO Max. They all follow a similar policy
of providing content to users according to their geographical location. For
example, the content of the Netflix platform varies between the United States
of America and between European or Asian countries and therefore you will see
what it provides You have this platform. That is, there are movies that you can
find on a Netflix subscription in America, but you will not find them on a
Netflix subscription in Egypt, and so on.
The
solution that the VPN programs give you, in this case, lies in the feature of
connecting with a server outside your geographical location and thus you will
circumvent what these platforms offer you and display the content that is
blocked from you if you will, but the matter is getting more difficult day by
day as these platforms take many measures that increase It is difficult to use
a VPN, and therefore it can be said that this case is less important than the
previous ones, so do not be surprised that it becomes impossible to even one
day.
5- Connect to public Wi-Fi networks
In
fact, this case is among the four previous cases that are most suitable for
using VPN programs, because these programs will protect you from being hacked
if you connect to any free WiFi point. What hackers do here is tracking the
signal of those networks and monitor all the activity that occurs within them,
and of course, Just thinking about the possibility of this will make you
reconsider twice before you connect to a public Wi-Fi network.
Thus,
your use of a VPN will ensure that you cannot be tracked by hackers, and
therefore you will not have to worry about getting hacked. Despite the
development of protection levels in public networks, there is still a slight
possibility of being hacked, and therefore VPN programs will remove this
concern and ensure that you do not You are exposed to such a problem.
In
the end, the features that these programs offer you cannot be overlooked, but
like others, there is something that is really good and trustworthy to some
extent, including what is bad and violates what is promised and even reaches
the point of danger, and therefore be careful while choosing a VPN program in
order to avoid falling into unnecessary problems.