Going online without proper protection can lead you in hot water. From ISP warning letters accusing you of illegal downloads, to discovering you are a victim of online identity theft, government E-mail scanning, or even legal officials knocking at your door asking you to "please come with us", these real-world scenarios can be prevented by keeping your online identity private.
In light of Yahoo's recent double-blow bombshell in the past weeks over their 500-million user account breach, and Yahoo allowing the US government to secretly read your Yahoo E-mail before you do, it becomes even more apparent that if you value your privacy, you need to protect your identity, which in most cases leads to your IP address.
Online obstacles are another issue when not using proper protection such as a VPN. While some sites may display different purchase prices based on your IP location, other sites like YouTube will block content depending on your IP address location. Some content streaming sites like Netflix will show different content based on your location. Taking it a step further depending on when you are, some countries like China, Iran, Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan maintain large databases which block large parts of the Internet. Even in developed countries such as the United Kingdom and Singapore, Internet users will find that access to some websites is blocked, as someone, somewhere determined the site to be "obscene", or adult content. Do you trust your government or ISP to decide on your behalf which websites you should have access to?
Hide Your IP & Identity with VPN
Some Internet providers take a responsible approach when providing Internet - such as the Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan. When users connect to this free airport wifi hotspot, they will see a notice suggesting to use a VPN to enable a secure connection between their device and the websites they visit, essentially preventing hackers from viewing the sites you visit or personal information transmitted over the WiFi hotspot, as well as many of the risks mentioned above.
VPN apps are very useful, but you should also make sure that the app you are using is secure. A Virtual Private Network is mean to protect our privacy by encrypting connection and hiding real IP. However, there are many apps that have gone vulnerable in the past. DNS Leak is one of the major concern for those who are so much concerned about their privacy. DNS Leak is a security flaw that reveals users’ real IP even though they are using VPN.
There are many VPN apps that a user can use, but all of them are not able to unblock everything and protect your privacy. While many VPN providers cannot unblock Netflix or prevent DNS Leaks, we found Hide My IP that unblocks almost everything that have geo restriction. This VPN app is available for Android as well as Mac and Windows. The best thing about this app is that it comes with over 100 IPs to choose from, that includes United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Germany, China, and many other European and Asian countries.