We recently found an article by Erica Sadun of TUAW. We couldn’t help but love the way she so smoothly describes VPN and how it can benefit your web surfing and sharing experience. It’s always interesting to see how other industry professionals see VPN and it’s benefits.
VPN, aka Virtual Private Network, is a technology that lets you securely share data across public networks. For the most part, when I think VPN, I typically imagine work-related corporate or federal government accounts, or people accessing the net in countries with excessive government surveillance.
But there’s a lot more that VPN can do. For example, it’s an essential technology for sports fans who must shift the geographic location of their IP addresses so they can watch blacked-out sports from their broadcast region. It’s also popular with travelers and coffee-shop-based tech workers who regularly access shared WiFi networks. Nothing harshes your caffeine buzz like having your passwords stolen from your over-the-air traffic.
Many people use VPN because it’s a work requirement. Others purchase a private account for one of the four reasons here:
1. Security. They share public WiFI hotspots and want to protect their data at cafes, airports and hotels. They’d rather not share their personal credentials with identity thieves.
2. Censorship. They need an end-run around corporate (no playing at the office) or government censorship (think China), so they can access services and websites that they’d otherwise be cut off from.
3. Privacy. They want to avoid oversight, tracking and other privacy infringement by websites like Google.
4. Region Shifting. They’re looking to shift locations to access geo-restricted resources like local blacked-out football games or Hulu from outside the US.
We’re happy to see that other industry professionals agree with the benefits of using a VPN service and understand how useful it can be for personal and professional online safety. Check out other news and updates from Erica here.