It’s just like a firewall that protects your information, a VPN protects your data online. Although VPN is technically a Wide Area Network (WAN), the front end offers the same security, appearance, and functionality as a private network. VPNs can be remote access (connecting computers with networks) or site-to-site (connecting two networks to each other). However, despite its convenience, you must know what is the best vpn service that suits your needs, or the needs of your company.
When browsing without VPN, you actually connect to your ISP (Internet Service Provider) server, which in turn connects you to the website of your choice. This means that all of your internet data traffic activities are passed through their servers and can be monitored by them.
However, when you are surfing through a VPN, your data traffic is passed through the VPN server using an encrypted “channel”. This means the data cannot be accessed by anyone, apart from you and the VPN server. However, there is also a difference between privacy and anonymity. Using a VPN doesn’t make you anonymous, because your VPN provider knows who you are and can see your online activities. However, VPNs give you privacy from your ISP, your school or workplace, and even from your government. To ensure your privacy is protected by your VPN service provider, it is very important to choose a VPN provider that “does not take notes”. If the VPN service provider keeps a record of user activity, the authorities can always request to receive or view it, which means your information is no longer private.
It should be noted that even though your VPN provider intends not to keep records, it can still monitor your online activities in real-time when needed, for example for technical reasons such as solving problems. Although most “not taking notes” VPN service providers also won’t monitor your real-time activities, most countries are legally permitted to force all VPN providers to start keeping records of all individual users, without warning those users. However, if you are not running away from the authorities for illegal online activities, there may be no reason for you to worry.