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A Virtual Private Network, or VPN, allows you to establish a secure and encrypted connection to another network over the Internet. Usually, VPNs can be used to access geo-restricted streaming services, secure your online browsing, and privacy from prying eyes.

But there have to be more reasons right? After all, VPNs are known to be used for a variety of use cases. To help you better answer the question of “why you should use a VPN“, we are going to dive deep and look at 12 popular VPN benefits.

To grasp a deeper understanding of VPN, we recommend you check out “What is a VPN?“. To gain insight into the best VPNs in the industry this year, we suggest reading the best VPN services in 2022.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s get started with it.

12 Popular VPN Benefits

After proper research, we have come up with 12 popular reasons why you should use a VPN:

Reason #1: Securing your online privacy

The main purpose behind the creation of VPN is to protect the user’s online privacy and data. Ensuring safe internet use, user anonymity is the prime reason for using a VPN.

Due to the heavy emphasis on user’s data protection and privacy, the core element of any VPN is robust encryption. Therefore, all the top-notch VPN providers of the industry ensure to use AES-256 bit encryption or better so that all of your data is encrypted with military-grade encryption. The main advantage of such high-level encryption is that your data cannot be decoded by anyone, even if it is intercepted.

A Virtual Private Network creates an encrypted tunnel that starts from your device and ends at your destination. Once this tunnel is established, all of your data passing through it is encrypted, while your actual IP address and other identifying information are completed masked. The VPN encrypts any information that can link your device to certain browsing activity.

Countries like Brazil, Sri Lanka, and Saudi Arabia, where internet censorship and monitoring is extremely high certainly need a VPN to stay protected online.

Reason #2: Accessing geo-restricted streaming services

Watching TV has become a new norm through different streaming services, largely influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic. Luckily, using a VPN can expand your entertainment options immeasurably.

Even though the number of people accessing streaming services has increased exponentially in the last decade, accessing geo-restricted streaming services and websites has always been challenging.

Streaming services like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have different content libraries depending on the region. You’ll always find a movie or TV show that is not available in your region. Thanks to a VPN, you can access geo-restricted streaming content from anywhere.

A VPN assigns you an IP address from its own server, masking your actual IP address. When you access your desired streaming service, it notices your IP coming from the region you selected and lets you access the library that was forbidden in your home country.

Thinking about getting the best streaming VPN for yourself? – check out our top recommendations for the best streaming VPNs in 2022.

Reason #3: Bypassing Government censorship

While many internet users consider internet freedom as a basic human right, people living in China, Iran, Syria, Russia, and many other countries have no access to said human right due to the strict internet restrictions set up by the government.

A Virtual Private Network is the only light at the end of the tunnel for citizens of those countries. By only using a VPN, they can access different blocked websites such as Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter, non-state news sites, Google, and many others.

The citizens of these countries and the business travellers, reporters, and many others who temporarily stay there will find access to everyday websites restricted. Only a VPN is essential to circumvent all types of government-imposed internet censorship.

Reason #4: P2P/File-sharing

Peer-to-peer downloads or torrenting have become one of the most popular methods for transferring large-size data files over a short period of time. While it can be used for legal cases, illegal copyright-violating downloads have been major drawbacks of this technology.

While torrenting, you can easily be a target of torrent trackers, which are a good way to gather information about the users. This collected information can be handed over to legal authorities or sold to the highest bidder.

As this type of data collection is all based on IP addresses, downloading a torrent via a safe VPN for torrenting is the simplest and most effective solution to prevent any potential issues.

Reason #5: Avoiding ISP bandwidth throttling restrictions

Sometimes, your internet service provider intentionally slows down your internet connection speed, simply because you are consuming high bandwidth when streaming or torrenting.

The easiest and most convenient way to overcome ISP bandwidth throttling is to use a virtual private network. If your ISP isn’t able to detect your data packets, they can not throttle your traffic or bandwidth at all. Hence, you will be able to consume enough bandwidth that will allow you to stream unlimited and unrestricted content from across the globe.

Reason #6: Safe access to public Wi-Fi connection

I think we can all agree that using an unsecured public Wi-Fi connection, where anyone can hack your data and information, is very risky. The data or information at risk includes social media and email logins, credit card details, and even your online banking credentials.

If you visit public places such as coffee shops, supermarkets, schools, public transports and connect to available Wi-Fi there, you can easily become a target of a “Man in the Middle attack,” which works by intercepting any communication over the network.

The best way to protect yourself when using a public Wi-Fi connection is to encrypt your data with VPN technology so that even if your connection is intercepted, no one can decrypt your communication, texts, passwords, data, and other personal information.

Reason #7: Circumvent location-based pricing

Depending on your actual location, the prices being offered online on different products fluctuate. For example, if you wish to hire a car or purchase plane tickets, then the service charges will change according to your location.

Similarly, online game prices on Microsoft store and Play Station stores also vary from country to country. It is possible to purchase the game at half-price from any other country’s store using a VPN.

Using a VPN, you can easily mask your actual location and take advantage of low prices offered in a different country. In some instances, you can potentially save yourself serious money.

Reason #8: Enhancing online gaming experience

Now that you have got yourself a new game at a low price, you are worried that your ISP will throttle your speed when you are playing your favorite online game. Don’t worry, we have a perfect solution to this problem.

Whether you are playing Apex Legends, Call of Duty, or Fortnite, a VPN also ensures that your internet connection remains stable, reliable, and extremely fast so that your online gaming experience can be enhanced with the lowest pings.

We have handpicked these best gaming VPNs for you that will ensure the lowest ping possible so that you can expeditiously eliminate your enemies in Battlefield or in any other competitive game.

Reason #9: Privacy from website info gathering

You must have noticed that you immediately start seeing advertisements promoting similar products you initially searched for online. These advertisements are one of the ways for the websites to keep generating revenue for themselves. Your real location and IP address provide the tracking required for targeted advertisements.

If you are not a fan of such tracking and want to get rid of such advertisements easily, then the best way to do that is by using a virtual private network that can mask your actual IP address and location.

Reason #10: Free VOIP services

Just like we saw in one of the above reasons, many countries are still facing different internet censorship policies placed by their own government.

In almost all government internet censorship cases, free VOIP services like WhatsApp, Skype, Messenger, Viber, and many others are often blocked for the general public. A common reason behind VOIP services being blocked includes governments with huge stakes in mobile networks.

For example, countries like UAE, Oman, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia have blocked popular VoIP services to benefit from hefty telecom fees.

If you wish to unblock VoIP services in Middle Eastern countries, check out these VPNs:

Virtual Private Networks allow citizens to access different blocked VOIP services at a meager cost compared to purchasing monopolized telephone networks.

Looking for a cheap VPN provider to access unlimited VOIP service? Look no further – here are the best cheap VPNs in 2022.

Reason #11: Researching the competitor

While researching your competitor, you’d want to be completely anonymous as the webmaster can easily follow your digital trail and track you using different analytics tools.

Therefore, by using a VPN, you can research your competitor while keeping your anonymity intact. Although the webmaster will still see you, they will see you as a random user with a masked IP address.

Reason #12: Unblock social Media

Social media applications are probably the most accessed and heavily censored applications on the planet. Countries like China, Iran, North Korea, and Syria have permanently placed a ban on social media applications to prevent the spread of miscommunication.

The only way for these countries’ citizens to access blocked social media applications is by using a virtual private network. VPN allows them to swap their actual IP address with their own server IP address, which ultimately grants them access to the social media application or website.

How to use a VPN: 3 easy steps

You will find below 3 easy steps for using a VPN.

  1. Download and install the VPN provider application
  2. Log in to the application using the VPN provider’s account details
  3. Once logged in, select your desired VPN server from the VPN server list

Now that you have selected the VPN server and connected to it, your internet activity and data are encrypted. The selection of the VPN server will depend on your desired purpose.

Which VPN should you get, and how to choose it?

There are different ways to establish a VPN connection, and depending on your purpose, you can select any one of them. Usually, most internet users require a VPN to hide their identity while torrenting or to allow them access to geographically restricted content.

The easiest thing to do is head to one of these below-listed providers’ websites, sign up, and download the VPN client for your Windows PC, macOS, Android, iOS, or Linux. It’s as easy as that.

  • ExpressVPN– The best VPN provider for all your internet activities including, streaming, torrenting, and general browsing, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
  • NordVPN– The most secure VPN provider with state-of-the-art encryption techniques that is good for torrenting or streaming media. It also offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
  • Surfshark– The most low-cost VPN provider with unlimited simultaneous connections, high-speed servers for optimized torrenting, and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

If you don’t want to go for paid options, check out these best free VPNs for 2022.

Final Verdict

Whatever your reason for using a VPN may be, there’s no denying that VPN technology has completely revolutionized internet security, privacy, and access to geographically restricted content or censored material.

It is always a good idea to cover your digital presence with an added security layer in the form of a VPN to protect your personal information from those looking to intercept it with ill intentions.