This 1 Hack Could Protect Your Information Online, According To Security Experts

Kyli Rodriguez-Cayro

Tue, December 30, 2025 at 12:00 PM UTC

Digital privacy is no longer a concern that's reserved for the tech-savvy. The average internet user (ahem, billions of people globally ) is online in some form every single day.

Pew Research findings suggest that people in the United States are increasingly worried about ways in which the government, social media platforms and other sites are collecting ― and in some cases ― selling consumer data. That said, there are digital privacy resources that everyone can benefit from utilizing, and one of those practical resources is a virtual private network, aka a VPN.

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Experts explained to HuffPost how VPN services work, and why investing in a VPN service can help protect your digital privacy .

What is a VPN and how does it work?

"A VPN prevents your internet service provider [ISP] ― whether that's your home cable service, your employer's network, your school's internet service, or the airport or cafe WiFi ― from seeing what sites you are visiting online," Nick Doty , a senior technologist at the Center for Democracy and Technology, told HuffPost, adding that "it can prevent the sites you visit from knowing exactly where you're visiting from."

In simpler terms, VPN services create a layer of partial anonymity from your ISP by encrypting your online browsing, and reroutes that browsing through a different service to obfuscate your physical location.

Samantha Baldwin , a policy and research Staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, further explained that "this means that your ISP sees the connection from your computer to the VPN provider, but, if the VPN is following good security practices, not which website you're connecting to or the contents of the traffic."

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A VPN can be thought of as a middleman between you and ISP, or a virtual mask. This may sound akin to going incognito mode or opening a private browsing tab, but a VPN casts a much wider net when it comes to privacy: While incognito mode hides your website history in your phone or computer's web browser of choice , preventing someone viewing this on a device, your internet provider still tracks the sites you've visited.

What are the benefits to having one?

"It's important to ask yourself what information you're trying to protect from whom," Baldwin said. "If you're trying to avoid advertisers and malicious site owners from bulk collecting your data, using a VPN to hide your IP from the site may help prevent advertisers from correlating your current browsing session with your identity."

Meaning, if you're tired of clearing cookies and marking the constant influx of advertisements as spam, a VPN can prevent some of that.

Another common purpose of VPNs is to stream services that you may not otherwise be able to access.

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"If you're a Swede traveling in Mexico and you want to watch the IIHF World Juniors, a VPN can be a good way to accomplish this," Baldwin explained. While this is not illegal unless a VPN is outright banned in a country, this is often a violation against platforms' terms of service .

What's more, Doty said that "Through providing privacy, VPNs can be a helpful tool in improving access to communications online and evading different forms of censorship." For example, journalists who are researching or writing about sensitive topics may utilize a VPN to actively conceal their internet traffic.

There are pros and cons to having a VPN, according to security experts, but it can help protect your privacy online. Fiordaliso via Getty Images

There are some limitations of VPNs.

VPNs are an effective way to bypass online censorship and protect your digital rights, but they do not come without drawbacks.

"Sites can and do filter traffic from VPNs. VPNs can slow down your connection, both making it slower to load pages, and slower to download content because the VPN will potentially have bandwidth limitations that are lower than your own connection," Baldwin explained.

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For instance, a gamer playing an online multiplayer game is likely to turn off a VPN to eliminate the risk of lagging out or having performance issues.

She added that "sites may limit the number of connections to a single IP, meaning you may be rate limited, blocked, or have to pass a CAPTCHA-like challenge before loading a site." VPNs services, which are typically subscription-based or paid annually, can be turned on and off depending on your specific browsing session needs.

The benefits of a VPN become null if you don't take other security measures such as changing permissions on your devices, or being vigilant about what personal information you put on the web. As Baldwin said, you must ensure "you don't have location sharing enabled in your browser [or] that the Facebook application does not have location permissions on your phone." Otherwise, your digital footprint can still be easily tracked by numerous apps, websites, and advertisers.

Are VPNs legal?

A misconception about VPNs is that they are broadly illegal to use. However, each country has different laws related to their usage .

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VPNs are legal in the United States, Canada, most European countries, and in more countries across the globe. However, in countries such as Turkey, Egypt and Venezuela, VPNs are heavily restricted or outright banned. This underscores the importance of researching specific laws pertinent to where you reside and staying up to date with any policy changes.

Baldwin also noted that even if you live in a country where VPNs are considered legal, "committing an illegal act online over a VPN does not make the act legal."

How to determine if a VPN is reputable and trustworthy

Since VPNs essentially adopt the role of your ISP, Doty explained that it's important to choose a service that "isn't likely to misuse that data about you."

A quick search for commercial VPN services will leave you inundated with options, but not all VPN services offer the same level of security and transparency. When choosing a VPN, Baldwin recommended researching specific features such as whether the VPN is open source . This means that the service's code is publicly available so consumers can verify the function of the VPN, as well as inspect security measures. Moreover, she suggested looking into a VPN that "regularly publishes third-party security audits of their services" to determine the trustworthiness of a VPN provider.

Fortunately, you do not need to be acutely familiar with tech jargon to choose a VPN. Cybersecurity experts regularly share unbiased reviews of VPN services that can assist you in navigating the process of finding a provider.

Protecting your privacy and digital rights beyond using a VPN

Utilizing a VPN service does provide a layer of privacy online. However, it is not foolproof, making it crucial to research additional software and apps that obscure your digital footprint.

"If you want to be anonymous online, your best bet is to learn how to use the Tor Browser safely," Baldwin explained. Tor is a free, downloadable and legal (in most countries) web browser that was developed in the late 2000s as a tool to protect people's privacy online.

Additionally, there are different email providers and encrypted messaging apps that offer a higher level of anonymity that you should consider as part of your arsenal of digital privacy tools to legally skirt surveillance. Again, not all of these services provide the same level of security, so lean on recommendations from cybersecurity experts .

With increasing security risks the everyday person faces online, knowing how to protect yourself on the web is essential.