To VPN or Not VPN. That is the Question.

In 2018, there was a lot of discussion around Net Neutrality and whether it was important to preserve or if was not really needed. There were interesting points made on both sides of the argument but what it led me to personally was the decision to start using a VPN (or Virtual Private Network) account at home.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with VPNs, think of them as a tunnel that allows you to transfer data securely between your computer and the rest of the world. Oftentimes, a VPN service will have servers set up in various locations around the world that function as your tunnel’s “exit”. Inside your tunnel, any data that gets transferred is encrypted and cannot be read by outside parties.

To use a comic book reference to illustrate, think back to the 60’s Batman show. We’d see Adam West as Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) sliding down the pole into the Batcave below his home, jumping into the Batmobile and exiting out of a secret entrance miles from stately Wayne Manor. In this way, he kept his secret identity safe because the Batmobile is never seen near his house. VPN’s work the same way… albeit without the cool costume and utility belt. You activate your VPN on your computer and it connects to a server somewhere in the world. When you do something on the Web – say use your browser or send email – everything gets encrypted, sent to that server, decrypted and then sent on its way. Then, when say your Google search results come back, they go to that server, gets encrypted and sent back to your computer where your system unscrambles it. The VPN acts like your own private Batcave entrance. In this way, you are effectively protected from prying eyes.

I weighed a lot of the issues about using a VPN – the cost, how hard would it be to set up, will it slow-down of my Internet surfing (because everything has to be routed to that external server plus go through encryption) and even the “do I really need the extra privacy?” question.

Thankfully, there are quite a few affordable services that have very user-friendly interfaces that make setting up a VPN pretty simple. That took care of my first two concerns. Then, with high-speed Internet that’s available today, any slowdown is pretty minimal so I crossed that one off my list too. So the question came down to whether I needed – or wanted – to add the layer of privacy.

Frankly, my Internet activity is more functional and not all that interesting. I do online banking and some shopping so there is some risk there. But the bigger issue for me was in regards to my own information. We live in an age where companies have gathered immense amounts of data about each of us and I decided to take a small stand and not feed more fuel into that particular fire. Yes, knowing more about me helps companies better target services and offerings that I’m interested in which is a win-win. But, for me at least, it came down to two issues:

First is whether I trust these companies to use my information responsibly; after all, they would be using it to manipulate me to do something they want me to do… most likely to buy something. As a marketer, I’m okay with that in concept but I prefer a more level playing field where you don’t have complete information about me or at least information that I’ve not willingly provided to you. (Note to self… do a future post on my research on how to remove information about myself from these data aggregators.)

My other issue was, even with the best of intentions, we have seen that companies fail time and again to keep our personal information safe. How many of us have been the victim of a data breach at one or more companies? There was one point where I think I had three different identify protection offers because three different companies dropped the ball in protecting their servers and I, as their customer, was now exposed.

As for my own experience, I paid what I felt was a very small fee ($75 for three years of service), installed the company’s software and let it choose a server at random. My only issue so far – and it’s specific to the company I went with – is that I need to buy a new router that has better compatibility with their service. After a recent upgrade, every wireless connection in my house still works great with my main PC – which is wired directly to the router – can no longer use the VPN service. Still, that annoyance aside, I’m pretty happy with my decision and I feel just a little bit more in control of my information.

Do you need a VPN? Well, like a lot of questions, the answer is “it depends.” If you find yourself agreement with what I shared in this post, then I think you have your answer. If you disagree with my basic stance on privacy and the right of people to control their information, I can respect that. What is most important, however, is for each of us to feel empowered to make an informed decision and then to act – or not act – explicitly because of that. Never lose sight that it is your information that we’re talking about here.

I’m pulling for you.