I Disappear

It’s an interesting world we live in. A few huge companies surround us, offering us some amazing services. Some are free, others come at a fee. But all come with an added cost of giving up on some of our privacy.

I used to wave this concern off. What do I care, let them store data about me. Over time, I realised I really should care. There are a lot of articles out there that tell you why. And, for the most part, the effort involved is minimal.

One of the ways to protect your identity is to use a VPN. There are quite a few services out there that offer you an anonymous VPN. I can only testify to the one I’m using, which is IPVanish*. But maybe I should take a step back. What is a VPN?

Let’s say you live in the UK. Servers probing your IP address will know you are connecting to them from the UK. See here. Well, that’s a bit annoying. That means Facebook, Google and a host of other companies know where you are connecting from.

Along comes the VPN. A VPN, or a Virtual Private Network, is an extension of your local network. What this actually means is, the servers you connect to think you are whoever the VPN is. So let’s say your VPN service provider has a server in Spain which you connect to. Now, if you check where servers think you’re from, you’ll find they think you are connecting from Spain. Nice!

Tricking servers into thinking you’re coming from elsewhere has other advantages. For example, you can consume content that’s restricted to that particular country. Censorship 0, us 1. Go team!

Why did I choose IPVanish? First, they support a very broad range of platforms. From Windows, to MacOS, to Android, iOS, Linux, Chrome OS and then some. Second, they have servers pretty much everywhere in the world (well, over 75 locations in the world). They have no speed limit, no traffic logs, no device limit… So quite attractive.

Anther service you might want to consider is NordVPN. Now go and disappear!

Until November 30^th, you can claim a 50% discount using my link.

_{I may get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.}