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What is this ‘VPN’ thing?

Tomer Yair Zemel

People ask us, what is this VPN thing you have in BodyGuard?

The answer is quite simple! A VPN, also known as a virtual private network, is a secure tunnel between the device you are using and the internet itself. To simplify it further, think of a VPN as a filter to all your internet traffic/connection, when in fact, it's a service that protects your internet connection and privacy online. Ultimately, this " filter", encrypts your internet traffic and masks your digital identity, making it next to impossible for anyone to track your activities online.

A VPN is your fastest way to protect your online identity and keep it private and secured and, you can choose to do so with the free or the paid version of VPN available. While a VPN is meant to keep you secured from online malicious activity and all sorts of snooping, not all of them will actually keep you safe. Surprisingly, some might even cause severe damage to your data.

My personal VPN research and conclusions

I have been researching many VPNs (free and paid for ones) and essentially, I still don't really get what each version of VPN provides. I have no shame in admitting that it's as difficult to understand as the different policies of each provider. Gosh, there were so many questions at mind:

• Does it slow my speed and why?
• Does it keep all my information and browsing data?
• Why does it need special permissions?
• Why do I see different Ads all of a sudden after activation?

And many more.

All I really wanted to achieve is a feeling of some ownership over my digital life, and to my surprise, I couldn't find a straight answer. Somehow, there was a grey area with many VPN providers, especially the free ones, and it seemed that many providers promising " 100% guaranteed privacy ", enabled some sort of a breach in my data.

So why did I eventually avoid a free VPN?

It is a tale as old as time, if it's free, you must think to yourself, is it? is it really free? I mean, there is always a price. It was said many times, when the product is free, we become the actual product, our information, our browsing history, and our habits, they actually become the price.

While you might save a few bucks using a free VPN, the risks to your privacy and data are really not worth it, to this humble writer's opinion anyway. Did you know that free VPNs are more likely to track your data? As per a recent study, more than 50% of the free VPN providers tracked the user data and, on the other hand, 60% of paid VPN providers did not track their user’s online activity.

You see, when you use a free VPN, that might actually cost you much more down the line if your information is being sold or used, it goes from the commercials that might be directed at you (some times even fake commercials on untrusted sites) and it follows with Ad's that might actually be harmful to your digital device. So while the option to not pay for it, often sounds great, it might also end up costing me much more later on and I rather just pay for a VPN provider that can keep my data and trust, airtight.

Size doesn't matter!

The biggest myth that we believe today, is that only large enterprises need VPN. In my opinion, It can not be further away from the truth. Not only huge companies need to protect themselves but really, every individual who uses the internet needs to be secured via VPN. I'll explain the common benefits of it and you can decide for yourself:

• VPN enhances your online security
• Masks your location / Anonymity
• Provides end to end encryption
• Prevents data throttling
• VPN removes geographical limitations and restricted access

It simply gives you the privacy advantage that is so often taken away from us in this big internet world.

To summarize, why is privacy policy everything to me?

After this long article on my personal research, I can 100% tell you, all though I'm not very objective obviously, I do honestly choose BodyGuard VPN. The privacy policy is clear to me, I know what is being kept, I know none of my browsing data is being shared, or sold, or used and I feel that my personal identity, is safe.

In life, I do my best to learn and choose from the facts in every aspect and this case is no different for me. In my search for the perfect VPN, I wanted to find one that keeps me safe and gives me assurance that my browsing data is not being kept for any reason and I feel comfortable enough saying this after looking at many others, I found it, in my very own company, with BodyGuard!

At SafeHouse Tech, we make sure to be visible with our users, keep it affordable for everyone and be extremely specific about the data we do keep and do not keep. Not just that, we also made sure we let our website users know exactly what data we keep so that they are aware and have a choice. We believe in our users, their right to real privacy and real security, and want to encourage them to take control of their digital identity.

If you have any questions about your own online privacy and security, feel free to ping us at insupport@safehousetech.com and we will answer all your questions!

Thank you for reading my story,

Tomer Yair Zemel
SafeHosue Tech