How VPNs help with online privacy

A virtual private network (VPN) service can be used for many things, including streaming and online gaming. But the job of a VPN, first and foremost, is to protect and anonymise the internet connection of a device. Here’s how the right VPN can help protect and anonymise your internet connection in Australia.

Ideally, a good VPN will keep your internet connection private and protected. The standard among the dozen-plus VPNs we’ve reviewed is military-grade encryption. In technical terms, this includes 256-bit data encryption and either 2048-bit or 4096-bit channel encryption. Translation: a very secure connection for any of your devices connected to a VPN server.

Military-grade encryption is great for security but it also helps with privacy. How a VPN works is by connecting to a server, either nearby or from location choices around the globe. Your typical provider-allocated IP address changes to the one associated with the VPN server and all of your downloaded and uploaded data is encrypted. For starters, this acts as a great mask for your location specifics from prying eyes, but the fact that VPN server encryption makes your internet data almost impossible to monitor.

That’s great news for VPN users looking to keep their internet goings-on private for a range of privacy reasons. Below is a selection of VPNs that we’ve reviewed, which have 256-bit data encryption and 4096-bit channel encryption to boost baseline privacy and security.

Military-grade encryption is a great starting point but there are other factors to consider if you want the ultimate anonymised VPN experience. One of the big talking points among VPN providers is what’s called a “zero-logging policy”. As the phrase implies, this refers to VPN providers that pledge to not log any user activity.

Effectively, if there is a data breach or something similar, the VPN provider isn’t storing any user-identifying logs. The better examples come from VPN providers with RAM servers. Typical VPN servers are capable of logging data, while RAM servers are incapable of long-term storage of user data, adding extra peace of mind. Look to NordVPN, Private Internet Access VPN, ExpressVPN and CyberGhost VPN for RAM servers.

Where a VPN is headquartered can add an additional peace of mind. There are several countries that are part of data-sharing agreements. Hypothetically, this means if a particular government or country requests user data, a VPN provider may be compelled to share it. The way around this is to use a VPN provider that’s headquartered in a country that doesn’t participate in these kinds of data-sharing agreements.

There are many data-sharing alliances around the world, so government agencies can potentially compel certain countries to share user data, including any stored VPN user data. These agreements cover the so-called Five Eyes, Nine Eyes and Fourteen Eyes countries, which includes the USA, the Netherlands, Canada and Switzerland, to name a few.

Here’s a full list of the countries involved in these data-sharing alliances.

Five Eyes countries:

• Australia
• Canada
• New Zealand
• United Kingdom
• United States of America

Nine Eyes countries (Five Eyes, plus):

• Denmark
• France
• Netherlands
• Norway

Fourteen Eyes countries (Nine Eyes, plus):

• Germany
• Belgium
• Italy
• Spain
• Sweden

I mentioned those specific example countries above because they are nations that are home to the headquarters of certain popular VPNs. For ultimate security, stick with VPNs that are headquartered in countries like Panama, the British Virgin Islands, Romania and Switzerland. In terms of specific VPNs, consider NordVPN, ExpressVPN, PureVPN, CyberGhost, Proton VPN and PrivadoVPN.

If you want to take your VPN privacy another step further, factor in the available protocols used for connecting devices to VPN servers. VPN protocols dictate the overall speed, security and privacy of a connection.

OpenVPN is a private and auditable VPN protocol that’s a great starting point. While most VPNs default to automatically selecting a VPN protocol, you’ll find OpenVPN in the following VPNs:

• NordVPN
• ExpressVPN
• Surfshark VPN
• CyberGhost
• Proton VPN
• PureVPN
• IPVanish VPN
• TunnelBear VPN
• Mullvad VPN
• VPN Unlimited
• Windscribe VPN
• Private Internet Access
• Privado VPN

One of the better VPN protocols is L2TP, which isn’t the fastest VPN protocol out there but it does preference user anonymity. You’ll find L2TP as a VPN protocol option in ExpressVPN. Note that VPNs like ExpressVPN offer proprietary VPN protocols, which may offer additional privacy benefits. If unique VPN protocols are of interest, consider NordVPN, Proton VPN, Hotspot Shield VPN and VPN Unlimited.