What a VPN Can and Can't Do for You
Most VPN ads promise total privacy. The reality is narrower, and knowing the limits helps you use one well. Three takeaways A VPN hides your traffic from the local network. On café or airport Wi-Fi, it stops people o
Most VPN ads promise total privacy. The reality is narrower, and knowing the limits helps you use one well.
Three takeaways
- A VPN hides your traffic from the local network. On café or airport Wi-Fi, it stops people on the same network and your ISP from seeing which sites you visit.
- It does not make you anonymous. Logged-in accounts, cookies and browser fingerprinting still identify you, and the VPN provider itself can see your traffic.
- It won't stop phishing or malware. A fake login page works just as well over a VPN, so updates, passkeys and a password manager still matter more.
For the full breakdown of when a VPN is worth it and how to pick a trustworthy one, read what VPNs actually protect you from (and what they don't).
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Originally published at Guru X Blog.
This article was written with the help of AI and fact-checked and edited before publishing.
Originally published by Dev.to Security. Aggregated on AIWithGhost for educational purposes — full credit and traffic to the original publisher.