What you should know about VPNs

VPNs are not a one-size-fits-all security solution. Instead, they’re just one part of keeping your data private and secure. Roya Ensafi, assistant professor of computer science and engineering at the University of Michigan, told Engadget that VPNs don’t protect against common threats like phishing attacks, nor do they protect your data from being stolen. But they do come in handy for online privacy when you’re connecting to an untrusted network somewhere public because they tunnel and encrypt your traffic to the next hop.

In other words, secure VPN services mask your IP address and the identity of your computer or mobile device on the network and create an encrypted "tunnel" that prevents your internet service provider (ISP) from accessing data about your browsing history. Even then, much of the data or information is stored with the VPN provider instead of your ISP, which means that using a poorly designed or unprotected network can still undermine your security.

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