We live in an era of hyper-vigilance. We are always worried about our internet service provider (ISP) spying on our browsing habits, and the government tracking our activities. Sometimes, traveling to another country can be challenging for journalists, lawyers, and doctors who have tons of sensitive information on their cloud, email and hard drives. Logging into your mail while using a public network can threaten the privacy of your clients and risk your reputation as a professional.

Regular internet users often feel threatened by the somewhat dangerous and authoritarian laws of the government when it comes to the free download of files via torrent. Watching geo-specific content on global channels like YouTube and logging into social media platforms like Facebook from certain countries can be challenging for any traveler. For example – certain countries like China, Iran, and North Korea have banned access to Facebook. If your daily work depends on social media activities, you may want to stay up-to-date with the social media trends and your posts. Doing so without enough privacy and security can lead to not only penalties, but also jail terms in certain countries. What are the ways you can ensure complete safety and privacy of your data on the web?

Why do you need more than the incognito option on your browser?

Going incognito on your browser does not protect the user from trackers and spyware. If you want complete protection, you need to think about VPN service providers. VPN or virtual private network provides full encryption of the data between the sender and the receiver. It is one of the time-tested ways to protect user identity, data privacy and work with almost complete anonymity on the web. Check out the VPN recommendations that ensure complete freedom from third-party snooping and data spying. There is another way you may be able to protect your right to privacy, but the success will depend entirely upon the execution of the tactic. Plausible deniability can help save you and your data from the hands of the third-party authorities in case they get a whiff of the activities on your alleged device. If you can manage to prove that the phone or device that the user used to go online does not belong to you and that you do not know the password to access the files, you may get plausible deniability.

How does plausible deniability help with user protection?

In New Zealand, border agents have the right to check mobile phones, tablets, and passwords of the travelers by retrieving the passwords from them. While it is not a legal assurance, you can leverage plausible deniability in the event of privacy intrusions. One of the smart ways to achieve it is by encrypting your data on your devices. Whether it is your phone, laptop or external hard drives, you need to rely on 128-bit encryption to protect your data privacy rights and your human rights (the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 12). Apart from encrypting the sensitive information, most professionals who rely on data for their livelihood, add a secret volume to the device. These are hidden and encrypted containers inside individual encrypted containers. There are two layers of safety along with double password protection. When an intruder accesses the outermost volume or folder, it is impossible to tell if there is another folder with data within.

Who needs complete data protection?

These are ways that can protect the data that you already have in possession. However, most of us are online all the time, and we tend to share data and information across mailing platforms and social media. For lawyers, private investigators, government officials, and doctors, data privacy is of utmost importance. They not only need protection for the data that already exists on their devices but protection from third-party intrusions while conversing with clients, colleagues and higher authorities. Only a VPN service provider can give you a satisfactory level of security and data protection you need to ensure the privacy of your clients. Data threats are real. Over a hundred ransomware threats have driven thousands of regular web users towards VPNs and proxy servers.

Do you need a VPN service?

To protect your data effectively, you must construct a threat model. An excellent threat model includes at least five individual traits –

• The definition or identity of the data you need to protect
• The potential threats to the information
• The real probability of the intruders getting a hold of the data
• The possibilities and methods of protecting the data
• The possible result of a failure

Apart from encrypting your hard drives and SSDs, using strong passwords and using two-factor authentications on your profiles, you should ensure the use of end-to-end encryption of the communication channels you use to communicate.

At the same time, you must list the reasons you want to adopt a VPN service. Do you have something that needs protection? What will the discovery or intervention cause? Will it lead to incrimination, or social exile, or marital dispute? Will it cause entanglements with the law? Depending on your need, you should prioritize the protection requirements, your budget and the selection of the VPN service providers. Always pick a VPN that has a reliable reputation and a clean history, without any record of divulging client information to third-parties.

Why should all users consider adopting a VPN service soon?

A VPN service can give you peaceful browsing on public networks, protection from third-party intrusions and secure communication channels. Whether you want to access work accounts on the go or secure your browsing history, a reliable VPN service provider can help you out in any corner of the world. Most providers now cover all kinds of devices and operating software including iOS, Android and Android TV. They even provide proxy extensions for Firefox and Chrome users. Several providers offer multi-device and multi-user VPN accounts that can benefit you, your family and friends while on a foreign trip. For more shared accounts, you should check out their enterprise versions that cover all necessities of data privacy in large corporations.