In a time when everyone is trying to steal your personal information in the current climate, a VPN can assist you in avoiding this by making your connections safe and secure. While the promises of military-grade security and total invisibility may entice you, Consumer Reports Yael Grauer suggests you look for more evidence to prove that the service you are contemplating is legitimate.
It is a good idea to start with compatibility – search for a service that can support at least the most popular operating systems, such as Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. It is important to know how many devices are supported by the service and how many connections it is able to allow concurrently. Finally, you’ll want to consider the number of servers available and their locations around the world. This can help you pick the closest server to your home or one that provides fast speeds when you’re traveling across the globe.
Certain services provide specialized functions, such as dedicated “Netflix servers” that allow access to geo-restricted websites, as well as extra security features, such a RAM-only servers, which erase data each time the service reboots as well as monitoring the dark web and security measures to protect against threats. Find out the ownership structure of the company and determine if it has been involved in privacy breaches or privacy scandals in the past.
The most reliable overall service we tested was NordVPN with its thousands of servers in 94 countries AES-256 encryption and ChaCha20, a reliable kill switch, split tunneling and obfuscated servers. It’s also one of the few providers to publish its detailed no-logs policy and engages PricewaterhouseCoopers for annual audits. It’s not cheap, but you get a lot for your money. A long-term plan that is generous comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
