If you're concerned about online privacy, a virtual private network (VPN) will help keep snoopers at bay. We round up the six best VPN services for hiding your location online and allowing you to access blocked content and blocked sites. (Also see: Best free VPN services 2016.)
Before you even start looking for the best VPN to suit your needs, you should consider if it is a Virtual Private Network service that you actually require. The term VPN is today frequently bandied around as a means to geolocate oneself elsewhere, usually to counter businesses that restrict their online services to users from within a particular region.
Many people use such countermeasures in order to enjoy the BBC’s iPlayer streaming services while outside the UK; or to make use of the expanded catalogue of film and television offered by US Netflix, in contrast to the more limited selection in the UK.
However, for simple virtual geographical relocation to gain an IP address in the required region, a proxy server is all that is required. Proxy servers can be found more readily and cheaply from various free and commercial providers, sometimes using as little as a basic web browser plug-in.
But it’s the ‘P’ in VPN that is of most benefit to those that really need it. VPN was originally devised for enterprise businesses to allow communications beyond the company firewall that could not be easily eavesdropped while traversing the public internet. As well as connecting various outposts of the company based in different cities or countries, it allowed staff to work remotely away from the office, whether from home or while on the road. Yet they could still connect securely to the company intranet transparently as if they were within the same physical building. Also see: How to use a free VPN: A step-by-step guide.
Now VPN is becoming increasingly useful for anyone that wishes to surf the internet with an element of anonymity, by helping to disguise their originating home IP address. VPN connections are also put to use for political safety; for example, in order to avoid state censorship and persecution, busting through filtering and logging at the ISP or state firewall level.
Another application may be to help sidestep the relentless tracking by commercial corporations such as social media and online advertising brokers. They now consider every net user fair game for tracking and profiling, collecting personal data and targeting advertising at us for profit. Or a VPN link may be used to minimise surveillance by the US and UK intelligence agencies that we now know record all of our online activities and personal communications.
There is the darker side of VPN use too, associated with criminals and others who try to stay off the radar of law enforcement.
In between the two opposite ends of political and criminal applications of VPN is the greyer area of peer-to-peer file sharing, for which some users prefer to avoid any possible retribution from big-media trade associations such as the MPAA by using encrypted VPN connections. Also see: How to watch US Netflix in the UK.
Best VPN services 2016 UK: Free VPN services
Everyone likes good value, and nothing looks quite as invitingly good as free. But as with any online service that is billed as free, beware that you’re as likely to be selling your soul as getting a good deal. Offers that promise free VPN connections may have dangerous strings attached.
An example is HotSpot Shield, a popular free VPN service that installs unwanted toolbars, third-party applications, corrupts your default search provider settings and then bombards the hapless user with in-line, pop-up and pop-under ads. Depending on your viewpoint, such weaponised ‘free’ software will be classed as unwanted applications at best, or malware at worst. Also see: Why you need a VPN.
It pays to read carefully the terms of service. AnchorFree, the developer of HotSpot Shield is good enough to warn you in its terms of service: “AnchorFree may deliver third-party Advertisements within the content of any web page accessed… You hereby acknowledge and consent that AnchorFree may alter the content of any web page accessed for the purpose of displaying advertisements.” (This might help: How to use a VPN: set up VPN for private browsing.)
Before you even start looking for the best VPN to suit your needs, you should consider if it is a Virtual Private Network service that you actually require. The term VPN is today frequently bandied around as a means to geolocate oneself elsewhere, usually to counter businesses that restrict their online services to users from within a particular region.
Many people use such countermeasures in order to enjoy the BBC’s iPlayer streaming services while outside the UK; or to make use of the expanded catalogue of film and television offered by US Netflix, in contrast to the more limited selection in the UK.
However, for simple virtual geographical relocation to gain an IP address in the required region, a proxy server is all that is required. Proxy servers can be found more readily and cheaply from various free and commercial providers, sometimes using as little as a basic web browser plug-in.
But it’s the ‘P’ in VPN that is of most benefit to those that really need it. VPN was originally devised for enterprise businesses to allow communications beyond the company firewall that could not be easily eavesdropped while traversing the public internet. As well as connecting various outposts of the company based in different cities or countries, it allowed staff to work remotely away from the office, whether from home or while on the road. Yet they could still connect securely to the company intranet transparently as if they were within the same physical building. Also see: How to use a free VPN: A step-by-step guide.
Now VPN is becoming increasingly useful for anyone that wishes to surf the internet with an element of anonymity, by helping to disguise their originating home IP address. VPN connections are also put to use for political safety; for example, in order to avoid state censorship and persecution, busting through filtering and logging at the ISP or state firewall level.
Another application may be to help sidestep the relentless tracking by commercial corporations such as social media and online advertising brokers. They now consider every net user fair game for tracking and profiling, collecting personal data and targeting advertising at us for profit. Or a VPN link may be used to minimise surveillance by the US and UK intelligence agencies that we now know record all of our online activities and personal communications.
There is the darker side of VPN use too, associated with criminals and others who try to stay off the radar of law enforcement.
In between the two opposite ends of political and criminal applications of VPN is the greyer area of peer-to-peer file sharing, for which some users prefer to avoid any possible retribution from big-media trade associations such as the MPAA by using encrypted VPN connections. Also see: How to watch US Netflix in the UK.
Best VPN services 2016 UK: Free VPN services
Everyone likes good value, and nothing looks quite as invitingly good as free. But as with any online service that is billed as free, beware that you’re as likely to be selling your soul as getting a good deal. Offers that promise free VPN connections may have dangerous strings attached.
An example is HotSpot Shield, a popular free VPN service that installs unwanted toolbars, third-party applications, corrupts your default search provider settings and then bombards the hapless user with in-line, pop-up and pop-under ads. Depending on your viewpoint, such weaponised ‘free’ software will be classed as unwanted applications at best, or malware at worst. Also see: Why you need a VPN.
It pays to read carefully the terms of service. AnchorFree, the developer of HotSpot Shield is good enough to warn you in its terms of service: “AnchorFree may deliver third-party Advertisements within the content of any web page accessed… You hereby acknowledge and consent that AnchorFree may alter the content of any web page accessed for the purpose of displaying advertisements.” (This might help: How to use a VPN: set up VPN for private browsing.)
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