Many people avoid the public WiFi risk by recruiting their phone's hotspot. Other hackers users public WiFi to unleash malware to all of the suckers using the network without protection.

This Man-in-the-Middle situation is like eavesdropping, but on emails, credit card info, and work logins. Often, the easiest thing for hackers to do is slide in between your device and the connection point. That network is littered with unsecured devices, many times belonging to working professionals with bank accounts and business credentials that have phishers frothing at the mouth. Hackers love free WiFi for the same reason you do: Connecting to the internet requires no authentication. VPNs are as wise of a precaution as antivirus software or a password manager ( yes, this applies to Macs too). A VPN's job is to plug the holes that could be making your data vulnerable to nefarious eyeballs, like creeps scouring public WiFi networks for personal information that could be used to steal your identity. It acts as a bodyguard between you and your internet service provider (and hackers, and other third-party weirdos) by hollowing out a personal security tunnel through which you perform all of your internet activities. The bottom line is simple: People don't want other people watching what they're doing online, even if they're not doing anything wrong.Ī VPN (virtual private network) is an internet security subscription that basically allows you to make up your own internet rules.

We know you've probably seen absolutely loads of VPN reviews from experts across the board, but if you wanted a raw opinion - or thousands of them - from people with absolutely no filter, there's only one place to go: Reddit.

Would you be chill if someone leaked your entire search history to the government? How about if your internet provider made it so that one episode of The Office took an hour to load? If you've had a crisis about anything like this, you've probably considered investing in a VPN. This content originally appeared on Mashable for a US audience and has been adapted for the UK audience.

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