iPhones have always been praised for their reliability.
Indeed, if you compare Apple iOS to other mobile operating systems, it will beat them on a number of criteria.
But, do not delude yourself into a false sense of security.
iPhones are still vulnerable to a variety of cyber threats, which means you still need some special tools to protect your sensitive data from hackers and other intruders.
Now, if you’re asking yourself, “Do I Need A VPN On My iPhone?”, there is a high chance that you take your Internet privacy and security as seriously as you should.
Therefore, in this article, we’ll discuss why having a reliable VPN for your iPhone is crucial these days.
What Is A VPN
In case you don’t know what a VPN actually is, firstly, let’s give it a definition.
The acronym VPN stands for Virtual Private Network.
A VPN is a technology that allows for a secure data transmission between your device and the Internet.
What a VPN does is it creates a secure virtual tunnel that encrypts all the data that goes through it.
Due to the IP change and robust encryption that VPNs provide, the data that travels through that tunnel can’t be viewed or intercepted by third parties like your ISP, marketers, or even online thieves.
In most cases, VPNs are used to bypass censorship and geo-restrictions, change your IP address, and to protect your delicate data from hackers and snoopers.
However, with a VPN service, you can do many other interesting things.
How Does It Work
A VPN is simply an app that can be installed on your iPhone.
The app allows you to open a list of VPN servers located in different parts of the world.
By tapping on a button “Connect”, you can connect to a server in a country of your choice.
From that moment and on, your online data will be encrypted and forwarded through a secure VPN tunnel.
Your IP will also be changed to the one that corresponds with the country where your VPN server is located.
Why Use A VPN On iPhone
Though Apple does everything to make its product as secure as possible, you should, nevertheless, think of using a VPN on your iPhone.
That’s because no device in the world is 100% immune to cyber attacks.
In fact, in spring 2020, specialists from cybersecurity firm ZecOps discovered a new iOS vulnerability that allowed hackers to hijack emails.
What this means is that by exploiting this breach, hackers could potentially read your emails, use your email box to scam people you know, and what is worse, steal all passwords from your sensitive accounts.
This being said, many iPhone users continue to rely solely on internal iOS security mechanisms, thus often becoming victims of cybercrime.
What Is VPN On iPhone Used For
If you want to be confident in your online privacy and security, you definitely need to use a VPN.
Of course, you can also use it for many other purposes.
Here are 8 main reasons why you should use a VPN for your iPhone:
1. A VPN helps you bypass censorship and geo-restrictions
Censorship and geo-restrictions are the two types of invisible barriers that stand between you and the content you want to access.
Imagine yourself trying to relax on a couch and watch some new series of a TV show that you love.
You’ve grabbed some snacks and are about to stream the new episodes of your favorite show on Netflix or Hulu.
You’re trying to turn Netflix on, but to your surprise, the only thing that you see is the error message stating, “This title is not available to watch in your area. (22004)”
You instantly become frustrated and spend long hours figuring out what’s wrong only to find that you’ve faced some kind of censorship restrictions.
Now, let’s imagine another situation.
On your vacations, you decide to fly to China to explore the culture of the country.
After a few days in China, you recall that you need to check in on Facebook to wish one of your close friends Happy Birthday.
You’re trying to open Facebook, but your iPhone tells you that the website can’t be reached.
This time you’re witnessing geo-restrictions that the Chinese government imposed on Facebook.
While both of these situations are quite distressing, you can easily fix the problems by using an iPhone VPN.
A VPN allows you to seamlessly bypass all censorship restrictions and unblock such services as Youtube, Facebook, Skype, and many others.
2. With a VPN, you can stay safe on a public WiFi
Hackers often set up fake WiFi hotspots to trick people into thinking they’re legitimate ones.
When you connect to such a hotspot, you expose your Internet connection to different kinds of vulnerabilities.
These vulnerabilities let hackers monitor your online activities, eavesdrop on your calls, send you malware to corrupt your device data, or intercept the data you transmit to crack your financial accounts.
Now, if you don’t use anything except your home WiFi, you may think that you’re playing it safe.
Well, your home router does really provide some encryption called WPA-2.
But, unfortunately, WPA-2 encryption has several major security flaws that put your WiFi at risk of hijacking.
Therefore, the only good encryption you can get is AES-256 encryption provided to you by a VPN.
What is more, since with a VPN your IP address gets changed, hackers can’t pick you as a target, simply because your real IP is hidden.
3. You can download and upload files privately and securely
While you have a VPN running on your iPhone, nobody can spy on your physical location.
This may be especially helpful if you want to download and upload files securely and anonymously.
Whether you share files in a usual manner or by using a P2P client, with a VPN, you can be confident that you do this in complete anonymity, and no one can intercept the data you send.
4. By using a VPN, you can avoid admin blocks at work or school
If you surf the web on your iPhone at office, campus, or school, you’ve probably noticed that you are unable to access some websites.
That’s because your school or workplace has regulations as to web usage, and its network admin has blocked access to certain websites.
Luckily, with a VPN for iPhone, you don’t need to worry about such regulations.
Since a VPN hides your IP, you can easily bypass any admin restrictions, whether it’s school, campus, or your workplace.
5. Your ISP and other third-parties can’t spy on you
Without a VPN, your ISP can easily track your Internet connection and view anything you do on the web.
It can see your geo-location, track your browsing and shopping habits, and even read your browsing history.
What is more, your ISP can sell your Internet activity logs to advertisers so that they could send you targeted ads.
Fortunately, by using a VPN on an iPhone, you can prevent your ISP from spying on your connection.
A VPN encrypts your Internet traffic and hides your digital identity, making it impossible for third-parties to intrude on your privacy.
6. With a VPN, bandwidth throttling is not an issue anymore
With the elimination of net neutrality in almost all corners of the world, ISPs can now freely throttle your bandwidth whenever they want to.
In case you don’t know what bandwidth throttling is, here is a quick explanation.
Bandwidth throttling is intentional slowing down of your connection speeds to avoid “network congestion.”
ISPs can also throttle your Internet speeds because they think you use up “too much data” when playing games or streaming video.
But ISPs are only able to throttle your connection when they see what you’re doing on the web.
And that is when a VPN comes handy.
With a VPN, you can encrypt your web traffic and change your geo-location so that no one could snoop on your activities.
This way, you’ll avoid ISP tracking and your connection won’t be throttled.
7. You can buy things online at a cheaper price
Airline companies, gaming platforms, online service providers, and some Internet shops often bump their prices based on your location.
So, for example, if you live in a high-income country, you’ll be asked to pay a higher price for such things as flight tickets, hotel bookings, games, and online services.
Fortunately, by using a VPN, you can change your geo-location to a low-income country and shop around for better deals.
8. You can use a VPN to get rid of unwanted ads
Shopping on the Internet entails leaving your digital footprints.
Some of your footprints, like your shopping habits and your IP address, can be used by marketing agencies to bombard you with pop-ups, banners, and other unwanted display ads.
The good news is that with a VPN, you can quickly get under the marketers’ radar just by changing your IP address.
Wrapping Things Up
Though people tend to think that iPhones don’t have any security flaws, numerous tests have shown that iOS isn’t hacker-proof.
Therefore, you need to use security software such as a VPN to protect your iPhone system from being exploited.
With a VPN, you can change your IP address and encrypt all your online traffic and data.
This way, you don’t need to worry about:
- Censorship and geo-restriction that prevent you from accessing your favorite content
- Hackers breaching your iPhone to corrupt or steal your sensitive data
- Your ISP snooping on your connection and selling your activity logs to advertisement agencies
- Bandwidth throttling
- Public Wi-Fi security
- Network blocks at your school or workplace
- Marketers bombarding you with targeted display ads
