{"id":5693,"date":"2023-08-28T21:28:52","date_gmt":"2023-08-28T21:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/?page_id=5693"},"modified":"2024-12-09T19:29:56","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T19:29:56","slug":"do-you-really-need-a-vpn","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/advisorator-guides\/do-you-really-need-a-vpn\/","title":{"rendered":"Do you really need a VPN?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<div class=\"wp-block-newsletterglue-metadata ngl-metadata\" style=\"padding-top:10px;padding-bottom:10px;padding-left:20px;padding-right:20px;margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px;color:#666666;text-align:center;font-size:12px\" data-padding=\"10px,10px,20px,20px\" data-margin=\"0px,0px\">\n<div class=\"ngl-metadata-pic\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/aa0adcee1ed4c584fa5754b6bb2f3067?s=96&amp;d=mm&amp;r=g\" class=\"avatar avatar-32 photo\"\/><\/div>\n<div class=\"ngl-metadata-author\">Jared Newman<\/div>\n<div class=\"ngl-metadata-sep\">|<\/div>\n<div class=\"ngl-metadata-date\" data-date-format=\"F j, Y\">August 28, 2023<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"644\" src=\"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn-1024x644.jpg\" alt=\"Proton VPN Windows app\" class=\"wp-image-3806\" srcset=\"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn-1024x644.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn-300x189.jpg 300w, https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn-768x483.jpg 768w, https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn-1536x966.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn-100x63.jpg 100w, https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn-150x94.jpg 150w, https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn-200x126.jpg 200w, https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn-450x283.jpg 450w, https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn-600x377.jpg 600w, https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn-900x566.jpg 900w, https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn.jpg 1672w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"wp-block-ub-table-of-contents-block ub_table-of-contents\" id=\"ub_table-of-contents-d01d861c-dfb4-41de-8882-c01c5c62a5e3\" data-linktodivider=\"false\" data-showtext=\"show\" data-hidetext=\"hide\" data-scrolltype=\"auto\" data-enablesmoothscroll=\"false\" data-initiallyhideonmobile=\"false\" data-initiallyshow=\"true\">\n<div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-header-container\" style=\"background-color: #587a6c; color: #FFFFFF; \">\n<div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-header\" style=\"text-align: left; \">\n<div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-title\">In this guide<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-extra-container\" style=\"\">\n<div class=\"ub_table-of-contents-container ub_table-of-contents-1-column \">\n<ul style=\"\">\n<li style=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/advisorator-guides\/do-you-really-need-a-vpn\/#0-what-a-vpn-does\" style=\"\">What a VPN does<\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/advisorator-guides\/do-you-really-need-a-vpn\/#1-what-vpns-won%E2%80%99t-do\" style=\"\">What VPNs won\u2019t do<\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/advisorator-guides\/do-you-really-need-a-vpn\/#2-vpns-have-trade-offs\" style=\"\">VPNs have trade-offs<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>As a way to protect your privacy and security, the benefits of a virtual private network are often overblown.<\/p>\n<p>VPN providers present them as cure-alls that magically make you invisible on the web. (Surfshark&#8217;s &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/surfshark.com\/blog\/should-i-always-use-a-vpn\">Should I use a VPN all the time?<\/a>&#8221; article is a classic of the genre.) VPN reviewers, meanwhile, can be too eager to play along, perhaps because they earn a commission from the sales their sites generate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div style=\"background-color: #f0f0f0;padding: 20px 20px\">\n<h4 style=\"text-align: center\">Hold up!<\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">This article is for <a href=\"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/subscribe-to-advisorator\/\">Advisorator&#8217;s paying members<\/a> only. Subscribe now to unlock my full website and fast-track your tech knowledge.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><span class='maxbutton-1-container mb-container'><a class=\"maxbutton-1 maxbutton maxbutton-sign-up-annual\" href=\"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/subscribe-to-advisorator\/\"><span class='mb-text'>Subscribe<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong>Already a member?<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/?memberful_endpoint=auth\" role=\"sign_in\">Sign into your account<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Separating hype from reality.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/advisorator-guides\/do-you-really-need-a-vpn\/\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3806,"parent":3225,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-5693","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-security-and-privacy"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/protonvpn.jpg","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Do you really need a VPN? - Advisorator<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/advisorator.com\/members\/advisorator-guides\/do-you-really-need-a-vpn\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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