In the age of information, online anonymity is a luxury. There’s a constant battle for your data.

Social media giants are extracting as much as possible from your browsing habits. Marketers are paying for your demographics and interests. And hackers are looking for a slip-up so they can take advantage of your credit card information or steal your identity. The internet is a safe place only if you know how to use it.

How To Become Private Online?

In real life, your most important document is your ID. Online, it’s your IP.

Hiding your IP address from prying eyes will make your browsing more secure, and you can either use a VPN or a proxy. However, despite accomplishing the same thing, they differ in how they do it.

Complete privacy is possible when using a VPN because it does more than just mask your IP address. VPNs encrypt your data on a system level, and they have a kill switch that automatically disconnects you from the internet before there’s a leak of information. It doesn’t matter if you’re browsing social media, gaming, or using another application. A VPN covers everything that interacts with the web on your device.

Proxies, on the other hand, serve only to change your real IP address. You don’t get any extra security or encrypted traffic. But the reason they’re so popular is that they don’t charge their users and get the job done.

How Do Proxies And VPNs Work?

When you connect to the internet, there’s a link between your device and your internet service provider to access information. A single line connects you to the internet, where the communication between you can be eavesdropped. Hackers do this by using man-in-the-middle attacks, especially if you connect to public Wi-Fi.

Proxies add a layer of security by masking your IP through a server. That adds a bump in the communication road. Most of the time, proxy servers are free to use. However, that comes with a few setbacks. They’re not encrypting your traffic. They only work on the application level and could be selling your data.

Virtual private networks add two more layers of security before doing the same thing as proxy servers. They start off by encrypting all of the data that comes from your device. Then they route it through a tunnel to ensure hackers, marketers, and government agencies don’t eavesdrop on the data.

After that, they pass it through a server that hides your location and IP address, and then you access the internet. VPNs can be used on multiple devices, even when gaming or streaming. For that, a VPN for Firestick or any other streaming tool is an impenetrable line of defense for online privacy. Even if the data were to land in the wrong hands, it would be fully encrypted, meaning the hackers would receive random letters and numbers instead of what they were hoping for.

What Is The Better Option?

VPNs win the battle every time when it comes to privacy. If masking your IP is all you’re looking for, then proxies are better, only because they could be faster, even though that’s not always the case. Saving a second of your time isn’t worth it if you’ll be leaving crumbs of information for hackers and companies to track.

Proxies don’t give you any extra protection, and they could also be selling your data back to the companies you’re trying to hide from. 

Free VPNs are the next logical choice. Mainly because they’re better than proxies, and you’re getting additional security. But that’s where you’d make a mistake. Free VPNs often come with hidden costs such as slow speeds, restricted bandwidth, logs on your data, or selling your information to companies.

The best choice by far is a paid VPN service with a no-logs policy. You’ll always be sure that you’re getting the best bang for your buck, and most of them offer free trials. Plus, all of your sensitive information will be safeguarded without the chance of data slipping out.