People tend to confuse VPNs and HTTPS since they do relate to each other in certain ways. Both of them are commonly used to protect Internet users’ privacy and online security. Here we are going to clarify what are VPNs and HTTPS for you in this article.
What are VPN and HTTPS?
VPN (Virtual Private Network) creates an encrypted tunnel between user’s device and the server. Along with the navigating browser, all the traffic from your device is totally encrypted and even hidden from your ISP and any other third parties. What people can see from your connection is only the VPN server location and that’s all.
Hyper-Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a connection protocol that web browsers utilize to communicate with the websites. HTTPS uses the TLS encryption protocol to secure data shared between users and websites. Besides, it performs additional authentication to ensure that both sides of parties are who they suggest they are. Also, it even verifies the dispatched information that hasn’t been tampered with.
Why and How to check on HTTPS?
It’s important to check the URL to see if the website that you are going to visit uses HTTPS. (there should be a “lock icon” next to the URL bar if HTTPS is enabled) Such encryption protects you from been snooped on your connection because other parties can only see the website you entered but not your activity within there. As a result, confirming whether the website uses HTTPs or not becomes very crucial when it comes to online shopping for example because any of your personal information such as credit card number, full name or any other sensitive data can be stolen.
Why and How to use VPN?
VPNs can hide your true IP location so nobody can track you no more even the government. Besides, you can simply select different countries or states in the apps and easily switch your apparent virtual location between all the servers established by the VPN provider. Moreover, through the protection of VPN, your communications are safe and encrypted because there is no way that anybody is able to interfere with your online activities or snoop your browsing history.
Learn more reasons why VPN is important and needed here: https://www.priceperhead.com/why-vpn-is-needed/
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
