Importance on VPN in the modern Internet

There are several needs for VPNs or VPN services in today’s day in age and this immensely important technology while it is just a mere convenience to some is a godsend for others.

Picture by Blog.eogn.com

One of the most common uses for a VPN is to provide a convenient way for remote employees to connect to their company’s server with minimal risk of the data being intercepted by prying eyes. VPN software accomplishes this by encrypting the data that is to be transmitted even before it is seen by the Internet Service Provider or even the local router, (even if you are connected at a coffee shop), (Mason, 2017). As we have seen with the “Wireshark”, assignment any unencrypted data being transferred can easily be captured by software such as “Wireshark” and as such makes the need for VPN software indispensable. But keeping cooperate information from prying eyes, as mentioned before, is not the only use for this incredible technology.
Living in the United States we sometimes forget that not all countries have the same freedoms that we enjoy every day. Countries like China actually restrict internet content to its citizens preventing them for finding any information that China’s Communist party leadership deems inappropriate. This is not just access to the dark web like many would assume, but normal sites such as “Reddit”, “Yahoo” and “Twitter” (Fu, 2018). VPN’s for the citizens of this oppressed country are one of only a handful of ways that citizens can gain access to the tons of internet content that would be completely unavailable to them. Citizens of China are not even able to buy Bitcoin from exchanges without the use of a VPN or other such technology that hides the physical location of the citizen (with the exception of Peer to Peer transfers). While using a VPN to tunnel through the walls of communist censorship and treachery is probably the noblest use of the VPN technology there is still several other uses to mention.
Napster was one of the first “Peer-to-Peer” file sharing sites (that eventually faced litigation), but after Napster many other such services have come and gone. As internet speeds improved these file sharing services improved with them going from the days of Napster where it took an hour to download a song to the days of BitTorrent where a “Blue Ray” movie can be downloaded in a few minutes. While many people partake in this dubious file sharing, some people have actually found themselves in legal trouble due to their participation. VPN services protect the privacy of people who wish to participate in these file sharing services and it keeps the users safe from being sued while sharing copy written content. Whether or not this use for a VPN is moral or legal is debatable.
As with most technologies, they can be used for great purposes. As mentioned before with the citizens of China using the VPN to overcome oppression and censorship, or for remote employees accessing corporate server from home. However VPNs can be used to hide the identity of people using the internet for nefarious purposes as well, not just questionable behaviors, like sharing movies and music. VPNs also help hackers keep their identity hidden while they are doing illegal things such as sending out malicious emails or trying to break into someone’s system without permission to steal their identity. The need for this technology is obvious, it is widely used and adopted around the world. However, with the many possible missuses or abuses of the anonymity that a VPN grants its users leaves a lot of issues for scholarly debate, (and will likely end up in political debates around the world soon).
In a world where privacy is becoming rarer, any device or software that brings some back is something that should be appreciated by all. Especially when our own US government spies on us and the president lies about it on national television (BBC News, 2014). In a world full of devices like Amazon’s “Echo” and Apple’s Siri that are basically a voluntary wire-tap, devices that add privacy instead of removing it are of the highest importance for many. In a world where you cannot board an airplane without a body scan, or carry more than $10,000 in cash without filling out special forms the absolute need for privacy is growing while privacy itself is dwindling (Maloney, 2018).

Works Cited
BBC News. (2014, January 17). BBC News. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-23123964
Fu, F. (2018, December 18). Saporedicina. Retrieved from List of Blocked Sites In Chine 2019: https://www.saporedicina.com/english/list-of-blocked-websites-in-china/
Maloney, L. (2018, March 15). USA Today. Retrieved from https://traveltips.usatoday.com/travel-airline-cash-9937.html
Mason, J. (2017, November 23). The Best VPN. Retrieved from https://thebestvpn.com/what-is-vpn-beginners-guide/#work