4 Reasons Why You Should Use VPN on Your iOS Devices

iOS users are not excerpted from privacy and security risks that all other users on the internet are exposed to, besides a few OS/device specific ones. While antiviruses are needed to filter the traffic and the internal environments of these devices, these cannot bring privacy on the net. The latter is rather ensured by VPNs. So, if you are wondering why to use VPNs on iPhones? then the simple answer is to ensure absolute privacy and hence, to also boost user safety.

1. Present And Past iOS Vulnerabilities

Any OS has vulnerabilities that are hard to account for during the process of design and only become evident after an entire army of ill-intentioned attackers try to find and exploit them. iOS is not an exception in this respect. Past examples include juice jacking (prior to iOS7), which could result in sensitive information being stolen or malware being installed – this was because connecting the device to a new computer did not require any authorization.

Videojacking is a term that describes the use of the Apple connector as an HDMI connection in order to get a screen recording of the device, while connected to a corrupt charger. Yet a more recent, a more dangerous, and impactful vulnerability is considered trust jacking, which exploits iTunes WiFi Sync – a feature that allows a remote user to manage the device without being physically connected to it (is normally possible when the user and the attackers are on the same network).  A single accidental tap can give permanent control of the device to the attacker.

2. VPNs For Privacy And Safety

The way VPNs ensure privacy is by encrypting the data traffic occurring between the user and the internet. Due to such encryption, the traffic becomes very hard to intercept and decrypt by ill-intentioned third parties, ranging from individual attackers to government spying agencies and ISPs. Since the traffic between the user and the internet is also routed through a VPN server, the user adopts the physical IP address of the latter, which replaces his or her own IP address, effectively concealing the user’s identity online.

Having a VPN proves useful in day to day life:

1. It can enable one to perform financial transactions from public WiFi hotspots with much fewer risks.
2. It allows freedom of expression on the internet without the fear of being tracked (especially relevant in countries with internet censorship).
3. Combined with cryptocurrency, it allows anonymous online purchases.
4. It allows the use of torrent platforms (which also contain legal or freely shareable content) but are nevertheless, expressly associated with copyright infringement by ISPs (who often make warning calls in this regard).

3. VPNs For Avoiding Geo-restricted Content

Another great implication of the use of VPN servers is the fact that a user can adopt the physical IP address of a VPN server from wherever in the world, leading to a useful tool in avoiding all possible content restrictions based on geographic criteria. Thus, a user with an IP address of a given country will be able to access all the media content open to users in this country. This is, in fact, a very useful tool in practice and one of the key reasons users adopt VPNs.

While free VPN services typically provide a relatively small choice of servers, paid ones usually come with a really vast list (several dozen countries) to choose from, which can ensure both diversity and a decent speed in each of these regions.

4. VPNs For Speed Gains

Following the effective legal abolition of the net neutrality principle in the US, ISPs are allowed now to split user traffic into “faster and slower lanes”. Thus, if the websites are of no commercial interest or are considered having a lower priority for other reasons, the traffic associated with it will be moved to the “lower speed lane” without asking the user.  When one has VPNs in place, the entire traffic is encrypted, so it cannot be “read” even by ISPs and consequently, it cannot be split, allowing the user to preserve default access speed.

Speed gains are possible in other circumstance. Considering a potential regional internet speed bottleneck for a given website, it could be theoretically possible to avoid it by choosing to reroute the traffic through one of the VPN servers. (VPNs can also slow the traffic a tiny bit due to the rerouting process.)

To conclude, VPNs are a powerful tool for bringing online privacy and consequently, greater online safety to a variety of day to day online usage scenarios but also coming with significant additional benefits.