These days it is becoming ever more important to remain in control of your personal data when surfing the net. Revealing your true identity when visiting websites can prove to be very unsafe.

Whenever you visit a website you leave a fingerprint in form of your IP address. This is a unique number that you inherit from your Internet Provider when you go online. This number is recorded in the server log of every website that you visit and it is the equivalent of a fingerprint in the digital world. On top of that websites will leave cookies on your machine in order to enhance your browsing experience. A cookie is a small piece of code placed on your machine when visiting a website and perhaps performing a certain action. Lets say that you are looking for a new car and you visit Fords website and later on you visit YouTube and now you are bombarded with commercials from Ford.

Your IP Address is Your Online Identity

More often than not cookies are used for user-friendly things such as remembering your choices on a website and such. You can go into your browser’s settings now and then and clean out the cookies. What is more worrying is your IP address as this is more difficult to change – that is unless you use a VPN.

Mask Your Online Identity Using a VPN

VPN is short for Virtual Private Network and it is a great tool for anyone interested in protecting his or her online identity. When you Hide your online identityconnect to a VPN server your data connection becomes encrypted making it impossible for hackers to intercept your data traffic and steal password and other sensitive material. On top of that you will inherit an IP address from the VPN server you are connected to and your real IP address will become invisible to the websites you visit.

As an example you can be sitting at home by your desk in Los Angeles and connect to a VPN server located in Germany. Now all websites you visit will think you are German and your real identity and location is protected.

How to Setup a VPN Connection

First of all you need to have an account with a VPN provider. I suggest using Unlocator and as the name says they will help you hide your ass. Alternatively you can take a look at the VPN Reviews at VPNstudy although they at this moment also recommend Unlocator as their review winner.

Anyhow – once you have signed up with the VPN service you can either do a manual setup of the VPN connection by following the tutorials from the Unlocator website, or you can install their application for Mac and PC and simple connect to the VPN server via this app. This is far more convenient and much easier than setting up a connection yourself. Once installed you can select between more than 227 servers located in 51 countries – in other words you should be able to remain anonymous just fine.

Author

My name is Bradley Andrews. I'm a strong believer in online freedom and unrestricted Internet access. I write about VPN, privacy and website unblocking.

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