Every time you click, it directs you to another website, and then the cycle continues. With this, your information is widely exposed to the internet. You are not sure if someone is already tracking you down or not. When you use a viable residential proxy, you can conceal your information as this will mask your IP that strengthens your online security and privacy.
The demand for the internet is thriving these days. Statista recorded at least 4.66 billion active internet users in January 2021. The web became the go-to of companies and individuals. For the companies, the web becomes their resort in monitoring their competitors. This also becomes the platform where people get information from different accessible websites.
With this, people expressed much concern about identity theft and fraud and stolen passwords in their online usage. In terms of security, Virtual Private Network (VPNs) and Proxy are two common terms that help users maintain their privacy. However, privacy here does not guarantee anonymity.
So what are VPN and Proxy and how do these two help your surfing safer?
Difference of VPN and Proxy
VPN and Proxy both improve internet security. VPNs encrypt your personal information since it hides your Internet Protocol address (IP) when used. With VPN, the outsider cannot trace your activities while browsing the internet. This will prevent you from falling into the trap of Man in the Middle Attack. These are instances when hackers intercept the communications between you and the server. This attack includes Wi-Fi eavesdropping, email hijacking, spoofing, and others.
On the other hand, Proxy allows you to open and connect to a certain website using an outside host server while hiding your identity in the web traffic. Even if you are in a country that restricts watching videos, you can still access them through proxies.
Proxies can be data center or residential. Data center proxy has a company that owns a server and sells IP addresses that you can use to hide your identity. Due to its availability, websites are also crawling in discovering data center proxies and blocking these to visit certain websites.
In this case, residential proxies are applicable. Most websites consider residential IP proxies as individual users. So, there are lower chances of banning since these are almost undetectable.
A comprehensive proxy detection IP address database enables businesses to identify and block suspicious IP addresses, enhancing security against proxy-related threats.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using VPN and Proxy
The usage of VPNs and Proxy in securing your internet activities is never questionable. But, like many others, these are not unflawed. Understanding the advantages and disadvantages of these tools will help you decide which one is the best and whatnot.
- Advantages of VPN and Proxy
Both VPNs and Proxies help the clients in securing their networks while browsing the internet. If you use VPNs, it can secure your information and make it anonymous. This allows you to continue accessing the website you are visiting. This also helps you hide your private information from the hackers who might use your accounts to their advantage.
Since VPNs hide your real IP address, you can still access Geo-blocked services. These are those pages, videos, contents, and sites that some users are not allowed to visit. Aside from this, VPN can also prevent data throttling. Data throttling is the server’s way of slowing your service down after consuming a certain amount of available data that you have.
VPNs and proxies are effective ways to web scraping. Web scraping is extracting invaluable data such as statistics from a website and saving it to another file. Proxies allow you to access a website despite restrictions in your area.
So, does this move breach confidentiality? Is the action illegal? No. Web scraping is legal to publicly available data. Regarding what public data is, the website you are visiting could tell. If a website asks you to log in, this means you are accessing private data. In most cases, websites demand your information before accessing them.
Make a second thought for this.
- Disadvantages of VPN and Proxy
Users may think that VPNs and proxies are perfect solutions to online privacy and security concerns. But, these aren’t. These have disadvantages and limitations that one should know.
First, the VPN encryption process may negatively impact your online experience as this lowers your internet speed. Using VPNs is not allowed worldwide. Some countries like China, Russia, and North Korea have banned VPNs. VPNs can not guarantee 100% anonymity as well.
Securing anonymity with proxies is not 100% guaranteed since cache data may be misused. The encryption capability of proxies is lacking, considering that most of them use SSL certificates in encrypting. SSL certification is a code used to secure communication, verify ownership of the website, and prevent hackers mimic the site. Proxies may be more expensive, but these work better.
Final Thoughts
The best service that you can get from these tools will depend on your specific needs. That is why knowing its differences, pros, and cons in usage is crucial. There is a lot of information that you can get from the internet. It can be for your business, studies, or personal use, the internet almost has the answer you need.
As you explore this platform, someone is also trying to explore you and take advantage of your information. You can stay away from these hackers and competitors through VPNs and proxies.
As you type your last letter on your laptop or personal computer today, how high your security chances would be? Are you safe enough to send that message to your colleague? Are you secured enough to click that link? How about these pop-up ads? How can you stay away from these?
As these questions pop into your mind, then you reconsider today as the right time to use VPNs and proxies. But today is a long day. How about you consider this very moment to avail VPNs and proxies for your online security?
In the online world, time is at risk. You have to be ahead of those individuals who are miles away from you but too close to get information from you.
Also Read:
How to Download a VPN to Your Android Device
6 Best VPNs for Multiple Devices
