In the last few years, there has been an influx of public VPN services into the market. But many myths and pieces of misinformation about them are now circulating.

Sadly, this misinformation is being propagated by the companies themselves and, knowingly or unknowingly, by tech YouTubers who are frequently sponsored by public VPN providers.

Here, I am listing a few things these services can and cannot offer.

Privacy

A VPN is often touted as a one-stop solution for all your digital privacy goals. But in my opinion, when you think of privacy, you should also ask: privacy from whom? From your ISP? Yes. From your national security agencies? Maybe not.

Privacy is more of a practice than a product. Suppose you open your personal social media and email accounts over a VPN and then access the same accounts on your local network. In that case, it can easily be determined that both IPs belong to the same person. Also, your VPN provider will always know your real IP address. If someone hacks or buys the provider, or forces it to hand over the data, your browsing history could be exposed.

VPN providers often claim to have a no-log policy, but you have to take them at their word until something happens.

Internet Speed

This claim is somewhat valid, but not entirely. In rare cases, your local ISP may have very bad routing that causes many bad hops. A VPN can then help improve your browsing experience. But in the vast majority of cases, you should expect slower internet speeds in exchange for some degree of privacy.

Access to a Wider Variety of Content

This is the most common use case for a public VPN service. If you want to watch a YouTube video or Netflix show that isn’t available in your location, you can easily circumvent the restriction. A VPN is also helpful for people who live abroad for business. When they leave their home country, they lose access to many local online services they may want to use, such as Hotstar, which broadcasts most Indian sports at affordable rates but usually cannot be accessed from abroad.

Final Thoughts

It’s good to have one, but you should know what you have.