I see tons of adds for VPNs all over YouTube. It’s usually a handful of the same providers but I can’t believe what there saying is actually true?
I feel like it sounds too good to be true(and too good to be legal). How the hell can it actually mask your IP? Wouldn’t they need to know your IP to send anything to your computer? It sounds take.
You connect to the vpn provider, provider connects to the website and relays the page back your computer. In this instance the IP the website sees is the vpn providers IP. The vpn provider is the only one who can see your actual IP. People often opt for vpn providers that don’t keep logs for added privacy. You can even set up a vpn at your home if you wanted to bypass website blocking.
It’s not fake, but in the commercials I’ve seen, it could be argued they are misleading. You’re also missing a critical aspect, your ISP (Internet Service Provider). This topic is a lot to unpack and get’s highly technical. Let me try to give you relevant cliff notes:
What a VPN Does: A VPN (Virtual Private Network) essentially creates a secure tunnel between your device and the internet. It encrypts your data, which means it turns it into a code to prevent others from easily reading it. This is particularly useful if you’re using public Wi-Fi, as it adds an extra layer of security.
Masking Your IP Address: Yes, a VPN can mask your real IP address. When you connect to a VPN, it assigns you a new IP address (think of it as a temporary phone number for your internet connection). This is usually the IP address of the VPN server you’re connected to. So, to the outside world, it looks like your internet traffic is coming from the VPN server, not your actual location. This can give you some degree of anonymity online.
The Role of ISPs: Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) still plays a role here. Without a VPN, your ISP can see everything you do online. When you use a VPN, your ISP can’t see what you’re doing, but they can tell that you’re connected to a VPN. They know you’re sending and receiving data, but they can’t easily see what that data is because it’s encrypted.
Are VPN Ads Misleading? Sometimes, yes. VPN ads often make bold claims about total anonymity and security. While a VPN does increase your privacy and security online, it’s not a magic bullet. For instance, if you log into a website, that website knows who you are regardless of whether you’re using a VPN or not. Also, VPNs can’t protect you from malware or phishing attacks.
VPNs and Your Data: Remember, the VPN provider could technically see your internet traffic. It’s important to choose a trustworthy VPN provider that has a strict no-logs policy, meaning they don’t keep records of your online activities. You’ll need to read their fine print.
One important note on data flow: Generally, the data flows like this:
Your Computer > ISP > VPN Server > Destination on the Internet and back: Destination > VPN Server > ISP > Your Computer
Observe how no matter what, your ISP is aware of your presence. While your data may be encrypted, you’re not invisible as some VPN’s may have you believe.
One last thing - if a persons reason for wanting a VPN is because they feel like pirating a movie or game, they shouldn’t assume they’re now suddenly magically protected. Stories they may hear about hackers using VPN’s and be secret agents are over blown. A VPN is one of many tools in a hackers kit and is not the only thing they use to keep themselves hidden.
This is getting too long.
Everybody answered technical questions, just wanna add a perspective from autocratic countries: VPNs work and are a must in an autocracy that bans access to websites. In my country people have been using VPNs for years to access what our government doesn’t want us to access 
I can’t believe what there saying is actually true?
A bit exaggerated, but yes, mostly true.
I feel like it sounds too good to be true(and too good to be legal).
There is nothing illegal in this practice. And there are many other neat ways to deanonymize your PC, IP is the easiest way (though not in all countries), but by far not the only.
How the hell can it actually mask your IP?
They bundle your traffic with the traffic of other customers and it all exits at a server of your choice. So the destination webserver “sees” the IP of the VPN provider as yours. The traffic is relayed the other way around to you. Webserver → VPN → you.
Wouldn’t they need to know your IP to send anything to your computer?
The VPN provider knows your address, all others don’t.
Depends on which VPN you use.
The VPN is a middle man, you connect to the VPN server, and your traffic goes through the VPN and the VPN connects to wherever you’re trying to connect to. The connection between you and the VPN is secure, and the connection between the VPN and whatever you’re connecting to is secure, and websites and such will only see that they are connecting to the VPNs IP, not yours. Thing is, there are also OTHER users traffic coming from the same VPN server, so you can’t really tell whose is who
Most VPNs (or at least the good ones), don’t keep logs. That’s why a lot of people doing illegal stuff use VPNs, because even if LE tries to do anything, the VPN just shrugs and goes sorry, we don’t know.
It’s also used for legal purposes, the ads for NordVPN and ExpressVPN aren’t too far off, it helps keep you a little more secure. Plus they have gone far beyond just VPN and offer tons of other useful services.
(this was not sponsored by NordVPN or ExpressVPN although I used ExpressVPN for years)
Edit: They usually have chrome extensions too. This is useful for school computers with IP blocks on literally everything useful. I mean, I used it to play BTD3 but y’know.
Everyone else already answered the how? question but consider this scenario. MediaCompany detects someone is torrenting one of their movies and gets list of all the IP’s in that torrent. Some of them are from ISP’s within the U.S. so they send DMCA notices to the ISP’s saying “Hey, dude on this IP is pirating THIS movie - please do something” and the ISP slaps you on the wrist because your ISP knows exactly who you are based on your IP (or at least what account it is). For the Media company this is a LOW effort, and often is an automated process. VPN’s on the other hand add another layer of murkiness because now the MediaCompany sends a DMCA violated to the VPN company and they go “nah, you’ll need to subpoena us for the customer’s IP”. Suddenly that DMCA violation becomes much more effort/money for the MediaCompany, and typically its more effort than it’s worth for the violation so they don’t pursue.
However, imagine the same scenario but the offense is much worse than just pirating a movie, perhaps it’s doing _really_ illegal stuff - like hosting a drug black market via the VPN. Then often the county’s law enforcement will happily go forward with a subpoena, and often times the VPN company will comply or be faced with heavy fines or be forced to shutdown. Mullvad VPN recently faced this issue and that’s why they turned off the ability to forward ports (not explaining what that means here).
The VPN provider will know your IP, however the site you are going to won’t. Becusde you send the request to the VPN provider and they go and get it for you …
Same as any block on a site won’t now block as you go to the provider and they get the data and return it to you.
Some VPNs do the delete all logs of the IP once you finish the connection. Some say they donth9s and don’t…
You can also get a VPN outside of your country so if the authoriteis come asking they are less likely to care/respond to a request for logs
Yes. I use it to stream certain shows that are not available in the US on streaming services.
Vpns are great, but they’re just a tool to put on your tool belt of security and online privacy. And that’s what i dislike about most of the ads i see youtubers make.
A vpn is something i would advise anyone to get, and for most people they suffice when paired with windows defender. But other people who are more concerned about their privacy (and even people that simply “artistically acquire” online paid content) should take additional steps to further protect themselves.
Tbf the best thing about them is bypassing region locked content. Be that on netflix, prime, youtube or internet in general.
You change from trusting your provider to trusting the vpn
Don’t fall for that YouTube marketing, do your research.
I personally use Proton VPN. ~$130 for 2 years
I received a warning from my internet provider about using torrents. As soon as I put the torrent behind a VPN, it stopped.
They work, but their use case is questionable. Accessing country-locked content would be the only sensible way to use it, otherwise it is not much use for the average joe. Your internet traffic is encrypted anyway on almost every website nowadays, so personally I don’t really get the privacy concern.
Your IP is very easily masked.
It is not the exact same tech that VPNs use, but I can all but guarantee you that the IP address you are connecting to with Reddit is not the same as the IP address of the device you are using.
All the devices in your home are going to be using a local address, usually starting with 192.168.x.x
The IP address that Reddit sees is the public IP of your router (Note: It may even that your router IP is behind a NAT used by your ISP). Your router uses Network Address Translation (NAT) to make it look like all the devices in your home are using the same IP.
The router is responsible for taking outbound traffic and hiding it behind the routers IP address (while tracking which local device sent it) and for taking inbound traffic and sending it to the correct local IP.
VPNs do something very similar, but with additional steps to make sure that your local IP cannot be determined by the site to which you are connecting.
My personal first rule of the internet: always assume every service you use can, and will, log the information you provide them and use it against you. Even if it is a business under the law, do not trust it. If you are too naive or trusting, then you will eventually get done dirty.
VPNs do not protect you from any sort of threat after your data has gone through a VPN’s servers. The connection between your device and the VPN is encrypted, meaning nobody can attack you on the same WiFi network/connection if they use it as their starting point, but beyond that any hacker can just follow your activity to the VPN server and just watch the information that comes out as if it were your own computer. And you have to remember that hackers live for the challenge, so they’ll have a lot of fun with and feel encouraged to rummage through the VPN’s servers until they find a pathway back to you.
It’s also not uncommon at all for a VPN provider to log all of your activity and information for the purposes of holding you accountable for what you do/see. Always assume they do, they can easily lie. In fact, in most cases where a malicious VPN service has stolen information they do in fact claim that they do not log your information. As for the safe VPNs to use, they cannot get into any legal trouble if they can prove that you willingly went to a bad website thus they log your information as security (and then they will deny having your information to law enforcement like chads). The $10/month you pay for the VPN isn’t even enough to afford the Lawyer’s coffee, as someone on GitHub stated, so they rely on their own accountability and able to disprove yours. And the fun thing about this is that it means a hacker can find the provider’s stash(es) of logged user activity and information and steal it, and an even more fun thing is that the VPN itself may be fraudulent and be the malicious actor themselves. It is surprisingly common for free VPNs to just be a random guy who has a server in his basement and he logs all the information for himself when people use his service.
The benefits VPNs provide are encrypting your local connection so nobody can hack you by using free public WiFi (Airport WiFi, for example) as well as letting you bypass local network restrictions (blocked websites and services), and by acting as a proxy server to access the internet in another location (getting Canada’s Disney+, for example). Another benefit is using the VPN servers’ IP addresses instead of your own, but again it can be traced back to you in the end. There is nothing wrong with owning a VPN, rather it is simply a lie that they protect you beyond your now encrypted local network. Using a VPN does not mean you are safe to use the Dark Web/Deep Web, malicious sites, insecure websites, and the like. Your best bet is to just stick to HTML and avoid those places altogether.
Yes it works. I’ve often used it to get cheaper plane tickets when flying abroad.
A lots of good comment here but missing one part. On top of your IP address your devices also have what is called a MaC address (not related to Apple). This address is fully unique and identify your hardware (the physical device you are using)
If you do something really illegal on the internet you MaC address will be present in the connection information (even using a VPN)
while that doesn’t identify you per se it’s a bit like leaving fingerprints behind you. The police can have a mandTe to search your home, find your device extract the MaC from it and prove that it was you that did this illegal thing
VPNs don’t really offer protection from anything.
What they do offer is a way to get certain media from other countries/regions which would normally be blocked in your area. This alone makes it worth the cost of admission.
Sure.
It creates a virtual private network.
Does it prevent the cops from knowing you downloaded stuff? Maybe. Maybe not.
Does it allow you to view media that’s blocked for your region? Maybe. Maybe not.
All a VPN does is encrypt the network traffic between you and the VPN provider. Everything after the VPN provider is up in the air.