Your IP address is like your ID on the Internet. It is a public identifier that serves to control anything you do on the network. For example, whenever you visit a web page, the IP serves so that the server of that page knows where it has to send any information that you request while you browse it.
Okay, the smartest of the place will tell me that the true unique identifier is the device's MAC address, but when it comes to how we connect to the Internet, the IP is the key to everything.
Why should I hide my public IP when I connect to the Internet?
There can be many reasons for not revealing our IP address. Many web pages use advertising services that record your IP and they associate it with all the possible information they have about you to show you personalized ads. Have you ever wondered why almost all the ads you see on the Internet are so timely? Obviously, it is not pure coincidence.
Most people hide their IP to connect to the Internet and download or handle illegal content, but there can be many other compelling reasons. As for example the geographic restriction or censorship- Some content is only available in certain countries. YouTube is the clearest example, but it is something that also happens to anyone who wants to watch the BBC outside the UK. Geolocation can become a real problem.
Privacy is also a very important reason. By doing a quick internet search, I can easily see the information I'm exposing, even without having location services activated.
Anyone who has my IP can do this same search and get this data. That does not mean that they can get to know our name or the place where we live. But if a company has access to customer data from an ISP or Internet provider - usually your phone company - it can find us with relative ease.
There are many companies that are dedicated to buying and selling this type of data, and for that reason alone, if we want to stay out of this "commercial information circuit", nothing better than to start by hiding our IP address.
How to hide the IP address of your smartphone, tablet or PC
Currently there are 3 efficient ways to hide our IP address:
- Using a proxy
- Connecting to a VPN
- Using the TOR network
A proxy server is an intermediary that is responsible for routing our traffic. Thus, the servers of the pages we visit they only see the proxy IP, and not ours. Then, when those servers return information to us, they send it to the proxy, and it serves it to us.
The bad thing about the proxy servers that we can find on the Internet is that they are a bit "obscure" for the most part: they insert advertising in our browser, and nobody is completely clear about what they really do with the information of the users they handle.
VPNs are a much safer and more reliable alternative in that regard. When we connect to a VPN (via PC, phone, tablet or whatever), our device acts as if it were on the same local network as the VPN. That means that we are assigned a new IP to navigate, also changing our geolocation to the same as the VPN server.
In addition, it gives us other security benefits that can come in handy if we are in the habit of connecting to public WiFi networks and the like.
Finally, we can also use the TOR network to browse anonymously in an extreme way. The big drawback is that it is quite slow, and for most users it is more than you really need. With a good VPN this is usually more than enough.
So which VPN should I install?
There are countless VPN services on the Internet. Those that are free tend to have limited functionality, are not very fast, and can usually only be used up to a maximum of MB. There are some pretty cool exceptions, like VPNHub, the free VPN from the creators of Pornhub.
If I had to recommend some quality paid VPN I would tell you to take a look at NordVPN. I tried it for a while and the truth is that it is the most complete I have seen so far in every way. Another one that I have also used for many years is Tunnelbear, a classic in the sector (with free use up to 1.5GB, perfect if we are only going to give it a very specific use).
You can see more details about these VPN applications in this POST that I wrote a while ago. All of them have versions for both Android and PC, so they can be used on both mobile and desktop devices.
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