Why Use a VPN for Online Shopping this Cyber Week (and Every Week)

Online shopping has been increasing in popularity for years now. This year during the pandemic even more people are turning to online shopping not only for holiday gifts, but also for the day-to-day essentials.

VPNs & Online Shopping

There are three major reasons you would choose to use a VPN while shopping online, all offering big benefits for you as an internet user. 

• Secure your connection against hackers 
• Protect the privacy and of your online activity 

• Save money on big purchases, including travel 

A VPN works by encrypting your internet connection to secure it. Encryption means that even if your connection is intercepted – by a hacker, say – no one would be able to see what you are doing online. It would just be a jumble of unreadable content. This also applies to hiding your activity from your internet service provider, or ISP. Encrypting your connection also allows you to change your IP address, or the location from which you appear to be browsing. 

Increase Privacy, Security while Online Shopping

By now you’re likely aware of some of the risks when you use the internet. These risks increase when it comes to holiday shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, because you’re not only browsing the web but entering sensitive details such as your payment information and address. This is personal and private information, and if compromised could have big ramifications when it comes to your identity as well as your finances. 

When you shop online you also reveal a good deal of information about yourself to advertisers – and very valuable information at that. Details about what sites you shop on, what items you browse, and your overall consumption preferences is valuable data for a third-party to have. Advertisers use this data to build profiles of you, which enables them to more effectively target and market to you to sell you things over time. This means your shopping history isn’t simply your shopping history; it’s free insight into you as a consumer. Insight that is used to make someone else money.

When you use a VPN, no one is able to see what you’re doing online – the sites you visit, how long you spend there or what you do before and after. This is all hidden from your Internet Service Provider, whom is often the culprit of collecting (and selling) your data! Furthermore, if someone was to intercept your connection say, on an unsecured wi-fi network at a coffee shop, they would be unable to gain any information of value due to the VPNs end-to-end encryption. 

Save Money While Online Shopping

Aside from keeping your connection secure and protecting your privacy, using a VPN while shopping online can provide another benefit – it can help save you money. Often, prices are dynamic, or change depending on a variety of factors including your location, the time of day, your computer type, and if you’ve visited the site before (plus how many times). By using a VPN, you decrease the amount of information that can be tracked about you, and most importantly you mask your IP address so no one is able to determine your location. You can then change your geo-location to various addresses provided by your VPN and compare prices for these different locations, selecting the one that costs the least of all the options. This is most effective on travel-related purchases, but might work for other types of purchases as well. Learn more about the process and get step-by-step instructions on how to save money by shopping with a VPN in our dedicated post.

Take Advantage of the VyprVPN Cyber Sale

At VyprVPN we’re proponents of online privacy and security and want to empower internet users to have the experience they want each time they go online. We're offering big savings on VyprVPN, with our exclusive Black Friday/Cyber Monday Deal. Now, you can get VyprVPN for only $1.66/month when you choose an annual plan. Protect your privacy while you shop online this Cyber Week and save money on travel and other big purchases in the process! Sign Up Now

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