Nearly 70% of adult Internet users in the US claim to use a VPN, whether it’s at work or for personal use. Moreover, the Coronavirus pandemic has seen US VPN usage surge by about 124% in March 2020. But what are the reasons for this drastic increase? That’s what we’ll be focusing on in this article.
In the meantime, if you’re not keen on researching VPNs for a few hours, we’ve got a few top-tier providers lined up for you. See more here and scroll on to see why VPNs are essential nowadays.
Why Has US VPN Usage Surged Recently?
Two words: remote working. Since many people have started working from home, they no longer benefited from the same levels of security found at the office. Using a VPN at home is a decent start to a more in-depth security strategy, for the simple fact that they can encrypt your network data.
In plain English, they use complex algorithms to make your data unreadable to outsiders like your Internet provider and hackers. If you weren’t aware, ISPs in the US are willing to sue a whole state just for the “right” to sell your data to the highest bidder. That’s one of the main reasons the entire Internet was in an uproar about net neutrality a few years back.
As for the security side of things, VPNs will keep your sensitive data safe on public Wi-Fi, which is teeming with hackers. Many security experts recommend avoiding public Wi-Fi altogether, if possible. But if you’re going to use it anyway, you should do so while connected to a VPN.
Not that your home network is much safer, as there are several security flaws affecting current Wi-Fi encryption standards. Luckily, VPN apps encrypt your data before it makes its way online, so that’s one less thing to worry about.
Security Aside, Why Should I Use VPN in the US?
You’ve probably heard that VPNs help you unblock geo-restricted content. Of course, most websites work perfectly fine in the US. As opposed to, say, the EU – where GDPR rules got US news sites to shut their doors to European users for a long while. Many US-based sites still don’t bother complying with the new laws, three years after they were implemented. Not that we blame them, considering how unwieldy they can be.
In any case, you can still make use of a VPN’s unblocking capabilities in the US. For one, you can access foreign streaming services like BBC iPlayer, which is only available in the UK. Alternatively, you can make the most of your Netflix subscription and enjoy shows only available outside the US.
The biggest titles that come to mind are It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (available on Netflix UK), and everyone’s favorite: The Office, which has returned on Netflix UK and Ireland as of January 2021. If that’s not a good enough reason to get a US VPN, we don’t know what is.
Can I Unblock Content with a Free VPN?
You can, but we can’t say we recommend it. For one, most free VPNs don’t work with Netflix or other streaming platforms. Many of these streaming services hire specialized companies to gather free VPN IP addresses so they can blacklist them. Even if you do find one that works, you’ll stumble across other inconveniences, such as:
- Data caps – considering Netflix uses about 1 GB of data an hour, the 10 GB you get from free VPNs isn’t nearly enough for the average viewer.
- Throttled speeds – free VPNs need to provide an equal share of bandwidth to all their users. Prepare to face endless buffering animations, even if the free provider doesn’t have data caps.
- Limited number of servers – you have fewer choices when it comes to unblocking content from abroad. Not to mention you’ll run into server congestion due to the high server population.
This doesn’t even take into consideration how free VPNs sell user data to third parties, or how many of them contain malware. So at best, you’re getting an underperforming product – at worst, you end up paying way more than the price of a single subscription.
Skip all the hassle and check out one of the tried and tested US VPN providers linked in the beginning – if not for the fact that they actually work with most streaming sites, then at least to keep your data secure.