How a VPN works (and why you should care)

Toronto, Canada - December 13, 2024: VPN apps on a smartphone - NordVPN, Proton VPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark, Mullvad, CyberGhost. (Kenneth Cheung via Getty Images)

The best VPNs can make your online life more private with software that's convenient and cheap — sometimes even free. While keeping your IP address invisible, you can use your VPN to explore streaming content from all over the world or (virtually) sneak into a sports event that's not available in your area.

However, while VPNs are widely available, there's a strange dearth of information on what they actually do behind the scenes. You may know that a VPN masks your device with a proxy server to make it look like you're somewhere else, and maybe even that encryption is involved. But finding ...