Proxy servers and virtual private networks both protect the identities of users when they use the internet. You can know more about proxy servers on this page here. They are excellent tools if you want to watch videos that are restricted in your country, and they are pretty much something that you can rely on in geo-restricted web pages.
Both of these services can get the job done efficiently. Many people even use them interchangeably from time to time. However, one of them can protect your privacy while the other does not.
Information about Proxy Servers
These tools act as relays between the device you’re using and the web page you’re looking into. A middleman receives the traffic, which can be a remote machine connected to the host servers. Proxy servers may hide your original IP so that the website will only see the proxy’s IP. In some cases, it’s the other computers’ IP that is showing up on the internet.
However, a proxy may only work at a specific level, such as applications. This means that they can only reroute the traffic from a single application where you set them up. They don’t necessarily add encryption to the traffic.
Three Main Types of Proxy Servers
SOCKS – These proxies are not limited to website traffic, but they can work at an app level. As an example, say you’ve set up a game, P2P platform, or video streaming, and you applied a proxy into this. They may work, but they will be slower than the HTTP proxies because the games and videos have higher loads and are more popular.
HTTP – HTTP caters to web pages, and they are faster than SOCKS. You can set this up on your browser so that your traffic will be rerouted into this. They are handy if you want to access geo-restricted content and browse through lots of content.
Transparent – Transparent are the kinds where the users are usually not aware that they exist. Some of these are typically installed by parents or employers to monitor the online activity on a specific computer or tablet. They block access to many websites as well. Certain cafes, airport lounges, and hotels use these to authenticate users trying to connect to their networks. Companies also use them in saving bandwidths.
About Virtual Private Networks
Virtual private networks can be installed on your devices, and they will take care of your activities online. A VPN works similar to that of a proxy, although both have fundamental differences that you should know about. It reroutes the traffic through a proxy server and hides your devices’ IP address. It does this so that your location will be protected, and the websites can’t see where you’re coming from. But this works on the operating system levels, where it will redirect all of the traffic coming from your background applications or browsers.
The right VPN can provide encryption to the traffic between your device and internet service provider. If your ISP monitors your activities on the internet and collects your data, they will no longer see your online activities after you’ve installed a VPN. They will protect you from website tracking, hackers, or government surveillance who are trying to intercept your online activities. Your security and online privacy can be protected, and snoopers won’t be able to see what you’re actually trying to do.
Know that both proxies and VPNs can log your user data like DNS requests, IP addresses, and the like. Avoid providers of these services because they are bound to give out your information to hackers, advertisers, and law enforcement agencies if their servers are breached. If you want to keep everything private, it’s best if you can have a policy of strictly no-logs allowed when choosing a provider.
Main Differences to Know About
- Virtual private networks protect all of your internet traffic from your computer while a proxy only shields certain apps.
- There’s no encryption involved in a proxy, but there is in a VPN.
- Proxies and VPNs are excellent for anonymous web browsing and getting access to geo-blocked content. However, it’s the virtual private networks that can prevent the tracking of your ISPs and hackers.
More about their Comparisons
- There’s encryption of traffic in VPNs while the proxy servers don’t. You are protected from hackers, government surveillance, and ISP tracking in VPN, but there are no features like this in a proxy server. You should never use the proxy if you’re handling sensitive private information online.
- Virtual private networks will reroute every traffic that you have on browsers and operating system levels. However, proxies only reroute the traffic to a specific application.
- It’s best to get paid services and never trust the free ones as they can have limitations in mining data.
In essence, VPNs are better than proxies, and you can even speed up the connection of many providers. The majority of the commercial ones you see on the web are safe. Virtual private networks will load the data and encrypt them before sending them to the client on your device.
Only after it ensures that the data is already sent through to you will start the decryption process. You are not only hiding your identity from your service provider and the websites you visit; your network will not know the data that you’re loading either way.
All your internet service provider will see is the encrypted data. You are protected from malicious software and cybercriminals online. The prying eyes of your employer or even the federal government can’t know what you’re searching for.
You will also get protection for your IP address, so you won’t have to deal with brute force or DDoS attacks. More about IP address hacking here: https://securitytoday.com/articles/2019/09/16/5-ways-to-protect-yourself-from-ip-address-hacking.aspx. This protection and on may sound a lot of work and lengthy, but they don’t usually impact your browsing experience on the web.
If you plan to watch movies banned in your country, streaming them in high-definition is possible. Playing online games will not give you latency issues as well. The only catch is that reliability will always depend on a good provider. You should research and do due diligence when choosing the right virtual private network.
It’s important to remember that you’re giving the company the right to pry into your network activities and entire internet traffic. Although this is better than the prying eyes of your ISP and many other cages, it’s still a good idea if you choose a provider with good practices in privacy and a stellar reputation.
About Privacy
Many people in recent years have realized that there are so many prying eyes on the internet that they have decided to limit their online activities.
Local installation of VPNs can give a user complete data encryption from the moment the information will leave the computer until it goes to its destination. You’re not making it easy for criminals to access your information, especially if you’re a business that needs privacy protection.
Even if you open your phone’s Wi-Fi network and connect this to cafes and airports, you are preventing sensitive data from being intercepted by malicious organizations and hackers.
VPNs are using end-to-end encryption that your router, employer, or ISP can’t access the data you are getting online. This is why the Chinese government is trying to limit their people’s access to VPN. When your internet service provider doesn’t know what you’re doing, they won’t control or block the websites you’re trying to access.
You are hiding your location and IP address, and this makes it harder to identify you. On the other hand, many proxy servers are just going to hide your IP address from the web servers. Most of them offer free services, but they are not much used when storing personally identifiable information on your devices.
However, you may not be entirely safe from techniques like device fingerprinting that unscrupulous advertisers often use. It’s not entirely bad news, though, as you can still make it harder for the companies to connect the overall activities you’re doing online.
More about the Cookies
You can check laws like CCPA and GDPR that focus on users’ privacy on the internet. Many people are now concerned with how websites and advertisers use cookies to track their online activities and every move.
Compliance with the GDPR is now a hot topic in the business world of the European Union, and this is with good reason. Because of the newer laws, many sites can track you down, and there’s a need for permission when trying to use cookies.
You may probably see these prompts of “accept” on many websites, and there are hundreds of them by now. Learn about cookies at this link here. Another thing about cookies is that they are stored on your computer’s hard drive. With a VPN in place, the cookie will make the mistake of assuming that the VPN server is your own, and they can offer you some level of protection against tracking or fingerprinting techniques.
In most cases, the proxy servers are there to clear up the cookies on your computer. If you don’t have these places, know that the cookies will interfere with your overall privacy, and you may see the same ads no matter where you go.
Costs to Know About
Many of these solutions may be free. However, there’s no guarantee that they will protect your information. Some offer the free service to sell your info to online advertisers and other companies who need demographic information for their products and services.
The best way is to invest in a reliable and trustworthy VPN service provider to give you more privacy and protection. The typical costs range from $5 to $12 a month. With these premium subscription services, you can get good protection and the best bang for your buck from different providers. You can be rest assured that they won’t sell your info, and they are pretty reliable in speeds and accessibility.
You can try several options on the internet and see what works best for you. If you are handling plenty of customer information because you have a business, it’s essential to protect them from hackers and prying eyes that want to access all of these data for their own gain. Get protected by getting proxy servers and VPNs at the same time.
