Do VPNs Hide Your IP Address and Spoof Your Location?

Do VPNs Hide Your IP Address? Illustrative image of a shield hiding a device and its IP behind a server IP

Do VPNs hide your IP address?

Yes, they do hide your IP address. In most cases, VPNs can easily hide your IP and, thus, your physical location.

By connecting to the internet with a VPN, your apparent IP address becomes the one assigned to the VPN server routing your traffic.

Snoopers online will then see that IP instead of yours, which will stay securely hidden behind the other.

VPNs are versatile tools for fighting web tracking across multiple devices. Hiding your IP address is half of the way to protecting your internet privacy, as IP monitoring is one of the most used techniques to identify users online.

Although you could also use proxy servers to spoof your IP, VPNs are undoubtedly the best approach to reach a higher anonymity level.

How to hide my IP using a VPN?

Pick a high-end VPN service and download the application to your device. After installation, it’s just choosing a location (if you want) and clicking a button.

Ideally, look for a service with a kill switch feature, so your VPN keeps you private all the time, avoiding IP leaks.

Furthermore, by choosing a VPN service with an ad blocker and using a proper browser (or extension), you’ll be reducing your exposure to internet tracking drastically.

Even though absolute anonymity is virtually impossible on the Web, you can get close to it with the right tools and some habit changes.

You’ll be much safer with a VPN as long as you avoid providers with a bad reputation and free VPNs, which usually mean the same.

A concerning number of VPN providers act, in fact, as data collectors, doing in practice the exact opposite of what they are supposed to.

Also, free VPNs come with other serious faults invariably: lousy performance and low-quality security structure.

After all, high-end VPNs with top-notch technology are costly to maintain.

How to hide my IP address from ISPs?

The only exception to the VPN method is your internet service provider (ISP), which will be able to know your actual IP either way.

As your traffic needs to travel within your ISP’s network before reaching the VPN tunnel, the original IP assigned to your device will still be seen by your internet provider.

But when you’re using a VPN to encrypt your traffic data, there won’t be much more for your ISP to see beyond your IP number.

Want to see the information publicly available about your IP address? Check my IP

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