Personal VPN definition
A personal VPN is a VPN connection or service for individual users, allowing them to hide their virtual location and encrypt their internet traffic. Whereas enterprise VPNs are predominantly geared towards giving remote employees secure access to the organization’s internal resources, personal VPNs are used in non-commercial settings to increase privacy and security while browsing the internet.
See also: dynamic VPN, stealth VPN, VPN appliance, VPNaaS
Key aspects of a personal VPN
- VPN client: Personal VPNs require a VPN client to connect to a remote server. While there are free open-source VPN clients, most VPN service providers have their own bespoke clients that offer additional features.
- Changed IP address: Unlike enterprise VPNs, which require users to connect to rigidly controlled gateways to access internal resources, personal VPNs let users connect to thousands of VPN servers. Once connected, any website the user visits sees the IP address of the chosen VPN server instead of the user’s own.
- Encryption: Personal VPNs encrypt and reroute the user’s online traffic to a secure VPN server (a process that’s sometimes referred to as creating a “VPN tunnel).
Benefits of personal VPN
- Increased privacy: You can appear to be browsing from a location of your choosing with a different IP while your virtual location and IP stay hidden.
- Increased security: Personal VPNs encrypt your online traffic, making it much harder to intercept for anyone monitoring your connection (including your ISP).
- Preventing traffic-based bandwidth throttling: Encryption makes it harder for ISPs to automatically throttle your internet speed when they detect specific activities.
- Safer public Wi-Fi: Personal VPNs prevent lurkers on unsecured public networks (like restaurant or airport Wi-Fi) from easily intercepting your online traffic.
- Remote access: By connecting to a server back home, users can access their paid legal subscriptions while traveling.
Please note that using NordVPN to bypass any regulatory or judicial measures, or for any other illegal activities is strictly prohibited and violates our Terms of Service. Make sure you use NordVPN in compliance with all applicable laws and regulations, as well as the terms of any websites or services you access using NordVPN.
What is the purpose of a personal VPN?
The primary purpose of personal VPNs is to increase the user’s privacy and security while browsing the internet. However, the unique method by which VPNs achieve this lets them be used in other contexts — for example, VPNs let users access legal subscriptions from their home country while travelling (because connecting to a VPN server changes the user’s IP address).
