A reliable VPN hides your IP address, online activities, and (some) personal data and may hide that you’re using a VPN. Some VPNs also conceal your GPS location to show your GPS trackers are elsewhere.
However, a VPN won’t hide your device browsing history, user account data, aspects of your data usage, and information you reveal yourself.
Plus, not all VPNs are robust enough to hide your IP address and online activities.
So, continue reading to find out what a VPN hides, in what instances it hides this information, and what a VPN won’t help you hide.
7 Things a VPN Hides When You’re Online
A VPN hides your IP address, online activities, and personal data.
I explain everything a VPN helps you hide online below.
1. IP Address
Your IP address is a unique set of numbers that can be used to:
- Identify your device.
- Identify your device’s location.
- Track your data across the web.
Connecting to a remote VPN server assigns you the IP address of that VPN server, which is what every entity you now interact with online sees.
So, websites, gaming platforms, advertisers, peers, and other web servers think you’re browsing from the location associated with your IP address rather than your actual address.
This helps you:
- Avoid ad tracking across the web.
- Defeat DDoS attacks, which rely on getting your actual IP address.
- Avoid price discrimination from airlines, hotels, ecommerce stores, and other programs that hike prices based on your internet activity.
- Beat session hijacking.
- Protect your online data from your ISP (since it can’t track the IP address it didn’t assign you).
- Unblock content from abroad (since the web servers think you’re in the IP address location).
2. DNS Addresses & Requests
Reliable VPNs will also hide your DNS requests and addresses so no one can log the data you transmit on the internet.
While your internet service provider (ISP) usually handles these requests, you’ll now pass them through secure VPN tunnels.
You’ll need to hide your DNS requests to prevent:
- Online tracking
- DNS hijacking
- DNS poisoning
- ISP throttling
- Server requests logging
However, not all VPNs will handle your DNS requests. That’s why it’s essential to check that your preferred VPN provider offers an in-house DNS service rather than outsourcing this to third parties.
If in doubt, you can choose ExpressVPN, which has a Private DNS service.
3. GPS Location
Some VPNs can hide your GPS location in addition to your IP address.
While GPS location and IP addresses can be used to tell your device’s location, the GPS location data usually overrides the IP address for core system functions.
That’s because GPS sensors are hardware components of your device, unlike IP addresses which are a software feature.
In fact, your actual GPS data may pass through a VPN tunnel unchanged, even if your IP addresses and internet traffic are now encrypted.
That’s why you may use a VPN to surf the web like you’re in the UK but still get local Uber services in your region.
Spoofing GPS locations is vital for:
- Protecting yourself against doxing attacks.
- Improving your online privacy further.
- Unblocking some location-restricted app services.
Fortunately, some VPNs can help you spoof your GPS location. These are:
- Surfshark – spoofs your GPS location on Android devices.
- ExpressVPN – spoofs your GPS location on your PC.
Read this guide to spoofing your GPS location with a VPN to get started.
4. Online Activity
A VPN is essential for hiding the details of your online activity like streaming, gaming, and web browsing.
Many VPNs use AES-256 encryption with a VPN protocol to protect traffic between your device and the VPN server. This generally prevents your ISP, a local network administrator, or another observer on that path from reading the tunnel’s contents, although they may still see the VPN connection and its traffic timing or volume.
Hiding your online activity is important for
- Evading arrests in authoritarian regimes like Thailand, China, Vietnam, and Russia.
- Running a blog anonymously from highly censored regions.
- Streaming heavy content without getting bandwidth throttling from your ISP.
- Playing games, accessing censored content, or bypassing school Wi-Fi and work computer blocks.
- Protecting your banking information, online logins, and conversations on public Wi-Fi networks.
- Browsing the web securely without worrying about privacy breaches by your ISP or government authorities.
AES-256 is a strong, NIST-standardized cipher, but its strength does not make an entire VPN system invulnerable. Security also depends on key handling, the VPN protocol, software implementation, patches, credentials, servers, and endpoint devices.
5. Torrent Activity
Trustworthy VPNs will help you download torrents faster and securely without getting nasty warnings from your internet service providers (ISPs).
In line with protecting your online activity, your torrent download data is tunneled via secure packets that your ISP or copyright trolls can’t decipher.
Thus, they can’t tell what you’re downloading or where you’re downloading it.
Likewise, some VPNs, like ExpressVPN, provide P2P-supported servers to download torrents faster. Your ISP can’t throttle your internet connection when downloading torrents over these VPN servers since it has no idea what you’re doing.
However, ensure the VPN service you choose for torrent downloads offers
- Native torrent support. Otherwise, you may still get caught torrenting.
- P2P-supported servers. These servers are optimized for P2P-file sharing to download torrents faster than average.
- Seeding support. Not all VPNs that support torrenting also support seeding. ExpressVPN does both, though.
- Extra torrent support. Some VPNs like PIA offer port forwarding and SOCKS5 proxy support for even faster and more secure torrent downloads.
6. Personal Data
Always use a VPN on untrusted connections to hide your data from the network admin, hackers, or other threat actors. Otherwise, they may see:
- The messages you send over the network.
- Your online banking details or other sensitive logins.
- Files you send or receive on the network.
Also, you should use VPN software over your home network or a network of connected devices. That prevents hackers from:
- Seeing data transmitted between your devices.
- Hijacking files you send on the home network (from your laptop to the printer, for example).
- Taking control of your home network.
7. VPN Traffic
Most reliable VPNs offer obfuscation to disguise VPN traffic as regular traffic, allowing it to pass through undetected in regions/on platforms with VPN traffic blocks set up.
Some websites and platforms block VPN traffic to keep out users who want to circumvent geo-blocks. High censorship regions like China also set up extensive firewalls to keep VPN users from bypassing the content blocks.
The same is true for some employers and schools.
By hiding your VPN traffic under obfuscation, you can:
- Access betting platforms like Bet365 without fearing an account ban.
- Play location-sensitive games like Mobile Legends without worrying about server-hopping-related bans.
- Unblock your banking apps from abroad without setting off VPN traffic red flags.
- Beat firewall censorships installed by your country, school, or employer.
- Use survey platforms like Swagbucks without getting banned for VPN usage.
- Send DDoS attackers on a wild goose chase as they can’t figure out how to attack your IP address.
However, obfuscation usually causes a significant speed drop.
Fortunately, ExpressVPN offers ultrafast obfuscation on all servers and protocols.
7 Things a VPN Won’t Hide When You’re Online
VPNs may cover much of your online privacy and security, but they’re not enough against all kinds of deanonymization threats.
Below, I discuss seven aspects of your online experience that a VPN won’t hide.
I also add a tip to help you secure this online data better.
1. Device Browsing History
A VPN can’t hide your device browsing history, even though it keeps your ISP or external actors from hacking your live traffic.
So, while no one gets remote access to your browsing activity, the history could still be present on your device and available to anyone who gains physical access.
2. Search History
Your search history is also a part of your device’s browsing history, but it’s often stored on external servers. If you use search engines like Google, your search history may be stored on its servers.
Likewise, internal site engines like Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube keep records of your recent searches. So, anyone entering queries into the search bar can see related searches you recently made.
3. Existing Device Cookies
Browsers store cookies when you visit websites to save your preferences and serve customized results. However, cookies are also used for ad retargeting, tracking your device across the internet, and even deanonymizing you.
In fact, saving cookies could sometimes interfere with your VPN’s unblocking and IP-changing ability.
So, depending on the kind of cookies you allow on your computer, your VPN may not hide the information those cookies collect from other web servers.
4. MAC Address
Your device’s MAC address is a unique ID through which other devices on the same network identify your unit. Unlike IP addresses that can change depending on your location, your device’s MAC address is usually constant.
Thus, a user that knows your MAC address can identify your device and track it across multiple networks.
Luckily, a VPN ensures the tracker can’t see what your device is doing on that network. Still, it doesn’t change the MAC address or obfuscate it, making it possible to know what networks you’re connected to.
5. Data Usage
A VPN can hide your DATA TRANSMISSION over a network, but it can’t hide your DATA USAGE. So, your ISP still knows how much of your data plan you exhausted, even though it doesn’t know what you’re using it for.
Likewise, network admins (or the person paying for the data plan) can still see approximately how much data you’re consuming.
Since you paid for the data or got it via other legal means, there’s no reason to hide your data usage from your ISP.
6. Information You Reveal
There’s a vast misconception about VPNs hiding everything about your online identity once you’re connected. However, you’re only as protected as the information you venture.
For example, if a VPN hides your IP address, but you reveal it, there’s no way a VPN will protect you from that. Similarly, a VPN won’t hide your identity on a social media account that bears your full name, home address, age, and other sensitive details.
7. User Account Data
Logging into Google services or other online accounts will inform connected web servers of your identity, even if you’re using a VPN.
However, you can still use connected accounts over a VPN without suffering a data leak to outside servers.
How to Choose the Best VPNs for Online Protection?
The best VPNs for online protection boast reliable security, impressive encryption protocols, and top-notch privacy across multiple server locations.
Here are essential criteria for choosing the best VPN to secure digital privacy.
Multiple Server Locations
You need a VPN with multiple server locations to enjoy preferred web versions while surfing anonymously. Here, I look for VPNs with:
- Local servers. Thus, you can secure your internet in your country and retain access to local content.
- Global servers. Unblock content abroad, bypass censorship, and enjoy a private internet experience.
When there aren’t local servers, ensure the VPN supports split tunneling.
Thus, you can protect sensitive apps while allowing other local apps/services to bypass the VPN tunnel.
Some of the VPNs I trust are presented in the table below.
| VPN Provider | Servers | Countries | Split Tunneling Support? |
|---|---|---|---|
| ExpressVPN | 3000+ | 94 | Yes (Android, PC & routers) |
| NordVPN | 5500+ | 59 | Yes (Windows PC and Android) |
| Surfshark | 3200+ | 95 | Yes (Windows PC and Android) |
Security
Strong, modern encryption such as AES-256 is an important part of a reliable VPN.
It helps keep traffic inside the tunnel unreadable to observers between your device and the VPN server, but it cannot secure a compromised device or protect data after it leaves the tunnel.
The VPN provider, destination website, logged-in accounts, browser, and device remain separate sources of information.
When the VPN is connected and working without leaks, destination sites generally see the VPN server’s IP address instead of yours.
Moreover, there should be a kill switch to prevent IP/DNS leaks if the VPN connection randomly drops.
Privacy
Select a VPN provider that’s not in surveillance-centric countries or countries with data retention laws.
However, there are exceptions. For example, Surfshark is a notable and reliable VPN provider in the Netherlands, a part of the 14 Eyes countries.
In every jurisdiction, look for a current no-logs policy backed by a recent independent audit.
An audit provides evidence about a particular scope and point in time; it does not guarantee that a provider can never retain or disclose responsive data. Check the audit date, its scope, and the provider’s current practices.
Fortunately, my top VPNs for online privacy are no-logs providers and were independently audited for these claims. See the table below for how they compare.
| VPN Provider | Headquarters | No logs? | Audits |
|---|---|---|---|
| ExpressVPN | The British Virgin Islands | Yes | Cure53 and PwC |
| NordVPN | Panama | Yes | PwC |
| Surfshark | Netherlands | Yes | Cure53 |
Protocols
VPN protocols are essential for getting the right balance of speed and security. Likewise, you need obfuscation protocols to hide your VPN traffic.
The best VPNs will at least offer WireGuard and OpenVPN (UDP and TCP) protocols. They can also have IKEv2, IPSec, L2TP, and other protocols for added convenience and choice.
However, WireGuard is missing on picks like NordVPN (used NordLynx instead) and ExpressVPN (developed Lightway as an alternative).
You can often leave the protocol set at Automatic to allow the VPN to choose the best one. Even so, I recommend knowing what each VPN protocol is best for.
That way, you can tweak the settings if something isn’t working.
Torrent Support
Not all VPNs support torrent downloads. So, be sure your preferred VPN provider does before you connect to uTorrent or other torrent download clients.
Likewise, some VPN providers (like NordVPN) support torrent downloads but don’t allow seeding on their servers.
Finally, make sure the VPN has P2P servers. While these allow you to connect to peers and download torrents faster, they’re also more secure for file sharing.
Extra Security Additions
Top VPN providers constantly add extras (part of your subscription package) to help boost your privacy and security. These extras are sometimes similar, but they’re primarily different to give each VPN provider an edge.
Looking at my top three reliable VPNs for online privacy and protection, I’ve detailed some of the extra security additions they provide below.
| VPN Provider | Security Feature | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| ExpressVPN | Threat Manager | Blocks ads and trackers from deanonymizing you on the internet |
| IP Address Checker | Confirms that your IP address is hidden and you're using the VPN server’s IP address | |
| DNS Leak Test | Confirms you’re not leaking DNS requests | |
| WebRTC Leak Test | Checks against WebRTC leaks which could also deanonymize you on the web | |
| NordVPN | Threat Protection Lite | Protects you from malicious websites, ads, and trackers |
| Dark Web Monitor | Scours the web for email data breaches and other personal information leaks | |
| Surfshark | Rotating IPs | Changes your VPN IP addresses around while keeping you connected to a single server location |
| CleanWeb | Blocks ads, malware, and trackers |
Does Private Browsing Hide the Same Things as a VPN?
Private Browsing (or Incognito browsing mode) doesn’t hide your IP address, DNS address, torrent activity, online activity, or even your data.
Likewise, it can’t prevent your employer, school, or ISP from knowing the websites you visited when connected to the network.
However, it hides cookie data, device history, and search history from anyone else using that computer.
Still, that’s not enough privacy since the network admin can still find that information by “sniffing” your internet data packets or hacking your live traffic.
Thus, get a VPN to protect your sensitive online data over private browsing mode.
Can a Free VPN Hide Your Internet Activity?
Free VPN providers lack reliable encryption to protect your online data from deanonymization, tunnel your torrent downloads securely, or prevent personal data interception.
In fact, free VPN services are notorious for logging your data for personal gain, often selling the data to third-party bidders (like advertisers).
Also, free VPNs lack the infrastructure to offer obfuscation.
So, your VPN traffic is exposed and blocked by platforms with extensive VPN firewalls.
Overall, free VPNs don’t only fail to hide your internet activity.
They can make things worse and invade your privacy too.
How to Fix a VPN Not Hiding Your Internet Activity? (Troubleshooting Guide)
You may need to switch VPN providers, change protocols, restart the VPN, or speak with customer support if your VPN isn’t hiding your online activity.
In no particular order, I collated the troubleshooting guide below to help fix this issue.
- Choose a reliable VPN. You can’t go wrong with VPNs like ExpressVPN, NordVPN, or Surfshark.
- Enable the kill switch. You may suffer momentary IP/DNS leaks if you don’t enable the kill switch and your VPN connection drops. So, enable it before connecting to any server.
- Switch protocols. Some VPN protocols (like L2TP) aren’t as robust as others (like WireGuard/Lightway/NordLynx) for encryption. So, choose a better and more secure protocol.
- Check the VPN connection. Ensure the VPN is connected before going online.
- Update the VPN app. Look for a VPN app update. Download and install it if available. The VPN provider might have already fixed a bug causing the app to misbehave.
- Restart the VPN app. This fix usually works more on PCs than mobile. When the VPN app isn’t responding or working correctly, restart it.
- Understand the VPN’s limits. Know what your VPN can hide and what it’s helpless against. No level of tweaking will make a VPN hide what it can’t.
- Speak with customer support. If all else fails, reach out to customer support. My top VPNs offer reliable 24/7 customer support.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Information Does a VPN Hide?
VPNs hide your actual IP address, DNS addresses and requests, torrent downloading activity, and some personal data. Some VPNs like Surfshark and ExpressVPN hide your GPS location data, making them more efficient for geo-spoofing.
Also, you can hide your online streaming data, gaming activities, and the websites you visit from the government, network admins, your employer, school, or ISP with a VPN.
Does a VPN Hide Text Messages?
A VPN can’t hide your text messages. However, it can prevent the interception of your non-SMS text messages by sending them through secure tunnels.
This is important on public Wi-Fi networks susceptible to conversation hijacking and man-in-the-middle attacks. Thus, your conversation’s integrity is preserved, and threat actors can’t see files or texts you receive/send on the network.
Can I Be Tracked If I Use a VPN?
A VPN replaces the IP address that websites see and encrypts traffic between your device and the VPN server, but it does not make you untraceable.
Websites and apps may still identify you through logged-in accounts, cookies, browser or device fingerprinting, and information you share. A VPN provider may also retain account or connection records and can be subject to legal process, so check its current privacy policy and independent audits.
Does a VPN Hide Your Phone Number?
A VPN doesn’t hide your phone number, as that’s assigned to the SIM hardware in your device. So, your actual number will show up on the caller/text ID even if you first connect to a VPN remote server.
If you want to change your number, you’re better off registering a new SIM, buying an international SIM, using an e-SIM, or signing up for a burner SIM.
Can the FBI See Through a VPN?
A well-configured VPN encrypts traffic between your device and the VPN server, so your ISP or someone monitoring the local network generally can’t read the contents of that tunnel. It does not make you anonymous or put you beyond law enforcement.
What investigators can obtain depends on the case, applicable law, the provider’s jurisdiction and retention practices, and other evidence. Provider account, payment, connection, or support records; websites and logged-in accounts; and data on your device may still identify you. Strong encryption can protect captured tunnel contents, but it does not prevent every form of investigation.
Can a Virtual Private Network (VPN) Hide an IP Address?
A VPN can hide your real IP address by connecting you to another server location associated with another IP address. Thus, the web servers you interact with and people you communicate with online can’t see your IP address, only the VPN’s IP address.
However, a VPN won’t help if you reveal your IP address, and you may still get IP-related attacks like DDoS.
Does VPN Hide Search History From Parents?
VPNs don’t hide your search history from your parents, as that’s mostly device and app-based. So, you’ll have to manually clear your search histories or use Incognito Mode to prevent logging search histories.
However, a VPN can help hide your internet activity from your parents and circumvent blocked websites if they install parental control spyware on your device.
Does a VPN Hide Your Browsing History From Your Employer?
Your employer can still find browsing history or other activity on an employer-managed device through endpoint monitoring, account logs, installed certificates, or physical access.
A correctly configured VPN generally prevents someone who only monitors the local network from reading the contents of the VPN tunnel. It does not override monitoring software, device policies, or records created by websites and work accounts.
Stay Secure and Private
Not knowing what a VPN hides and what it doesn’t might put you at risk of unknowingly leaking data. Now that you know, you can let the VPN do its work better while you tighten other parts of your online experience where the VPN may be limited.
Don’t forget to enjoy ExpressVPN’s fast obfuscation to hide your IP address, tunnel your DNS address, hide your online activity, download torrents securely, and hide your VPN traffic.
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