Somebody has told you that you need one. Maybe an advert on a video, maybe a friend, maybe a banner promising that hackers are watching you on café Wi-Fi.
Being sold something you do not understand is an uncomfortable place to be, so let me tell you what it actually buys.
Now you are being asked for a monthly payment and you would quite like to know what you would actually be buying.
The short answer: a VPN does not remove the company watching your traffic. It replaces one with another one that you chose.
That sentence is not mine. It comes from the FTC, and this page is built around it.
What it actually does
When you use a VPN, everything your machine sends goes to the VPN company's servers first, and out to the internet from there.
Documented by the FTC on its VPN app guidance: "data sent from your phone… is first routed through servers controlled by the VPN provider. A VPN app can make traffic from your phone to a website appear to come from the VPN's servers."
So two things change. The websites you visit see the VPN company's address rather than yours. And whoever runs the network you are sitting on sees an encrypted stream rather than a list of sites.
⭐ That second one is genuinely useful and it is the strongest case for a VPN. On an open café network, the FTC's own example, "anyone monitoring your Wi-Fi network connection only sees gibberish".
The sentence the adverts leave out
Documented by the FTC, and this is the whole page in one line: "A VPN app generally isn't going to make you entirely anonymous… It just shifts trust from those networks to the VPN app provider."
⭐ Read that twice. Your internet provider could see which sites you visited. Now it cannot, and the VPN company can instead.
Whether that is an improvement depends entirely on whether you trust the VPN company more than your internet provider. That is a real question with a real answer, and it is not the question the adverts ask.
Ours, and marked as ours: your internet provider is a regulated business in your own country with an address you could write to. A VPN company may be none of those things. That does not make the swap wrong.
It makes it a swap rather than a solution.
What you hand over when you install one
This is the part almost nobody thinks about.
Documented by the FTC: "when you use a VPN app, you're giving the app permission to intercept all of your internet traffic. You shouldn't grant that permission lightly."
The FTC puts the comparison plainly: "Trusting a VPN with potentially all of your traffic isn't much different from allowing a third party to stand over your shoulder as you use the computer on your desk at the office."
The free ones, and why they are free
⚠️ This is the section to read if you were about to install a free VPN.
Documented by the FTC: "Many VPN apps are free because they sell advertising within the app, or because they share your information with (or redirect your traffic through) third parties."
And on whether the marketing tells you: "The fact that an app promises security or privacy doesn't necessarily make it trustworthy."
⭐ The FTC also cites research on almost 300 VPN apps. Some of them "didn't use encryption". Some "asked for sensitive, and possibly unexpected, privileges". Some "shared data with third parties for purposes like serving ads".
Ours, and marked as ours: a company routing your entire internet connection has to pay for that bandwidth. If you are not paying, something else is. That is not cynicism, it is arithmetic.
What a VPN does not do
Four things people believe and the FTC contradicts or qualifies.
It does not make you anonymous. In the FTC's words, sites you visit "may be able to determine that you're using a VPN app, and can still use any identifying information you directly share with them (for example, filling out a form with your email address) to track you."
It does not stop you being tracked by the sites themselves. Log into an account and you have identified yourself, whatever your address looks like.
It does not necessarily encrypt everything. The FTC notes that "Some VPN apps use protocols that don't encrypt your traffic, or encrypt only some of it."
It does not protect you from malware. A VPN moves traffic. It does not inspect what is in it.
So when is one actually worth paying for
Ours, and marked as ours, because this is a judgement rather than a documented fact.
Worth it: you use open Wi-Fi regularly. Hotels, airports, cafés, conferences. This is the case the FTC's own example describes, and it is the strongest one.
Worth it: you need to appear to be somewhere else. Reaching a work system that only accepts connections from one country, or a service you pay for at home while travelling.
Worth it: you do not want your internet provider building a record of every site you visit, and you have found a provider you trust more than them.
If your connection is the problem rather than your privacy, websites slow to start loading explains why a speed test can look perfect.
Not worth it: you only ever use your own home network, and the sites you use are already encrypted, which nearly all of them now are.
Not worth it: you want to be invisible. That is not what this buys, and the FTC says so.
If you decide to get one, three checks
Read what it says it does with your data. The FTC's instruction: "make sure you review the app's terms and conditions and its privacy policy to determine if it shares information with third parties like advertisers, and if so, what information it shares."
Read the permissions it asks for. Again the FTC: if an app requests particularly sensitive permissions, "consider whether the permission makes sense given the app's purpose".
And if you were worried about security generally, what a firewall actually does covers what your PC already has switched on.
Read reviews from somewhere that is not the app store. In the FTC's words, "don't just take the app's word for it".
Status: written 22 August 2026. The FTC describes a VPN as shifting trust from your network to the VPN provider rather than making you anonymous.
Does a VPN make me anonymous?
No. The FTC is direct about it: a VPN app "generally isn't going to make you entirely anonymous" and "just shifts trust from those networks to the VPN app provider". Sites can often tell you are using one, and anything you type into them still identifies you.
Are free VPNs safe?
Treat them carefully. The FTC's own explanation is that many are free "because they sell advertising within the app, or because they share your information with (or redirect your traffic through) third parties". Routing your whole connection costs money, so something is paying for it.
Do I need a VPN at home?
Usually not. The strongest case the FTC describes is open public Wi-Fi, where others on the network can otherwise see your traffic. On your own network, with sites that are already encrypted, the benefit is much smaller.
Does a VPN stop viruses?
No. A VPN moves your traffic through another route. It does not look inside it, so it does not detect or block malware. That is a separate job done by different software.
The Short Version
- A VPN routes your traffic through a company's servers before it reaches the internet.
- The FTC's own words: it "just shifts trust from those networks to the VPN app provider".
- Installing one gives that company permission to intercept all your internet traffic.
- Free VPNs are usually funded by advertising or by sharing your data. The FTC says so.
- It does not make you anonymous, and sites you log into still know who you are.
- The strongest genuine case is regular use of open public Wi-Fi.
Where to Next
Before you pay for anything, decide whether you actually trust the VPN company more than your own internet provider. That is the real question and nobody selling you one will ask it.
If you were looking at a VPN because you were worried about security generally, what a firewall actually does covers what your PC already has built in and switched on.
And if your connection is slow rather than insecure, websites slow to start loading explains why a speed test can look perfect while pages crawl.
If you use a VPN and it has been worth the money, tell me why in the comments. I would like to hear the cases where it genuinely earns its keep.
Isaac Smith is the founder and editor of PC Glance, a website that covers computers, laptops, and technology. He is a tech enthusiast and a computer geek who loves to share his insights and help his readers make smart choices when buying tech gadgets or laptops. He is always curious and updated about the latest tech trends.