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A kill switch can help prevent your privacy from being breached when your encrypted VPN connection stops working. Here's why your VPN needs one.
The basic idea behind a virtual private network (VPN) service is that your connection becomes more private. By using a secure, encrypted VPN connection, your online activity cannot be tracked by other web traffic.
However, there are times when you may not have the protection of a VPN. Instead of an encrypted tunnel to another server, you may suddenly find yourself accessing the Internet directly without a VPN.
It’s even possible for a VPN to stop working in the middle of a session without your knowledge. This can leave you stuck surfing, blissfully unaware that your web traffic and data can be seen by others.
Your web browsing history, the data you share with others, and other data points are all fair game for others to track and use, such as to build profiles for data brokers.
You’ll also run into problems when interacting with content that’s geo-restricted. While a streaming service might think you’re in the UK, it won’t care if you’re suddenly using a US IP address.
That’s where the concept of a kill switch, which the best VPN apps offer, comes in.
Kill Switch Engage
Just like their counterparts used in heavy equipment and other applications, a kill switch is a VPN feature that stops your internet access. If a VPN app with a kill switch detects that the VPN connection is no longer working, the kill switch immediately cuts off the device’s internet access completely.
When a kill switch is triggered, it means that you cannot immediately access the internet without the protection of a VPN. You cannot accidentally go online and share sensitive data with others.
There are many reasons why a kill switch is triggered, and most of them are pretty obvious. For starters, if you have an unstable internet connection, such as public Wi-Fi, or your ISP is having problems, this can disrupt your connection and the kill switch will come into play.
Similarly, if you switch your Wi-Fi connection or VPN server, there will be a period of no active VPN connection. During this switching period, the kill switch prevents you from immediately going online while it waits for the VPN connection to be restored.
There are other reasons, like the VPN apps crashing or the VPN server itself going down, but they all mean the same thing. The kill switch comes into play and stops any potential internet access until you switch back to the VPN.
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Application and System Level
Most kill switches operate at two different levels: the application level and the system level.
The system level is the easiest to understand, as it affects your entire Mac or iPhone connection at once. All traffic accessing the network is stopped by the kill switch until the VPN connection is re-established or the user disables the kill switch and allows unsecured traffic.
The application level is much more granular because it applies to applications. You can often tell the kill switch to disable specific applications and block access when it is enabled, while still allowing other applications to connect to the unsecured internet.
This can be beneficial to users, such as those who want to maintain an encrypted connection to a messaging app even when they are not connected to the VPN. Meanwhile, the web browser can still be blocked from accessing the internet.
However, be very careful about which applications you allow to run and which ones you block. The last thing you want is to enable an application that shares too much data with the open internet.
If you haven't signed up for a VPN service yet, there are Black Friday VPN deals going on right now, with prices starting at just $1.99 per month.
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