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Do You Actually Need a VPN? What They Really Do (and Don't)

By Tom Langston ·

  • VPN
  • Privacy
  • Security
  • Networking

TL;DR

VPNs are one of the most over-marketed products in tech. Every ad and YouTube sponsor implies a VPN makes you anonymous and secure. It does neither. A VPN really only does two things: it hides your IP address from the sites you visit, and it stops your local network and ISP (internet service provider) from seeing which sites you visit. For most people doing normal things, that is not something they need, because HTTPS already encrypts the important stuff. If you do have a real reason (there are several), pay for a reputable no-logs provider, and never the mediocre one bundled into an antivirus suite.

Now for the more technical explanation

First, two very different things are called “VPN”

This trips people up constantly, so let us separate them:

When people argue about “VPNs”, they are often talking about different tools. Keep them straight.

What a privacy VPN actually does

The mechanism is simple: it creates an encrypted tunnel between your device and the VPN’s server, and your traffic then exits from that server’s IP address instead of yours. So:

That is the whole trick. It is genuinely useful for a few specific jobs, but it is not a magic shield.

What it does NOT do (where the marketing lies)

The public wifi myth

The classic advert shows a hacker at a café stealing your passwords over the wifi. That threat is largely historical, because virtually every website now uses HTTPS, which already encrypts your data end to end. Someone snooping the wifi can see which domains you connect to, but not your passwords, messages, or page contents. So for the average person, running a VPN on public wifi adds very little that HTTPS is not already doing.

(The thing that actually protects you on any network is HTTPS everywhere, and that is already the default.)

You are not removing trust, you are moving it

Here is the key mental model. Without a VPN, your ISP and local network can see the domains you visit. With a VPN, they cannot, but the VPN provider now can. You have swapped who you have to trust.

That makes the provider everything. You want a genuine no-logs policy, a privacy-friendly jurisdiction, independent audits, and a solid track record. A shady VPN provider is strictly worse than just using your ISP, because at least your ISP is accountable and regulated.

Free VPNs are usually the product

Running a VPN network costs real money. So when a VPN is completely free, ask how they pay for it. The common answers are ugly: logging and selling your browsing data, injecting ads, or in the worst cases bundling malware. Most free VPNs are a privacy downgrade, the exact opposite of what you wanted.

The exceptions are reputable providers that offer a limited free tier as a taster (Proton VPN’s free tier is the usual example). Even then, understand the limits before you rely on it.

When do you actually need a VPN?

There are real, legitimate reasons to use one. This is when to actually reach for it:

And again: reaching your own home or work network remotely is a remote-access VPN (WireGuard, Tailscale), a different tool for a different job. See the overlay networks guide.

If you need one, how to pick

The honest bottom line

Most people, doing ordinary things on a modern HTTPS web, do not need a VPN running all the time, and the ads that insist otherwise are selling fear. But a VPN is a genuinely useful tool for specific jobs: region-shifting, ISP privacy, censorship, and truly untrusted networks. Work out which job you are actually doing, pick a provider you can genuinely trust, and pay for it. If you cannot name your reason, you probably do not need one.

Written by Tom Langston, IT Infrastructure and Cybersecurity.