Why You Need A VPN For Your Privacy When Gaming
You don’t need to spend much time online to be aware of all the buzz around privacy concerns. Just recently, the viral FaceApp got in trouble for allegedly violating user privacy. But we’ve faced such problems from Facebook for far longer. Furthermore, the government pays careful attention to our online activity, making privacy a pipedream for most.
These concerns have many people searching for a reliable free VPN client. A VPN will hide your location and identity, keeping you safe from identity theft. You should have a VPN active any time you are using the web, considering that your most personal information is vulnerable when you are sharing your IP address.
Is it important for gamers to have a VPN? Gamers are possibly more at risk than other heavy internet users. Here’s why.
You’re online all the time
The most obvious reason is that we’re online a lot more than most people. Even when you’re not playing a multiplayer game, chances are you’re still online and logged in, sharing your IP data with any servers you come into contact with.
The more time you spend online, the more likely it is you will be hacked. That is the basic principle here, which means we need to be especially careful.
But the problem is not just that we’re online a lot.
Other gamers can be petty
Unfortunately, our community has its toxic elements. An incredibly diverse range of people consider themselves gamers, and that includes many who don’t have the strongest value systems or empathy. We’ve seen plenty of harassment in the past, including doxxing, swatting, and worse. When you’re gaming, other gamers know you’re online and can target you directly. They can get so much information just from your IP address, leaving you open to the worst kind of harassment.
Protect yourself with a VPN so that even if someone does have it out for you, they will be unable to track you down. Of course, this requires care on your part as well. Don’t give out personal information unless you are certain you can trust someone.
Geo-restricted games and other software
Despite the fact that we live in a globalized world and that we can access games and software directly online, geo-restrictions still make it difficult for some of us. If you’re living outside the US, especially in a country with strict censorship, you might not have access to everything you want.
One of the benefits of using a VPN is that you can pretend to be in a different location. Set your VPN to the US and you’ll have access to everything someone in America would. You’re hiding your location to keep yourself safe, but you might as well take advantage of the byproducts of this.
If there is software or a game that you cannot get in stores in your location, you may be considering torrenting. While we don’t sanction illegal torrents, if you do decide to torrent, you should definitely use a VPN to do so, or risk the unwanted attention of your government authorities.
