Most of you have heard that the US Government has passed a law that allows Internet providers to sell data about your online activity. Yes, this means you have less privacy. Keep in mind that some of your privacy may have already been lost when you did searches on Google or shared information on social networks. Probably the only way to get that privacy back is to be completely unplugged.

A couple of months ago I wrote Norton WiFi Privacy Provides Safe Surfing on Public Networks about a new product that makes a more user-friendly VPN. Is it the magic answer to getting privacy back? No. But it can certainly help protect some of your privacy.

Below is an article written by the Norton folks about how you can protect privacy with a VPN. Yes, they wrote this to help sell their product and there is no doubt their product can help with privacy protection. And yes, I’ve included links that earn me a small commission if you use the links to purchase the product.

How to protect your online privacy with a VPN

Did you know that Congress just passed a law that allows your Internet service provider (ISP) to sell your personal data? Your ISP can see what you do while you’re spending time online. From making purchases to looking up medical conditions, or arranging vacations and shopping online, your actions create a digital trail of data that can paint a very detailed picture of you.

ISPs see a myriad of activity-based information about you, such as searches you perform, websites you visit, articles you read, your emails, instant messages, any files that you download, and more. In addition to viewing that data, Internet service providers can also collect it, and even sell it to a third party for profit.

The best way to protect your privacy online is to use a virtual private network (VPN). VPNs give you online privacy and anonymity by creating a secured, private network from any Internet connection you access—whether your home Wi-Fi or a public Wi-Fi hotspot.

VPN software sets up an encrypted data connection between your computer and a remote server, similar to a private tunnel that blocks prying eyes from spying on the data you send and receive. Encryption is a way of protecting personal data so that it cannot be read by anyone who doesn’t have the encryption key. As a result, this blocks any unauthorized attempts by companies, hackers, or other threats that try to access that data.

In addition to using a VPN, there are other ways you can add even more layers of security to protect your online privacy:

Use HTTPS when browsing online

In addition to using a VPN to protect your online activity, always make sure you are visiting secure websites. HTTPS browsing adds an extra layer of security using encryption within the browser.

Enable private browsing

Private browsing is a mode you can use in most browsers that blocks the standard data collecting features built into most browsers. This includes things like cookies, search history, and stored account log in credentials.

The Norton WiFi Privacy VPN helps hide all of your online information, including your location, when you access the Internet. When you use Norton WiFi Privacy, your data is encrypted so that your Internet service provider can see only the amount of traffic passing through their servers and not the encrypted data.