Top 5 Reasons Remote Workers Use VPNs for Remote Work in 2024
Why should remote workers use VPNs? We break down the top five reasons so that you and your employer feel safe and secure.
Working remotely is the way of the 21st century. It took a major pandemic for a lot of business owners, managers, and employees to try it for the first time. However, it was so effective (in many ways) that even after it was safe to return to the office, a lot of people just chose not to.
Because of this, finding the right tools for remote work became a priority topic. One of these tools is VPN, and here’s how it can be effectively leveraged for your remote work.
Some things to keep in mind as a remote worker:
– If you are working from home, make sure to establish a successful work from home routine.
– If you would like to work remotely while traveling, try housesitting to get free accommodations.
Reasons Remote Workers Use VPNs
1. Securing Your Company Network
A major reason remote workers use VPNs is to secure their company network. For this, you only need to use the platform’s basic features. You see, a VPN is supposed to create a virtual tunnel over your network, that your employees can use regardless if they’re on- or off-site.
In the past, companies used intranet for this purpose. They would connect all the devices on the premises with a network of ethernet cables connected to a router. This was incredibly effective, but it was a problem that ignored a few major issues.
- First, these devices still had to be connected to the internet. This was a huge vulnerability risk which often completely negated all the good work you tried to accomplish by setting this system up. To be fair, in the age where office work wasn’t as internet-dependent (and it’s so easy to forget there was ever such an age) it made sense.
- Second, in today’s world, roughly 12.7% of people work remotely full-time, with about 28% of employees working remotely at least some of the time. Even offices that insist on in-person attendance have some sort of a hybrid model where they allow their staff members to be away from the office at least one or two days of the week.
Moreover, since even remote workers usually work from the same device (usually a laptop that they use both at home and at the office), using the right VPN for Chrome (the most popular browser, with 65.31% of the global market share) just makes the most sense.
2. Access To Necessary Resources
Depending on your field of work, you may be unable to work until you get access to the specific type of content. Maybe you’re looking for academic papers, reviewing content, or gathering data for your research. In either of these cases, you’ll need access to a lot of content, and sometimes this content will be geo-restricted. However, in addition to security, the best VPN services will help you circumvent geo-restrictions and unblock content, according to software reviews expert Aleksandar Stevanovic (source: https://www.techopedia.com/vpn/best-vpn).
There are so many fields in which this is necessary from international contractors and investors, all the way to digital marketing specialists. Just think about it, as a digital marketer, you’re usually helping people rank locally. Even with the latest AI-powered tools, coming up with the right solution for this particular locality is different, unless you have a way to emulate local targeting conditions.
Another example can be seen in people who dabble in politics, regardless if they’re diplomats, content creators, or political streamers. A lot of the information you receive is affected by local censorship laws and you need a way to get around it.
Even if you’re just using social media to get in touch with people at a target location (because you plan to move in on the market), it’s better to use a VPN to create an impression that you’re actually there. This is one of the crucial tricks you need to apply when doing marketing for your business.
Virtual assistants are supposed to provide local (or at least localized) services, however, they’re often living across the planet. This way, the difference won’t be as great.
3. Concealing Your Private Data So That It Doesn’t Taint Your Google Search
Another reason remote workers use VPNs is that it gives you an extra layer of protection when it comes to your private data. This means that advertisers (and even the algorithm itself) won’t be able to track all that you do. This is especially important for people who don’t use separate accounts for their personal and professional online activity.
Let’s say that you’re working on a YouTube video and want to take a moment to play a bit of chess online or engage in some betting in an online casino. The last thing you want is, when you return to your YouTube, to have ads regarding these two fields popping up every second (casino ads, chess courses for sale, etc.).
So, by using a VPN, you can effectively hide your activity and then just turn it off when you return to work.
Not only that but there are a lot of people who would like to keep some of their online activity private. Sure, there are easier ways to get there than just using VPN but keep in mind that this is not all that VPN does and that, combined with all the other advantages, this is a welcome boost.
4. Enhanced Cybersecurity
When working remotely, your employer is taking a substantial risk. They’re usually trusting you to work from your own device, which means that the BYOD policy becomes a default. Your employer may insist on a certain set of cybersecurity tools, one of which could be a VPN. In other words, your use of VPN for remote work could be mandatory but there are numerous benefits of using it even if that’s not the case.
First of all, your VPN protects your IP address, which is important even for remote work. Just think about all the personal scams that target your physical address, which could be used to reflect on your work.
Second, a VPN gives you an extra layer of encryption. Sure, the platform you’re using already has its own encryption, but a bit of extra protection wouldn’t hurt.
The reason why all of this matters so much is because remote workers operate primarily on remote tools. This is a huge issue because it means that they have (directly or indirectly) access to a lot of private company data and IP. Sure, the employer can restrict access you have to these files, but even then, the amount of data you’re exposed to and the damage caused by these getting into the wrong hands can be quite significant.
5. Preventing ISP throttling
Now, before we carry on with this one, we must mention two things. First, no, the use of a VPN will not prevent ISP throttling altogether. Instead, it will prevent your ISP from throttling your internet connection based on your activities.
How does this work?
Well, your ISP may slow down your internet because they believe that you’re using too much network and if they allow everyone to do as they please during the peak hour, their network may crash.
When you use a VPN, your ISP will still be able to see how much internet you’re using, but they won’t be able to see where you’re using it. This makes a much bigger difference than you think.
You see, your ISP may target you based on your activity, which they see as too network-hungry. They may throttle your services because they noticed that you’re streaming, regardless if you’re not using that much internet, to begin with. On their list, streaming is a high-data-consuming activity, and as soon as it registers on their network, they’ll start slowing you down.
When you use a VPN, they can only see how much you’re using, not what you’re using it for. This means that this sort of discrimination is completely out of the question.
A VPN Is An Essential Tool For Remote Work In 2024
Even though the world of 2024 is hyper-connected, one’s geographical location is still a huge deal when it comes to remote work. This is why you won’t be able to unleash your full potential until you install the right VPN and start using it to the best of its capacity. This enhances your cybersecurity, boosts your research capabilities, and even prevents email throttling.