When you access the internet over Wi-Fi, do you worry about who might be spying on your data—or maybe even stealing it? If not, you're in the majority, and that's a real problem.
Everyone ought to be using a virtual private network, or VPN, whenever they're on a network they don't control.
Yet when PCMag ran a survey on VPN usage in 2018, we found a surprising 71 percent of our 1,000 respondents had never used a VPN at all. Even among net neutrality supporters—who you might think would be better informed on security and privacy issues—55 percent had never used a VPN.
That attitude to the safety and privacy of personal data creates a tremendous risk when it comes to online security.
Public Wi-Fi networks, which are ubiquitous and convenient, are unfortunately also extremely convenient for attackers who are looking to compromise your personal information.
How do you know, for example, that "starbucks_wifi_real" is actually the Wi-Fi network for the coffee shop? Anyone could have created that network, to lure victims into disclosing personal information.
In fact, a popular security researcher prank is to create a network with the same name as a free, popular service and see how many devices will automatically connect. Yet, in a poll we conducted in 2019, only 15 percent of our 2,000 respondents use a VPN with public Wi-Fi.
Even if you're inclined to trust your fellow humans (which I do not recommend), you still shouldn't trust your internet service provider. In its infinite wisdom, Congress has decided that your ISP is allowed to sell your browsing history. In a recent poll, we found that a surprising 73 percent of respondents had no idea that their ISP was allowed to sell their browsing history.
Another government move definitely has motivated some VPN adoption. ISPs are now allowed to throttle or charge extra for different types of content (streaming video, for example) or for traffic from given companies. If you're concerned about your ISP slowing down your content or charging more for it based on what it is, one way to prevent this might be to use a VPN.
For many reason, then, using a VPN is a good idea. So we were interested to see how often people use VPNs, and under what circumstances. In a survey of 3,000 US consumers conducted between September 23 and 26, 2018, more than half of respondents (52 percent) said they do or would need a VPN for security purposes. Yet 48 percent said they have never used a VPN, and 23 percent have in the past but don't anymore. Just 29 percent—or almost one in three respondents—said they actually do use one. Of those who reported using a VPN, 18 percent said they do so on their laptop or desktop, while just 5 percent use one on their smartphone or tablet. A mere 6 percent said they use one on all of their devices.
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