The Ultimate Guide for Choosing a VPN for Online Shopping

If you think online shopping is always safe – guess again! Your financial information (credit card numbers, personal data) is at stake and you should not skimp on anything to keep that secure from cyber threats.

For some years now online shopping is by far the preferred method of buying things during the holidays season and all through the year for that matter, surpassing retail in most of the countries. The global reach, variety of products available and the convenience are the drivers of this exponential growth. But with this comes the responsibility of shopping online in a safe environment.

A VPN service for online shopping is the best solution you can adopt to protect your personal and financial information. Read below what you should look at when choosing a VPN for online shopping!

You can certainly avoid some of the security traps when shopping online , while others cannot be detected by you as an individual but rather by specialized security and privacy solutions, such as a VPN for online shopping.

Here are some common threats in online shopping and how to deal with them:

• The online store you’re shopping on is not on a secure domain (using a secure encryption protocol to keep your details encrypted during the payment process), which makes it very easy for cyber criminals to eavesdrop on your data. Always check for the “https” in the URL and the browser padlock symbol in the address bar telling you it’s secure.
• The website you’re using to do online shopping is actually a fraudulent one, created by cyber criminals to get your financial and personal data. It’s best you only shop online on sites you’ve done this successfully before and only give away strictly necessary data – nobody needs your social security number or your birth date.
• Your account on a certain shopping website is compromised. So, the cyber criminals get access to your data and can make purchases in your name. This is why it’s not recommended to save your payment info (credit card, PayPal), but rather input them each time. An extra 30 seconds can save you of a lot of headaches. You should also define balance alerts for your account and use 2-step confirmation for payments such as getting a code via SMS on your phone to authorize an online transaction.

As explained above, some of the online threats can simply not be detected by you, even if you are a professional. This is why it’s important to keep your online environment safe by using a VPN for online shopping.

VPNs are the best way to anonymize your web traffic. When using a VPN service, your ISP or anybody that comes between you and the ISP (like a hacker) can only see that you’re connected to a remote VPN server and will not be able to make out the pages or content viewed.

So we’ve established that a VPN for online shopping is an absolute must in today’s online shopping landscape. Next step: which is the best VPN for online shopping and how to choose one?

A VPN for online shopping brings you peace of mind that your data is safe from cyber criminals. But there are other things to be taken into consideration here, such as trust, performance, compatibility, etc. Let’s see 5 aspects you should consider in order to make the best choice for a VPN for online shopping:

1. As promising as it may sound, DO NOT USE A FREE VPN for online shopping! These solutions are often selling your browsing data to 3rd party companies that will target you with “relevant” ads. Read more about the pros and cons of free VPNs here.
2. Always use a no-log VPN for online shopping! Check the privacy policy of the VPN service for this specifically! Here’s what could happen: your browsing data could end up in the hands of marketing companies and, from there, through an unfortunate leak, to cyber criminals.
3. Check what type of encryption algorithm the VPN for online shopping uses and the size of the encryption key. Most use OpenVPN-based encryption with a 256-bit key, which is the minimum accepted for a safe online shopping session. Other VPN services use faster and newer encryption techniques, such as ChaCha-based.
4. A VPN for online shopping should not disconnect during the shopping session. This will save you from issues related to orders not being authorized or even credit card charges without fulfillment confirmation. Mobile VPNs are mostly recommended for this, as they stay always connected even if the devices switches the Internet connection.
5. As you will not use it just for online shopping, make sure the VPN service also fits your other day-to-day needs – be it streaming live video, browsing, working remotely, etc. Most VPNs slow down your device as they encrypt the traffic, so be sure to choose a fast mobile VPN solution – don’t compromise security for speed and reliability!

Speedify is a mobile VPN solution that completely protects your online shopping sessions, offering more than just a secure online environment for your online privacy.

Speedify can combine multiple Internet connections so that you’ll always be connected and benefit from the fastest speed available. Speedify is available for computers and smartphones.

CONCLUSION: ALWAYS USE A VPN FOR ONLINE SHOPPING and day-to-day activities. Get started with Speedify now!