Expats know that life is full of surprises, and you never really know what’s coming next. Fortunately, there are things you can do to prepare for the future that will severely mitigate your risks. One area that a lot of expats have problems is with their Internet security in foreign countries, but there are simple measures you can take to browse the web unencumbered by government censorship. I am, of course, talking about VPNs that do a lot more than unblock websites.
The scary part is that in any given nation, the government could be keeping a close eye on you whether you like it or not. As a guest in a foreign land, there are numerous governmental regulations that are very different from laws in your home country. But the worst part isn’t that foreign governments could be snooping around trying to intercept your online data and track your web activities. Believe it or not, your home country could be doing the same. In our digital world, we have access to virtually limitless information right at our fingertips, but the problem is that the data you access could be located anywhere in the world. And many countries have created wiretapping policies that give the government the right to intercept and even store data that is one end domestic and one end foreign. The UK and the US are admittedly among the worst offenders of online privacy, but think what this means if you are communicating with servers located in your home country while you are abroad.
Your emails, web browsing activities, text messages, and even phone calls to your family and friends could be intercepted by your government. This is nothing short of intolerable, because the government shouldn’t be able to infringe upon your privacy. Apart from the government, don’t forget that there are many hackers that would love to steal your data, too. As an expat, you need to do everything in your power to maintain your Internet privacy and security, and the great news is that you can do so easily for about the cost of a cheap fast food meal per month.
Best VPNs for Expats
PureVPN – Complete Review
PureVPN is among the best VPNs you can choose if you are an expat. Expats are from all over the globe, and the type of resources you need to access are also scattered around the globe. Furthermore, expats tend to travel a lot, so having a lot of different global locations to connect to is of high importance. PureVPN won’t let you down because they have over 141 countries and a total of over 500 servers. Though their service isn’t the cheapest on the market, they do offer a quality and proven fast VPN service that won’t throttle your speed or introduce cumbersome data limits.
ExpressVPN – Complete Review
ExpressVPN offers a comparable service to Pure VPN, but there are a few differences with their service offerings. Firstly, they do offer fewer country options but they have more servers in each country. But in all honesty, access to over 78 countries is more than most people will use – giving expats the freedom to connect their VPNs all over the world. They do offer 24/7 support for your VPN connections as well, but it is facilitated through email and online chat services. But one of the greatest advantages to expats is the 30-day money back guarantee to test their service out at your current location.
Private Internet Access – Complete Review
Private Internet Access can give you access to over 40 unique countries spread out across the world, and their service is incredibly reliable. What’s really interesting about their service is the ability to connect up to 5 devices at once with a VPN tunnel and the fact that they don’t limit your data or bandwidth. With so many enticing features, expats would expect them to charge a lot for their service – but they don’t. You can get their service at the extremely affordable price of $3.33 per month with a full-year subscription.
IPVanish – Complete Review
IPVanish does an equally impressing job of providing expats with tons of global connection options. They currently offer server access in over 60 countries, but they are constantly adding new servers and countries to their connection profile. In addition, their logging policy is extremely low key as they don’t keep activity logs like some of the other companies. If you’re an expat on the go, IPVanish will be able to secure your data from hackers, thieves, and governmental agencies while unblocking content in foreign lands. And they offer 24/7 support service so you don’t have to worry about what time zone you are in.
VyprVPN – Complete Review
VyprVPN offers a different service model to expats than other providers. Interestingly enough, they offer a completely free service with a couple caveats. They limit free users to 500 MB of data per month and allow PPTP, OpenVPN, and L2TP/IPSec connection options. With their basic plan for only $6.67 a month billed annually, they remove the data limits – but only allow PPTP connections. If you upgrade to the pro service, you gain the added benefits of 2 concurrent device connections, a NAT firewall service, and additional connection options such as OpenVPN and L2TP/IPSec. Lastly, they offer VPN access to over 700 servers in over 50 global locations, so you can rest assured that you will have VPN flexibility wherever your expat life takes you.