PopSci: “When your phone connects to the web, prying eyes can snoop on every site you visit. To protect your privacy, put a virtual private network, or VPN, between your phone and the internet. Instead of connecting directly to a website, you’ll connect to your VPN’s servers, which will then route you to the page. This will hide your browsing from prying eyes, but it can also slow down the speed at which pages load. However, its benefits override this quibble. For example, because a VPN can connect to servers anywhere in the world, it will let you visit a video portal or a news site as if you were in a different country—which will allow you to access different content as a result. Of course, security is still the main reason to download a VPN to your phone. Any connections you make will receive secure encryption, so nobody can look at your online activity. This is particularly important on public WiFi networks like the ones in hotels or coffee shops, where anyone else can get on the same network. Using a VPN makes it much harder for the owners of the network, your internet service provider (ISP), or anyone else to follow you around the internet. That said, the VPN provider itself can still monitor your browsing. However, the best VPN providers will promote privacy as a priority, promising not to collect data on your browsing habits or time online. So it’s important to pick a network you trust…”