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Most people don鈥檛 think of it this way, but when you connect to Wi-Fi at a restaurant, airport or any public place, your data goes off on a little journey. The bad news is, that journey is nowhere near as private as you鈥檇 think 鈥� or hope.

Between your device and the website or app you鈥檙e on, your information goes through routers, networks and servers. Any of those could, in theory, be watched by someone you鈥檇 really rather didn鈥檛.

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) has the job of making sure that even if someone is watching, they see scrambled data. That鈥檚 the beauty of encryption. But how does jumbling your data actually keep it safe? And is it as bulletproof as VPN providers would have you believe?

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Your Data Is More Exposed Than You Realise

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Cybercrime in the UK isn鈥檛 a rare event that only happens on occasion. It鈥檚 much closer to home than that. The government鈥檚 2025 Cyber Security Beaches Survey found that 43% of British businesses experienced some form of breach or attack in the year 鈥� that鈥檚 roughly 612,000 companies.

In fact, the Institution of Engineering and Technology reckons that one incident happens every minute, with one in three UK adults witnessing more hacking this year than in any year before it.

And it鈥檚 not just businesses in the firing line. Individuals are equally as targeted, especially when they鈥檙e on the move. Which brings us to what VPNs do in the background.

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What Are VPNs Actually Up To?

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If you had to think of the Internet as a highway, everyone would be able to see what鈥檚 going where. The task of a VPN is to build a private tunnel through that highway. Your data doesn鈥檛 just travel freely anymore, it gets bundled into the tunnel and sent through a VPN server in a thick layer of encryption.

At this point, two very useful things happen simultaneously. The first is that the content of your traffic becomes completely unreadable to anyone on the network 鈥� your Internet Service Provider (ISP) included. And second, the website that you visit sees the VPN sever鈥檚 address, not yours. Both your location and identity become hidden.

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Where Does Encryption Come In?

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If you take away the jargon part, encryption is just a sophisticated way of turning readable information into, well, gibberish and then turning it back again, but only if you have the right 鈥渒ey.鈥�

Everything that鈥檚 readable, including passwords and bank details, are all plaintext. An encryption algorithm scrambles it all so that anyone looking at it without the key sees nothing but a meaningless jumble of characters. When the data is fed through with the correct key, it all slots neatly back into place.

The gold standard, which you鈥檒l see on most VPN websites, is AES-256. More formally, it鈥檚 the Advanced Encryption Standard using a 256-bit key. Trusted by banks, governments and militaries, there鈥檚 a good reason 鈥渕ilitary-grade鈥� isn鈥檛 entirely marketing waffle here.

A 256-bit key has so many possible combinations that it would be completely impossible to guess every option until it works. In practical terms, nobody is getting through a properly-implemented AES-256.

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Why Public Wi-Fi Is A Stranger鈥檚 Living Room

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Any public Wi-Fi, whether it be your local coffee shop or hotel, is convenient precisely for the fact that it鈥檚 open and easy to connect to. 鈥淥pen鈥� also means that anyone else on that network has a shot at intercepting what鈥檚 being transmitted across it if they really wanted to.

Brits clearly sense the risk. According to a Forbes Advisor poll, around 34% of VPN users in the UK list securing public Wi-Fi as the main reason for having a VPN in the first place.

When encryption is switched on, even if you鈥檙e on a dodgy network in the furtherest corner of an airport, your data stays sealed inside its private tunnel.

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Here鈥檚 What Your VPN Won鈥檛 Do

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There鈥檚 nothing like reading the fine print. While encryption protects your data on its journey, it doesn鈥檛 make you invisible or anonymous online. It also won鈥檛 save you from actively clicking on a suspicious link.

Basically, a VPN isn鈥檛 a substitute for an antivirus software or a healthy suspicion of emails and texts from unknown senders. Phishing attempts and malware sail straight past your VPN because they rely on fooling you, not cracking your connection.

On a separate note, you鈥檙e also putting your trust in a VPN provider so take the time to do the research before choosing one. Since your data passes through their servers, they should have a no-logs policy so you know for sure that your information doesn鈥檛 get sent elsewhere or is seen by people who shouldn鈥檛 be seeing it.