While billions of people use the Internet every hour of the day, many do not think past their ISP service when it requres you to protect your privacy when surfing in cyber space. Many people are losing their personal data and even bank account information, as well as credit card numbers, because criminals are tracking them back to their computer and accessing their information remotely.

There are many different ways to protect your privacy while online, using a Virtual Private Network (VPN), is becoming the most secured way of doing so. However, you need to follow these five tips to protect your online privacy, along with using a VPN provider.

Adjust Settings to Protect Your Privacy

One thing you must do periodically is adjust your privacy settings, especially if you are a member to one of the many social networking sites, like Facebook. Even though many of these social media sites are attempting to simplify these settings, you still need to verify that your settings are the same. You need to do this once a month. You may even want to lock your social media account from public view.

While using a VPN will prevent someone from tracking you back to your location, it does not stop someone from accessing your social media site through another means. Since many people use the same user name, password and personal information on almost every site they commonly visit, a cyber criminal can steal just a little of your information and figure out how to get into many of your accounts.

Periodically Change Password Settings to Protect Your Privacy

One aspect that many Internet users do not take under consideration is changing their passwords periodically. This includes the password you use to access your VPN account. By doing this, you can prevent anyone from accessing your VPN account and then gaining access to your personal information, as well as your location.

Even though a VPN sends you a members password, you can request a password change when you want. You should always use different passwords for each account you have, as well as user names. You can keep this list of passwords in a safe place or on a password keeper service.

Do Not Use Ad Tracking to Protect Your Privacy

Many websites you visit download a tracking program to your account or IP address, so they can monitor your activity and then sell that surfing information to online marketing companies. By doing this, the marketing companies can target you with ads your surfing activity has told them you are interested in. Even though the VPN protects your computer and surfing activity by making you anonymous, the IP address you use from your VPN service is still avialable to these monitoring devices. However, you can opt out or disable the cookies in your settings on your webs browser.

Think Before You Add Information to Protect Your Privacy

Many people think that posting information on their social networking site keep all their friends, followers or others informed easier. However, you need to think before you add any personal information to these sites or within your instant messaging. If you post a picture of yourself at a bar watching a ballgame, while you should have been at work, this could damage you greatly. Many colleges and employers are now searching social media sites as part of their screening process. It is nice to have fun, but do not post anything that will hard your integrity.

Securing Your Internet Line to Protect Your Privacy

Of course, the most secur way of protecting your privacy is by joing a VPN service. Not only does this service encrypt all your data, even your surfing activity, it does not let anyone track you back to where you are located. Instead, these tracking programs can only trace you back to the VPN’s server. No other Internet security technology works as well as a VPN provider, unless you want to invest a lot of money in your own firewall equipment and servers. Here is a list of the top VPN providers, according the world’s leading experts.

Rank	Provider	Starting Price	MoneyBack	Visit Website
	ExpressVPN	$6.67/month	30 Days
2	VyprVPN	$14.95/month	7 Days
3	IPVanish	$10.00/month	7 Days
4	Hidemyass	$6.55/month	30 Days
5	StrongVPN	$21/ 3 Months	7 Days