If you’re wondering whether a VPN makes you anonymous, you’re not alone. It’s a question we’re asked a lot.

Some VPN services advertise anonymity as one of their features, usually alongside being the “fastest”, which is always a bold claim.

It sounds great: when you’re connected to the internet via a VPN you can visit websites, download files and watch videos without anyone knowing who’s doing it.

But before you sign up and start using a VPN service, there are are few things you should know.

The short answer is that a VPN does hide your activity, but you can end up revealing your identity in various ways that a VPN can’t protect you from. As far as we’re concerned, no VPN provider should claim to make you anonymous.

Here we’ll explain a bit about how a VPN works so you know exactly how anonymous you are when you’re using one.

How does a VPN give you privacy?

A VPN – which stands for Virtual Private Network – gives you better privacy online than if you weren’t using one. But you can’t swap out the word privacy and use anonymity instead.

When you press the Connect button in your VPN app, an encrypted connection is established between the device you’re using and a VPN server in a location you chose.

As this connection is encrypted, no-one can intercept and read whatever data being sent across that connection. This is why no-one can see what you’re up to when you use a VPN. Your ISP, for example, cannot keep a record of which websites you visit, and no-one can read messages or emails you’re sending, or identify the names or contents of files you’re downloading.

This applies for the encrypted portion of the connection which is illustrated in the image below: the data is encrypted until it gets to the VPN server. (Note: the diagram shows a PC connected to the VPN server, but it could just as well be your phone, tablet or even your smart TV.)

When the data reaches the server, it is decrypted so it can be sent onwards to the website or web service you’re using. It can’t remain encrypted for the entire journey as the website you’re connecting to wouldn’t be able to decrypt any data you’re sending to it such as your login or payment details.

It’s crucial to understand that the VPN service you use can see exactly which sites you’re visiting, who you’re talking to, when and for how long.

This sounds uncomfortable, but the reality is that reputable VPN services do not log any of this data, and employees (or the employees of the data centre where the server is located) don’t have access to that data.

We should also point out that a lot of the data that goes to and from the internet from your device is encrypted even if you don’t use a VPN. Almost all websites now use https and other encrypted protocols to safeguard data against prying eyes.

When you use a VPN any data (whether already encrypted or not) going to and from the internet gets encrypted, providing a second layer of protection. So, this protects any unencrypted information – such as messages or passwords which – through poor security practices – end up getting sent over your internet connection unencrypted.

The connection between the VPN server and website (or web service) doesn’t have that second layer of encryption which means that any data sent in ‘plain text’ could be read by someone that can intercept the connection.

However, your identity is still protected by the VPN because when you connect via a VPN server your IP address – the string of numbers that can be traced back to you – is replaced with a new string of numbers which cannot be traced back to you.

For even better protection, some VPN services offers ‘double VPN’ or ‘multi-hop’. That’s where your connection is routed via two (or more) servers in sequence, and your IP address is changed each time. Anyone trying to trace the connection will have a very hard time finding the originating IP address, i.e. your IP address as given to you by your internet service provider.

Although IP addresses are just numbers, they are unique and can give away your real location, sometimes very accurately. Along with other information that’s sent over the internet connection (from your device or web browser) an IP address can be traced back to you personally and this is how cybercriminals are often caught.

As well as hiding your IP address, VPN services also use their own (or third-party) DNS servers to hide your activity. A DNS server is a bit like an internet address book. It translates a website’s name (like www.google.com) to its IP address (such as 8.8.8.8), which is how you can type in a URL and your web browser is able to load the corresponding web page.

Normally, when you use the internet without a VPN, your ISP’s DNS servers are used to do those translations, which are known as ‘lookups’. Good VPN services, though, not only replace your IP address: they also have their own DNS servers for looking up websites and ensuring that activity is kept private as well.

And this is why VPN services claim to make you anonymous.

Am I anonymous while using a VPN?

As a quick recap, a VPN encrypts your internet connection and changes your IP address. So anyone trying to spy on you by looking at those things will have no chance of figuring out who your are or where you are located.

That’s great, but if you sign into a website, such as Amazon, you immediately reveal your identity to that website. You’re no longer browsing anonymously. It’s like walking into a shop wearing a badge with your name and address written on it.

It’s true that you might not need to enter your name and address when you create an account for a website. It might need only an email address, which doesn’t necessarily contain any information that can reveal who you are. In that case, the website will only know who you are in the sense that it knows which email address has signed in.

But many websites do require your name, address, gender, date of birth and payment information, all of which is stored on your account. So when you sign in, the site has a clear picture of exactly who you are.

Even if you’re careful to avoid handing over that information, you still leave ‘digital footprints’ as you use the internet. This trail of information can include data your web browser hands over, or the information the device you’re using provides to websites.

It’s typically innocuous things like software version numbers, screen resolution, make and model, etc. But when there’s enough of this data and it’s combined, it becomes a more like a digital fingerprint than a footprint. It’s unique enough that those with the appropriate knowledge and tools can begin to track your activity and maybe even work out who you are.

A VPN certainly makes the tracking process a lot harder, but it’s dangerous to believe you’re truly anonymous simply because you’re using a VPN.

You should also bear in mind that, because your data is decrypted when it reaches the VPN server, it means emails, SMS messages and other stuff that doesn’t benefit from encryption without a VPN can be intercepted and read by others.

This is why it’s a good idea to use end-to-end encrypted services such as WhatsApp, especially if you want to share passwords, bank details or other confidential information.

Don’t share that in emails or SMS messages, unless you use an email service that has end-to-end encryption. The consumer version of Gmail certainly doesn’t.

The bottom line, though, is that VPNs don’t offer anonymity. They do give you extra privacy and security and you certainly should use one – ideally all the time. Use a trustworthy one, too. Here are the VPN services we recommend.

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