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With so much of our lives lived in the online world, and the instances of cyber hacking and data breaches in Australia growing at a rapid rate, it’s no wonder that our need for virtual privacy is increasing. That’s where Virtual Private Networks–known as VPNs–come in.
VPNs work to encrypt your data and mask your online behaviour from malicious or data-hungry third parties. When you access a website, your computer connects to the server where the site is hosted, allowing your data and data from your computer to be exposed to the website you are visiting.
When you use a VPN, the network connects you to a private server before you access a website. It then scrambles your data and makes it far more difficult for third parties to access your personal details or track what you’re doing online.
Related: Best VPN Services Australia
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1
NordVPN
Plan costs
$7.33 AUD per month or $87.95 for the first year
Number of Servers
5,500
Encryption
AES-256
2
Surfshark
Price
Starting From $3.07 AUD Per Month
Number of Servers
3000+
Encryption
AES with 256 -bit keys
3
Private Internet Access (PIA)
Dedicated IP address
Yes
Number of devices
Unlimited
Starting price
$19.79 AUD
4
ExpressVPN
Plan costs
12 months: $US6.67 per month; 6 Months: $US9.95 per month; 1 month: $US12.95 per month
Number of servers
3000+
Encryption
AES-256
Benefits of Using a VPN
For consumers, secure browsing is the main use of a VPN. It can also provide access to content usually only available in certain geographical areas, or find region-based discounts for e-commerce sites.
Small business owners can also use VPNs for remote access to your business network, or you can set up a VPN at home to allow you to access computers and files on your local network from a remote location.
Regardless of why you are using a VPN, its purpose remains the same: to forward your internet traffic to a private network.
For private usage, that means you can access your files without risking exposure to the internet and for public use, it means you’ll connect to a secure server before accessing the open internet.
This level of security has grown in public interest in recent years, and increased exponentially during the COVID-19 pandemic as online scams became more and more commonplace across the globe. Millions of Australians were left exposed in the recent Optus data breach, and, most recently, Medibank Private has revealed that customer details were stolen in a data hack.
According to the latest Global Market Trajectory and Analytics report on Virtual Private Networks, the VPN market is expected to reach a value of US$87.1 billion (AU$138 billion) by 2027.
This is a compound annual growth rate of 15.3% over the period of 2020-2027, with the global VPN market being worth US$32.2 billion (AU$51 billion) amid the COVID-19 crisis in 2020.
How to Compare VPNs
With plenty of global VPNs available to the Australian market, how can you choose which is best VPN for you? VPN providers offer various features, so it is best to consider what you need from the network and what cost you are willing to pay.
As Neel Baggam, a cyber security engineer for Deloitte explains, some of the most crucial factors to consider when comparing VPNs are to “read the privacy policy to understand what kind of logs and data the vendor collects from the user, and how it is stored”.
Baggam also recommends making sure the VPN provider has a fast network speed and an extensive server network. Here’s what that all means, along with additional VPN features to consider.
Related: Nord VPN Review
Number of servers and locations
The number of servers and locations a VPN has can affect the overall quality of the network. If it has a large number of servers, this means all of the VPN providers’ users will be spread out across those servers. With a smaller number of users on each server, this allows for better connection speeds and stable performance.
Additionally, a higher number of servers across various locations allows users to switch between preferred locations. This can enhance the security of your connection, as it makes it harder for third parties to track your data if the server you are accessing websites with is based in Australia one day, but connecting from the UK the next day.
Simultaneous connections
VPN providers offering a varying number of simultaneous connections. This means that you, your family or your business are able to connect to the same network at the same time across various devices.
Even while connected to the same network simultaneously, the individual user’s data will not be shared between devices. It is most common for a VPN provider to offer around five simultaneous connections, although some offer more.
Connection and download speeds
“Anytime you go online, speed is important. Nobody wants to deal with loading pages, long downloads, buffering streams, or lagging video games,” writes VPN.com founder Michael Gargiulo.
Using a VPN, however, has shown to slow the average internet experience by 10-20%–a difference which would hardly be noticeable, Gargiulo believes. But for individuals with download-heavy internet use, finding a VPN without a speed lag is paramount.
Access to streaming services
While it may feel like a loophole, accessing overseas streaming services while in Australia is entirely legal.
“According to the Australian Copyrights Act, it is not illegal to use a VPN to access geographically blocked content from legitimate providers,” Baggam explains.
“However, it is still illegal to access content that infringes the copyright.” This means illegal torrenting and pirating of content remains a criminal offence.
Overseas usage
Generally speaking, the larger the VPN provider, the safer they are to use. This is due to the aforementioned number of servers compared to number of users, making it harder for third parties to track data that is spread far and wide.
However, the size of a VPN provider also puts it at risk of being put on a block list in certain countries.
According to VPN.com, a full ban on VPN usage is in place in China, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Oman, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Belarus, while some specific VPN providers are blocked in other countries even though VPN usage is allowed.
No log policy
A “no log policy” means that the VPN will not collect or log any information in its network, unalike to how a regular network would store your browsing history. If a VPN provider says it has a no log policy, it will not keep any records of your online activity–including what sites you access, what you download, or what you search for.
It will also not store any data that can be used to identify you. This means that on the off chance a VPN provider was subject to cybercrime, the hackers would not be able to access any of your personal or browsing data as it wouldn’t be stored on the network in the first place.
Kill switch
A VPN kill switch automatically disconnects you from the internet in the event your VPN connection is lost. This protects you from temporarily exposing unencrypted data, making it an important feature for users to consider when comparing VPN providers.
Price
Obviously, a large factor to consider when comparing the right VPN for your personal or business use is the cost efficiency.
Oftentimes, while a provider may seem cheap and have a significant amount of users, it could also be a provider that is more heavily used by people trying to use VPNs to do the wrong thing: access illegal content, or commit cyber crime.
Using a slightly more premium provider reduces the risk of your traffic and data being mixed in with or attributed with such users. Usually, a user would be looking at around $12 a month for a decent provider.
Companies trying to break into the market may be lower, and providers with additional features may be more expensive.
In any case, you are better off choosing a provider that suits your needs for a reasonable price.
Are VPNs legal in Australia?
Yes, VPNs are legal in Australia. However, anything that is illegal without a VPN remains illegal when using one, even if the VPN has made it possible.
A Glossary of VPN Terms
Here are some common VPN terms you may come across and what they mean.
ISP – Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is the company you pay for access to the internet. Popular ISPs in Australia include Telstra, Optus, Dodo and Aussie Broadband.
Server – A machine (physical or virtual) that serves a computer (your laptop or smartphone) with the resources, data, services, or programs they ask for.
Tunnelling – The process of creating a secure and private channel of communication between a user (you) and a website or service.
Split-tunnelling – The ability to send data from different apps to different servers through separate tunnels. For example, you might use one tunnel for your web browser and another for your Netflix app.
Logs – In VPN parlance, a log is a record of your online activity. A VPN with a no-log policy means they don’t keep records of how you use them and therefore can’t be ordered to hand them over to anyone else.
Encryption – The process of translating information into code that can’t be deciphered without the correct encryption keys.
Megabits per second (Mbps) – Units used to measure download and upload speeds. Megabits per second is an expression of the amount of digital data transferred from one terminal to another in one second.
DNS – DNS stands for Domain Name Servers. A DNS translates a web address like Forbes Advisor into a string of numbers. When you type a web address into your web browser, you make a request to a DNS and it returns the corresponding string of numbers your web browser needs to visit the website.
DNS leak – When you use a VPN, DNS requests as described above should be encrypted and sent through a ‘tunnel’. It’s possible that this information can ‘leak’ from the tunnel if your VPN doesn’t properly protect you or was misconfigured, exposing details of the website you visit to your ISP and other third parties.
Protocol – A protocol is way of doing things. A VPN protocol is a set of rules that determine how a VPN application connects to a server. Some protocols offer faster download speeds than others, while others are more secure or offer a balance between speed and security.
Kill switch – A VPN kill switch automatically disconnects you from the internet in the event your VPN connection is lost. This protects you from temporarily exposing unencrypted data.
Double VPN – Some VPN services allow you to connect from your computer to another server via a server in the middle as an additional layer of security. For example, you might connect to a server in Germany and then connect to a server in Canada via that German server.
Featured Partner Offers
1
NordVPN
Plan costs
$7.33 AUD per month or $87.95 for the first year
Number of Servers
5,500
Encryption
AES-256
2
Surfshark
Price
Starting From $3.07 AUD Per Month
Number of Servers
3000+
Encryption
AES with 256 -bit keys
3
Private Internet Access (PIA)
Dedicated IP address
Yes
Number of devices
Unlimited
Starting price
$19.79 AUD
4
ExpressVPN
Plan costs
12 months: $US6.67 per month; 6 Months: $US9.95 per month; 1 month: $US12.95 per month
Number of servers
3000+
Encryption
AES-256
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What does VPN stand for?
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network.
Is it safe to use a VPN in Australia?
Yes, VPNs are safe and legal to use in Australia, although some VPNs are better than others so do your homework first.
How does a VPN work on an iPhone?
A VPN protects your data and internet security on an iPhone in the same manner that it would on a laptop or desktop computer. Most VPN providers include an iPhone as the option for additional devices.
While the implementation of a VPN may vary depending on the provider, Apple users can add a VPN to their iPhone by going into Settings > General > VPN & Device Management and then connecting to their established VPN.
