Are VPNs Facing Possible Extinction?
Ever since the early beginnings of VPN services in the mid-90s, people have been saying that these privacy tools don’t have the capabilities to survive the challenges future tech advancements will bring into the online world. While these types of claims will always be present no matter what, this topic also enticed us to take a look at the future of VPN services. In this week’s Zlog, we’re going to take a look at the weaknesses of VPN services, the chances of VPNs dying out, and what it would mean if it comes to this.
Issues VPN Services Are Facing
VPNs undoubtedly come with many advantages. After all, almost every week on this page we talk about different benefits of using VPN services in today’s online world, and there are many of them. From private browsing and unrestricted website access to anonymous file sharing, torrenting and streaming, there are countless advantages VPNs bring to the table. But, to stay to the topic at hand, we should also mention the weaknesses that VPNs come with. So, let’s take a look at some potential issues that could hurt these services and can lead to VPNs dying out:
Government Censorship and Bans
By their inherent nature, VPNs are seen as extremely convenient tools that let users browse the web in complete privacy and anonymity. By using VPNs, you can hide your activities from your ISP, third-party prying noses and even the establishment. The latter, in particular, doesn’t appreciate the benefits VPNs bring to the users and would like to have as much control and surveillance as possible.
With that in line, certain organizations, such as the US’s NSA, extensively work on deciphering VPN encryption and puts a lot of finances into obtaining the latest technology to do so. Latest information shows that the NSA can crack through less-protected VPNs. Luckily, military-grade protection, like the ones used on our services is still safe from such attempts.
ISPs Block VPN Connections
Many VPN users use this convenient tool primarily to bypass geo-blocks and access restricted content in other countries around the world. However, certain geo-restrictions can even be expanded to include VPN server locations. While ZoogVPN users don’t have these types of problems, as we regularly check and update our servers, there has been some information circling online about several VPNs getting blocked by Internet Service Providers. This can be a particular problem if you’re from the US, where ISPs are particularly focused on cracking down VPN services.
Free VPNs Bringing Down the Industry’s Reputation
While many VPNs, including ZoogVPN, offer their users a chance to try out their services for free, there are also certain VPN services that offer their customers completely free, without any limitations. Not only do these free VPNs lack in quality compared to paid VPN services, more often than not these services pass the information on your online activities to various advertising companies. This puts a bad name on all VPN services, even those who are completely transparent in their business.
What Can VPNs Do Going Into the Future?
With all of this said, it’s clear that the future of VPN services will be a challenging one. It would probably be an overdramatization to say that the future changes will lead to all VPNs dying out. But, while this can be an issue in the future, it’s important to understand that not all VPN services will be the same situation when push comes to shove. As these challenges start coming up, VPN services will also need to embrace new technology trends to stay above all of the potential problems.
The big thing is, VPNs who fail to adapt and change as advancements move on will most likely face extinction in the near future. As a VPN that always tries to follow and adopt the latest advancements, here at ZoogVPN, we also like to keep you posted about all online privacy and security news. Stay tuned with our Zlog and always be on top of the latest VPN-related information.
Yaroslav S.CEO at ZoogVPN. Yaroslav is a versatile manager with extensive customer support experience. His historical background and a deep passion for philosophy perfectly complete a real desire to create meaningful content and tech products.
