AndroidReviews

App Spotlight – Rocket VPN – Internet Freedom

Rocket VPN – Internet Freedom

LOGOAPPBUNDLE_0004_vpn.PNG

What is a VPN and why should I care?

Picture your internet connection as a large web of sorts. You pass information from your computer to other places on the internet through many different locations. Although this information is most often encrypted, at some point you encounter sections in the web where you are at the mercy of other servers who handoff the data to each other. VPN Stands for Virtual Private Network. A great example of the need for this is with Banking. Let’s say that you are accessing your bank account through a public Wi-Fi router. Even if the website for the bank is encrypted the data stream you use to connect to it isn’t. This leaves a lot of questions to be had. If someone had the knowhow and felt the need they could access your data and work on cracking it at their leisure through a public Wi-Fi hotspot. Using a VPN you route all data traffic into the encrypted server and then it bounces back onto the websites you wish to visit. Think of it as an extra layer of protection.

Another reason to use a VPN are when trying to access content in other countries that are restricted by the country you reside in. In some cases this can be used questionably in accessing content that the United States holds against the law. In other countries many journalists and free speech activists use VPN’s to post their content that their home country would otherwise block.

There are more reasons but for the average consumer these are all that matter.

How safe am I without one?

That depends…

If you’re asking what the odds are for you having your identity stolen in general, well then there’s a number for that.

2 million complaints each year.

Now these are only the ones that get reported. There would be quite a bit more of those events where a person noticed unnatural charges on their credit accounts and went to cancel the card in lieu of a new one. This is considered an unauthorized charge but if we’re talking identity theft as in your social security number, address, banking information, even up to drivers license information then that’s a whole other level. But the fact is, that simple unauthorized charge is a form of identity theft.

When you sign into free public Wi-Fi hotspots you hastily click “I Agree” to the terms and conditions but do you ever read them? Most of them allow for no liability if you happen to be harmed using their access. Your security is up to you and you alone.

Why use this one?

Using a laptop compared to a phone is like night and day. On a laptop you are constantly reminded that your connection is unsafe and you have in part, an OS level protection to allow or disallow connections to use the public unsecured network. With your phone all you see is a little warning at the Wi-Fi network screen that has either an exclamation point or a little lock that is unlocked. For the most part we don’t think too much about it.

If you choose to use a VPN they can get pretty expensive. Now some people subscribe to a cell provider that has unlimited data so everything they use gets routed through their networks and there aren’t many people on the same line unlike a Wi-Fi hotspot. This application gives you the benefit of using it for free for a certain amount of time–500 Mb of time to be exact. After which you have to pay but here’s the great part.

It’s so affordable you wonder how you can pay $13.00 a month for phone insurance but neglect to pay for peace of mind such as this.

APPBUNDLE_0000_Screenshot_2016-02-17-14-14-17.png

To start, everything is laid out for you simply and easy to see. You get to choose where you want your server to spoof your location to.

APPBUNDLE_0001_Screenshot_2016-02-17-14-16-10.png

We recommend looking at the FAQ if you still need a little clarity in understanding how much a VPN is worth to you.

APPBUNDLE_0002_Screenshot_2016-02-17-14-16-39.png

They NEVER Store, Collect, or Transmit, this should be common sense but it doesn’t seem to be for most providers. We get to see our data allotment before we’re off to connect to GERMANY!

APPBUNDLE_0003_Screenshot_2016-02-17-14-18-59.png

Now that we’re there, we didn’t notice any drop in speed even if there’s an extra step between our data and our phone (Rocket VPN being that extra step). Looking at the prices we can see a world of difference compared to many other VPN providers. At only $24.00 a year it screams a bargain.

APPBUNDLE_0004_Screenshot_2016-02-17-14-19-52.png

There are even sites that use only certain countries’ VPN to connect that you can assign.

Get Rocket VPN – Internet Freedom

In Short

With Rocket VPN we can consider the following:

  • We have access to content not available in our country
  • We now have our data encrypted for better security and privacy
  • Rocket VPN doesn’t share your connection with other users like other VPN services do.

Now then…

The only question you really have to consider is how much is your personal information worth to you? We could make an argument for various other apps but the truth is most suffer from a big problem. They’re overly simplistic to the verge to looking as if they shouldn’t be trusted in the first place, or they hover around being so complicated that VPN sounds like something we have to work to understand and therefore we wouldn’t have time for anyway. We always say that the best things are those things that just happen to work. Rather than having to make all sorts of changes on the system level you are given a very easy directive. You access the app, you use the connection, and you pay either for the month, three months, or a year.

The bottom line is, this app looks really good. It approaches us in every way that matters, polished, professional, functional, and with little hassle in the Ad department or setup. While you could continue to take the risk of jumping onto a Cafe’s public hotspot for just a few minutes to check your bank statement, you might want to think about investing in some security along with that cup of coffee.

Get Rocket VPN – Internet Freedom

 

LOGOAPPBUNDLE_0000_Capture.PNG

Previous post

Best Android Apps for Self-Employment

Next post

Secure Your Mobile Device in Five Easy Steps [INFOGRAPHIC]

Elias Stevens

Elias Stevens

Freelance Journalist, Personal Chef, and Tech Enthusiast.

No Comment

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *