How to Set up a VPN on Your IPhone
Modern smartphones come with plenty of built-in user privacy and data security measures— we’ve written about many of them on Lifehacker—but if you want to take the next step in keeping your information safe and private, a VPN (or virtual private network) is the best way to go This.
VPNs act as a sort of digital cloak that extends over your devices, making it difficult for other people to see what you’re doing, although it doesn’t make you completely anonymous online, as we’ll explain below.
How VPN works
By choosing a VPN service (see below for more details), you will have access to all of its servers on the network, usually located in different parts of the world. Instead of connecting directly to websites, you first connect to the VPN servers and then to the pages on the Internet you want to visit.
This makes web browsing a little slower, but it also means that your ISP—and by extension, law enforcement—will not be able to see what you’re looking at. The data is encrypted, making it much more difficult to intercept, so it is highly recommended to use a VPN whenever you connect to public Wi-Fi. It also allows you to spoof your location, which can be useful when accessing apps and services from abroad.
Using a VPN won’t prevent your browsing history from being saved on your computer (you ‘ll need incognito mode for that), and obviously if you’re signed into your Google, Amazon or Facebook accounts, those companies will see you and your online activity – but a VPN offers some useful protection. For more information, see our VPN for beginners guide .
While VPNs were once only used by security experts and IT professionals, they have now become much more common, and Android and iOS have been updated to reflect this. As a result, setting up a VPN on your iPhone is not a complicated process, and choosing a VPN will likely take you longer than actually getting it up and running on iOS.
How to choose a VPN
There are many VPNs to choose from, and most of them are very good at what they do. The recommended selection process is the same as for any other software: before making a choice, do plenty of research, look at reviews from users and the tech press, and compare prices and features.
It’s usually worth paying for a VPN for the extra level of quality and reliability, but there are free VPNs out there – and you may find that you qualify for a free VPN through another subscription, as is the case with Google. One . To help you sort through your options, we’ve written guides to the best free VPNs and the best paid VPNs .
Keep in mind that while your ISP can’t see your online activity while you’re connected to a VPN, the VPN company can: Essentially, you’re trusting this company and its employees with your browsing data, so you definitely want to take your time with searching for a package that suits you.
Most VPNs offer what’s called a zero-logs policy, where no records of your online activity are kept, although it’s hard to be sure the company adheres to this unless you’re planning on visiting their data centers in person. Look for VPNs whose privacy practices have been verified by independent security companies.
How to set up a VPN on iPhone
After all this preamble, you are ready to set up a VPN on iPhone. Whichever VPN you sign up for will have an iOS app available (if not, choose a different VPN), so the first step is to install that app and then log in using the appropriate user credentials.
We can’t cover every VPN here, but setting up Proton VPN for iOS , for example, involves logging in with your Proton account username and password (or you can sign up for a new account in the app if you haven’t already). ). Once in the app, you can choose which country and server to connect to, as well as the various features you want to enable.
Whatever VPN app you use will ask you to add a VPN profile to iOS: this essentially tells your iPhone about the app and gives it the information it needs to use the VPN properly. You need to agree to add a profile, and then you can visit General , VPN & Device Management , and VPN in iOS Settings to turn VPN on or off. If you have multiple VPNs installed, you can switch between them from one screen.
Each VPN app will have its own interface and set of options, so be sure to browse and see what your chosen app has to offer. With Proton VPN, you can enable features such as alternative routing (if the default settings don’t support the connection) and additional security measures to block malware threats and online tracking.