589 – Secure yourself online: Tom talks VPN

Episode 589 - VPN
[00:00:09] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with Episode 589 To Screw the Commute podcast? Today we're going to talk about VPNs that stands for virtual private networks. And what this does, it adds an extra layer of security and privacy to all your stuff, and it does a lot of other cool things for you, too inexpensive. And if you're worried about privacy, this is great for you. If you would like to do advertising in different places or watch TV shows in different places, I mean, it just does a lot of stuff for you. So we'll talk about that today. Hoping to miss Episode 588. That was about LOOM, which is a video messaging service where you can start for free. And then also I want to throw in episode 586, which is on Speak Pipe. This is where people can leave audio voice messages right on your website. And both of those last two are totally free. Now, you don't want a free VPN. I'll tell you about that a little later. All right. Make sure you pick up a copy of our automation e-book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. It's all for you. And it's sent to you by me. That's not poetic. It's pathetic. So grab a copy of that. You'll really thank me for it, because it gives you all the ways you can really work enormously faster.

[00:01:44] All right. Let's get into VPNs. What a VPN does is it encrypts the connection between you, your device, your cell phone, your tablet and what other devices you might have going on and encrypts it going to the Internet.

[00:02:03] So one of the things people use VPNs for is privacy. See your ISP or your Internet service provider can see whatever you're looking at, whatever you're doing, and you know what they do. A lot of them sell the information. And why do you think hosting is so cheap? They make their money on other ways there, and maybe some of them keep a profile on you. And that profile can be easily given to government agencies or sold, like I said, to advertisers. And then who else? If you don't want that to happen, you've got to get a reputable VPN. This is a service that you just buy. And it'll change your IP address and encrypt your data and it'll hide the sites that you visit. And I got to emphasize the word reputable here, right? Because shady VPNs can lie and still look at your info and sell it. So you have to be careful who you use. And for God's sake, this is not where you get a free VPN, pay for it. Free VPNs have to make money somehow, and selling your data is one of the ways they do it. And I wouldn't put it past some of these shady characters that they would try to blackmail you. For all I know, I don't know. But just this is an industry standard. Don't go for a free VPN. Now, let me briefly address the word free, though, because I recommend lots of free services.

[00:03:31] I did it in my last two podcasts. I just told you about the ones that I did myself on 588 on loom 586 on Speak Pipe. See, that's a whole different thing than a free VPN. Those other free services are not going to have access to every single thing you do online like an ISP or VPN would. It's a whole different thing. So no free VPNs and even when you pay, make a copy of their privacy policy and keep it on file. All right. Now, by definition, a VPN is is great, especially when you are on a public wi fi. So if you happen to go to Starbucks or McDonald's or wherever, you happen to hang out and get on their wi fi, if you're on a virtual private network connection through their wi fi, you're cool. See, lots of bad guys can have can grab your data on these public hotspots. And when you use the VPN, you don't have to worry about that. See, when you connect to your virtual private network. It creates like a tunnel and nobody can get into the tunnel. It encrypts the stuff from your end all the way to where you're going. And, you know, guess what? Google kind of hates VPNs because they can't figure out exactly where you're located. See, they work on advertising and advertising to people, but they can't tell when you're on a VPN, so. So they mess with you a little bit so they can see that you're using one.

[00:05:03] And what they do is they make you use one of those capture screens, like, how many boats are in this picture? You've seen those things. So I saw a funny one one time. I mean, it's kind of funny based on really nasty stuff, but it's still funny. It was the title was Click on all the Peaceful Protests, and then all the pictures were cars and buildings on fire during riots. So I know that's dark humor, but but it is clever. But anyway, that's what it captured. So Google wants you to prove you aren't a robot. And if Google or any other entity keeps hassling you with these captions where you might not even be able to get your work done, here's what you got to do. Close the screen you're trying to work on. Go to your cache and you should learn how to clear your cache and delete it. I can't tell you because I don't know what browser you're using and delete all your cookies that contain the word Google and then try again. Or another thing you could do is change VPN locations and try again. And that's a it's kind of a small price to pay for your privacy, but what does that mean? Change VPN locations? We'll see. One of the things VPNs are used for is to make it appear that you are in a different location of where you really are. And this is not necessarily an underworld technique, although it could be used for nefarious purposes.

[00:06:31] So. But but don't get any ideas because the VPN can look at your stuff and turn it over to law enforcement if requested. So. So you're not totally anonymous here. If you do something bad and they're coming after you anyway with a VPN, you can log into different locations. So, so let me give you a business example. So let's let's say you wanted to target an ad campaign to people in Los Angeles. But you live in Charlotte, North Carolina. Well, you want to research? Search results and ads that are seen in the Los Angeles area. And those search results probably aren't the same and the ads probably aren't the same as you would have seen in Charlotte, North Carolina. So what do you do? Well, you open your VPN and you log in to a VPN server and there could be hundreds or thousands of them in your VPN service. And you pick one that's near Los Angeles. Then the search engines will think you're located in Los Angeles and serve search results and ads that would be seen as if you were in Los Angeles. Now, if I were dependent on this, I would still clear my cache in history and maybe even use one of those incognito windows in Chrome. You know, clear everything out and you'll get better results. Now, another simple use is the KCTV shows or an athletic event that that aren't available in your area. Maybe you want to watch a show that's not in this country or whatever country you're in.

[00:08:06] You would log into, let's say if you're in the USA, you would log in to your VPN and let's say in London and you want to watch some soccer match that's not shown in the USA. Or maybe you're traveling from the USA to London and want to watch something on TV back in the USA that's not shown in London. Now, don't forget, some countries totally block certain content. While you can bypass these blocks with a VPN. So what should you look for in a VPN? Now, I'm not going to tell you the one I use, because if something goes wrong, I don't want you blaming me. All right, so. So you got to do your own research, but in the show notes, I'm going to have links to a bunch of VPN review sites so you can pick one for yourself. Now, one complaint about VPNs is that they slow down your web surfing. So you want to find one that's really fast. So that's one of the criteria you look for. Make sure it's fast. And and here's a little sidebar here, you know, on your own home Internet. These people selling you the Internet, sometimes slow your cell phone or Internet data to like dial up speeds. Once you get over a certain data or usage or they want to, they need extra resources and they take it from you. And they also this the lowlifes that are selling this stuff can do it to try to convince you to purchase more advanced or more expensive pricing plans that are plans.

[00:09:40] Now the easiest way and this is called data throttling, by the way. That's the term data throttling. So the easiest thing is get yourself a you should be checking your Internet speed regularly and you can just type in speed test. And there's I know there's one ookla out there that's very common. You can put it on your cell phone tablets everywhere your desktop and get a baseline throughout the day, what your Internet speeds are. And it can change depending on what kind of internet you have. Like when loads of people are on it, on cable, it slows down to less than dial up when if you have what I have FiOS the what's it called the stuff that they bury in the ground, the cable. It's not cable TV it's oh what the heck is that called? I forget. Anyway, it's just a little thin bunch of cables, you know. I'll remember it since I'm down here and. And it's supposed to be constant speed, but I paid for gigabit service and it's slower than that is when the pandemic hit. And they, of course, blame the pandemic on everything. So I'm paying for something. I'm not getting the full speed, but it's pretty darn fast. So you want to get a baseline throughout the day what your speed is, and then you log into your VPN and do speed tests and see if it's faster or slower. If it's faster on the VPN, they're probably throttling you and you can get the data, get a geek to be able to to document this and then complain, and then maybe they fix you up a little better with the speed.

[00:11:14] All right. So anyway, you want a VPN? That's fast. You want one that absolutely protects your privacy. And again, copy their privacy policy and there's still no guarantees. So don't do anything really bad on this. And you want one that offers at least five simultaneous connections on your account so that you can have like five different devices going at one time, all protected by your VPN. If you're if you're using all the time, then you want different tablets and cell phones and stuff all the time on it. But if you only get one connection, you'd have to turn one off and then go to the other thing and turn it on and be a pain. And then make sure they have loads and loads and loads of servers and IP addresses around the cities and every all country all over the world. So I'm going to put a list of the review sites in the show notes. So you got like CNET and CNN and there's one called Tom's Guide, which I never heard of. I have to say, it's probably reputable because it's got my name on it, but it's not me. Techradar PC magazine. And I mean, you can just do your own search, too. So. So VPNs are great, they're inexpensive, and they can take care of your privacy, get passed blocks of certain content, and you can work remotely or out of Starbucks or anywhere you get a wi fi public wi fi without worrying.

[00:12:49] Because I'll tell you what, the bad guys are slick. And if you're just sitting there on a public thing, they can there's all kinds of ways they can steal your stuff. Don't sit too close to anybody either. So that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Hey, if you'd like help with this and the thousand other things you need to be successful online, check out my mentor program at greatInternetmarketingtraining.com. It's the longest running, most success, cessful, most unique ever in the field of internet and digital marketing. And I'm quadruple dog daring anybody to put a program up against mine line four line and nobody will do it. I never get responses on this because nobody has the guts to do it because they'll look terrible, because mine is better. And and I don't mind saying that because I'm a crazy fanatic. I just did a thing and I did a consultation with one of my mentees. 9:00 Sunday morning, I told her, Hey, I just came back from church and she said, Oh, that's very nice. And I said, I said, Yeah, it was Saint Mattress. So I think I said that on the last podcast too. But anyway, get yourself a VPN, get yourself some good training, and make yourself a great online business. All right. We'll catch you on the next episode. See you later.