What Does a VPN Hide? (And the Things It Can’t Hide)

A virtual private network (VPN) can hide elements like your IP address and your true location. It can also hide your your online activities while you're connected to the service. 

But a VPN won’t necessarily hide your full search history or erase your browsing history. Read on to learn more about what a VPN can and can’t hide and the best VPNs for maintaining your online privacy.

How a VPN works

It's important to understand what a VPN is to know how it works. A VPN is essentially a private and encrypted tunnel through which your internet activity flows.

Imagine your online activity as a moving car on busy roads as you do your daily errands. You shop at stores, visit different places, and much more. But there are plenty of other drivers and visitors around who can see what you’re doing, potentially being able to trace your every move.

Now imagine you do the same errands inside a private tunnel. Anyone attempting to track you may no longer know what exactly you’re doing or the places you’re visiting. They also wouldn’t typically know where you’re located.

This is essentially how a VPN works, offering you increased privacy and security as you use the internet.

What a VPN can do

Using a VPN doesn’t give you absolute anonymity and online security, but it can boost your cybersecurity and make it harder to track your activity. A VPN can hide your IP address, secure your connection, disguise your location, reroute your online traffic, and give you access to regional content.

1. Hide your IP address

An internet protocol address, or IP address, is a unique identifier assigned to every internet-connected or network-connected device. This allows other devices to communicate with it.

While IP addresses are necessary for online communication between different devices, they also pose privacy and security risks. For instance, a hacker may be able to expose sensitive information or personal data using your IP address.

Fortunately, a primary feature of a VPN is to route your internet traffic through another device that has a different IP address — effectively hiding your real IP address. Other online privacy tools, such as firewalls, might not offer this same functionality.

2. Secure your connection

Apart from masking your IP address, another primary VPN feature is encrypting your internet connection, even on a public network. 

This doesn’t necessarily mean your internet service provider (ISP) or another interested party wouldn’t be able to see that someone is online and engaging in activities. It does mean that they probably wouldn’t be able to see what you’re doing, especially if you activate your VPN kill switch. 

A kill switch is handy because it secures your privacy in the event of your VPN dropping. If your VPN stops working, your internet will also be stopped to prevent any leaks. 

Not being able to see what you’re doing reduces the likelihood of successfully tracking your online traffic.

3. Disguise your location

Your IP address reveals some information that could affect your overall privacy, including the general physical location of your device. This can be an issue if you prefer to maintain as much online privacy as possible.

Using a VPN routes your online traffic through another IP address, often to a server in a different location than where your device is located. A VPN server’s IP address rather than your own is assigned to your online activity, effectively hiding information about your device’s physical location.

4. Reroute your traffic

A VPN reroutes your online traffic through a secure VPN tunnel. This allows you to pass your online activity through a remote server that may be in another state or country.

One specific scenario where this might come in handy is when using torrent file-sharing services. Torrent online services allow downloading and uploading files through a process shared between several devices over the internet.

An ISP may flag a user for engaging in certain torrenting activities. However, using a VPN connection allows you to reroute your traffic through a remote server and encrypt the traffic you receive, which may keep your ISP unaware of your actions.

Keep in mind that while torrenting in itself is legal, downloading certain files can be illegal. Using a VPN for illegal activities doesn’t make them legal. Learn more about when VPNs are legal to use.

5. Give you access to regional content

Using a VPN isn’t always about privacy and security. In some cases, people simply want to access content that wouldn’t normally be available to them.

For example, using Netflix or another streaming service will populate all the content available in your region. But what about content that’s available in a different country, such as Australia, Germany, or the U.K.?

Since several VPNs offer access to many servers around the world, you have the option to pick and choose where you want to connect your device — basically spoofing, or changing, your geo-location. You can often open an applicable streaming service and access content from that region of the world.

What a VPN can’t do

VPNs have many uses, but they still have certain limitations and things they can’t hide or protect you from.

1. Can’t fully hide your search history

A VPN should hide your search activity from your ISP or anyone trying to detect your online traffic. But that doesn’t mean your activity is completely hidden.

You likely still have to worry about cookies and other tracking files that keep tabs on your digital footprint or online identity. A VPN doesn’t remove trackers and may not protect you against them.

Your search history may also be recorded by the search engine you use and it may be associated with your account. A VPN wouldn’t help you hide this information either.

2. Can’t disguise activity on logged accounts

If you log in to a website or a social media app, that website or app knows who you are, even if you’re using a VPN. This is because logging in essentially gives a website access to certain identifying information linked to your account. This may include your name, email address, previous activity, and more.

You may also have more than one account on a certain website. Using the same VPN connection to log in and out of two or more of these accounts may show that these accounts belong to the same device or owner.

3. Can’t erase your browsing history

A VPN helps hide your browsing history, but it doesn’t erase it. Your browsing history is often stored locally on your device or is synced through a cloud service between several devices.

Erasing your history is often a manual practice you can do yourself by selecting the applicable action in your web browser. Here are a few examples of ways to clear your browsing history with different browsers:

• Google Chrome: Open the settings menu and select Delete browsing data.
• Microsoft Edge: Go to Settings < Privacy, search, and services, then scroll down to Delete browsing data. Select Clear browsing data now.
• Mozilla Firefox: Go to Settings < History < Clear recent history.

4. Can’t protect you from malware

Most VPN software isn’t designed to protect you from malware, viruses, or malicious computer software. This is a job better suited for an antivirus.

You might use a VPN to hide your IP address and encrypt your online traffic. However, a VPN on its own won’t prevent you from clicking on suspicious links, downloading harmful programs, or being at risk from cybercriminals if you’re on a public Wi-Fi network, for example.

How to choose a VPN for privacy

There are lots of VPNs to choose from, but some are more reputable for their privacy standards than others. 

• No-logs policy: Check that the VPN provider you select doesn't log user data. Bonus points if its no-logs policy has been reviewed and approved by a third party. 
• Headquarters: Where a VPN is based can reflect its commitment to privacy. Some countries are part of intelligence-sharing alliances, like the Eyes alliances, so VPN based in those jurisdictions could be required to turn over user data.
• Leak protection: Your VPN should keep your true IP address and online activities private. That's why we test all the VPNs we review to make sure there are no DNS leaks or WebRTC leaks. 
• Kill switch: Be sure your VPN has a kill switch that will stop your internet if your VPN drops. We also test the kill switch on all the VPNs we review to confirm that it works as it should.  
• Extra security features: Many of the best VPNs come with ad and tracker blockers, which help increase your anonymity online. 

The best VPNs for privacy

To start your search for a privacy-focused VPN, we've selected three of our favorites. All three have strong encryption, audited no-logs policies, and headquarters outside of data-sharing alliances. 

Price	$2.99–$15.99/mo	Free–$9.99/mo	$2.03–$6.99/mo
Encryption	AES-256-GCM	AES-256 or ChaCha20	AES-256
No-logs policy
Headquarters	Panama	Switzerland	Romania
Kill switch
Blocks trackers
Learn more	Get NordVPN	Get Surfshark	Get CyberGhost

FAQs about VPN capabilities

Bottom line

VPNs offer increased privacy and cybersecurity, and they can hide your IP, location, and certain search and browser activities. But it’s important to understand what a VPN can and can’t do if you want to cover all your bases.

Fortunately, using a VPN is often safer than not using one. Review our guide on the best VPNs to find one that best suits your needs.