TunnelBear

TunnelBear is a VPN (virtual private network) that routes all your device’s incoming and outgoing data through a secure server, protecting it with strong encryption.

This means that if an internet service provider, network administrator, or hacker tries to monitor your online activity, they’ll only encounter scrambled, unreadable data.

Additionally, TunnelBear changes your IP address—essentially your internet “phone number”—to prevent anyone from tracking your true location or linking your online actions directly to you.

The importance of online privacy depends on how comfortable you are with companies having access to personal details about your life. Often, these companies purchase that information directly from your internet service provider (ISP), which can legally collect and sell data about your online activities.

What’s concerning is that once your data is sold, it’s likely to be resold multiple times, moving between various databases for different purposes. Over time, it might even leak into the ad-tech ecosystem, where there’s minimal oversight on how your information is handled, stored, or protected.

At the end of the day, privacy is a personal choice. Some people value it highly, while others are less concerned. For those who care about their privacy, TunnelBear offers a simple and affordable way to prevent more of your data from being collected and sold in the future.

Once you connect to a TunnelBear server by choosing a country and toggling the switch in the app, visit bearsmyip.com to verify that your location matches the country you selected. If it does, you’re all set! As long as you stay connected to TunnelBear, your online activity will remain encrypted and will appear as if it’s coming from a device in the country you chose.

TunnelBear shouldn’t affect your browsing experience unless you’re connecting to a country that’s far away. For example, if you choose a server on the other side of the world, your data has to travel a long distance, which can slow down page load times. To avoid this, simply select “Fastest” in TunnelBear’s country selector to connect to the quickest available server.

If your internet service provider throttles your connection while streaming videos or gaming, TunnelBear can help speed things up by hiding your activity, preventing them from slowing you down based on what you’re doing.