If you’re in San José, California, and want to mask your online business through a San José, Costa Rica, connection, you will need to use a Costa Rican VPN service (https://surfshark.com/servers/costa-rica).
By the same token, if you happen to be on vacation in this beautiful land of rain forests and bi-coastal ocean beaches, you’ll still want extra protection and privacy.
Costa Rica ranks highly on its freedom of access to the internet, but you’ll need to be wary of using public Wi-Fi hotspots, for reasons we shall discuss presently. Also, with a VPN, you will enjoy the security, privacy, and open access benefits only a premium VPN service like Surfshark can provide.
Why Use a VPN in Costa Rica?
Security first
Security conscious travelers and home web users need another layer of online protection. Firewalls and the security features built into computer operating systems protect against common viruses and malware threats. However, VPN adds an additional layer of security and privacy through an encrypted tunnel that hides the user’s location and does not track online activity.
In fact, a premium VPN like Surfshark runs interference against potentially harmful adware and phishing attacks. Its best feature is its online deception and address masking ensuring complete privacy.
Follow the money
Financial transactions require the protection of VPN. A VPN is the added layer of security not always available through financial institutions. The best feature of a VPN its protection and encryption of data in transit–credit card transactions, invoices, accounts payable/collectable, etc.
Financial data transmitted via a VPN is encrypted when transmitted and when received, making the person or company far less vulnerable to malware attacks and payment fraud.
Public Wi-Fi sites are everywhere
The term “public” is another word for “insecure.” Signing on to a public Wi-Fi at a local coffee shop or in a Costa Rican restaurant without the protection of a VPN is extremely risky. An open connection is an open invitation to a man-in-the-middle attack. Load a full-featured VPN like Surfshark on your laptop or smartphone to protect you from spying, spoofing, and phony web apps.
That person sitting in the far table munching her Costa Rican tres leches cake with eyes down on her or her laptop could be sending out electronic feelers to unsecured Wi-Fi users to launch live intrusions or implant malware. Use a full featured VPN like Surfshark, and all she’ll get for her trouble will be more cake and encrypted gibberish.
Everyone loves online gaming
A VPN clears the field through bypassing ISP bandwidth throttling. Throttling can slow down browsing speed and game play. Also, with a VPN, gamers can access restricted or locally banned games. Your location is masked and provides anonymity while playing online, VPN benefits include a shield against hacking by rival players and banning by tyrannical game overseers.
Unblock Netflix and other streaming services
With a full-featured VPN service like Surfshark, you can access popular streaming services like Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix from outside the area. Frequently those services are restricted by copyright agreements to local users only. With a VPN, the user can unlock overseas content without resorting to illegal and dangerous pirated content.
Sports fans get full access to geo-blocked events
Whether travelling to Costa Rica or sitting at home online, you can use a full-featured VPN like Surfshark to view favorite (and frequently blocked) sports channels. A VPN like Surfshark bypasses the aforementioned ISP throttling, which can interfere with live sports broadcasting. Also, the ISP cannot identify the user or slow down the stream even during peak usage hours.
Defeat government surveillance, geo-blocking, and net censorship
Some countries use geo-blocking to block web sites for political or censorship reasons. A VPN is a defense against government surveillance and tracking. While a VPN will not make a user completely invisible to powerful government agencies, the expanded use of the secure HTTPS protocol has made mass government surveillance more difficult than ever.
The bottom line: A VPN hides the user’s net activity from the ISP. With Surfshark’s “no-logs” feature, for example, the ISP cannot disclose, sell or even respond to a court order for any user’s data protected by a VPN.
Shop online and find the lowest local prices
Online business sites also use geo-blocking. Their goal is to either block out-of-area shoppers or display different prices for more affluent areas. Airlines frequently display ticket prices based on the location of the user’s ISP address. For example, while shopping for the same airline ticket at different ISP locations the traveler can often see different prices for the same trip.
This also occurs on a variety of ticketing, auto rental, and hotel sites that display variable prices, depending on the ISP address of the customer. With a VPN, the smart shopper can sign on to a local VPN server as a local shopper/traveler and do price comparison–as well as uncover unfair pricing tactics.
VPN gives Bitcoin mining and trading an extra level of security
A VPN provides even greater security in encrypted cryptocurrency transactions. Blockchain technology provides a distributed and secure ledger for bitcoin transactions, but its encrypted access keys to individual user accounts have been stolen through phishing, fraud or malware intruders. Once the bitcoin has been stolen, it is irretrievable. A VPN adds another layer of anonymity and hides the owner’s connection.
Protecting the Internet of Things (IoT)
In addition to computers and smartphones, there are other devices and appliances that connect to the internet. Those connections are handled through the home router, and that router can be a gateway to compromising personal privacy. You can set up a VPN on a router and protect every device feeding off the router. This requires no additional device settings, but may require installikng a new VPN-compatible router.
Free vs. Premium VPN Services
There are many free VPN services, but they are essentially trimmed-down versions of their full-featured premium products. They offer a basic level security and privacy, but they come with the following disadvantages. Namely, free VPNs:
- track the user’s online activity: User tracking is one way that free VPNs pay their overhead costs. The free VPN server installs adware or spyware into the user’s browser. Then they log their users’ online activity and sell the data to marketers and ad agencies.
- slow the user’s internet connection: Free VPN customers will often take a backseat to paying customers in competing for bandwidth. In addition to less bandwidth, the ad popups that support free VPN can interfere with browser performance as those ads load in the background and cause the browser screen to jump around.
- make the user a secondary target of opportunity for hacking: Because of ad/spyware, free VPNs are more likely to carry malware than premium VPNs. Ads with their image files and buried code can be vectors for bots, viruses and trojans.
Why Premium VPNs Are the Best Bet
For just a few dollars per month, a premium VPN service like Surfshark, provides the following benefits:
- Guarantees a “no-logs” policy. The user is never tracked online, and the service maintains no connection or activity logs for any user.
- Provides the best-in-class connections and top-grade encryption (256-bit)
- Prevents data leakage: Surfshark, for example, features a “kill switch.” If the connection to the VPN server goes down, the connection is terminated.
- Hides the user’s web activity from their internet provider. The IP cannot detect VPN use. With no logging of user activity, the user’s web use is undetected and private.
- Are most effective in bypassing geo-blocking. With a premium VPN like Surfshark, log on to overseas Netflix services, which routinely block free VPN proxies. If the premium VPN detects blocking, the user is redirected to a VPN server that can bypass geographic restrictions.
- Can provide attractive extras. For example, Surshark comes with a web app called CleanWeb™. This app blocks ads, trackers, malware and phishing attempts.
So, Premium is Better
Free VPNs can subject the user’s online activity to ISP or government tracking. Free VPN connections are also slower and include intrusive ads and malware. On the other hand, premium VPNs like Surfshark employ a “no-logs” policy. They provide faster, more secure, leak-proof connections. They also do a better job in bypassing geo-blocking.
Paid VPN services like Surfshark also provide extra features like ad blockers, and detection of malware and phishing attempts.
Summary and Conclusion
Costa Rica is an internet friendly country, but visitors should use a premium VPN for online privacy while traveling. Users in the U.S. can also log on to a Costa Rica VPN server using Surfshark.
Surfshark is a premium VPN. It provides a secure, encrypted connection that masks the user’s ISP address. The “no-logs” policy means that user activity is neither recorded nor detected by the ISP or any other intruder.
Use a premium VPN like Surfshark to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks on public Wi-Fi networks. Unblock gaming and entertainment streaming sites and defeat government net censorship with a premium VPN. Also, use a premium VPN to get better prices from airlines and other online services. A VPN will also provide an additional layer or security for Bitcoin transactions. Set up a VPN on a home router to protect every device fed off the router.
Finally, when choosing a VPN, the best services are the low-cost premium services like Surfshark, which provide the best security, privacy, and data-leakage prevention. Surfshark also provides extra features like that block intrusive ads, malware, and phishing attempts.
