The intersection of big data and privacy: How VPNs protect user data in a data-driven world

Big data has become central in both business decision-making and government policy strategy. With more data being collected, the more surprising relationships and patterns can be discovered.

However, data privacy laws have become front and center of the conversation. And, the more data that’s being collected, the more people are concerned about protecting their privacy.

Understanding big data and its security risks

Big data is unique in being extremely large in volume, and potentially high velocity with lots of diversity. For example, a survey asking 5,000 Taylor Swift fans about her latest album may be good data, but scraping 500,000 Tweets that mention Taylor Swift would be big data. The data from here can be analyzed in a variety of ways (i.e. sentiment analysis, volume, etc), and a broader pattern can emerge.

When your own Tweet is hoovered up into this data gathering, you may or may not believe it’s fair game due to the public nature of Twitter. However, a lot of the time your data is being gathered against your knowledge or in situations where you think your activity is private. Reddit comments, for example, have been a huge contributor to leading LLM projects – meaning your intimate conversations have built products and produced capital for many tech companies.

Here, users can protect themselves by using the best VPN service. For example, sites that are tracking your IP and putting together data points will now be misled, because the VPN can mask your IP. The same goes with your ISP provider’s history of your activity. Additionally, the best VPN service site offers comprehensive guides to help users select the most suitable VPN for their needs, covering important factors such as security features, speed, and ease of use. Users can also find tutorials on optimizing VPN setups for different devices and operating systems, ensuring a secure online experience across platforms.

However, this is also the case for businesses that are gathering big data. They too use VPNs to ensure that no data breaches occur.

The mechanics of VPNs

VPNs use a combination of encryption, IP masking and tunneling to help secure data that is transmitted over public networks. Encryption protocols like WireGuard are used, meaning the data is successfully scrambled.

When it comes to tunneling, this is where a secure virtual pathway is created for the data to travel through, meaning it’s always shielded.

IP masking is where the real user’s IP address is obscured because it’s either been rotated with others, on a shared IP, or simply because you’re now using a separate dedicated IP.

These mechanisms are to prevent eavesdropping and IP tracking. They can protect user’s activity as much as they can keep big data sets safely stored and accessed.

(Image credit) VPNs in the era of big data

Many internet service providers have been known to track user activities and collect sensitive data, even if they claim it’s pseudonymized. Websites that you visit will find it harder to gauge whether this is you (they can create profiles, even if it doesn’t have your name attached) that keeps returning or whether it’s someone new, particularly when your IP keeps changing.

This actually presents a problem for big data gatherers, because they may be misled with their profiling and patterns. For example, Netflix can still gather your profile activity because you’re signed in, but platforms that do not need log-ins will struggle.

The limitations of VPNs

VPNs offer a robust layer of security, but they are not silver bullets that protect users from all privacy concerns. Another way users are being tracked is through cookies that track their behavior across the internet, along with browser fingerprinting. There are some ways to sidestep these, such as using Tor, or at the very least, Incognito, along with a VPN.

Furthermore, big data can still be gathered, only it will have less insight. For example, seasonal changes can impact our behavior, and this can be understood with very broad big data that doesn’t need to even breach our privacy, as it be analyzed with fully anonymous data. Yet, marketing tools that take advantage of this can still manipulate us, and no amount of anonymity and data security will help.

For the gatherers of big data, they can mitigate some form of data breaches by securing networks. But, they can’t offer full protection, particularly with the prevalence of phishing and large-scale hacks on a server. And, some have even managed to convince the lower-end VPNs to sell user data.

Final word

As big data becomes an increasingly used tool, VPNs are a large part of the story. They’re helping users obscure their own activity, which is often stored for big data collection. For the gatherers themselves, VPNs are necessary when collaborating remotely on projects with such sensitive data. However, there are still many ways in which data breaches can occur or anonymity can be penetrated, meaning VPNs are simply one tool in a broader approach to security.

Featured image credit: Freepik