VPN basics · Plain-English answer
A VPN hides your IP address from websites and hides your browsing activity from your internet provider and local network. Sites see the VPN server's address instead of yours, and your ISP sees only encrypted traffic. It does not hide your identity from services you log in to.
Websites you visit through a VPN see the VPN server's IP address rather than your real one. That conceals your approximate location and your internet provider, and it stops your home IP being used to link your visits across different sites.
It does not hide anything you actively tell a site. If you sign in to Google or Facebook, they know it is you regardless of your IP, and cookies already stored in your browser continue to identify it.
Your internet provider, a public Wi-Fi operator, or a workplace network normally sees every domain you connect to. With a VPN active, they see only an encrypted stream to a single server, so the sites you visit, the videos you watch, and your searches are hidden from them.
The fact that you are using a VPN is usually visible, and the amount of data you transfer is too. Leaks can also undermine the protection, so it is worth confirming your setup with a checker such as /tools/dns-leak-test/. ROOT VPN keeps no activity logs, so what happens inside the tunnel is not recorded on our side either.
ROOT VPN is free to start with unlimited data, no card needed, and no activity logs.
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