How does a VPN work?
A firewall protects data on your computer, and a VPN protects your data online. Technically, a VPN is a wide Area network that offers the same level of security and functionality as a private network. There are two types of VPN connections: remote access (the computer connects to the network) and network-to-network.
While working on a network without a VPN, you connect to the server of your Internet provider, which, in turn, connects you to the desired site. This means that all your Internet traffic passes through the provider's servers, and the provider can monitor your traffic accordingly.
When you connect via a VPN server, your traffic goes there through an encrypted "tunnel". This means that only you and the VPN server have access to your traffic. However, it is worth noting that there is a certain difference between privacy and anonymity. Using a VPN service does not make you anonymous, since your VPN service knows perfectly well who you are and can view data about your online activity. But the VPN service provides you with privacy when working on the network — in other words, your provider, teachers, Director, or even your government will no longer be able to monitor you. To make sure that a VPN service can really protect you, it is extremely important to choose a service that does not maintain user logs. And this is logical, because if the VPN service logs user actions, the authorities can always demand to transfer this data to them, and in this case your data will no longer be just yours.