Join the discussion in a Dubai office, a majlis in Abu Dhabi or a Northern Emirates café, and you may overheear people talking about comparing VPNs; something that would have been inconceivable a decade ago. Not IT users, but teachers, estate agents, retirees and students. The question of favourite delivery apps is now complemented by a question of “Which one do you use?”
It is part of a growing values adjustment that has been accelerated over the years by each of these large-scale data robberies, increased awareness of the marketing and advertising implications of our lives on our phones and our growing understanding of the value of our personal data to advertisers. Let’s find out why this occurred, what its implications are for people who live in this country, and how to take a rational approach to it.
How awareness grew
It didn’t happen overnight. Large breaches exposed the personal details of millions of people. Reporting on data brokers showed how much information about ordinary users is collected and traded. Spyware stories involving journalists and activists made headlines worldwide. And people gradually realised that “free” apps are often paid for with attention and data.
Each story reached a limited audience on its own. Together they moved digital privacy from a niche topic into an everyday concern that now shapes which apps people install and how they use them.
In the UAE the stakes are higher because so much happens online. Government services, banking, healthcare, education and shopping are all routinely digital, and national awareness campaigns have helped people see that security isn’t only the job of institutions. It’s personal too.
What a VPN actually does, in plain language
Sort out every jargon bomb and a VPN performs one helpful thing: it alters who can see your traffic.
Each and every network you use (your home broadband, the work network Wi-Fi, the café Wi-Fi hotspot, the hotel Wi-Fi connection) can see how you are using it, and your internet provider will be able to see how you are using it, too. Your device connects to a VPN server through an encrypted tunnel that you start when you connect to a VPN, and all of your Internet activity travels through the tunnel towards and away from the VPN server. What the café sees is an encrypted stream, not the sites you visit, and so is the hotel or your provider.
There are two practical aspects to follow. Other people using that network can’t see your activity; you can’t see the activity of other people using that network. What you do over that network becomes invisible to other users, and others over that network can’t see your IP address, but only the IP address of the VPN server.
Far as acknowledging the limitations is concerned, it is important to be truthful. A VPN will NOT make you anonymous and won’t prevent you from clicking on a bogus link. Again, it is not a magic super-suit, but it’s a place that people are exposed to for sure – untrusted networks.
From novelty to normal
A few things came together to push adoption.Remote and hybrid work. Many professionals got used to company VPNs while switching between home and office, and plenty decided to use one personally as well. Public Wi-Fi everywhere. Malls, airports, beaches and public spaces offer free connections, and people became more aware that convenient and secure aren’t the same thing.
Smarter scams. Convincing phishing messages, calls spoofing local numbers, and fake apps pushed people to tighten their habits. The US Federal Trade Commission’s guide to recognising phishing explains the tricks that turn up again and again.
A younger generation. Residents who grew up with apps and accounts adopted privacy tools as naturally as older generations took to seatbelts.
Trustworthy free options. Once credible providers began offering free tiers funded by paid subscriptions, cost stopped being a reason to wait. Free users get the same audited no-logs protection without becoming the product.
Read the fine print
Popularity brought opportunists. App stores filled with lookalike services, and some do exactly what a VPN is supposed to prevent: logging activity and selling it to advertisers.
A careful resident checks the basics before choosing a VPN. Who runs it, and from which country? Providers based in places with strong privacy law, such as Switzerland, have an extra legal layer behind their promises. Has the no-logs policy been audited independently, or is it just claimed? Does the company explain plainly how it makes money? And is the app distributed only through official stores, with a developer name you can verify? Those questions take ten minutes and separate the useful tools from the harmful ones. The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Surveillance Self-Defense guide is a good independent reference.
Beyond the tunnel
It comes as no surprise that users of a VPN seldom stop using it. A common sense routine is to include two factor authentication for email and banking, a password manager to have different passwords for each account, check system’s for updates regularly, review app permissions on a regular basis, and have a healthy dose of suspicion on strange links, no matter how familiar the domain might appear. The first place to start is to see if your email has appeared in a popular breach on Have I Been Pwned.
It’s all about simplicity, and no technical skills are required. You need to get used to it, like how you need to lock your car. The “key” of digital hygiene (as with the dental version) lies in consistency—not hard work!
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The takeaway
For privacy, things keep coming in with the phone and browser; as more users want the services they use to honor their data. In that world, VPN is beginning to resemble antivirus did a generation ago: recommended or essential for the careful user. Select one carefully, have it turned on by default for any networks that you did not check out, and consider it as one of the elements of living well in a connected country.
