Do you use a VPN?

[vivster]

malistix1985 said:

I've been using a VPN for years and its made me feel very safe and its been extremely usefull for gaming!
Its easy to change my region from US to EU or Japan with a click on the application and its also made it so I could access some games earlier because they released at different times worldwide.

It also protects you against DDOS attacks, hackers and it makes downloading various types of content much safer since you are harder to track. 

Personally I wouldn't want to do the things I do on the internet unless I was hidden.
Maybe its because I work for a department where we track internet use online or maybe its just because I find the internet a much less safe place then you? Or maybe you didn't even know what a VPN is, well I would advice googling it.

Either way, vote away! 

A few clarifications.

Masking your identity:
Your anonymoity is at the mercy of the VPN host as much as it is at the mercy of your ISP when you don't mask it. If someone is determined to track you, they have the ability to find you depending how much the VPN host values your anonymity. It certainly blocks individuals but it won't do too much against bigger corporations and the government. Again, really depends on the ethics of the VPN provider. If you don't do anything illegal and you have data protection laws in your country then your ISP is as strong as a protection as any VPN host.
Add to that, that your IP is just one part of the huge amount of information you leave on the internet. Trackers and cookies work in your browser, so VPN does nothing to protect your identity here.

Protection against attacks:
No one will DDoS you. No one will directly hack you. So it's protection against a non-existing threat. And if someone DDoS attacks the VPN provider you will still be affected because you have to use a diffrent one.

Add to that the drawback of increased latency and incompatibility with some applications makes this  an unnecessary hassle, especially for gaming.

But if it at least gives you a good feeling I guess it's worth it for you.