Fastest VPN in 2021: The speediest VPNs compared Watch Now ZDNet Recommends Best VPN services Best security keys Best antivirus software The fastest VPNs I recently got another letter from a reader that can serve as a great foundation for an article. Our reader asks: Is not the encryption provided by my browser on the data I exchange with an https: site sufficient to protect the data? My understanding has been that it is. If so, a VPN is not needed for this purpose. Furthermore if so, it's perfectly safe for me to exchange private data (say, account info with my bank or stock broker) over any public, open network. Of course, VPN's provide several other valuable functions, but as I understand it they do NOT provide any additional security to the actual data exchanged. VPN providers would likely not want to highlight this. There's a lot to unpack in our reader's letter. Let's dig into each question/statement one-by-one. executive … [Read more...] about Do I need a VPN if I have https? A reader question, answered