There are plenty of different reasons why you might use a VPN these days. They can be a boon to security and privacy in an era where it seems we have less and less, protecting you in quite a few important ways. But it's more likely that most of our readers are using them for the more simple purpose of bypassing regional restrictions for streaming content. They're also pretty cheap now, with most working out to less than $5 a month. So, do you use one on your phone?

Not all VPNs are created equal — Make Use Of has a list of a few you should avoid, with good reasons why — but in general they're a good way to maintain security. With one, you can still use a potentially untrustworthy connection like hotel or cafe Wi-Fi without being as concerned about other devices on the network. Granted, I'm expecting that most of our readers use a VPN to access things like Netflix content in other countries or snag access to BBC's iPlayer, but they're still unintentionally reaping those security benefits.

You can also run your own VPN, if that's your thing. We put together a guide last year on how to set up a personal VPN in as little as 30 minutes. Sure, you lose some of the benefits of a real VPN service like anonymity and regional restriction bypassing, but you're in full control, and it's pretty cheap.

Of course, Pixel owners and Google Fi subscribers can use a feature called Wi-Fi Assistant to snag a VPN while connected to insecure public Wi-Fi, but not everyone has that option, it only works on some open networks, and not everyone that has it enables the feature. As far as VPNs go, it's pretty limited, but it's better than nothing.

What about you?