Our website contains links to partner sites. If you click from our site to the partner's site and purchase their services there, we will receive a commission for mediation (Find out more information). This form of cooperation does not affect the objectivity of our reviews. With each purchase made through links from our site, you support our editorial office so that we can create quality and useful content in the future. Thank you.
How proxy servers improve cybersecurity and protect online privacy
Online privacy is a widely discussed topic that gets more attention each year. Although good progress has been made in Europe since the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation Act, governmental agencies and worldwide big tech corporations like Google and Amazon are still collecting a large amount of personal user data.
Online privacy may seem like an abstract concept at first glance, but it becomes much more palpable with real-world examples. In this article, we will explain the most notable online privacy violations and recommend a proxy service, MarsProxies, as one of the best solutions to protect digital data.
Why is online privacy important?
Privacy is fundamental in all societies. After all, people don’t like sharing their secrets with anybody, especially with those they don’t know. However, the Internet’s rapid expansion has significantly changed the way we share personal details with others.
Cambridge Analytica is one of the most prominent online privacy violation examples of the last decade. The now-bankrupt political consulting agency illegally harvested over 50 million Facebook user profiles and used them to interfere with political elections in the US.
This example reveals how sharing personal information online opens up possibilities for political manipulation via personalized ad targeting. Another issue is government-approved mass surveillance.
Recently, Slovakia has been discussing the development of a state mass surveillance apparatus. Slovakia’s interior minister has suggested installing nearly 3,000 AI-powered surveillance cameras in primary schools that would capture teachers’ and students’ faces.
Government-approved mass surveillance is often excused as civilian protection. After 9/11 in the US, the government is allowed to monitor travelers’ and citizens’ personal details if there are suspicions of terrorism. However, countries like Belarus and Russia collect personal information to identify and prosecute political opposition.
That’s why online privacy protection is essential for journalists and political activists. Simultaneously, casual internet users face numerous cybercrime threats that also exploit the gathering of personal data.
Online privacy and cybercrime
Cybercrime is becoming widespread in all societies that develop a modern online infrastructure. In reality, cybercriminals are often a step ahead while internet users learn of and adapt cybersecurity software. Such programs include an antivirus, password managers, residential proxy servers and a virtual private network (VPN) for private browsing.
Numerous cyberattacks exploit online privacy issues. Phishing is one of the most popular cybercrime methods that heavily relies on personal data. Phishing scams, such as the renowned Nigerian prince scam, use personal information to craft convincing fraudulent letters.
Phishing via email uses user data gathered from social networks, forums, and data leak documents to craft personalized emails that include a real name, surname, and maybe even a real home address or employment information. This is much more efficient than tricking users using general information.
Another issue is IP-based cyberattacks, like the distributed denial of service (DDoS). Such attacks often target big companies and government websites to take them down. For example, in 2008, Slovakia faced multiple DDoS attacks that targeted the Hydro-meteorological Institute.
Generally, the goal is to keep a specific website offline for as long as possible, denying access to crucial information. Now, let’s see how to improve cybersecurity and defend against discussed cyberattacks and mass surveillance.
Personal data protection
There are several software solutions to protect personal information. Keep in mind that an IP address is also considered personal information under GDPR jurisdiction, as well as an essential privacy aspect under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the US.
Generally, online surveillance methods use the original user’s IP address to track them online and gather personal information. A reliable VPN is one tool to hide the original IP address from public exposure and encrypt all online traffic to make it indecipherable to third parties. However, because VPNs apply additional encryption, they may also slow down the internet connection.
In this case, we recommend considering proxy servers. Once connected to a proxy server, it takes over online communication. It obfuscates the original user IP address and substitutes it with the proxy server’s IP so that cybercriminals or data mining agencies cannot target the original user device to steal data.
Let’s take a closer look at one proxy service, MarsProxies, and its online privacy protection capabilities.
MarsProxies for online privacy protection
A good proxy service for online privacy protection must offer a fast connection speed. After all, there’s no point in hiding online activities if it makes the Internet too slow to browse.
We selected MarsProxies because PCMag rated it as the best proxy service in 2025, outlining its fast speeds. Currently, this service offers a network of 1 million residential proxy servers. This means there are a million alternative IP addresses that users can use to protect their privacy online.
During our test, we successfully connected to MarsProxies servers in Germany, the UK, and the US to see how well it performs worldwide. The speed drop in Germany and the UK was barely noticeable, so this provider has a fast server network in Europe.
Although proxies in the US were reasonably slower, that’s inevitable when connecting to a server halfway across the globe. We recommend picking a proxy server nearby for the best speed results or checking out ISP and datacenter proxies that provide the best connection quality.
Additionally, MarsProxies offers city and state geo-targeting. It is highly beneficial when a user requires an IP address in a specific location to bypass geographical restrictions. This provider also does not have bandwidth limitations or residential proxy traffic expiration date so that users can use it at their convenience.
These features make MarsProxies a top choice for online privacy protection. We want to stress that proxies do not apply additional encryption by default, so obfuscating the original user IP address is their essential cybersecurity benefit.
