Suppose you’re a VPN user on any device you choose (phone, tablet, or computer). What happens if, for whatever reason, your VPN disconnects without you knowing? If your VPN provider has a kill switch feature, then your device will go offline automatically.
That action would ensure that no information leaves your device on the open Internet without protecting your VPN’s secure tunnel. Furthermore, once you’re offline like this, your IP address won’t be exposed to the world because you’re cut off from the Internet until you restore a secure link to your VPN server. Thus, a kill switch will keep your online session’s anonymity and security intact.
Those VPN vendors who include a kill switch have it activated by default most often. However, you can disable it if you so wish. If you do, you will remain online even if your VPN connection goes offline.
This means that you won’t notice any disruption in your VPN service, but it also means that you will be sending and receiving unencrypted traffic from your device and that your actual IP address will be out there for the rest of the world to find. The whole point of a kill switch is that you cannot receive or send any data unless you are within the secure VPN tunnel.
How the kill switch actually works
A VPN kill switch is an exceedingly vigilant piece of software. It monitors your internet connection, detects irregularities, blocks access to the worldwide web if you’re not linked to a VPN server, and restores it once things are back on track.
