We tested the most popular VPNs in New York, London, and Tokyo - this one is the best for traveling

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Virtual private networks (VPNs) are the kind of tool that you don't know you need until you need one. Especially when traveling, as so many do during the summer, the best VPNs are crucial for encrypting your traffic, disguising your IP address, and limiting the risk of data exposure and surveillance while you're using public Wi-Fi.

Also: The best travel VPNs

But the main metric to consider when choosing a VPN is always going to be speed -- specifically, download speeds -- since that's what most people do on the web, whether you're streaming, saving an email attachment, installing new apps, or just about anything else. And when you're traveling, you want a VPN that won't slow you down.

We ran the top five VPNs in our lab in Kentuckythrough rigorous testing to find the fastest VPN for...

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