You deliver a big project, send the invoice, and then Instagram politely suggests you follow the client’s marketing manager. Meanwhile, their analytics tools probably logged your IP during testing. Cute.

As remote linguists, our personal and professional lives share the same devices, same browsers, and often the same Wi‑Fi networks. We decided we’d like at least some separation between “me scrolling memes” and “me inside a client’s staging site.”

Why IPs and logs are low‑key privacy leaks

Even if you’re behaving perfectly (and we believe you are), leaking unnecessary information is still… unnecessary.

Without a VPN:

• Your real IP and approximate location are visible to the services you use.
• ISPs and some networks can see which domains you connect to.
• Your research patterns can paint a picture of what you’re working on.

NordVPN masks your IP and routes your traffic through its servers using strong encryption, making it much harder to connect “you” with “every single thing you looked at and when.”

It also runs under a strict no‑logs policy, meaning they don’t keep records of your activity that could be sold or handed over later.

If that sounds more appealing than being an open book, you can start here: use NordVPN to separate work and personal browsing.

How our Lingonauts draw a line between “me” and “my IP”

Common patterns on our team:

• Always‑on VPN when working on client material, research, and testing.
• Sometimes‑on for personal browsing, especially on networks we don’t control.
• Separate browser profiles for work vs. life, but same VPN in the background for both.

NordVPN makes that easy to maintain because:

• It stays connected in the background; you forget it’s there until you need to switch countries.
• Threat Protection quietly cuts out some tracking and malicious sites.
• You can cover up to 10 devices on one account, so your phone and tablet aren’t the weak links in an otherwise decent setup.

We’re not hermits. We just don’t feel like sharing our exact location and activity with more companies than necessary.

Boundaries are professional, not paranoid

Clients don’t need to know:

• Which city you’re in right now.
• That you sometimes work from your parents’ place.
• That you tested their funnel from your holiday Airbnb.

Using a VPN is an easy way to maintain a bit of professional distance. You deliver good work, on time; where you physically sat while doing it is frankly nobody’s business.

For us, NordVPN is just the default. New device? Install CAT tool, install password manager, install VPN. Then we get on with the actual job.