Hey folks,
I’ve been considering whether a VPN is genuinely useful for someone who doesn’t torrent or travel much. Most of my internet use is just casual browsing, streaming, and shopping.
Do you think VPNs are overkill for everyday use, or do they add enough value in terms of privacy and security? Would love to hear your experiences or if you think it’s worth the investment!
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VPNs are useful, but you shouldn’t rely on just them to secure yourself while online.
Do you think VPNs are overkill for everyday use, or do they add enough value in terms of privacy and security?
Depending on where you live, most people don’t need a VPN provider.
VPNs are a good idea privacy-wise, if you use a reputable one it masks your internet activity from your ISP. it also means your placing total trust in the VPN provider though, which is why it is important to use a reputable one that has a no-logs policy and is audited by a third party regularly to prove this. i would recommend ivpn or mullvad.
mullvadvpn costs like 6 bucks a month. for me it’s worth it. i don’t want my ISP to know every website i visit. or if i do want to torrent something, i don’t want a nastygram in my email threatening to sue me for it.
people in general do not understand the value of privacy and the implications of the lack of it. big tech is anti-privacy and it is already starting to have serious, negative implications in our lives in ways most people who don’t think about can’t even imagine. vpns are one tool to combat this, but they are not the be all end all. (stop using closed source software and big tech services like google if you want to start reclaiming your privacy in addition to using a vpn).
That’s a video that I often link to when discussing such things. The TL;DR is that VPNs can be useful, but it’s often not for the reasons they state in their advertising.
Yo u feel like this is the feds…
IMHO, no
Almost all the Web is encrypted nowadays so you don’t need one for encryption so they aren’t more secure
The benefit of a VPN to encrypt traffic where it’s not encrypted and to mask your location.
I was using one for watching Netflix in other countries because Canadian Netflix really sucks selection wise. Worked for years up until a couple months the ago. So dont get express vpn if your using it for Netflix
what more can you use to make it even more secure?
This
VPNs market themselves as the ultimate privacy tool that will keep you protected online
The reality is that almost all the Web is encrypted now anyway so your internet provider can’t see your data. If you use DNS encryption like DOH or DOT they can’t even see the sites you visit
Using a VPN won’t give you any additional privacy if you use sites like Google or Facebook and sign in
Almost all the Web is encrypted now and if you also use DNS encryption like DOH or DOT your ISP can’t see your traffic either
What did you mean by this → If you use DNS encryption like DOH or DOT
and how do I do it and is it only for iPhone or can I use on MacBook Air I have too?
agreed. using google/fb etc is a bad idea. which is why im sad at the state of android phones (unless you have the know-how to install a custom rom on a pixel). google is up ur ass everywhere you go using phones like mine (s24u); i switched from iphone in march to it and didn’t understand at first just how much that means allowing google in ur life. i plan to switch to a pixel/graphene os soon.
i’m less familiar with how dns works tbh. i use next dns on my devices. i did not think that this hides my internet activity from my ISP tho.
Not if you are using encrypted DNS.
And no, they can’t see what apps you are using. Only the server it connects to (again, not with encrypted DNS)
DNS isn’t encrypted. If you visit a website, it uses dns to convert the name to an IP address so that is visible to anyone sniffing the network
DOH or DOT are two different implementations of encrypted DNS. IOS and MacOS can be configured to use a encrypted DNS server
https://docs.infoblox.com/space/BloxOneThreatDefense/616464606/Using+MacOS+and+iOS+with+DoH
i’m less familiar with how dns works tbh. i use next dns on my devices. i did not think that this hides my internet activity from my ISP tho.
on a very basic explanation, DNS is an address book of websites and their IP address
When you type in https://reddit.com, DNS will get the IP address of the server and connect you.
Https means it’s encrypted but the DNS portion isn’t by default. Your internet provider will see you went to https://reddit.com but can’t see any of the content underneath as it’s all encrypted
Using DNS encryption means they can’t even see you went to reddit.com. The DNS provider will but that’s the same with a VPN provider
Nextdns uses encryption so your ISP can’t see it. A VPN isn’t really necessary if you just don’t want your ISP to see what sites you visit
gotcha, thanks for the explanation. are you saying then, for example, if i were to torrent a tv show just using encrypted dns without a vpn that it would prevent me from getting the ‘were gonna sue ur ass’ email the next day?
i have had a vpn turned on all the time out of habit but i have been starting to wonder if they’re kind of useless (if using encrypted dns). i cannot find a single vpn provider whose ip ranges arent blocked by netflix etc. i noticed tho that if i use tor browser i can connect to netflix/prime in whatever region tor connects me to. i dont quite get why they block ip ranges for most vpn providers but don’t/cant when using tor.
If you live in China that’s different and I assumed OP was from a non censored country
I know apps don’t have their own ip addresses. They use your public IP address over the internet
If you open an app that connects to a sever over the internet, it’s no different than connecting to a website really. The reddit app connects to the reddit servers over the Internet like the reddit website does
If you set up encrypted DNS, your ISP can’t see you went to youtube, reddit etc. Apps don’t use their own DNS. They use whatever your system tells them to use
were to torrent a tv show just using encrypted dns without a vpn that it would prevent me from getting the ‘were gonna sue ur ass’ email the next day?
No. Torrents always show your IP address so a VPN is recommended. I wouldn’t put this under “everyday use” category though like OP said where they had no torrents
VPNs are faster and easier than tor and the IP addresses for VPN providers are public knowledge. It’s pretty trivial to block these ranges. I didn’t think tor was suitable for streaming due to the speed but Netflix would have to block all the exit node IP addresses and they could be anywhere, so it’s much harder