Some time ago I got a VPN and started getting more into cybersecurity. I think that almost everyone who’s interested in online privacy and security as well as related tools (VPNs especially) probably have watched the famous Tom Scott’s video regarding a ‘questionable’ usefulness of a VPN. In his video, he critiques the industry for shoving this unnecessary product down the users throats. Though Troy Hunt’s recent blog post gives examples of VPN legit protecting you and scenarios how. So it’s a bit baffling and confusing for me personally. Do you agree with Troy about VPNs having value or do you think that Tom Scott is right saying that. VPN is a somewhat useless thing?
tl;dr - vpns are useful.
There’s a very thin line between being secure online and not, so I get that all the info might be confusing sometimes. It’s important to understand that even using a vpn, there is still a chance that your info will get leaked because of a social media giants and etc, but it will definitely give you an extra layer of security.
I also liked the part where Troy explained that not even all huge websites including gov don’t have https, while there are so many people that use https as an argument why vpn is not useful.
If you dont need a VPNs features than its useless, however if you do need what a VPN does then its very useful. Tom Scott was highlighting when and why you would use VPN and when you might not, his point was that this doesnt always line up with the marketing messages. For the record Tom Scott 100% uses a VPN.
VPN is definitely not a useless thing. Not to mention that it’s good for overcoming geo-blocks, torrenting and other extra stuff besides privacy.
What regards privacy, VPN is definitely a necessary software and you’ll be more secure with it than without. Though, it’s important to understand that using a VPN isn’t everything and that you still won’t be secure 100% because there are other things too. Either way, this blog post of Troy Hunt definitely gives some ‘food for thought’ and has good arguments why VPN is a good privacy tool.
Both are right. Most claims of the public VPN providers are marketing bla bla and there to get uneducated users to buy their products.
I like most the summary of your linked post.
But then again, I’ve always said I’d much rather trust a reputable VPN to keep my traffic secure, private and not logged, especially one that’s been independently audited to that effect.
Sorry, but the no logs stuff is bullshit. There are known cases where “audited” providers have logged. One of the prominent ones.
Unpolular opinion ahead: They don’t log each outgoing connection you make because the amount of data to store would be massive. But I’m fairly sure that normal connection logs from OpenVPN for example are stored/analysed for statistics and monitoring.
VPNs are useful for many reasons, it’s not a black and white question. A VPN is not useless, nor is it a must-have.
I use a VPN to bypass geo-restrictions for streaming content, that’s all I’m using it for. I have no illusions that it will protect me online because I do things that contradict that purpose, so for me, a VPN is very useful.
I use a personal VPN server on my own server to access my network remotely and as securely as is reasonable for personal use, I also use this for ad-blocking on my mobile devices. This was what VPNs were really designed for.
I have allowed my paid VPN to lapse for now but I also use a VPN when travelling to access geographically restricted media content. If/when I can start travelling again I will probably subscribe to a VPN again.
I have used a VPN in the past to get around some of the ISP blocks in place for torrent sites but as I don’t really use torrents much I wouldn’t pay for just that. I have also seen it said that some ISP use DNS methods to serve up ads and that using a VPN will get around this although I can’t say that I’ve ever had this issue with my ISP (in a way that is obvious at least).
I can also see how they may be of benefit when using public WiFi to protect against ‘man in the middle’ type attacks although I also find that a lot of public WiFi actually blocks the ports needed for a VPN so this could be moot.
I can’t remember where I saw it but it was said that all a VPN does is pass the chain of custody and trust down the line so instead of trusting your ISP with your traffic you are trusting your VPN provider because at some point your traffic will be out in the open.
If you are more determined to hide your activity then TOR seems to be a better option from what I understand of it.
A VPN is useful but only a small piece of an overall security / privacy strategy.
Some benefits of using a VPN:
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hide info from your ISP, a company which already knows far too much about you
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hide info from other devices on your LAN, and your router, which is especially important if you’re on public Wi-Fi
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make it a little harder for web sites to track you
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defeat geo-locking by some services
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some VPNs provide malware-site blocking, ad-blocking, parental controls features
It’s not a binary choice. VPN providers targeting consumers are way over-promising, if not outright lying, about what they actually provide. Plus, you are still trusting a third party with your data.
But, they can still be a valuable part of anyone’s safety habits. You just should know what yo uare getting into.
But, as mentioned by others, “no logging” is a scam. How are you suppsoed to do proper maintenance or trouble shooting if there are no logs?
VPNs are extremely useful. They aren’t made to make people anonymous, but they do have many valid uses which they work very well for. I use a vpn to access my home lan and my security cameras when I’m away. I use a vpn to work remotely from home. I use multiple VPNs to the same place over different internet links with ospf running over them to give me routing failover to some remote locations…
VPNs were not made for anonymity, but they certainly do serve many other purposes.
A VPN will not “secure” you nor make you anonymous by itself. VPN’s have value for certain use cases. Despite the marketing, they are not a silver bullet that will solve all problems.
They are useful for blocking your ISP from getting ahold of your traffic and mining the data, but at the risk of the VPN doing the very same thing. They are useful when run on a properly configured and hardened server to access your home network.
VPN’s absolutely do give your privacy from your nosey ISP.
There’s a fair chance some providers are not lying but ye it’s to be expected a lot of them are