Using a reliable virtual private network (VPN) can be a safe way to surf the Internet. VPN security can protect against IP and encrypt internet history, and is increasingly being used to prevent government agencies from spying. However, VPNs won't be able to keep you safe in every scenario. Dear Lifehacker, I've read about why you should use a VPN and I've been looking at different providers, but there's one thing that worries me.
Can't a VPN provider look at my traffic all they want and see what I'm doing? Don't I have to trust that they don't spy on me? If that's true, how do I choose one I can trust, when everyone can see what I'm doing?. VPNs can work using many different types of connections. L2TP and PPTP are some of the most popular. But they have obvious flaws that make them poor privacy options.
OpenVPN is the best protocol because it is open source and offers the strongest encryption of traffic. You can't trust your VPN, but as long as you trust your VPN provider more than your ISP, a VPN is worth considering. With the exception of some countries where they are banned, VPNs are completely legal. Governments, businesses and a growing number of people secure their connections through these services every day.
VPNs don't provide privacy, with a few exceptions (detailed below). If someone wants to intervene in your connection, they can still do it, they just have to do it at a different point (i.e. When your traffic leaves the VPN server). Finding a VPN I could trust took me on a complicated journey through accusations and counter-accusations, companies with shady leadership and those with conflicts of interest, and VPN rating sites that could be even shadier than the companies they are reviewing.
And remember that the best thing for a VPN provider is to register their users, as it allows them to deflect blame to the customer if they ever get into legal trouble. In addition, a bunch of disreputable Android apps, SuperVPN, Gecko VPN, and Chat VPN, couldn't protect more than 21 million users. You have to trust that your VPN service provider cares about your interests, because you trust them to secure your connection, keep everything encrypted, and protect your activity from prying eyes. My problem isn't that any VPN company helps cops catch a child molester through usage logs; it's with any VPN company that lies to its customers about it.
Given the popularity of its free service, aggressive fundraising, and partnerships with companies like Samsung, whose phones now come with an integrated version of Hotspot Shield VPN from AnchorFree, AnchorFree could be the company best positioned to capitalize on the VPN boom. Of course, this option is for those who care about security, not for those who care about privacy (since your traffic is only encrypted between a user and their home VPN server or personal router, and then decrypted when sent to your ISP), but it's always an option, and add-ons like Privoxy (which we've shown you how configure) can offer some anonymity for your home VPN. Making a VPN client open source doesn't mean that the VPN service has no secret sauce on its part, and if they publish the source code in their server software, you can't exactly trust that that's what's actually running on their servers and not just a clean version to show. Many VPN review sites make money through “affiliate links,” a program by which they receive small bribes for each new user they refer to a given VPN.
Choosing a VPN with no logs is the best bet you have to prevent the service from sharing your data with third parties. If people are going to use VPN service providers, such as in a coffee shop or other untrusted network, it may be important to understand how to qualify a VPN service provider. In the second case, you probably just want a normal proxy specifically for that traffic: sending all your traffic through a VPN provider (as is the default with almost all VPN clients) will allow the provider to spy on and mess with your traffic. .
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