You probably don't need a VPN
Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, are popular services for (supposedly) increasing your security and privacy on the internet. They are often marketed as all-encompassing security tools, and something that you absolutely need to keep hackers at bay. However, many of the selling points for VPNs are e...
Spends most of article telling you why they probably aren’t necessary.
Ends with 4 examples why they’re useful, which are the main reasons they’re used to begin with.
I feel like the opening sentences explained the reasoning behind the article sufficiently, even when there are plenty of valid use cases for them. This was mostly a response to manipulative marketing tactics:
Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, are popular services for (supposedly) increasing your security and privacy on the internet. They are often marketed as all-encompassing security tools, and something that you absolutely need to keep hackers at bay. However, many of the selling points for VPNs are exaggerated or just outright false.
They’re not the only ones pointing this out, either. Tom Scott released a video on the topic a few years ago to explain his thoughts VPN sponsorships
…and since then, Tom Scott took a NordVPN sponsorship. And possibly SurfShark too?
He found that it was actually useful while in countries with questionable Internet access.
Personally, I just host my own VPN, so no matter where I am, all my traffic exits from my home ISP. I figure they’re at least accountable to the same laws I am.
Yep, articles have different audiences.
Sure one group might understand why a tool exists and use it effectively, but there are also companies over-selling their capabilities and people are using it for things it doesn't help with.
This article is for them, simple as that
I don't know if those useful features are the main reasons VPNs are used, though. There's evidence they are used often for bypassing blocked sites (like VPN downloads jumping in Russia recently), most of the other advertised privacy and security benefits are questionable. Most of them don't advertise torrenting/piracy because that's a legal gray area.
The title should be "You should understand what a VPN is for, before using one."
Another reason to use a VPN is that ISPs have every motive to sell your browsing data and they do. Unlike many other groups tracking you, your ISP inherently has your meatspace name, address, and payment information making their data easily collatable and very valuable.
If you use the default DNS on their provided router they can even tell if someone purchased an XBox, Playstation, or any other smart device just from update and telemetry lookups.
As the article says, by using a VPN youre using someone else's ISP making that info worthless.
If your threat model includes preventing ad networks from gathering data, a VPN absolutely is a tool to prevent that. Do you have to pay for a service? Probably not if you're technical enough; a VM in a data center is probably sufficient.
Yep. BIG deficiency in this article. I don't use a VPN because of shadowy "hackers" who sit in front of their keyboards with a pistol and a balaclava. I use it because ISPs and governments have demonstrated they can't be trusted.
How about this?
I live in the United States, where I already have no digital privacy, and tunneling my internet traffic through a VPN owned and operated in another country won't meaningfully improve my privacy or safety
Uh, what? If someone wants my traffic logs in the US, now they have to go through Mullvad, which has a track record of not providing or collecting it.
They don't even know who I am, much less have all the data that my ISP has about me. So selling it would be pretty useless
Oh last edit: turns out this is the guy who was trying to well ackshually us into thinking Chrome nerfing ad blockers is not a big deal.
Yeah, part of it reads like he was paid to do it, just without including obvious marketing links so he can claim in the article that he wasn’t. Ending the article with valid use cases seems like preventing anyone saying he left out valid reasons, but after a wall of text that could make less savvy users do a “TL;DR: VPN not needed” before they got to that part. I’d respect it more if he led off with the same short description of valid uses, especially considering the article title, then pivoted to where it could be irrelevant.
Do you have to pay for a service? Probably not if you're technical enough; a VM in a data center is probably sufficient.
Where are you getting free VM hosting?
also, i feel like most of your argument is rendered moot with encrypted dns solutions like DoH.
Where are you getting free VM hosting?
The comment was in reference to VPN services. Sadly, given theres no right to privacy, you must pay to not be tracked.
i feel like most of your argument is rendered moot with encrypted dns solutions like DoH.
You misunderstand. Large ISPs run their own DNS servers which are preconfigured into the devices they sell. They are the intended recipient and you'd just be encrypting it in transit to their servers.
VM in a data center is probably sufficient.
Um, those aren't cost-free.
Oracle Cloud has a free tier and this video shows you how to set up your own VPN there. I wouldn't really recommend this as a free VPN solution though. If you need something that's free, go with Proton VPN's free tier, Proton is pretty trustworthy and they are very upfront about their business model...
You could also just set your DNS to one of the many free DNSSEC providers. That’s even more secure because there are fewer middle men who can track you. After all, while your ISP may not be able to see that DNS traffic, if you arn’t using DNSSEC anyway then your VPN and their upstream provider can.
Besides, nearly all tracking nowadays uses third party browser fingerprinting, which a VPN does nothing about. Practically, a VPN is far more security theater than actual security.
Also, isn’t it funny that sending all your data though a second nation where it no longer legally counts as Amarican internet traffic became really well advertised right after a major scandal came out where the NSA was illegally monitoring American traffic, and more protections were put in place to keep them from doing it again?
You don’t even need the VPN company to be in on it, a group like the NSA can pretty easily compromise a “no logs” VPN’s technical infrastructure or that of their upstream provider, and they’re even got people who feel like they have something to hide to self select for it to cut down on the amount of boring traffic in the first place.
Direct report from the FTC. ISPs are DIGGING into your web behavior. https://www.ftc.gov/reports/look-what-isps-know-about-you-examining-privacy-practices-six-major-internet-service-providers
Thank goodness we absolutely know for certain that no VPN would ever sell your browsing data.
meatspace name I laughed reading this, it has a strong SMBC vibe :)
Well, that article was a hot mess.
I appreciate the authors effort and they are correct about lack of "what is VPN" articles that are not written by VPN-vendors in marketing purpose. But I'm not sure if this was it.
Writing an article meant to "debunk" misconceptions and getting two core concepts, Security and Privacy mixed up right from the start wasn't very good.
A lot of time was spent on explaining HTTPS and how it somehow magically makes you and your data secure on the Internet and it completely missed to mention who the potential threat actors thwarted by HTTPS are?
Could have probably used a chapter on how actual threats (both security and privacy) work and how don't have much to do with the level of encryption your TCP/IP connection happens to encapsulate.
The last chapter with the first 3 bullets was pretty good though. That could have just been the whole article and it would have been alright.
Oh well. Attempt was made.
When to use a VPN
VPNs are not magical fixes for privacy and security on the internet. However, there are some specific situations where they are useful tools.
Network blocks and internet censorship. VPNs can help you access sites and services that are restricted by your local network or government. That's why downloads of VPN apps in Russia skyrocketed in 2022, after the country's invasion of Ukraine and more services became blocked. The same trend happened in Virginia and other U.S. states after they passed laws requiring photo identification for adult websites.
Piracy. Internet service providers can sometimes detect when you are pirating movies, TV shows, music, or other media and send you angry letters. You can avoid that entirely by using a VPN when you download or torrent copyrighted material. Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free... but use a VPN.
Region-locked content. This is a popular selling point for VPN companies that is actually true: VPNs can help you access online content that is officially restricted to a certain region. Switching your VPN server to a different country can change what movies and shows are available through Netflix, and UK-based VPN servers are frequently used to access BBC iPlayer content in other countries. However, this is not always reliable, as service providers will usually detect VPN servers after a while and block them.
Accessing your home network. Setting up a VPN server at home is one way to access devices on your home network (such as self-hosted security cameras, media servers, and remote desktop) without opening up more of your network to the rest of the internet.
There are other more niche use cases for VPNs, but those are the most popular ones that aren't completely made up.
I know exactly how litigious Funimation is. I absolutely need a VPN. :D
I like VPNs because you get a colorful selection of who to potentially get man in the middle attacked by.
That's not a VPN issue, that's a provider issue.
Clearly whoever wrote this has not tried torrenting popular content 🤨
Just use any old proxy either paid for in cash in the mail, or in a country that absolutely won't cooperate with yours legally when you need it.
Your VPN will absolutely fold under the slightest legal pressure.
Nevermind the government or hackers, I use a home-grown VPN to keep Comcast off my ass.
Understandable, I would never trust my internet service provider either
I'm not quite paranoid enough to believe that all of these anti-VPN articles are propaganda sponsored by people who want to make mass surveillance easier, but when it's from someone whose other recent posts include one titled "Youtube ads aren't actually that bad" and two explaining why Google's Manifest V3 is great, I'm at least going to suspect it as a possibility.
It's definitely possible they're sincere.
It's not at all possible that I'm going to care about or respect anything they have to say about privacy or security.
Another good use for VPN is to counter dynamic pricing. My wife visited a website some time ago to request the price for a ticket. When she visited the website a second time the price had increased considerably. However when visiting the price with VPN it was the original price again. It saved her a lot of money.
You can also get around this by using a non-airline owned travel metasearch engine like Kayak.
Thanks for the tip.
IVPN created an awesome website called doineedavpn.com where they honestly and objectively answer that question. It's one of the reasons why I like IVPN as a VPN provider, they are honest and don't hide anything from their customers. Also their apps are open source and they support anonymous signup.
