Many VPN companies claim 'Total Privacy' with '100% security' which is completely false
VPNs can only hide your internet interaction from your local ISP. Even the best VPN’s does not make you anonymous, and does not give you any additional security, infact 1 in 3 VPN apps actually contain malware, many will control your device as to help them with their hacking activities such as ‘Swing VPN’. (more info)
It has been found that 2 in 3 VPN’s don’t hide the websites you visit from your local DNS servers, and 1 in 5 VPNs don’t even encrypt any of your internet traffic. VPN apps like ‘HideMyAss’ and ‘VPNSecure’ are not effective at all against surveillance.
Even if you have a good VPN, they really don’t help much. Kitboga, a youtuber, makes a good video on this, as he mentions some of the reasons why a VPN isn’t always the best idea.
Most VPN’s advertised to you from a country where governments require internet activity to be monitored by law. The governments know that VPN’s are honey pots for illegal activities, so they try their best to monitor these VPNs or get an agreed backdoor access with the VPN provider. There are numinous documented accounts of VPN providers given up information about their clients because of legal obligations.
This does not mean a VPN is completely useless though, it has its place, and it can improve privacy when it is used correctly. The problem is that 90% of VPN users don’t know how to use a VPN in a manner that would benefit them.
Note that VPN privacy isnt much different to using the TOR network either. Your connection maybe encrypted, but the website and equipment at the end of the connection knows what your doing.
If you like to use a VPN service, then I would recommend Mullvad. They’ve been in business for a while and recently the government tried raiding them to seize their servers to obtain information, but walked away with nothing as Mullvad really doesn’t log or store any information about their clients or their activities; there was zero information to give.
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VPN
Pros..
- A good VPN stops your local ISP seeing your internet activities
- Good for accessing GEO blocked website content
- Makes ads a little more difficult to track you
Cons..
- Does not fix your online privacy
- Does not give you security
- Does not stop viruses
- Does not stop hacks
- Does not stop browser history
- Does not stop online tracking
- You will lose your anonymity if you connect to any social websites
- Most VPN will slow down your connection
- VPN companies can easily gather data
- Many VPNs do cooperate with the government
- Drains your battery (on mobiles)
