Do you really need a VPN?
Basics recap for consumer VPNs:
1. Not everyone needs a VPN. It depends on your threat model / jurisdiction you live in / expectations around privacy. You need to understand the extent of protection they provide to assess that.
2. Despite what most VPN providers will tell you in their marketing speak, using a VPN alone will be ineffective or useless for:
- Achieving anonymity or "perfect privacy"
- Preventing tech corporations from profiling you
- Protecting your passwords
- Hiding your mobile phone location
- Providing better security when working from home
3. Trustworthy VPNs can be effective at:
- Encrypting your data and DNS requests so your ISP or mobile network operator cannot monitor or log your online activity
- Masking your IP address from websites and servers you connect to
- Circumventing censorship or geo blocks
- Increasing your security on untrusted public networks by preventing MITM attacks (not common)
If you see claims from a VPN provider contrary to any of the points above, they are either lying to you or are incompetent. 95% of them won't pass this test.
IVPN on Nostr /
npub1wl…5zy3z
2024-10-03 14:48:44
Author Public Key
npub1wlx4wqeyzzspw43gk56hlfj4k8ava262let5wvammn8djwx7jx3qp5zy3zPublished at
2024-10-03 14:48:44Event JSON
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"pubkey": "77cd57032410a0175628b5357fa655b1faceab4afe574733bbdcced938de91a2",
"created_at": 1727966924,
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"tags": [],
"content": "Do you really need a VPN? \nBasics recap for consumer VPNs:\n\n1. Not everyone needs a VPN. It depends on your threat model / jurisdiction you live in / expectations around privacy. You need to understand the extent of protection they provide to assess that.\n\n2. Despite what most VPN providers will tell you in their marketing speak, using a VPN alone will be ineffective or useless for:\n- Achieving anonymity or \"perfect privacy\"\n- Preventing tech corporations from profiling you\n- Protecting your passwords \n- Hiding your mobile phone location\n- Providing better security when working from home\n\n3. Trustworthy VPNs can be effective at:\n- Encrypting your data and DNS requests so your ISP or mobile network operator cannot monitor or log your online activity \n- Masking your IP address from websites and servers you connect to\n- Circumventing censorship or geo blocks\n- Increasing your security on untrusted public networks by preventing MITM attacks (not common)\n\nIf you see claims from a VPN provider contrary to any of the points above, they are either lying to you or are incompetent. 95% of them won't pass this test. ",
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}