this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2024
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Privacy
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If you don't use VPN all your traffic will flow through ISP. That doesn't mean ISP can see your passwords or anything. They can only see which website you're connecting to given that you are using unencrypted DNS if you are using encrypted DNS with TLS Hello they can only see IP. The claims that VPN protects you from hackers in public WiFi is dead since all websites switched to HTTPS and HSTS.
By using VPN all of these details now won't be visible to your ISP but they will be visible to VPN provider.
If you live in a place where LEA can't kick down your door and arrest you for visiting website it deems illegal then using VPN doesn't give you anything.
Of course even a lot of first world country have strict laws against piracy in that case VPN is good but if you aren't pirating and live in a free country I'd suggest don't bother with VPN unless you have other reasons.Another reason could be to access geo restricted content on Netflix and stuff
Another thing to keep in mind, if you are committing/suspected of any crime then LEA will definitely go through your search history, they can get this through your device if you've cleaned that up but use google account then they can ask google, or go to ISP and ask this, obviously if you're in this category then there are better solutions like Tor I2P
There are other extreme examples where a cheap ad friendly VPN with no registration comes in handy. If you want to create a zero knowledge email. Most email provider will block you if you are trying to create account with ProtonVPN or from Tor, but if your route your traffic through Tor and then to an ad friendly VPN they mostly allow it cuz they think you're a dumb dumb. Note - it is generally not recommended to use VPN over Tor.
Why is it not recommended to use a VPN over Tor? Doesn't that mean the ISP can't see you are connected to Tor?
No VPN over Tor means you first connect to Tor and then to VPN. This is highly discouraged because if someone can tie the VPN to you then they can bypass Tor entirely and get what websites you were visiting.
What you are suggesting is Tor over VPN, here you'll first connect to VPN and then to Tor, this is less risky but still not recommended as using Tor is not illegal in most countries (remember US Navy built it initially and they and many other spy agencies still use it) also there are other better ways to achieve hiding from ISP. bridges were designed specifically for that.
Ok, so the ISP can see that I'm connected to the Tor network? Using Tor over VPN just adds one more layer of privacy, right? Tor isn't illegal here; what I'm trying to achieve is anonymity on the internet.
You're losing anonymity, when you log into your VPN through TOR
TOR gives you anonymity, but if you connect through TOR to your VPN, which you probably registered with some of your data (or maybe your real IP), all the hops through TOR are useless, because your VPN connection is associated with you.
It really depends on who you want to hide from.
If it's your ISP, then connecting over VPN to TOR could make sense, when your ISP is restrictive regarding TOR. But that's pretty much the only usecase I can come up with at the moment