Is a VPN a must have on a desktop and Apple products? I’m currently using BitDefender and it’s gonna renew in a month for about $100 for the next year.
Consumer VPN is an option that the vast majority of Internet users do not need.
I’m not sure who convinced you that you need VPN, but I’d cancel it in a heartbeat.
Besides P2P and geoblock use cases, consumer VPN is primarily for situations where you trust your VPN provider more than your ISP (or in some cases government).
Consumer VPN is not for security. They’re meant to mix your traffic with other people’s traffic to help enhance privacy.
A VPN is not magically private. It just lets the VPN company rather than your ISP see all of your traffic. Who do you trust more, a nationally regulated organisation in your own country, or a VPN co in whoknowswhereland?
The usefulness for (consumer) VPNs is faking the geography of where your device is to access services that are restricted in your region. It’s definitely not for privacy or security.
No. They provide very little actual protection. If you are going to use a VPN don’t trust it unless you build it yourself. It really amazes me that everyone thinks they are some sort of silver bullet for security. Most traffic is already encrypted over the wire. It will only slow you down.
Why use a VPN like Mullvad (as opposed to self hosted for remote access)
- Look like you’re coming from a different city or country.
- Obscure your traffic from your ISP.
- Hide your personal IP and make it look like you are coming from the VPN’s IP.
- Your country has internet restrictions you want to get around - similar to the first item.
It depends.
Is a condom a must? Well, if you are single and 22, yeah.
A lot of things are conditional, it just depends on your conditions.
It’s getting to BE a must with all the new states making pornhub impossible to access without one!!!
The END OF DAYS is approaching.
A VPN doesn’t make you secure. It just reroutes your data through an encrypted channel. This shifts who can see the data / requests from your ISP to the VPN service. If a VPN service is “free” then you and your data are being monetized. If you absolutely trust the VPN service then it could be providing an element of security. The main use is to access stuff that is geoblocked, or that you don’t want your ISP to be aware of.
On the flip side, you could setup a VPN to route your data to through your own home network.
Necessary for P2P or for very specific use cases (getting around region blocks, need for extra privacy, etc).
VPNs do a good job of keeping you hidden. Your ISP can no longer see a lot of what you do and you can access stuff that based on your location. There’s a lot of bad VPNs, and a lot of good ones. Not sure why the other comments are acting like a VPN doesn’t really do anything bc it does. Just check if the one you’re using keeps records and if they’ve ever caved to any law enforcement when asked for info. The one I use deletes info as soon as you turn it off or switch servers. It does slow you down a bunch though.
Bit Defender, as a anti virus software and a VPN like mullvad are two completely different things.
Will a condom help you during a bicycle crash? Or a helmet during sex?
I don’t trust the government at all.
I work for the government. I use a VPN when connecting to the WiFi.
That’s not really true, the cookies in your browser ID you to the sites you visit, regardless of the network used. Especially if you’re logging into an account on that site.
When at home, all it does is make your ISP blind to that traffic, which isn’t the problem it is made out to be, and it gets around GeoIP restrictions on websites (the only real reason for someone to use a VPN that isn’t provided by their work).
Out on the road, it makes using open wifi and untrusted networks a little more secure but so marginal as to be non-existent since most sites are no longer using just plain http.
However, if the site you are visiting is using TLS (whenever you see https in the URL), that traffic is getting encrypted anyway and efforts to man-in-the-middle your traffic would become very obvious unless they have stolen the site’s cert (since it’s unlikely they’d have compromised your system to drop their own cert onto it).
Your bigger threat when in somewhere like a coffee shop is from people looking over your shoulder than a bad actor on the same wifi as you.
How exactly do you think a VPN does a good job of “keeping you hidden”?
So what if your ISP sees what websites you are connecting to, and why would you trust a random VPN provider over your ISP?
But even with the best VPN ever the websites you visit will still know you have been there, so it’s pointless.
If you are doing illegal activities or viewing illegal content, a VPN won’t protect you.
They’re not “random” VPNs, there’s plenty of verified, trustworthy VPNs. Your ISP will track all your data, sell it, and turn it over to authorities if asked. A VPN won’t do that. Websites can see you on a VPN, but cant access all the data that comes with your normal ISP. That’s why ads are no longer personalized when you’re surfing in a VPN. If you like to d/l movies or music then a VPN will allow you to do that without your ISP keeping record of it. How do VPNs NOT protect you? You literally log into a server and use an IP that’s used by other random people.
Some of what you said might be true if you use a cheap or unreliable VPN, but not if you use a good one.
Sites have stopped IP based customized ads a long time ago. If you are allowing cookies, it’s insanely easy to ID your individual system even if you are on the same network as 1,000 others.
When you browse websites, the cookies and your browser will tell the website far more information about you than what they can get from your IP.
All a VPN does is make the traffic appear from a different IP, and that’s it. That has no benefit whatsoever in keeping you hidden.
If you are doing illegal activities, then a VPN will not protect you, and you clearly don’t understand how it works if you think it will.
There are ways of keeping your identity 100% hidden online, and they don’t involve using a VPN.
There are no good VPN once they receive a subpoena