At the beginning of the pandemic, VPN services experienced unprecedented demand, as much remote work required the use of such services. Today, with the impending ban of TikTok and WeChat, users again turned to these services. There are dozens of free VPNs worldwide that promise to protect your privacy while keeping you anonymous online. Often these promises are just words.
If you want to keep your privacy, then the Internet is not the best place in this case. Any ISP can sell your browsing history, intelligence agencies can monitor your queries, and large corporations collect databases to track your online activities. Many have resorted to using a VPN in the hope that they can protect themselves from spies.
By solving one problem, VPNs can pose even more significant risks to your privacy.
Previously, such solutions enabled employees to virtually connect to the office network from home or on a business trip. Today they are also used to hide Internet traffic and your location (using another country’s IP address). This approach helps illegal actors to hide their activity on the network.
VPNs work by directing all of your internet traffic through an encrypted channel to the VPN server, making it difficult for anyone on the internet to know which sites you visit or which apps you use. But VPNs do not inherently protect your privacy. They only make it harder to access your information.
So can you trust the VPN or your ISP? More likely no than yes.
Most free VPNs violate your security. So how do they make money? The answer is “they are using you.” Like any free service, VPNs are often ad-supported. Some VPN services sell information about your internet traffic to interested companies for the highest possible price.
There are paid and premium VPNs, you tell me! Yes, they care more about your privacy, but there is no need to wait for anonymity, as it can be linked to your billing address. And there is still the problem of transferring your information to a third party.
An unfortunate example is that even a paid VPN service provider has claimed to adhere to a zero-logging policy. Stored databases that were accessible on the Internet without a password.
This is not to say that all VPNs are bad faith or violate your privacy. Most of the VPN problems are that you can’t look under the hood and see what’s going on with your data. VPNs can be useful, but it’s essential to know their limitations. Just don’t rely on them to protect your privacy or anonymity.
If you still use or plan to start using a VPN not only for accessing applications prohibited by law but want to improve security for the operation of your remote office, then, we recommend that you read the article Why do you need to set up your own VPN for business? You may be wondering why you should invest in something that is already present on the market (and there is a huge variety of various available VPN services). The answer is because your VPN service will be more fast, reliable and you will have more control over it. Also, it is extremely hard to hack a highly protected VPN server, which makes it a perfect choice for business.
Does your company still use public VPN services?
