Data Security and the VPN
Between the news this week that Congress has voted to allow your ISP to sell your browser history to one and all and the need we all have to prevent the bad guys from intercepting our banking business when on open wifi networks, I thought I'd share my own decisions with regard to installing and using a VPN on our devices.
Those considering using a VPN should know about this table of VPNs and their practices: clicky.
I've now used three different VPNs over the last couple years, both for data security and to skirt net censorship as well as to keep from being tracked as much as possible. I started with GoTrusted VPN, but have switched to Azire VPN and Opera VPN.
(Net censorship: I once stayed at a campground that had a free wifi network that was unfortunately censored. The whole thing was under some sort of net nanny that seriously restricted ones access to web sites. In my case, some of the sites I use in my professional work were locked out for one reason or another. I was able to get to them, however, using my VPN.)
For those who do not know what VPNs are, they are a Virtual Private Network, and the way it works is that all your web traffic is encrypted and appears to your ISP to be going to a single server, the VPN server. At the VPN server, it is decrypted and heads out to the various net destinations to which you are surfing. It's garbage to snoopers on those open hot spots, and provides a second layer of encryption for your banking, so the bad guys would have to decrypt it twice in order to get anything. To the eventual destinations, your traffic all appears to be coming from the VPN servers, not from your IP address. It's not bullet proof, but close enough.
Anyway, GoTrusted cost me $6.99 a month, used dedicated software that however fed right into the VPN software that came with my iOS and Mac devices, thus was easy to use. Windows and Android software is available. That was a wee bit expensive, and GoTrusted does keep records of your travels, so that vulnerability exists. It also slowed down my surfing a bit.
So I eventually switched to Azire VPN because it was cheaper, $12 for 3 months as I recall, and the company is Swedish, so less vulnerable to snooping CIA/FBI/NSA perhaps? Certainly to subpoena by US Courts. They also make a point of not keeping records of your travels. Their software is a bit less friendly, but the VPN does not slow down my surfing a bit. In fact, on a couple of occasions, I found it faster than traffic simply through my ISP, which makes no sense to me, but there it was.
I've also made some use of the Opera VPN, which is free, but very aggressively keeps you on the VPN network at all times. You have to work to shut it off, actually, which is handy for the wife who is a computer blond and like as not wouldn't use it at all on her iPad if she had to do ANYTHING to turn it on. Opera, however, does track you.
Whether you simply want to secure your internet commerce from interception by criminals, or keep your privacy so that all your neighbors can't see your trail through shopping networks and porn sites, or comply with HIPPA security on the data about your patients from your medical practice, you might be a candidate for a VPN. And I hope what I've learned is helpful.
Those considering using a VPN should know about this table of VPNs and their practices: clicky.
I've now used three different VPNs over the last couple years, both for data security and to skirt net censorship as well as to keep from being tracked as much as possible. I started with GoTrusted VPN, but have switched to Azire VPN and Opera VPN.
(Net censorship: I once stayed at a campground that had a free wifi network that was unfortunately censored. The whole thing was under some sort of net nanny that seriously restricted ones access to web sites. In my case, some of the sites I use in my professional work were locked out for one reason or another. I was able to get to them, however, using my VPN.)
For those who do not know what VPNs are, they are a Virtual Private Network, and the way it works is that all your web traffic is encrypted and appears to your ISP to be going to a single server, the VPN server. At the VPN server, it is decrypted and heads out to the various net destinations to which you are surfing. It's garbage to snoopers on those open hot spots, and provides a second layer of encryption for your banking, so the bad guys would have to decrypt it twice in order to get anything. To the eventual destinations, your traffic all appears to be coming from the VPN servers, not from your IP address. It's not bullet proof, but close enough.
Anyway, GoTrusted cost me $6.99 a month, used dedicated software that however fed right into the VPN software that came with my iOS and Mac devices, thus was easy to use. Windows and Android software is available. That was a wee bit expensive, and GoTrusted does keep records of your travels, so that vulnerability exists. It also slowed down my surfing a bit.
So I eventually switched to Azire VPN because it was cheaper, $12 for 3 months as I recall, and the company is Swedish, so less vulnerable to snooping CIA/FBI/NSA perhaps? Certainly to subpoena by US Courts. They also make a point of not keeping records of your travels. Their software is a bit less friendly, but the VPN does not slow down my surfing a bit. In fact, on a couple of occasions, I found it faster than traffic simply through my ISP, which makes no sense to me, but there it was.
I've also made some use of the Opera VPN, which is free, but very aggressively keeps you on the VPN network at all times. You have to work to shut it off, actually, which is handy for the wife who is a computer blond and like as not wouldn't use it at all on her iPad if she had to do ANYTHING to turn it on. Opera, however, does track you.
Whether you simply want to secure your internet commerce from interception by criminals, or keep your privacy so that all your neighbors can't see your trail through shopping networks and porn sites, or comply with HIPPA security on the data about your patients from your medical practice, you might be a candidate for a VPN. And I hope what I've learned is helpful.
