Advice Request Is there a real need of using a VPN? Be honest!

[HarborFront]

There are different reasons of using VPN, but the main soul of a VPN is Privacy. VPN hides your original IP with one of its Server's IP so you can be invisible online and not even your ISP can track your activities. Now, coming to the main Point, as many of the people here already pointed out to read the privacy policy very carefully before making the purchase. Don't trust free VPN providers at any cost because they are making money on your data.

Another important aspect before selecting a VPN service is the location of the company. If a VPN providers operates in USA, UK, Canada, Germany, France and Romania, avoid them because all these countries have meta data retention laws. Which requires them to monitor, store and record the data of its users for at least 6 months. So, wrapping up the story:

Check the Privacy policy first
Check the location of business
Check your IP on ip2location before connecting VPN, then again check your IP after connecting VPN and see if both are different, if not it means your VPN is leaking IP. these are the best practices to make sure your VPN is trustworthy.

Recommended VPN are the ones operate business in Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore as these countries have no such data retention laws.

Singapore is not a good country as it's a close ally to the US similarly to Japan, Israel and S Korea

 

[Arequire]

Ok, so how can i be sure that VPN is not collecting my data, selling it and giving it to government or authorities when asked or required.

You can't. As proven with PureVPN, even when they state they have a "no logs" policy you're taken them at their word and can't prove they aren't lying until someone with authority requests that data (and that request is published). Some VPN providers have already had their claims tested:

• Private Internet Access was subpoena'd by the FBI for activity data on a user who made a false bomb threat. All the FBI got was a readout of their privacy policy.
• Perfect Privacy had two of their servers seized in Rotterdam by Dutch police. They bypassed PP themselves and went straight to the hosting provider. According to Perfect Privacy, no personally identifiable user data was stored on the servers due to their no logs policy. Police kept the servers and two replacements were put in place.

The thing I'd argue is this: Do you really believe your ISP won't sell your data or hand it over to the authorities at the drop of a hat? Rules regarding ISPs selling user data vary from country to country so it'd be best to check your country's laws regarding that. Even if they're not allowed to currently, who's to say the law won't change in the future? If it does then they've got a big ol' list of every site you've ever browsed ready to sell to the highest bidder.

There's no way to tell if a VPN provider is selling user data or not. Unless someone exposes them for doing so there's little chance of finding out.
As for law enforcement, they won't come looking if you don't give them a reason to. Don't use a VPN as a tool for illegal activity and don't trust a "no logs" policy.

 

[jetman]

I'm not too worried about Governments looking at my stuff- I don't have anything to hide of national significance. They could probably find out what i am doing whatever VPN or security measures I put in place anyway. And if they asked me, I'd let them look anyway.

I'm not sure that I would want any ordinary policeman just being able to look at my data and browsing histories though. Its a question of personal privacy. I'm not too sure what the laws are where I live, but I think that they would only be allowed to contact my ISP if they had very good reason to. Like they suspected me of being involved in a crime.

I think VPNs are a good idea to prevent commercial organisations and scammers tracking you though. Google collects all sorts of data and its good to miminse what they know about me in my opinion. I dont download or stream pirated media or films at present, but if I did that in the future I would want a VPN to reduce the risk of being prosecuted. I heard Kodi boxes are good !

Having said that, I don't use a VPN all the time.

 

[NikolayfromRussia]

So, reading all your posts above and having my own experience with VPN I make a decision that there is no a reliable vpn service. All of them (or most of them) say that ,,no logs,, policy. But they only say and we can't verify. Making any illegal activity in Internet using Vpn can be risky as they (police, agents) can catch you

 

[Windows Defender Shill]

Yes, yes yes!!!

There is ZERO benefit of letting corporations and governments track your online activity

I recommend all get bitten by the privacy bug

 

[Marko :)]

VPNs are useful to bypass site blocks, which are common in Europe and other countries where the government exerts tight control on the media (say China, Russia, Turkey etc). Also, VPNs prevent your government and ISP to monitor your browsing habits directly. VPNs allow you to access geo-restricted content (eg: US Netflix) and in some countries a VPN is a must for worry free torrenting. At the end of the day, the need for a VPN will depend on the country you are from and how you're going to use it. But you must choose carefully your VPN provider, as some will actually keep logs from your browsing activity and may hand it to law enforcement on request.

This is slightly incorrect.

Firstly, most of Europe has free and open internet access. I can confirm that my country is one of them. We don't have (and never had) any websites blocked. Only few countries in Europe restrict internet access (the only one I heard were Russia and Turkey, if you count Turkey as part of Europe).
Secondly, some countries have very strict privacy law such as Switzerland which has probably the best privacy law in the world. Other European countries don't have that bad privacy law. I don't know about my country but I know that ISPs cannot snoop on internet users until they got explicit permissions from authorities and that's good thing.

Downloading movies, TV shows, music and other copyrighted material is legal here as long as it's for personal use, police said (English translation of Croatian article, link to the translated law). That basically means you can download it, save it and use it as long as you want but you're not allowed to sell it - that's illegal. Some of you might ask yourself why it is legal and the answer is; we pay small fee for copyright while buying CDs, DVDs, USB drives etc. as mentioned in article. However, downloading software is still illegal as 82nd article of Zakon o autorskom pravu i srodnim pravima does not apply to it but people still download it anyway and without VPN.

With that said, I don't use VPN myself for browsing the web at home, eventually to test something, nothing else. I use it only when I'm connected to public Wi-Fi just to protect myself.

 

[R2D2]

I use VPNs to access some URLs banned by my country's Govt and of course circumvent geo-restrictions. My country isn't officially a part of the 5 Eyes or 14 Eyes grouping at least on paper but one can never be sure who divulges information in the interest of 'national security'.

VPNs are not 100% guarantors of privacy. They will throw you under the bus if their arms are twisted hard enough by some Govt. Authority or Intelligence Agency. PureVPN did just that for all their claims of being a no logs service. As a PureVPN subscriber I've decided not to use their service henceforth.

I can't help but feel these so called lifetime and other low price VPN subscriptions are just carrots (subsidised by Intelligence Department budgets) to attract people and compromise their security by routing their traffic via servers controlled by that agency or an entity with access to those servers. It simply does not make commercial sense to sell lifetime subscriptions for prices as low as the ones we see nowadays.

 

[insanity]

This is slightly incorrect.

Firstly, most of Europe has free and open internet access. I can confirm that my country is one of them. We don't have (and never had) any websites blocked. Only few countries in Europe restrict internet access (the only one I heard were Russia and Turkey, if you count Turkey as part of Europe).
Secondly, some countries have very strict privacy law such as Switzerland which has probably the best privacy law in the world. Other European countries don't have that bad privacy law. I don't know about my country but I know that ISPs cannot snoop on internet users until they got explicit permissions from authorities and that's good thing.

When I mentioned Europe, I was actually pointing out that site blocks are becoming more common in certain countries, and most are done based on copyright issues, actually. I didn't mean that European nations restrict the freedom of their citizens (this part I was actually talking about Russia, Turkey etc). But now I see that my post was ambiguous.
As for the other reason stated (privacy), again, it depends on the country you are and how paranoid you are. In some places, there's always a possibility that an NSA-like or CIA-like agency is "bending" the laws and secretly collecting data from you anyway.
Personally, I don't use any VPN but I think some people may have very good reasons to use one.

 

[Daljeet]

Vpn providers keeping logs it's dangerous but their is a reason behind it. When ever user complaint vpn providers search on particular account log for troubleshoot the problem. Vpn is needed in unsafe places if you want you can use in home but vpn decrease speed especially while downloading.

 

[JHomes]

Sometimes yeah, I travel for work and if I'm not in home base I'll use a VPN to ensure that I'm always at least appearing in home base. That way web services and programs don't think something's happened and lock down security procedures (looking at you Facebook!)

Don't like it for just personal use, it slows down the PC and worst yet, it's just extra work that doesn't matter.

 

[Deleted member 65228]

Ok, so how can i be sure that VPN is not collecting my data, selling it and giving it to government or authorities when asked or required.

There's nothing you can do about it. You can check privacy policies but some may claim to not collect logs and still keep logs, unless you work there or breach their networks (which would be illegal, that was just a joke) then you won't know.

There was a situation recently where a VPN provider handed over logs to a government agency to get someone arrested for prosecution on charges of stalking. The victim was a poor young woman who was constantly undergoing emotional stress due to the attackers actions, and in all honesty I am glad the VPN provider did what they did because if they hadn't then who knows what could have gone on further with the victim. That is an example. The attacker thought he was full-proof on VPN and then got back-stabbed (but IMO it was morally the right thing for the VPN provider to do).

If you are just a normal user then it is fine to use VPN, just pick one you trust which have a good reputation and privacy policy - I doubt the government agencies are going to be requesting data about you from VPN logs unless you are doing something no-good (which I highly doubt!). It will protect you from general malicious people online who may try to obtain your IP address (which can be used to track your location or attack your network), and your privacy against ISPs.

 

[NikolayfromRussia]

Just for interest I contacted a PureVpn and asked them if they keep logs.


Yes for that specific case we did provide information to FBI because it is written in our Privacy policy that in case of any illegal activity and on court's order we will provide information collected. We note down the time that you logged in and logged out and the IP that you got from our servers. We do not keep any of your personal information, your browsing history or any of your activity that you do online. Even the information that we keep is only for trouble shooting purpose. Having a truly no logs policy is very difficult to implement. This is especially the case when VPNs need to enforce restrictions such the number of devices being used per subscription. Connection logs typically include dates, times, connection data, and sometimes IP addresses. Typically this data is used for optimizing the VPN network and potentially dealing with user problems.
Many VPN providers keep connection logs, even while claiming to be a “no logs” VPN service. However we do not keep logs of anything you do online: browsing history, times, IP addresses, metadata, etc. For more details kindly contact press@purevpn.com and they will give you all the answers.
Again that specific case wasn't just an ordinary case, it was under terrorism act and a violation of other's privacy. I hope you would understand the situation and the seriousness of the issue we faced.

 

[Deleted member 178]

To answer the question if a VPN is needed?

1- You live in a country that block some sites/contents? So YES you need one.
2- You live in a "democratic and free" country but think using a VPN as a security/privacy layer? No, unless you have some "not-so-honorable" behaviors.

 

[Deletedmessiah]

VPN is useful to me because it unblocks geo restricted websites. Not all but it definitely helps. Second that my ISP is such.... Whenever I watch video in a website for a little long, its streaming gets slow and keeps buffering every 3 seconds. Use a VPN and then that site works just fine without buffering.

 

[NikolayfromRussia]

To answer the question if a VPN is needed?

1- You live in a country that block some sites/contents? So YES you need one.
2- You live in a "democratic and free" country but think using a VPN as a security/privacy layer? No, unless you have some "not-so-honorable" behaviors.

A law abiding citizen doesn't need a Vpn service. If you live in a country that block some/sites it means that government thinks these sites/contents will harm you and want to prevent you from it

 

[Erika]

Just for interest I contacted a PureVpn and asked them if they keep logs.


Yes for that specific case we did provide information to FBI because it is written in our Privacy policy that in case of any illegal activity and on court's order we will provide information collected. We note down the time that you logged in and logged out and the IP that you got from our servers. We do not keep any of your personal information, your browsing history or any of your activity that you do online. Even the information that we keep is only for trouble shooting purpose. Having a truly no logs policy is very difficult to implement. This is especially the case when VPNs need to enforce restrictions such the number of devices being used per subscription. Connection logs typically include dates, times, connection data, and sometimes IP addresses. Typically this data is used for optimizing the VPN network and potentially dealing with user problems.
Many VPN providers keep connection logs, even while claiming to be a “no logs” VPN service. However we do not keep logs of anything you do online: browsing history, times, IP addresses, metadata, etc. For more details kindly contact press@purevpn.com and they will give you all the answers.
Again that specific case wasn't just an ordinary case, it was under terrorism act and a violation of other's privacy. I hope you would understand the situation and the seriousness of the issue we faced.

View attachment 169492

I am still confuse, how come a VPN provider know that a user is committing an illegal activity until or unless they have a monitoring tool. What PureVPN has said is totally bogus, They have do keep logs of customers' activities and used them when required by FBI or government authorities. It is not the first time I heard the same about PureVPN. You can search for the DMCA replies they have given with information of their users. Check this news and see what Bryan from the Next Web has commented, I am sure when someone from such authority website has claimed something like that it is not false. The FBI has used records from VPN provider that claims not to keep logs

 

[HarborFront]

I am still confuse, how come a VPN provider know that a user is committing an illegal activity until or unless they have a monitoring tool. What PureVPN has said is totally bogus, They have do keep logs of customers' activities and used them when required by FBI or government authorities. It is not the first time I heard the same about PureVPN. You can search for the DMCA replies they have given with information of their users. Check this news and see what Bryan from the Next Web has commented, I am sure when someone from such authority website has claimed something like that it is not false. The FBI has used records from VPN provider that claims not to keep logs

A VPN provider has many ways to check your traffic even if they don't keep logs. This is to prevent users abusing their service and to improve their service as well. Here's one example of a VPN provider using a packet sniffing software to monitor customer traffic

VPN provider 'Proxy.sh' sniffed the traffic of US based server to Catch Hackers

The only test to determine whether the VPN provider will supply your privacy info to the state or authorities is when a case is brought up in public like the recent FBI case with PureVPN.

A year ago Perfect Privacy VPN provider's two servers were seized by police. However, quote

“Since we are not logging any data there is currently no reason to believe that any user data was compromised,” the VPN provider says.

Police Seize Two Perfect Privacy VPN Servers - TorrentFreak

You can read the privacy policy of 118 VPNs here and most of them will say they are not keeping logs

https://thebestvpn.com/118-vpns-logging-policy/

Here's a link to a co-founder of ibVPN and Q&As in operating the VPN service

I am Dan Gurghian, co-founder of ibVPN. I’m here to answer any question you have about online privacy and challenges VPN companies face. AMA! • r/IAmA

 

[Evjl's Rain]

IMO, no
it's money-wasting without noticeable benefits, just for me, not for others

I just use it to test malwares. Nobody knows what they do with our data despite the claim of no logging or something like that

The speed decrement overwhelms its benefits
I'm not paranoid enough to use the internet under a VPN everyday

 

[Ian Riley]

In my Experience as a VPN analysts VPN providers do keep logs all the time. Like if they say 'No Log' policy, it is just to sell the product that is all. The only benefit here is that VPN providers do not usually sell the data or give it to programs like NSA, and when i say do not, i meant some of them not all. The best answer that why you need a VPN is simply not because you are doing something illegal or unethical, its because sometimes, you need privacy, sometimes you need to save money, sometimes you need to protect your financial data from thieves, If nothing of such nature happens to you till now, doesn't mean it won't happen ever. Just take it this way, what is you are a GoT fan and going to spend your next summer vaccation in Thailand while the last season of the show will be in its full swing. Would you like to miss that? Well, this is why you need a VPN, to access blocked content. I have an article i wrote recently, check this out it will clear alot about your ideas about VPN.

 

[Venustus]

Netflix is a case in point for me!The content available in Australia is half what the US gets.I pay for the service but to access the US material you can use a VPN!Another instance would be if you are torrenting!!