They are constantly advertised to you, but do they really do everything they claim? Are they essential for secure browsing? Let’s take a look:
What is a VPN
VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, and it is essentially used so that your device connects to a private network through a “tunnel” that it creates over the public internet network.
Traditionally, it is a security essential in business environments; a company creates its own VPN to connect the networks of two workplaces to each other, or the computer of an employee working from home with their workplace network.
In this way, the company can have services within the corporate network (file servers, email, printers, applications, databases, etc.) to which it does not grant access via the public internet, but does when you are inside the company’s private network.
Thus, the only intended way to access those company services would be by being physically on the company network or remotely while connected to its VPN. It is a very important security layer.
Using a VPN to connect to the internet
But the VPNs being sold to us everywhere are not this at all; they are VPNs to create a tunnel over the public internet to a private network, only to then access… the… public… internet from there. . Does this make sense?
Well, it depends; it makes sense if you want:
- Your traffic not to pass through your internet service provider first (Movistar, Vodafone, etc.).
- Not to reveal the IP of your router.
- To access the internet from another geographical point.
- Your traffic to be handled by a specific entity.
I believe marketing has played heavily on the concept many people have of VPNs. They are advertised as an essential tool for staying safe online; they use fear, but in many cases, they only tell half-truths—claims that do not stand up on their own.
To put it simply: Danacol reduces cholesterol, but not eating that chorizo does too.
Let’s analyze what they are selling us:
1. Prevent tracking
Online services (such as advertisers) have different ways of knowing if the same browser that visited an article on one website is the same browser currently on another website. One way to do this is through the IP address. From the same IP address, we can deduce that it could be the same connection (although it could not be concluded that it is the same person).
By using a VPN, you appear on the internet with a different IP address that is likely being used by more people at the same time, thereby invalidating this deduction a tracker might make. On this front, it’s great 👌
But the question is as follows:
A tracker can confirm through cookies that it is the same browser, or through social networks that it is the same person.
These are much more effective methods, and having a basic VPN does not address this part, which is more important and specific.
To avoid this tracking, you will need to use and configure browsers that block trackers, such as Firefox or Safari, and avoid mixing open sessions on famous social networks (Facebook, Twitter) or advertising networks (Google) in the same browser.
The main case of tracking involves advertisers and, while annoying, they are generally not dangerous.
A real danger could be an attempt to deduce data about you through your use of different websites with specially placed trackers, but for this, you would need to visit specific websites recommended by someone and perform actions valuable to the tracker… it would be like falling for two phishing scams at once; I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it is a bit far-fetched.
The problem with all this is that the way VPNs are sold can give you a false sense of security; the protection provided by the VPN will only be useful if you first take many other details into account.
2. Protect your privacy and online identity
A basic VPN has nothing to do with this. Your personal data (such as your name, phone number, email, etc.) is not in your connection; you add it when you enter your details on websites or applications.
If you post your personal data on a social network, it’s going to be there.
If you have purchased from an online store and that store is hacked, your data will be compromised regardless.
The VPN has no direct effect on this; you do.
3. Protection when connecting to public Wi-Fi (a coffee shop):
On an open Wi-Fi network, there could be a hacker ☕ who could read your passwords, cards, and data you put online…
…and this would be true…
…if we were in the year 2005.
Today, most websites and applications use the HTTPS / SSL protocol (that padlock that appears in the browser). This means that the website is who it says it is and that the communication is encrypted; no one who intercepts it can read its content.
So, what we hear today about not connecting to public Wi-Fi networks under any circumstances… doesn’t really make much sense, although you do have to be very careful that all the websites you visit have that padlock.
(Except for the Wi-Fi connection page, the classic one for accepting terms, which traditionally won’t have that padlock because it’s technically difficult; just make sure not to enter anything sensitive there).
4. Prevent your internet service provider (ISP) and/or government services from seeing your traffic.
Due to HTTPS / SSL, anyone intercepting the traffic cannot see the data we exchange, but they can see which site we are exchanging it with.
The concern here is that the ISP could compile statistics for advertisers (for example, a list of the most visited sites) or that state services could use data for political or police purposes (for example, if you frequent activism forums).
In fact, in a forum with little activity, intelligence services could correlate the moment your connection sends a post with the moment that post appears on the forum. In this way, they could link that published content to your connection.
And indeed, a VPN can help in this case, since when you connect, as you access the internet from a different point, it is more difficult for them to link the sites you visit with your connection.
As we saw in point 1, it is still feasible for them to track you through other methods, so this must be accompanied by other measures.
Do we trust VPNs?
⚠️ But wait, because we are assuming that the VPN is not going to sell that information or collaborate with states. Can we really trust the company behind the VPN?
Well, in some cases, we find companies operating from tax havens with questionable legislation.
- NordVPN: Panama.
- ExpressVPN: British Virgin Islands.
We also find that Cyberghost, Private Internet Access, ExpressVPN, and a media outlet that reports on VPNs were bought by Kape Technologies, an Israeli company that created malware and adware and whose owner was linked to the “Israeli NSA.”
It would be a wonderful business to create a sense of security around a service to have the traffic of journalists and activists at hand, whose information you could sell to various states, don’t you think?
5. Blocking sites with phishing or malware:
Because our connection passes through the VPN servers, they can block access to certain IPs or domains. This allows, for example, preventing you from accessing sites previously reported for malicious activities.
And it is true that this is more effective with a VPN because, although your ISP can do it too, this usually requires a prior step through the justice system, which ends up making everything very slow. Although this could also be an advantage; what is blocked has a clear purpose.
6. Change country
It makes your connection appear to be located in another country, allowing you to view online content available there.
However, in a VPN, you normally share an IP with other users, so many sites detect this and block access.
7. Speed
The sensation of speed when browsing the internet is always unpleasant when using a VPN.
So, do we use a VPN?
As you can see, using a VPN to “be safe on the internet” has many pros and cons. It is a good tool and a necessary part of achieving some objectives, but like everything, you have to know how to use it and not just stay on the surface.
Personally, I use a VPN, but not regularly; only for specific and occasional things. Since I trust them very little, I use VPN over VPN and open VPNs on professional-use servers (thus avoiding commercial VPN services).