Are VPN's (Virtual Private Networks) really worth the money?

I know in these days everyone is looking out for their privacy when online and I have seen and heard so many different ones out there, but are they really needed and worth the money? Which one(s) lead the pack and are worth looking into?

 

I don't know what I have that's private enough for that. I don't think I would spend money on it. Just clear your browser history.

 

Absolutely







NOT!

 

Depending on your internet activities it may or may not be needed, also where you live because in some places I think they help get around certain internet restrictions but regardless it's useful for piece of mind.

I don't know which one is the best but you can duckduckgo search to see comparative rankings.

 

I remember when in Hollywood I stayed at a hotel that restricted sites you could visit. Instead of a VPN (I don't know how to use one) I just used a proxy.

This site (I haven't used it before and can't find the one I'm used to) maintains a list of proxies.

https://hidemy.name/en/proxy-list/?...JFVvhU7kKEqpMiloBG1GDP38_RF3PL5YRifLjrW3gSvYD

 

NO they still could have logs of your activity, a decentralized approach such as tor is a better and free option but still can be traced just much more difficult

 

Depends on the VPN service. Some are cheap and collect your data. Some cost more but are anonymous. But with the popularity of VPN's, they are being watched more and more. the end points that is.
My opinion is that a good VPN service is worth it. keeps you a little more anonymous. But no totally.

 

Well whenever I want privacy I use the OPERA Browser, and that is FREE and a bloody good browser at that!
You can even pick your continent.
You can choose whether or not to have the VPN on.

At the moment my Web Address is showing I am here from somewhere in the Americas, but I am really online from Wales here in the UK!

 

Brave is a pretty good "privacy" first browser as well.

 

VPNs are mostly good to prevent your internet provider from blocking p2p protocols. For privacy and anonymity, I know no way to find out whether they are honouring their promises of never keeping records of my activity or not.

 

How can a network be 'private' when you are invited to join in.????????
The moment that you connect it to the internet, it also becomes open to the world.

Early private networks were point to point, using megastream (155, Mbps) or kilostream (512, Kbps) cables.
These were mainly used by banks to run their higher level branch finances to their head office via in house servers. Smaller installations were set up using LAN technology to produce a wide area network (WAN)
Computers had their Ethernet ports disabled, preventing any contact with the outside world (internet). Operating language (often Windows NT) was embedded and communication between sites was via a private email server.

The cost in the UK was around £12,000 per year per site. Some companies took a middle approach by using the ISDN (integrated services digital network) access.

Despite the cost, these networks exist today, Railway signalling, Air traffic control, Control of nuclear power stations and the national grid, along with water pumping and sewage treatment networks are a few examples.

Therefore, their is nothing to hack and stop all the trains, crash all the planes, or blow up a nuclear power station.
Their are security issues, but I am not going to highlight here.
Jane may be a bit upset if I am found floating face down in the Thames tomorrow morning.

 

Of course, VPN in top!

 

Depends on what you are doing. If it is necessary for work with vpnfree, then it is not that much to pay for a good connection.

 

America has the best justice that money can buy, and the Pentagon has the best security that money can buy, including quantum cryptography on laptops and cellphones. These days, you can use virtual operating systems and VPNs to ensure privacy, but any kid who plays video games can hack your email password. A researcher just hacked into 36 major corporations including Microsoft, using an approach nobody had ever thought of with packages, that presents an entirely new jungle for hackers to play in, while the latest AI is sophisticated enough to start hacking computers for you and writing its own programs. I'm working on how to give the machines autonomy, so they can save the world from their creators.

 

wether or not you need a vpn mostly depends on what you are doing on the internet, if you are dong some doggy/illegal stuff then yes, but in that case I would suggest using either a vpn or proxies in conjunction with the TOR browser, and even then your privacy isn't secure, if you want to to be as annonymous as possible on the internet you would have to also change your MAC adresse on your computer then use a vpn and access the tor browser, and then to be honest you would also have to not download anything from the internet.

I have to admit that I don't really get the whole thing though for a normal law abiding citizen, with few exceptions such as internet marketers and spammers, but for most folks I don't get it.

The Tor project/tor browser was originally created by the US government to assist the navy seals in staying annonynous when doing clandestine/covert operations overseas, it was later abandoned and turned over to a private non profit organisation (it's completeley free) for general public use, it works in a very simple way which is that when you open the browser and go to a website it jumps through various different nodes, the nodes are essentially other users computers, that they have voulontired to use for this, the downside to that is that from time to time the browser can be very slow.
The problem with it is that it provides a false sense of security, as was displayed when the NSA uncorvered the identety of every TOR user a few years back, it was a fairly simple process for them to do using a persistent cookie, which is essentially a cookie that replicates it's self (much like a worm/selfreplicating virus) and distribute it's self out into the users computer, which then gave them all the data they needed to make arrests on a lot of people using the browser for various illegal activities.
The way they did it was simply to create a node on the network or several nodes and just sit patiently and wait.

If people are using VPN's because the are afraid of getting hacked, then that is rarely a good use for a such thing, most people/prprivate civilians who get hacked, are getting hacked by downloading files which contains a rat (remote Access tool) that allows an atacker to access their computer and essentially take over that computer.

If people use vpn's bebcause they are afarid their credit card information can get stolen it is of no use, since thtese informations are often stolen using either phising emails, which a surprisingly large number of people actualy fall victim to, ar they are stolen through cross site scripting attacks on ecomerce websites.

One way to minimize the risk of hahving your credit card information stolen is to use a service such as privacy.com where you can generate virtual credit/debit cards for your purchases, they can be used for both subscription payments as well as one time use, the beuty is that you load a virtual credit card with x amount of money and then you can use it, should dodgy people get a hold of these informations they would be of little value since you have either spend all the money or has very few bucks left on it.

However as good an option privacy.com is you still have the potential risk of at somepoint having downloaded a file on your computer that contained either a RAT and/or a keylogger, in that case the bad people would still be able to obtain your real credit card indormation, but using a such service is beter than nothing.

 

I use VPN to connect to servers in the UK and beyond to watch TV shows I find interesting.

 

Yeah they are useful for that.

I have to suggest that you then go to the settings of your browser/browsers and turn off safe search.
Safe search is a feature used by almost all browsers, and is actually owened by google(Alphabet inc), and is one of their primarry ways of gathering user data, it's pretty clever of them creating it and patenting it, this way they are able to gather data about users regardless of their operating system and browser.

 

After reading some of the comments. You guys are aware you are watched by so call big brother? Your phone tracks you, Facebook tracks you, anything you do online. You are being tracked. You are also being watched on the outside. No matter what you do to protect your privacy. It will never be 100% safe. Only way to keep from being so call "tracked" is to abandon society and go live in a bunker somewhere.

 

The problem is that VPN isn't the cure for all diseases. And moreover, some of them are likely to share private data with others. So there is a need to be careful with such programs.

 

Why would I need one, unless I was doing something dodgy.
Plus Zen knows if they are used on HIP anyway.