Merged Should I have a VPN?

[Thermal]

Having a little trouble relating to something called a "pi hole". I only know that as something old people tell me to shut.

 

[Wudang]

And it shouldn't let crap through.

 

[Thermal]

Going all the way back to the OP: he says lame-ass Avast recommends a VPN. A VPN, to a lay person, is (quoting the Goog) something that:

• Encrypts data: It scrambles your internet traffic so hackers or snoopers cannot read it, especially on public Wi-Fi.
• Hides your IP address: It replaces your real IP address with one from a remote VPN server, making your physical location harder to trace.

Sooooo... that's a good privacy thing, yeah? I mean I don't think it will slow Google down too much, but it should make things difficult for a garden variety low end chump, like a small spammer or wannabe identity thief?

Eta: and I would think (as strictly a lay user) that masking the IP would throw a monkey wrench in the browser fingerprinting, making you look like some other user that doesn't match the fingerprint?

 

[plague311]

Going all the way back to the OP: he says lame-ass Avast recommends a VPN. A VPN, to a lay person, is (quoting the Goog) something that:

• Encrypts data: It scrambles your internet traffic so hackers or snoopers cannot read it, especially on public Wi-Fi.
• Hides your IP address: It replaces your real IP address with one from a remote VPN server, making your physical location harder to trace.

Sooooo... that's a good privacy thing, yeah? I mean I don't think it will slow Google down too much, but it should make things difficult for a garden variety low end chump, like a small spammer or wannabe identity thief?

VPNs are always suggested when using public wi-fi. Anyone telling you differently is probably trying to steal your information. Google used some weird language by saying it "scrambles your internet traffic" lol. All a VPN does is wraps all of your internet traffic in an encrypted wrapper and masks your Public IP. But, while yes the VPN changes your public IP to something else, your cell phone will give you away every time since VPNs don't have any ability to change things like cell tower pings, wifi location, GPS tracking, etc.

We can get pretty far out in the weeds covering things like man-in-the-middle attacks, or Evil Twin attacks that VPNs protect against the most but all-in-all if you're using any form of public internet then you should use a VPN.

Eta: and I would think (as strictly a lay user) that masking the IP would throw a monkey wrench in the browser fingerprinting, making you look like some other user that doesn't match the fingerprint?

Nah, not really. It uses the browser itself to create the fingerprint. VPNs only mask traffic, they don't really mask anything on the device itself.

 

[Thermal]

VPNs are always suggested when using public wi-fi. Anyone telling you differently is probably trying to steal your information. Google used some weird language by saying it "scrambles your internet traffic" lol. All a VPN does is wraps all of your internet traffic in an encrypted wrapper and masks your Public IP. But, while yes the VPN changes your public IP to something else, your cell phone will give you away every time since VPNs don't have any ability to change things like cell tower pings, wifi location, GPS tracking, etc.

We can get pretty far out in the weeds covering things like man-in-the-middle attacks, or Evil Twin attacks that VPNs protect against the most but all-in-all if you're using any form of public internet then you should use a VPN.


Nah, not really. It uses the browser itself to create the fingerprint. VPNs only mask traffic, they don't really mask anything on the device itself.

Good stuff man, thanks for that. That's the kind of detail a lay user doesn't really know.

 

[Wudang]

Some places don't allow VPN through their networks- eg a hotel/bar I tried to work from when my daughter could only handle 2-4 hour schooldays recuperating from an accident. Nuisance as access to Amazon AWS and S3 required it. But I could still code etc. And use my phone hotspot if needed.
My wife said her workplace banned VPN access on their public Wi-Fi as some customers were accessing porn instead of job hunting which the service was there for.

 

[plague311]

My wife said her workplace banned VPN access on their public Wi-Fi as some customers were accessing porn instead of job hunting which the service was there for.

We do this where I work, and it's becoming more popular but, as you alluded to, people that are actually doing work can now use hot spots rather than public wi-fi.

I used public wi-fi at a brewery I was at yesterday (they were holding a class for a software we're using, so it was work related) and the first thing I did was VPN'd back to work before putting in passwords and the like. Sure not a lot of passwords are sent in cleartext, but you never know. Always better to be safe than sorry.

I should probably take my own privacy more seriously but I just can't be bothered anymore. The internet knows I like hispanic BBWs now, no sense in hiding it.