Who uses a VPN on here

Griff7520 · 16 Apr 2016 at 12:01

As the title says was just wondering how many OCUK users use a VPN for their internet activities.

stufflol · 16 Apr 2016 at 12:09

Whats the benefits unless you have something to hide

Griff7520 · 16 Apr 2016 at 12:13

Thats what I want to know...reading about it it seems a lot of people are using them these days.
So are there any benefits to using one?...or is it just to hide your dodgey torrent downloads etc etc

DragonQ · 16 Apr 2016 at 13:30

I suppose anonymous VPNs afford you privacy, which everyone has a right to. The other main benefit is to access content that is otherwise restricted to other regions due to draconian licensing agreements.

I don't use a VPN from home but I have my own VPN on my file server that I can connect to from anywhere. It allows me to watch TV or any of my archived media on my phone or laptop when away from home.

lixxus · 16 Apr 2016 at 13:40

Privacy? I don't have anything to hide.

Glenn Greenwald: Why privacy matters Over the last 16 months, as I've debated this issue around the world, every single time somebody has said to me, "I don't really worry about invasions of privacy because I don't have anything to hide." I always say the same thing to them. I get out a pen, I write down my email address. I say, "Here's my email address. What I want you to do when you get home is email me the passwords to all of your email accounts, not just the nice, respectable work one in your name, but all of them, because I want to be able to just troll through what it is you're doing online, read what I want to read and publish whatever I find interesting. After all, if you're not a bad person, if you're doing nothing wrong, you should have nothing to hide." Not a single person has taken me up on that offer.
Glenn Greenwald in Why privacy matters - TED Talk

I literally yesterday decided to sign up for a year with nordvpn, they had a special offer $36

I have never used a vpn before, but the internet is becoming very authoritarian and isps are being forced to censor and with new snoopers charter coming into affect you can kiss goodbye net neutrality.

regarding people asking why. Its not if you have something to hide. Its a matter of principle. If you were at work all day and someone entered your house looking through your stuff. "my data is my data" and no one should have access to it.

The benefits of it
+ browse anon
+ access to service such as hulu, pandora that you would not have access to otherwise
+ anon p2p
+ good for when you are connecting to public wifi, keep you safe from man in middle attacks
+ dns encryption

some cool sites about privacy,encryption, net neutrality
https://freedom.press/encryption-works
https://prism-break.org/en/
https://dns.watch/index
https://theintercept.com/2015/07/14/communicating-secret-watched/
https://www.privacytools.io/

Griff7520 · 16 Apr 2016 at 16:13

lixxus said:
I literally yesterday decided to sign up for a year with nordvpn, they had a special offer $36

I have never used a vpn before, but the internet is becoming very authoritarian and isps are being forced to censor and with new snoopers charter coming into affect you can kiss goodbye net neutrality.

regarding people asking why. Its not if you have something to hide. Its a matter of principle. If you were at work all day and someone entered your house looking through your stuff. "my data is my data" and no one should have access to it.

The benefits of it
+ browse anon
+ access to service such as hulu, pandora that you would not have access to otherwise
+ anon p2p
+ good for when you are connecting to public wifi, keep you safe from man in middle attacks
+ dns encryption

some cool sites about privacy,encryption, net neutrality
https://freedom.press/encryption-works
https://prism-break.org/en/
https://dns.watch/index
https://theintercept.com/2015/07/14/communicating-secret-watched/
https://www.privacytools.io/

Thanks for that.

lixxus · 16 Apr 2016 at 18:29

Griff7520 said:
Thanks for that.

no problem. I am still new to all this. I have kind of being complacent to all this.

Might be worth having a sticky or thread about net neutrality and privacy. A lot is going on atm for example whatsapp have now decided to include encryption protocol.

Vpn seems to be hot topic atm. there is another thread in windows section as well with some recommendations.

joedeath332 · 16 Apr 2016 at 19:10

I have one but only use it sometimes.. if i told you what for then i'd have to shoot ya

On Holiday · 16 Apr 2016 at 19:15

The Government can look at my porn all they like.

I use one but only for work or public/untrusted internet connectivity.

joeyjojo · 17 Apr 2016 at 10:58

lixxus said:
The benefits of it
+ browse anon
+ access to service such as hulu, pandora that you would not have access to otherwise
+ anon p2p
+ good for when you are connecting to public wifi, keep you safe from man in middle attacks
+ dns encryption

Half right. The main point is that by using a VPN you move the "trust" from your ISP to your VPN provider. For example, they could be keeping logs (even if they say they don't) and get coerced into revealing them, or install a backdoor, or allow governments to eavesdrop. All you can do is trust they don't.

Second, it's still possible to use surveillance on you and the VPN providers. With clever analysis it's possible to coordinate your and their traffic to work out who's who.

Third, your browser is probably the weakest link when it comes to anonymity. Everything from your cookies to your plugins, add-ons, even screen resolution could be used to personally identify you. The VPN can't help with that.

I believe tor is the only way to get the anonymity you're thinking of, see the FAQ for more info and why VPNs aren't great.

The two points you raised on geo content and unencrypted wifi security are good ones though. The former is probably the main reason people use them.

wam7 · 17 Apr 2016 at 13:22

I have one setup in my router (Asus AC68U) mainly for my friend in Sydney when he wants to watch football or IPlayer but also handy when I'm away on public Wifi and want to browse more securely.

lixxus · 17 Apr 2016 at 20:17

joeyjojo said:
Half right. The main point is that by using a VPN you move the "trust" from your ISP to your VPN provider. For example, they could be keeping logs (even if they say they don't) and get coerced into revealing them, or install a backdoor, or allow governments to eavesdrop. All you can do is trust they don't.

Second, it's still possible to use surveillance on you and the VPN providers. With clever analysis it's possible to coordinate your and their traffic to work out who's who.

Third, your browser is probably the weakest link when it comes to anonymity. Everything from your cookies to your plugins, add-ons, even screen resolution could be used to personally identify you. The VPN can't help with that.

I believe tor is the only way to get the anonymity you're thinking of, see the FAQ for more info and why VPNs aren't great.

The two points you raised on geo content and unencrypted wifi security are good ones though. The former is probably the main reason people use them.

thank you for clarifying. I hope nordvpn are decent in that case haha. I would have went with airvpn. i like their ethos especially as they are run by activist, but they are expensive. anything is better than putting trust with my current isp

Rifte · 17 Apr 2016 at 20:27

Archeum said:
The Government can look at my porn all they like.

I use one but only for work or public/untrusted internet connectivity.

SNAP!

This is the main reason I use it as well, although I do have the added benefit of being able to view iplayer and 4od whilst being decidedly out of the country.

nutcase · 17 Apr 2016 at 20:46

I use one when out and about to connect to home.

joeyjojo · 17 Apr 2016 at 21:48

lixxus said:
thank you for clarifying. I hope nordvpn are decent in that case haha. I would have went with airvpn. i like their ethos especially as they are run by activist, but they are expensive. anything is better than putting trust with my current isp

No problem, I didn't mean to rain on your parade, nordvpn look decent and are probably fine, but it's good to be aware of the potential dangers.

And you're totally right that with a VPN there's a small % chance of getting spied on, but for the ISP it's a lot worse! Especially if May gets her way.

D3K · 17 Apr 2016 at 21:53

nutcase_1uk said:
I use one when out and about to connect to home.

Does this mean your home network connection is acting as your VPN when connected to public networks? I'd like to set something like that up if it alleviates the issue of my IP address changing randomly (id rather not pay for static).

siliconjim · 17 Apr 2016 at 22:00

Found this VPN comparison chart from Reddit.com: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...VzbOigT0xebxTOw/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true

APM · 17 Apr 2016 at 23:09

AirVPN for me.
Changed DNS in my router too and use Disconnect/Ghostery in my browsers which I run in sandboxes and looking forward to seeing the new browser Brave when it arrives.

lixxus · 17 Apr 2016 at 23:36

siliconjim said:
Found this VPN comparison chart from Reddit.com: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...VzbOigT0xebxTOw/htmlview?usp=sharing&sle=true

yep same guide I used to shortlist.

great find i saw on https://www.reddit.com/r/privacytoolsIO/wiki/index

crapler8 · 18 Apr 2016 at 07:46

good for security