Should I use a VPN?
The answer to this question is not a particularly helpful one: It depends. It depends on what you're expecting a VPN to do for you, who you're trying to hide your traffic from, and what applications you're using.
In most cases, VPNs do little to protect your privacy or enhance your security, unless paired with other changes.
VPNs cannot encrypt data outside of the connection between your device and the VPN server. VPN providers can see and modify your traffic the same way your ISP could. And there is no way to verify a VPN provider's "no logging" policies in any way.
What if I need encryption?
In most cases, most of your traffic is already encrypted! Over 98% of the top 3000 websites offer HTTPS, meaning your non-DNS traffic is safe regardless of using a VPN. It is incredibly rare for applications that handle personal data to not support HTTPS in 2019, especially with services like Let's Encrypt offering free HTTPS certificates to any website operator.
Even if a site you visit doesn't support HTTPS, a VPN will not protect you, because a VPN cannot magically encrypt the traffic between the VPN's servers and the website's servers. Installing an extension like HTTPS Everywhere and making sure every site you visit uses HTTPS is far more helpful than using a VPN.
Should I use encrypted DNS with a VPN?
Unless your VPN provider hosts the encrypted DNS servers, no. Using DOH/DOT (or any other form of encrypted DNS) with third party servers will simply add more entities to trust, and does absolutely nothing to improve your privacy/security. Your VPN provider can still see which websites you visit based on the IP addresses and other methods. Instead of just trusting your VPN provider, you are now trusting both the VPN provider and the DNS provider.
A common reason to recommend encrypted DNS is that it helps against DNS spoofing. However, your browser should already be checking for TLS certificates with HTTPS and warn you about it. If you are not using HTTPS, then an adversary can still just modify anything other than your DNS queries and the end result will be little different.
Needless to say, you shouldn't use encrypted DNS with Tor. This would direct all of your DNS requests through a single circuit, and would allow the encrypted DNS provider to deanonymize you.
What if I need anonymity?
VPNs cannot provide strong anonymity. Your VPN provider will still see your real IP address, and often has a money trail that can be linked directly back to you. You cannot rely on "no logging" policies to protect your data.
Shouldn't I hide my IP address?
The idea that your IP address is sensitive information, or that your location is given away with all your internet traffic is fearmongering on the part of VPN providers and their marketing. Your IP address is an insignificant amount of personal data tracking companies use to identify you, because many users' IP addresses change very frequently (Dynamic IP addresses, switching networks, switching devices, etc.). Your IP address also does not give away more than the very generalized location of your Internet Service Provider. It does not give away your home address, for example, despite common perception.
Should I use Tor and a VPN?
By using a VPN with Tor, you're creating essentially a permanent entry node, often with a money trail attached. This provides 0 additional benefit to you, while increasing the attack surface of your connection dramatically. If you wish to hide your Tor usage from your ISP or your government, Tor has a built-in solution for that: Tor bridges. Read more about Tor bridges and why using a VPN is not necessary.
Are VPNs ever useful?
A VPN may still be useful to you in a variety of scenarios, such as:
- Hiding your traffic from only your Internet Service Provider.
- Hiding your downloads (such as torrents) from your ISP and anti-piracy organizations.
For use cases like these, or if you have another compelling reason, the VPN providers we listed above are who we think are the most trustworthy. However, using a VPN provider still means you're trusting the provider. In pretty much any other scenario you should be using a secure-by-design tool such as Tor.
Sources and Further Reading:
- VPN - a Very Precarious Narrative by Dennis Schubert
- Don't use VPN services by Sven Slootweg
- The self-contained networks recommended by Privacy Guides are able to replace a VPN that allows access to services on local area network
- Slicing Onions: Part 1 – Myth-busting Tor by blacklight447
- Slicing Onions: Part 2 – Onion recipes; VPN not required by blacklight447
- IVPN Privacy Guides
VPN Related breaches - why external auditing is important!
- "Zero logs" VPN exposes millions of logs including user passwords, claims data is anonymous July 2020
- NordVPN HTTP POST bug exposed customer information, no authentication required March 2020
- Row erupts over who to blame after NordVPN says: One of our servers was hacked via remote management tool October 2019
- VPN servers seized by Ukrainian authorities weren't encrypted and allowed authorities to impersonate Windscribe servers and capture and decrypt traffic passing through them July 2021
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