Alright, I don’t know if this is the right place to ask such questions, but I got myself a new computer a few weeks ago.
I mainly use it for work (3D modelling, video editing) gaming and watching movies (mostly netflix and youtube).
I keep seeing people promoting or suggesting the use of VPN, but is it really necessary? Is my privacy at risk just by browsing netflix and youtube, or by playing video games on steam?
I don’t know if it has any relevance but I also live in Canada and I’ve heard some say it’s not required to have one in here.
Anyway I just don’t fully understand why one casual user would want a VPN.
Cheers!
What aspect of your privacy do you value.
A VPN is useful for (1) hiding the websites you visit from your ISP; (2) hiding your location from the sites you connect to.
The security in these regards that they offer depend on the jurisdiction of the VPN server/provider and its logging policies.
Most people use them to prevent their government or law enforcement/copyright enforcement agencies from tracking activities back to them. For the average, non-torrenting user, there’s little point to them. SSL is more than capable of securing your general activity.
It depends on how much you value your privacy. VPN’s are usually used to hide ISP’s so torrents don’t get blocked. Personally, I would use a VPN on open networks are cafeterias, etc such as Starbucks since I don’t completely trust open networks.
Note: the VPN only hides you from your ISP. The VPN provider can still see everything you do. I would not recommend using a VPN service you’re not completely sure is secure if you’re all about privacy.
A VPN hides all network traffic from the provider. Your computer connects to the VPN server, and all network traffic you use goes through that server. It is all encrypted, so while the network you’re truly on can see you connecting to the VPN, they cannot see anything about the data you send.
There are downsides to this for your uses, however.
Netflix is constantly fighting VPNs and blocking traffic from them (legally, they can only serve some shows to some areas).
Games require low latency, so you’ll see an uptick in ping time, depending on where the VPN server and the game server are. If they’re next to each other, or the VPN server is close to your own location, you’ll see less difference.
Last obvious downside to your use case is universal: there’s an overhead to VPNs in bandwidth. Most good paid providers should be able to maintain speeds up to 100 Mbit. But if you have a gigabit connection, you will see slower speeds through the VPN.
I use a VPN on my tower at home almost all the time. But, I use a provider that has a server within 10 miles of me, and I still get ~250Mbit down which is usually more than enough.
It really just comes down to whether you care that your ISP, Google, Amazon, and other large internet presences can see most of what you do.
I don’t use one.
I use mostly Reddit, Youtube, Netflix and a few other streaming services (on my Android tablet and Roku mostly though), plus use my PC for online banking and shopping.
If I want to do dodgy stuff, I do it on my Linux PC.
It depends on what you hope to achieve, VPNs are for connecting two networks across a hostile intermediate network. So if you’re not say–remotely accessing your home network from a coffee shop (this is a bad idea by the way) a VPN is great.
A lot of folks seem to think shifting their traffic will somehow prevent companies or the government from seeing what they’re doing online–I mean a VPN encrypts your traffic so surely it must mean private? Well not exactly. When you connect to a VPN you’re shifting your traffic from one set of connections to another, sites you connect to will obviously still see what you’re up to and the VPN provider will know where it’s sending your traffic.
These days companies use behavioral fingerprinting to track users and that involves so much more than just your IP address.
No, a VPN isn’t necessary for most people.
A VPN is mostly used to hide your traffic from outside trackers. For all pratical purposes, if you are just a regular person doing regular things (as in things that would not be illegal or morally questionable), then you wouldn’t need it.
A business is likely to use a VPN to identify a computer/user as a node that is allowed to connect and access protected data and resources not open to the public. an individual is likely to use a VPN to get around region specific limitations such as watching shows only available in England on Netflix while living in the US, downloading movies/music illegally, and such.
Most regular people don’t need it.
Well you did not answer my question at all, but since you replied with another question i’ll do the same:
Why would one need a vpn if he only uses his computer for work, gaming and netflix? Can someone really go throught your privacy while you watch The Office on netflix? Isn’t netflix supposed to be somewhat safe? Are all websites unsafe nowadays?
I’m asking these questions mostly because I feel left out on all this VPN thing. People say to protect your privacy and all, but what would I have to do to be at risk of having my privacy breached?
The purpose of a VPN is to connect to a network remotely, that is a networking goal and a corporate security goal.
normal people use it to hide from their ISP most of the time, so their torrents are not blocked.
I would use a VPN while at Starbucks, because I do not trust their network. Though I run my own VPNs, and route my traffic back home instead of yet another third party.
Anytime someone says “privacy” you need to ask what that means to them, because it is most often a buzz word. If you cannot tell me what you want to hide, and who you want to hide from, I cannot offer real advice.
Too many people think that VPNs are magic, without properly understanding the threat they are making up or how to mitigate it.
If you run through a VPN, sure you are hiding from your ISP, but the VPN service provider and the site you reached can still see all of your traffic, because that is the purpose of the internet, to see and be seen.