Hi all, big newbie here, sorry if this is a bad post. I put a VPN on my phone but I keep getting a “this app is using a lot of resources” message. Are all VPNs like that? It’s fine if so I just wanted to know if I should be worried
vpns do that because they have to encrypt all the data
It’s the spyware installed with your vpn
Which VPN protocol is it using? For example, is it OpenVPN (which is bloated and slow), or is it WireGuard (which is much faster and more efficient)? Look in the settings and it’ll probably tell you. You should use WireGuard if you can.
If it’s OpenVPN, what encryption settings are you using (algorithms, number of bits, etc)?
What SoC is your phone based on? That could determine which encryption algorithms are hardware accelerated on your device, and which aren’t. Your phone manufacturer’s technical specifications document should list the SoC?
What kernel version does your phone model use? Go to Settings → About phone, and then tap on Android version to make information such as the kernel version appear. It’s a kernel older than Linux 5.4, WireGuard would likely be running in userland mode. Kernel mode is faster and more efficient than user mode.
A VPN can use resources, but only when you are using your phone or the phone is actively using data. I would say look at your battery and data usage. The VPN should be far from the top of the battery list. It could be the top of the data list, but the data of other apps should add up to the VPN data, but not certain. Just a prompt on the phone is not necessarily bad, you need to verify. You can also post your finding or more details.
That makes sense, thank you!
Thanks for the info! It was on “automatic,” so I switched it to WireGuard. Kernel is <5.4 and chipset is “Mediatek Dimensity 720 (7 nm)”
That’s not true, encryption is a pretty light load. Try exiting the VPN app and restarting. Sometimes the VPN app misbehaves.
Privado is not on that list and the sheet here says no proven data leak