VPNs or virtual private networks are virtual tunnels that obscure your IP address, routing your internet traffic through a server located in a country of your choice, in an encrypted and anonymous way. Using a VPN allows you to:
- secure your sensitive data from hackers
- obscure the IP address so you can see content not available in your country
- avoid websites you routinely surf (e.g., Facebook) noticing a different IP address when you are traveling, and asking you to verify your identity
- bypass the firewall of your school or company.
VPN chrome extensions is an easy and popular way to make your connection secure and anonymous. Many of them are free and funded through loads of advertising. To use them, you need to install the extension, connect to the blocked website, choose the server to connect to, and you're done. One of the best VPN extensions for those purposes may be found here: https://nordvpn.com/download/chrome-extension/
Needless to say, not all VPN providers are reliable, especially when it comes to free VPN proxy services. It is very crucial to choose the right provider to avoid having even greater security and privacy problems before using a VPN.
Choosing a VPN provider: what can go wrong?
What can happen if you choose the wrong VPN provider? Research published in 2016 on VPN apps clearly showed it.
- 75% of the analyzed VPN providers were using third-party tracking libraries
- 82% requested permissions to access sensitive data (user accounts, text messages)
- 38% contained some malware
- 16% of the analyzed apps were forwarding traffic through other users rather than using their own host servers, with concerns in terms of trust, security, and privacy
- 18% of the VPN apps were not using any form of encryption while tunneling users' traffic
- 4% were using the VPN permission to inspect users’ traffic for unclear purposes
- 3% were intercepting users' traffic from social networks, e-commerce sites, email, and analytics service
- 2% were manipulating users’ traffic for advertising and tracking purposes
- 1% were redirecting users’ e-commerce traffic to external advertising partners.
Thus, there are dozens of VPNs using an old but seemingly good strategy: take the money and run.
How about recognizing a shady VPN provider?
There are some signs that let you know if a VPN provider doesn’t keep their promises.
1. Your Google results are in the wrong language. It means that the server you are directing to is not the one you chose. It can happen if a VPN provider, to save money, creates a number of "virtual" servers referring to a single physical server.
2. When reading the Terms of service and the Privacy policy, you find that the company actually logs users' IP address, rather than obscuring them. Keep in mind that UK- and US-based VPNs are subjected to data retention law. A better choice could be a VPN provider based in other countries.
3. Few non-anonymous payment forms. To ensure the anonymity of its users, a good VPN provider offers a variety of payment forms, such as cash, gift cards, and bitcoins in addition to credit card.
4. Free VPNs that are only financed by advertising are more vulnerable to malware or ads that log your browsing activities.
5. Shady VPN providers often offer a fake refund policy or fake customer support. Testing these two services is a quick way to understand if a provider is trustworthy.
Beware of DNS leaks
If you are looking to keep your online activities secure and private with a VPN service, it is extremely important that all traffic coming from your computer goes through the VPN. Including DNS queries, which should pass from the VPN tunnel to the DNS servers of your VPN provider, rather than those of your internet service provider (ISP).
If your system comes back to the default DNS servers for some reason, the VPN is not encrypting DNS queries. This means that your ISP can see the sites you visit, the applications you download, and much more.
Identifying VPN leaks with a test website
One last way to identify security flaws offered by a VPN is to use a VPN test website. Although they are not 100% reliable, they allow you to identify the biggest problems.
You just have to connect to the test site via the VPN to see if the VPN provider:
- is redirecting the traffic to the indicated server
- is effectively protecting users’ IP address
- it's not protecting users’ DNS queries.
Finally, there are sites to test your VPN Chrome speed. A VPN can dramatically slow down your internet speed, because of encryption protocols. The speed of a VPN depends on factors such as the distance between you and the VPN server, regional processing bandwidth, for example, the bandwidth infrastructure in a certain country, your speed processing with your internet provider, and your CPU processing power.
