What do you look for in a VPN service for maximum security ?

[Wilson Drake]

These days I am seeing a growing concern for cyber security, and there is no harm in securing your digital footprint. But  what I am noticing is there are a lot of things coming up which were never a concern earlier. Some of the things I am talking about are:

 

1. Jurisdiction of VPN 
2. DNS logs
3. Timestamps logs
4. Anonymous payment method
5. PGP Key
6. Protocols offered
7. Supports TCF 443
8. Supports Obfsproxy 

 

and the list could go on. So I was wondering why is there such a growing concern over such things which are not even understandable by a layman. And if you are looking for a few things in a VPN service what exactly are those?

 

[HaiPham]

Hi Wilson,

 

I think we have an industrial about VPN there. In my country, I used a VPN for faster speed connection and sometimes for public wifi hotspot.

I think the best part that let me worried is the country of the VPN company. I am using ExpressVPN because it has a chrome extension is very convenient and the headquarter of ExpressVPN  British Virgin Islands, remain part is hard to say: keep logs, DNS query log,...

I tried many VPN solutions, but ExpressVPN still the best for me. It has a lot of protocols for your choice. Active development for Application of all platform.

[straycat19]

I seldom use commercial VPNs, though I have licenses for them.  I prefer to use the private VPN provided by my employer which is much more diversified than the commercial ones and which is absolutely secure.  

[SwissMiss]

@Wilson Drake, have you taken a look at this site: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-section/

It has simple and detailed VPN comparisons and also discusses choosing a VPN in detail here: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/choosing-the-best-vpn-for-you/

The information on that site was helpful for me in narrowing down the things to look for in a VPN provider, so I thought it would be helpful to pass it along to you.  I hope it helpful to you.

 

[Cereberus]

swiss link to thatoneprivacysite with the chart is pretty much what you should look at.

 

just SOME of the considerations for VPN

 

- no logs? (or at least they don't keep them indefinitely)

- trusted? (some vpns have already been caught giving your details to others. so that rules them out as reliable vpns)

- speed performance? (using vpn there is bound to be some performance degradation, but it's always good to first check what speeds you can expect, PRIOR to subscribing to a service)

- pricing (is it reasonably priced? i think something like PIA and Nordvpn are well priced, especially if you subscriber for the longer duration packages)

- netflix (optional). I don't think PIA supports netflix anymore. But nordvpn probably still do. Without VPN i would only have roughly 10% of the total catalog for netflix .... hence why you need a vpn that actually works with the service.

- is it user friendly to use and setup? (i only have tried PIA, but it's EXTREMELY easy to use and setup. They got a desktop app, a browser app, android app, OR you can set it on your router)

- what country does the VPN run in? (if it's a China, Russia, Iran, North Korea VPN, i would not even consider.)

- payment method (if you truly want even more privacy, you can opt for a service that accepts bitcoin payments)

 

 

But no matter how fast the VPN is, or whether it's free, it doesn't matter if it's not private or secure (which was the WHOLE POINT of getting a VPN in the first place).

 

 

you should also watch this and understand VPN

 

 

VPN is policy based protection, meaning you trust their no logs policy means just that. If that service EVER has a SINGLE case where this is not true, that alone already makes their VPN useless.

 

This is just an example of a VPN no logs policy being put to the test

https://torrentfreak.com/private-internet-access-no-logging-claims-proven-true-again-in-court-180606/

 

also you need to lock down your browser due to trackers (especially google). e.g. ublock is one extension i recommend

 

other browser extensions for protection

- netcraft (very good for anti phishing. so you don't go to a fake or bad site)

- https everywhere (it will force your browsing to use https sites)

- decentraleyes (protection against tracking)

- umatrix (i use this for white or black listing things sites load)

- ublock origin (using nanodefender list)

- ublock origin extra

- nanodefender (required component for using the ublock origins nano filters)

 

 

Use firefox. As much as i like chrome simplicity, only Firefox is better at privacy.