Cleanse

Day Sixteen: Get a VPN

An elaborate shield.
A VPN will protect your interactions online, kind of like this armor. (Credit: PNGimg.com)

Hopefully you're working diligently through your Data Roadmap, deleting accounts you don't need, changing email masks and credit cards over ... I don't want to interrupt that good work! I'll just interrupt it long enough today for you to sign up for -- a VPN service!

Table of Contents

What is a VPN and why do I need one?

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. In essence, it refers to a secure protocol by means of which a computer outside of a network can call in and become part of that local, secured network, without having to be in the building or in physical proximity. 

You may be issued a VPN for work, for instance. This will let you work remotely from home, but allow you to 'call in' to access certain networked services, or to allow your boss to monitor your internet usage and traffic. Workplace VPN's of this kind have become much more popular and widely used since the Covid-19 lockdown period, as people have clamored for more days working at home.

VPN's will extend local network security measures to you, wherever you are. This is important for companies that need to keep a close eye on their data for proprietary or monetary reasons.

Or perhaps you're at a university and their library has access to various journals and subscriptions. They require you to log in through a VPN to access them as if you were in the library yourself, largely because they have promised the journal companies and subscription partners that the license they paid for only extends to affiliates with their university and is not available on the open web.

For a variety of reasons, then, you probably have a VPN that your company wants you to install if you need to access work materials at home.

So why do I need another VPN?

So you have a way to "tunnel" into your workplace: great! But that isn't the only reason you might want a VPN. You want one for personal data privacy reasons too.

Why? Because when you access the Internet, you're assigned an IP address. The websites you visit know things about you-- like where you're browsing from. You can see this if you allow ads to get through your ad blockers. And as you browse the internet, you are visible as you hop from one site to the next, from one day to the next. The continuity of your browsing from one site also constitutes a pattern.

A personal VPN will allow you to connect to the internet through another apparent location. In other words, the VPN will act as a "mask" for your internet connection point.

This is obviously useful if you don't want to be tracked for what you are doing on the Internet. Yet VPNs are also useful for balkanizing your traces more generally, and spreading them around. Sometimes it's helpful just to browse via a VPN to spread your traces a little, obfuscate what you're doing just for the heck of it. Again, this makes it much harder for someone to piece together a complete picture of you based on stable browsing habits.

More importantly, though, VPNs can encrypt your data as it's transfered from one place to another. So as you browse or upload, send or receive, download or store files, those transfers are all instantly encrypted. This stops hostile actors from capturing your data traces in midstream and makes those traces a lot more difficult to find.

It also makes your connection far more secure, especially when you are logging in through, say, a public wifi node. This stops your data from being sniffed out or registered on networks while you're out and about.

People also choose VPNs because they want to browse the web as if they are in another country, to get access to content there that is regionally blocked. Expats often use a VPN if they want to watch their local cable channels back home. For instance, the 2024 Olympics streamed live on public broadcast television in Canada, the CBC, but was restricted to cable TV only in the USA: some people watched their favorite events while tunneling into Canadian networks accordingly.

And then there's the more sinister side of "the Splinternet" -- the idea that we are not all on the same internet after all. To break out of your filter bubble or the restrictions in your local state, it's essential to get a VPN. A VPN is sine qua non in China, Russia, or Turkey, both because it's the only way to offer some anonymity while browsing online, and second because networked censorship like "the Great Firewall" make it impossible to engage on the global web. You can't, for instance, even load Google, or Facebook, or BBC News in China. Not without a VPN, that is.

Internet privacy experts suggest you shouldn't do anything online without a VPN, and certainly, there is a lot that you are doing online right now that you really should be doing with a VPN. It's time to make loading a VPN part of your regular experience of being online.

Which VPN should I get?

Fortunately there are a lot of great options out there for VPN services, many of which are made by companies I've already mentioned. I have several of these and use them regularly at home, as well as from abroad, all to great effect. They all allow you to choose the country or location you want to connect from, and each does a good job of hiding your traces, encrypting your connection, and securing your access.

You may wish to pick one that synergizes with the accounts you already have, or you may wish to get something different. Again, it's up to you. Just having a VPN and using it frequently, however, makes a big difference.

  • Mozilla VPN: a standalone system for just under $60/year. If you like to just buy into an ecosystem from one company and you're already happy with Firefox Relay, Mozilla VPN is a great choice.
  • DuckDuckGo: Their VPN is rolled in with their PrivacyPro service for $99/year, which includes removal of your data from external sites and brokers.
  • NordVPN: Enables double VPN, so that your signal pings between two access points, adding an extra layer of protection. This one is pricier (up to $12/month unless you sign up during a sale), but strong value and an excellent brand, based in the EU.
  • ExpressVPN. Rolls in a password manager ("Keys") and adblocker. Especially great for gaming and game consoles (XBox, Playstation, etc) as it is lightning fast and doesn't slow down play.
  • TunnelBear. "Grizzly regards from Canada!"  This is one of the most user-friendly VPN systems out there and terrific for beginners. They also have a strong "teams" option which is useful when you are working with partners in public locations, like a WeWork style shared workspace.
  • Mulvad is a low cost, open source, EU based VPN subject to European privacy regulations. They assume you may be so privacy conscious, you'll even want to pay in cash!
  • Hide.me. A small Malaysia-based company that's been around since at least 2012, they offer a decent free version of their VPN service that's a good place to start if you need something more affordable or you are unsure who to sign up with.
  • OperaVPN. If you downloaded and liked the Opera Browser (back on Day Two) you are in for a treat because Opera has a free VPN system built in. Browse away!

Can I get a VPN for my Phone? Or my TV?

Yes! Many of the above services also offer a VPN for your iPhone or Android phone. Mobile VPNs are a little more complex as you have to be able to move from cell tower to cell tower while keeping the same VPN connection. But most of these companies have figured it out and offer a strong product. 

Your TV is likely internet enabled and could use a VPN as well. You'll need something very fast to ensure that connections don't lag or drop. And if you're a gamer, you'll want a VPN up and running on your gaming system -- not just your PC but your Xbox or Playstation or Nintendo Switch too. (Note that there are ways to game offline too!)

Between laptops, cell phones, desktops, and other stable internet connected devices, chances are you'll want VPN access--even an always-on VPNs--for more than one device at the same time. You can do this through a single service. Just make sure to check how many devices you can use at once on a service before you sign up. It will say, "up to 8 devices" or "unlimited devices" or something similar. You'll want to invest in a tiered plan accordingly for encrypted data transfer and peace of mind.

Finally, for those who are more expert, some of these accounts let you use the OpenVPN standard to connect from a command line or another interface. I used ExpressVPN and NordVPN's OpenVPN information associated with various access points while traveling in China to connect my Linux phone and laptop. So you're not tied into using these particular user interfaces, although going with a robust company like one of the above gives you lots more options, including OpenVPN connections.

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So download one or two that seem interesting and give them a try! Don't forget to sign up with an email mask, use a password manager, and pay with a privacy card! 

And now that you have a VPN downloaded and installed, it's back to those accounts!