Some of you seem to have a good knowledge of VPN's, but some questions are bugging me:
1) Someone sets up a company, uses some software to create a VPN and charges you to use their software... wouldn't the owner of said company now have a history of your Internet usage, rather than your ISP? Wouldn't I be better off with Virgin having a record of my search history rather than some random guy in Ohio/Taiwan/Moscow?
2) Once you've paid your subscription fee, how do you know that the thing is even working? I'm not very well going to call Virgin and ask them: "do you have a record of my search history?" Is there any way of getting confirmation that the VPN is actually doing what it's supposed to do?
No 1 is a good question. In the case of Zenmate, they have a pretty clear privacy policy, so it becomes your call whether you decide to trust them.
2 is more straightforward. Zenmate has a badge in the toolbar, and also sends messages (on the Mac anyway) as to whether it is connected or has dropped for whatever reason. However another way would simply be to try and log on to a web facility in another country that only allows you their stuff if you are in that country. So in my case, can I watch iPlayer or Sky footie clips? In your case if you are in the UK, set your VPN to USA and see if you can log on to content that is restricted to USA residents.
Or just Google "what is my IP" you'll find sites that will confirm whether you appear to be in the location you selected
Some of you seem to have a good knowledge of VPN's, but some questions are bugging me:
1) Someone sets up a company, uses some software to create a VPN and charges you to use their software... wouldn't the owner of said company now have a history of your Internet usage, rather than your ISP? Wouldn't I be better off with Virgin having a record of my search history rather than some random guy in Ohio/Taiwan/Moscow?
2) Once you've paid your subscription fee, how do you know that the thing is even working? I'm not very well going to call Virgin and ask them: "do you have a record of my search history?" Is there any way of getting confirmation that the VPN is actually doing what it's supposed to do?
1) comes down to trust, to run a server you have to produce a log. 2) check your IP address at whatismyipaddress.com and see what country the IP is assigned to.
The main two problems with VPNs are firstly, it creates a new bottle neck in process and can cause problems with speed and secondly, they are still not completely secure. But nothing ever really is. Certain browsers like chrome and Firefox have real time programming that can leak the destination IP address. For instance, if you are streaming a you tube video in Firefox using a vpn, Firefox records where the video is being played, not where it is being routed through.
The panic surrounding the snoopers charter is ironic considering it was just the government's attempt legalising what the security services had been doing for years. Nothing new though, they have been at it long before the internet was invented.
I have limited knowledge of it but surely there must be some sort of breaking of the data protection act if companies that supply broadband or TV were to supply customer's details without their permission?
No. There are what are called "gateways" to enable a whole raft of investigatory businesses to obtain information on you. (Most likely out of date now - the new ridiculously named " snoopers charter" will have changed things). But when I used to do this stuff, I'd normally just slap a section 165 FSMA 2000 notice on whoever requiring the production of the data. But frankly, that was just being polite. Sometimes, when leaning on mail box providers, etc I'd just demand the info using the gateway under the Data Protection Act which allows disclosure of personal data for the detection or prevention of crime or the apprenhsion or prosecution of offenders. Section 29 I think it was. There was (is still I guess) an exemption with the potentially much wider scope of "safeguarding national security".
I'm far from convinced that using a VPN would protect you if the enforcement agencies really really wanted to track you down.
Comments
1) comes down to trust, to run a server you have to produce a log.
2) check your IP address at whatismyipaddress.com and see what country the IP is assigned to.
The main two problems with VPNs are firstly, it creates a new bottle neck in process and can cause problems with speed and secondly, they are still not completely secure. But nothing ever really is. Certain browsers like chrome and Firefox have real time programming that can leak the destination IP address. For instance, if you are streaming a you tube video in Firefox using a vpn, Firefox records where the video is being played, not where it is being routed through.
The panic surrounding the snoopers charter is ironic considering it was just the government's attempt legalising what the security services had been doing for years. Nothing new though, they have been at it long before the internet was invented.
I'm far from convinced that using a VPN would protect you if the enforcement agencies really really wanted to track you down.