Truths about Virtual Private Networks!

I’ve had a few people email me and ask the ultimate question.  “How does a VPN actually protect my privacy from the NSA?” and I thought this was a good time to answer the most important question.   Most people don’t really understand what a vpn actually does.  When I reviewed VPN4ALL, I didn’t expect so many people to sign up for the service.   Here though is the some things you need to remember.

VPN’s are like condoms!

If your not using it then you are prone to get your information sniffed.  Just using VPN4ALL and sponsors this blog, you can keep some of your information from being seen.   Here is a truth that you probably don’t know but just because you use a VPN doesn’t give your protection.   You must understand that when you use a VPN you are setting up a tunnel to another server some where.   This will stop the NSA and others from seeing your data from your local ISP and any other sniffer along the way to the exit server.   When you finally get out to the internet then you have to worry about where those servers are that the NSA is using to collect your data.   See top of the article for examples.

The problem with a VPN is that you still need an encrypted connection to the site in question because you never know if your will bounce from the exit server into a server that the NSA is tapping.  So again, you really should use something like SSL Everywhere plugin to try to protect your from the NSA and people from seeing who and what you do.

SSL Keys and the NSA!

We’ve heard about the NSA bullying and almost intimidating companies like Lavabit!  As of The last few days they have shut down their email servers and then after that Silent Circle email encryption decides to shut down in fear of what the NSA will ask of them.  So now all we have to consider is which companies in the US are being threatened or bullied for the so call encryption keys and why should we not be looking over seas for companies like VPN4ALL who an European company and is a yearly sponsor to this blog!

We basically need to be able to encrypt and  decrypt the information ourselves and implement an TNO model for all types of encryption from email to website browsing.   The problem with this is that we have yet to come up with an alternative to that.   We’ve got a few ideas like PGP but nothing where we can setup our Secret keys and use them.  

I believe in time we will see this happen but until then we will only have a to depend on programs and software that is out of reach of the NSA and other government institution which are also open source so everyone can see the program.   This is the only way we will ever have true privacy on the internet.   It will have to a concerted effort from every individual saying to the government that you don’t want to be tracked and documented.