VPNs do not take care of your privacy, they leave your data in the hands of third parties

Privacy is one of the most precious assets for many Internet users. However, it is also often a right overwhelmed by the famous cookies or the various permissions that almost all pages request to operate on them. As a partial solution to the problem, VPNs have emerged.

The acronym VPN refers to Virtual Private Network or “virtual private network”. Its main objective is to protect the privacy of those who use it. To do this, it uses data encryption and camouflage of the IP address of the connection, which makes it difficult for someone to know the exact location of the browser.

Binance supports bitcoin regulation in Russia

29 January, 2022

DeFi Protocol Asks Hackers to Return Stolen $80M

29 January, 2022

As the NordVPN provider site explains, this tool can be useful for safe browsing on public networks, for accessing content that is restricted in some region or country, and for reducing the “digital footprint” we all leave behind when we browse the web.

Now, is it always safe to use a VPN? Does our data really "vanish" and become inaccessible to everyone when we use this type of tool?

Where data goes with VPNs

First of all, it should be noted that there are paid and free VPN services. As expected, most of the paid ones have a stronger commitment to the user and take better care of their data. The free ones, on the other hand, are often limited to collecting user information and then selling it to other companies, according to a report by the Android Authority site. After all, they must generate income somehow.

Taking this fundamental point into account, it should also be underlined that even payments can have a record of certain user data, either directly or through third parties. As recommended in the cited article, reviewing the data usage policy of these services before choosing them is a good first step to increase precautions.

That's why, according to Reddit user joepie91, VPNs are often simply "overpriced proxies." In an article on the social network, the user exposes the weaknesses of these services and how many of them do not actually fulfill the promises that support their hiring.

In addition to the data collected from the user's internet browsing, registration with a VPN often requires an email address and a payment method. In both cases, it is likely that other personal data will be exposed, such as the cell phone number (necessary to verify an email account in Gmail, for example) or even card or bank account data (unless you pay in cash, with bitcoin (BTC) or gift cards).

These leaks can be avoided by using anonymous webmail services that do not require a phone number for verification, such as ProtonMail.

The case of ProtonMail

Like VPNs, there are other tools on the internet that promote privacy as a fundamental principle. One of them is the email account provider ProtonMail.

Since its launch in 2013, ProtonMail has positioned itself as a messaging method that puts privacy above all else. On their website you can find the promise of a secure, private and encrypted mailbox.

Now, the user should know that all these features can succumb to a court order, as happened in May 2021. At that time, the authorities in Switzerland - where ProtonMail is registered - required the company to disclose the IP address of a user .

The reason was weighty: it was argued that an alleged bomb threat had been sent from that box to a plane traveling from Greece to Lithuania, according to the XDA Developers portal. Journalist Roman Protasevich and his partner, Sofia Sapega, were arrested for the incident.

There are media that affirm, however, that it was all a Belarusian strategy to divert the flight and arrest these two people. In addition to the demonstrations by human rights groups, the European Union itself imposed restrictions on airline companies from Belarus to fly over community land.

To substantiate its collaboration with the Justice, which earned it breaking privacy promises to its users, ProtonMail reported in a statement that it was forced to do so after a request from the Swiss government.

However, beyond the justifications, what became clear is that the company can access user data. Although one might think that this information is encrypted and is not in the hands of the company, ProtonMail informed XDA Developers that some data such as the IP address, email addresses and telephone numbers —which are optional to access the service— are temporarily stored to send verification codes and protect users from spam.

Of course, the researchers could not access the content of the email or the IP address from which it was sent. Instead, they had to settle for the IP with which the account was created.

In search of valuable privacy

Almost like an oasis in the desert for the thirsty hiker, privacy and total anonymity appear before Internet users in the form of software and tools that promise all kinds of things. The problem is that, according to experts, this cannot always be fulfilled.

For example, the Twitter user BtcAndres (@BtcAndres) explains in a thread published on the social network that the promise of “no log” does not exist in internet services. The only way to know that someone paid is, precisely, by logging in or registering data, he explains.

Yes, privacy can be increased with payment methods such as bitcoin (BTC). Several services of this type have been reported in CriptoNoticias that can be contracted by paying with this cryptocurrency. However, BtcAndres points out that it should always be taken into account that the user can still be identified based on the geolocation and metadata of the sites he visits.

According to BtcAndres, VPNs cannot be trusted either. To justify his position, he states in another tweet that 1 in 4 of the most downloaded free VPNs on Android have security flaws. The source he cites, top10vpn.com, also details in its report that 85% of these software fall into privacy abuses through excessive permissions on their users' computers.

In addition, the twitterer cited a post from July 2020 in which he narrated how a VPN service mistakenly exposed data from more than 20 million users.

There is no such thing as total privacy on the internet.

With all of the above, one can at least question the possibility that there is a way to completely hide the footprint that a person leaves when browsing the Internet. According to the experts, there is no VPN, secure and anonymous mail or promises of "no log" that will keep us safe from all-seeing eyes.

Therefore, there is no choice but to use private browsers such as Tor, even if it is a bit slower to navigate, as explained by hotspotshield.com. And, of course, it is necessary to resort to the conscience of each one to make responsible use of the infinity of resources that the Internet provides. Always knowing, of course, that what we do is recorded and stored, somewhere or another.