What is your stance on subscribing to a VPN service for a smart phone
How crucial is this for an Android being used for tethering ?
How crucial is this going to be for tethering with a Librem 5 ?
1 Like
Pretty much the same as you would on a computer, hide yourself from your ISP/mobile carrier.
I don’t use Android very much but I think that I have worries on an Android device that have a higher priority than using a VPN, like the rom used on the device and if I can throw in Lineage without gapps.
Depends on how you value your privacy and/or what are your priorities, if it was just theoretically speaking I would say that a VPN is very important but for me there is things that are more important (at least ATM) which is getting a tough as hell home network with self relying services (I don’t wan’t to depend on a distant server to do MY things, especially when I’m using Matrix and Mumble) and then when I’m done I’ll search for a reliable VPN provider.
3 Likes
A VPN just moves who can most easily track your web access from your ISP to the VPN provider.
Tor decentralizes that trust to the network as a whole with known bad actors on that network. Note just because there are known bad actors on the network does not automatically compromise the entire system, it was designed to mitigate that exact scenario to some degree but is still worth keeping in mind.
As Yuno alluded to, what value is trusting the network when you don’t trust the device itself? That is not to imply there is no value, just that is a question you’ll want to ask yourself.
For me personally I see vpn’s as bad in general because the give many uninformed people a false sense of security.
2 Likes
Years ago, i had a very brief experience using Tor as an uninformed home user
How would you rate Tor’s contribution to a home user vs being subscribed to a VPN service ?
The average home user has such bad usage habbits that neither Tor nor a VPN has any significant value in my opinion. As such I actually think a VPN (and Tor, which for this scenario is essentially a distributed VPN) is a bad thing for a home user that doesn’t educate themselves on safe internet usage habbits. It gives them a false sense of security and often that results in even worse online behavior (and I don’t mean trolling).
Personally I think making sure you’re using SSL and only going to sites you trust and not sharing excess information is more important than changing who you trust to see which servers/services you’re connecting to.
1 Like
VPN to avoid censorship. that is the only way if you are ISP blocked. if you look closely you can see that VPNs such as NordVPN have server nodes/centers in every part of the world. why would i encourage with my dollar the concentration of regulated traffic through a single exit node. isn’t it bad enough as it is that the internet isn’t decentralized ?
even if you use Tor in conjuction with VPN (there are various combinations available) remember that no matter how many times you encript/jump around networks - when the traffic reaches the last exit node to the internet the connection is unencripted and traffic that comes and goes from your upload/download requests can be studied and used to identify you if someone would be interested in doing that.
VPN and TOR just make you more resilient to attacks originating on the LAN or MAN less so WAN and even less WWW. this topic is really vast and is impossible to cover every scenario here. you should read books or follow some online tutorial courses if you are really interested in this subject. or just pay a SECURITY SPECIALIST to council you. it all depends on your needs and your online presence.
also we should get into the habbit of requesting paid services to offer hardware RYF infrastructure certification. this is to partially unburden the risks of proprietary attacks that can happen at any EVIL node in the network no matter if VPN or TOR is used.
1 Like
On a smartphone? Sure, if possible. If not possible, then I don’t use smartphone on public wifi. Reason for me is I use public wifi (hotels, airports, etc.) a lot, and VPN is a security measure. Not THE security measure, but one of them.
No comment on the other questions.
The VPN service is used to have different IP to get access to the site. There are various pros and cons of the VPN and we also get know from here. I have also used the VPN to fix the iTunes error 9 issue.
After installing the VPN lenovo screen flicker started in my system which is really troublesome. It not allowing me to see anything on the screen.
That seems to be related to wireless, not strictly VPN.
Topics in chronological order:
Anyone who believes that a VPN with encrypted platinum service will keep their information from their service provider needs to pass the drugs to the left.
By default a phone is a tracking device with a clear owner.
Super Computers are designed to break encryption thus even if the phone is encrypted it would simply store the streamed encrypted files to review later.
What VPN/proxy/tunnelling/email is good for is protecting you from your neighbors, bad actors, advertisement analytics and getting riped off on plane tickets/healthcare/products in general based on your characterization and spending habits.
Compromizing times are hooking up to public wifi, hotel wifi etc. These are the times it is really worth it to have.
Sure we want things to work but we also do not like identity theft by default or to wonder if our ex is abusing their powers at their respective alphabet company.
Needless to say, you do not have to keep it on 247
-just make sure you do the following:
-encrypt your phone and your sd card if used
-have a vpn client on there in the event you are searching for things you do not want easily tracked and/or connecting to public wifi.
-Factory reset your phone every so often in case you got a little lax on some websites with javascript and/or opened some cute attachments from email/ssms that made no sense. The way you can pwn a device off getting them to open a simple picture is rather unsettling.
If naive, save your mind for more important things, the more you learn the more time you waste trying to come up with ways to make things more difficult. Justin Case.
1 Like