- Maldy says - VPNs don't make you more secure and that's not what they're for
- At face value this is true, however using them properly it is more secure. For example, it makes man in the middle attacks significantly more difficult.
- Companies incorporate VPNs into their security for good reason.
- Maldy says - VPNs are only for getting around geo restrictions and nothing else. They have nothing to do with security
- This is a modern internet use case and not their primary purpose. The traditional purpose is to have a secure tunnel to a private network which has nothing to do with geo restrictions.
- The consumer use case varies and getting around geo restrictions can be part of that but it also adds a layer of privacy, especially for those who don't trust their ISP, local network, governments, etc.
- Maldy says - There is too much advertisement about VPNs adding security
- Yes, they are misleading but he doesn't give good reasons why.
- Maldy says - VPNs don't hide your activity from your ISP and your ISP can find out what you're doing at anytime. You're also now shifting the trust to the VPN company instead of your ISP
- VPNs do hide activity from your ISP but it may not be as much as some think. Notably, DNS requests may still go to your ISP which would betray sites you use. Many VPNs use their own DNS servers which does effectively hide nearly all activity.
- Some VPNs add data padding to further obfuscate your activity from everyone in the middle.
- Most VPN companies have a vested interest in maintaining consumer trust, unlike local ISPs. No one trusts or expects Comcast to respect their privacy.
- Some VPN providers take further steps that ISPs don't take and are located abroad, making it harder for local law enforcement to request your data, unlike with an ISP.
- This isn't to say VPN providers are your friend or don't sell data but there are those with an interest in not doing that.
- Maldy says - Over 50% of exit nodes on Tor are owned by the FBI
- I doubt he has a source for this but if that's true, it doesn't matter. Most Tor users are going through at least 3 nodes and there's a low probability that enough nodes per connection are compromised to reliably piece together your activity.
- Refer to Ross Ulbricht's story where they had to basically set him up to get an arrest because he used Tor for his Dread Pirate Roberts (lol) persona to run The Silk Road
- Tor is useful for non-Americans who benefit from hiding their traffic, Iranians probably being the most prominent example
I'll also add that part of the modern use of a VPN is to blend in with other VPN users and if you change your DNS provider it becomes much more difficult for anyone in between to have any clue what you're doing. They can't tell if you're torrenting, streaming, playing games, or what. They only know that you're connected to a VPN.
There's also the obvious benefit of masking your IP address.
The commercial world uses VPNs for security all the time and they'd be stupid not to.
