VPN's

[selfless-desires]

They can still track without giving up info if you use the vpn incorrectly. But there are many good and bad ways to do it.

[Grandote]

s-d, could you give us some examples of incorrect ways of using a vpn that you speak of? You have to be careful about clicking on links even using a vpn or other means of concealment. The link could be to malware. You also want to disable java and java script. Can you add a few things to that list?

[snappy71]

s-d, could you give us some examples of incorrect ways of using a vpn that you speak of? You have to be careful about clicking on links even using a vpn or other means of concealment. The link could be to malware. You also want to disable java and java script. Can you add a few things to that list?

I agree with grandote....not being any kind of expert,  any assistance or advice that can be given would be most helpful

[selfless-desires]

When I have time I'll come post some tips. Having a rough night with my significant other. Bad day at work is causing troubles for me. When I get a chance though, when I get to sit at my computer for over an hour, I'll do a little write up or something.

[selfless-desires]

Start things off with a snowden quote. This is including VPNs, tor and pgp encryption type efforts.

…basic steps will encrypt your hardware and … your network communications [making] you…far, far more hardened than the average user - it becomes very difficult for any sort of a mass surveillance. You will still be vulnerable to targeted surveillance. If there is a warrant against you, if the NSA is after you, they are still going to get you. (emphasis added) But mass surveillance that is untargeted and collect-it-all approach you will be much safer.

Some VPN products can suffer from IPv6 leakage and DNS vulnerabilities, causing many users to think twice about relying on a VPN to protect them online. When it comes to the IPv6 leak, only VPNs that run through IPv6 are in danger, and those that use 3rd-party clients are most at risk. As for the DNS vulnerabilities, most VPN providers don't offer their own DNS servers. When DNS requests are sent over 3rd-party networks to 3rd-party DNS servers, users are more vulnerable to monitoring, logging or manipulation.

When a VPN provider simply says they perform "no logging" it does not guarantee online anonymity or privacy. Any systems or network engineer will confirm that some minimal logging is required to properly maintain and optimize systems or the network. In fact, any provider claiming "no logging" should cause you to immediately question what is happening with your private data. If a VPN provider kept absolutely no logs, they wouldn't be able to:

Offer plans with limits on GB usage or per user basis
Limit VPN connections to 1, 3 or 5 on a per user basis
Troubleshoot your connection or offer support for server-side problems
Handle your DNS requests when using the VPN service. They might rely on a 3rd Party DNS provider that logs DNS requests
Prevent abuse, such as spammers, port scanners and DDOS to protect their VPN service and their users

The logging issue is more complicated than placing a single line in your privacy policy stating "we don’t log" and then advertising your service as "anonymous." There have been too many instances where user data was turned over by "no log" VPN providers, yet they continue to promise an anonymous service. Any VPN users should demand more transparency from their VPN providers

Many log the following information and only retain it for 30 DAYS:

• Customer's source IP address (generally the IP address assigned by the customer's ISP)
  
• VPN IP address used by that customer
  
• Connection start and stop time
  
• Total number of bytes used
  

Minimal logging provides VPN users the following benefits:

• Improved speed and performance by allowing VPN providers to optimize network connections
  
• Improved reliability by allowing VPN providers to identify and fix low level service issues to prevent outages
  
• Troubleshooting of specific customer issues, including speed, connection and application issues
  
• Different levels of accounts to meet customer needs, such as connection limited accounts and byte limited accounts
  
• Protection against abuse from spammers, port scanners, DDOS, etc, so VPN providers can terminate customers who are abusing other Internet users
  
• Termination of malicious users so VPNs remain a respected Internet tool for preserving users' right to privacy, and so VPN users are not blocked from websites and services
  

Also do not let you real life and anon life cross using the vpn. It would only make it that easier.

---

Also for those unfamiliar, Tor is frequently cited as an alternative to using a VPN. However, as several publications have correctly pointed out, Tor doesn't make you anonymous. Even Tor admits that it can't solve all anonymity problems and cautions users to proceed accordingly. Tor is difficult for the average Internet user to setup, and users often complain that Tor is slow.

If you want to use Tor i recommend a VPN too

[Kdizz]

From what I understand about Vpns. Is that yes they can track you to the Vpn IP address but they would need the Vpn companies help to get your actual address. When you connect to a vpn you share an IP address with whoever else is connected to the same vpn. So you could be. One of 2000 people using that ip. Please correct me if I'm wrong. When I want to be safe and don't want to be tracked I connect to my vpn then I connect to my tor browser. S-D I'd be very interested in what info you have. It would be great to learn something new to help us all out

[selfless-desires]

I'll get to it later today as you caught me running to lunch, but many in fact do something at some point that does. Also did you not read what I wrote? Leaks are possible as well and you are completely vulnerable at that point.

I'll give one example before I get to more later.

A VPN provider in the UK that advertised an "anonymous service" on its website was outed for turning over customer information about a LulzSec Hacker to the authorities. As you Should have read above, limited VPN logging is not necessarily bad, as it helps the VPN provider troubleshoot customer issues, prevent abuse of its IP space and network and offer different VPN plans (such as multi-device or GB limited plans). But advertising one service and delivering another service is wrong. ht**://www.thewire.com/technology/2011/09/lulzsec-hacker-exposed-service-he-thought-would-hide-him/42895/

This happens all the time

[Kdizz]

I'll get to it later today as you caught me running to lunch, but many in fact do something at some point that does. Also did you not read what I wrote? Leaks are possible as well and you are completely vulnerable at that point.

I'll give one example before I get to more later.

A VPN provider in the UK that advertised an "anonymous service" on its website was outed for turning over customer information about a LulzSec Hacker to the authorities. As you Should have read above, limited VPN logging is not necessarily bad, as it helps the VPN provider troubleshoot customer issues, prevent abuse of its IP space and network and offer different VPN plans (such as multi-device or GB limited plans). But advertising one service and delivering another service is wrong. ht**://www.thewire.com/technology/2011/09/lulzsec-hacker-exposed-service-he-thought-would-hide-him/42895/

This happens all the time

Hey no big deal take your time.. I skimmed through the posts but I will thoroughly read them now. I must have misunderstood some of them. Thanks for the tip and I'll be looking forward to your detailed post.

[comingdown]

Tor is always a good idea, but you have to do more than just use it to maintain privacy. Its always a good idea to use different forum names, different emails etc so that you dont have a pattern that is easily traced via digital footprint. think in all aspects of privacy. Big Data is a pain haha, not good in my opinion.

[barq2]

That's a good point about DNS. Is anyone running their own DNS (eg BIND) or using more secure/non-tracking public DNS?

A friend of mine swears by running TAILS (security focused version of linux with TOR built in - can be a boot CD that is entirely separate to your normal computer so no cookies to worry about). You can run TAILS as a virtual machine which saves rebooting, although this compromises security. He makes the compromise because he isn't doing anything especially secret/illegal. Whether you seriously need to worry about that is obviously a personal judgement. 

BTW - Anyone listen to the Security Now podcast? Quite slow going, but some interesting issues. I question bits of the advice, but generally seems quite informative.