Learn the ABCs of VPNs.
In the weeks since Congress dismantled a set of federal regulations meant to stop Internet providers from spying on their customers, more Americans than ever have been signing up for services known as VPNs, or virtual private networks.
Interest in VPNs has been growing steadily, several providers reported, since President Trump took the oath of office in January. That’s driven largely by news of attacks by foreign hackers, government surveillance and, most recently, a bill Trump signed into law this month that would scrap rules meant to force Internet providers to get permission from customers before collecting and selling their data.
While a well-vetted VPN can protect its customers’ data from Internet providers’ prying eyes, privacy advocates said, signing up with an untrustworthy VPN provider can further imperil your information.
What VPNs do is put an intermediary between your device and the websites you visit so that your device’s identity, which can be tracked using a series of numbers known as an IP address, is not directly tied to your Internet activity.
Routing Web traffic through a secure private network makes it seem as if the network is doing the browsing, not you. It can help conceal your identity, location and other personal markers from websites, Internet providers, the government, workplace monitoring systems and hackers.
The proposed Federal Communications Commission regulations dismantled by the new law were drafted to prevent Internet providers from selling information about their customers’ finances and health, app use and browsing history.
But Internet providers and advertisers had opposed the regulations, arguing that they were unfairly singled out while tech giants like Google and Facebook make billions every year from selling user data.
Under the new law, Internet providers can collect and sell this data to advertising and marketing firms unless customers explicitly tell them to stop.
Several small Internet providers like Santa Rosa’s Sonic have begun emphasizing privacy as a way of distinguishing themselves from larger competitors, and are incorporating VPN services in their customer offerings.
Using the VPN, Sonic customers can connect to its network when they’re away from home — such as at work, a cafe, hotel or airport that may rely on a less privacy-conscious provider.
Evan Greer, the campaign director at privacy and technology activist group Fight for the Future, said using a VPN becomes especially important in public spaces such as these because hackers can break into your device using the shared, often unsecure, network.
“Whether it’s the government or your Internet (provider) or that creepy person who followed you into the coffee shop, they can all access your information if you’re not taking other precautions to protect yourself,” Greer said. “Look for a VPN that maintains no logs and (is) outspoken on issues of privacy . ... Those that have been a part of privacy fights in a public way.”
Though routing personal data through a VPN’s server may hide it from the outside world, it also gives the VPN provider nearunfettered access to personal and identifying information.
Some VPN providers track and record user information, enabling them to sell that information to governments, hackers or other companies, like the very Internet providers many people are seeking to evade. Others keep no records.
While paying a monthly subscription fee may be a turn-off for some users, privacy experts said, free or ad-supported VPNs can be dubious.
“If you look at VPNs out there, most of them don’t disclose who’s behind the company, don’t disclose the management team, don’t disclose the investors, don’t disclose what they’re using people’s information for if they track it,” said David Gorodyansky, CEO of Menlo Park VPN provider AnchorFree. “People have a really hard time trusting an app that says they’re going to protect you if they won’t even disclose the details of the company itself.”
AnchorFree, which has signed up more than 500 million customers since it started 2005, prefers to call itself a “privacy company” because, Gorodyansky said, that’s what it sells: consumer privacy.
“We make sure our users are anonymous online, not just to bad guys, but also to governments, companies and even to us,” Gorodyansky said. “As a large Internet service provider, we get (court orders) for people’s information all the time. But we don’t keep those logs. So our answer is always the same: We’d love to help you, but we can’t.”
Gorodyansky said the company typically gets more subscribers after big events like the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and, most recently, the U.S. presidential election.
In a recent survey of users, Gorodyansky said, AnchorFree found that 84 percent are “more concerned with privacy today than they were a year ago.”
He attributes this attitude to several factors: high-profile hacks, like the Russian-led attack on Yahoo; increased awareness and concern of government surveillance; and the Trump administration, which 64 percent of users cited as a point of concern.
“Look, we’re spending all this time on the Internet, and it’s only going to become more and more,” he said. “People are concerned that their personal data could be bought on an open exchange. That could compromise personal data, corporate data, health data, you name it. That’s really bad. But the positive thing is consumers are finally waking up to say, ‘Look, the government isn’t going to protect us. Fine. We’re going to protect ourselves.’ ”