this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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Privacy

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Why is the vpn necessary when you have https to the bank? Just to hide you're ip from the bank?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I always wonder why those VPN absolutists aren't happy with your regular HTTPS. Sure, maybe HTTP is safer with the VPN, but it just hides your real IP from the target website.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago (2 children)

it also hides the websites you visit from your ISP, who often likes to profile you based on your browsing habits.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yeah but it's on a public wifi

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

in that case, it hides the websites you visit from:

  1. the ISP providing the network, and
  2. the business who offers the public WiFi,
    both of them probably being very eager to profile your browsing habits (as seen on the image in the post).
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

It shifts from the isp to the VPN provider, who isn't doing that profiling yet.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Public WiFi would make me skeptical when I always put in my passwords.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Well im just saying thats what https is for but there's nothing wrong with extra security

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

So if https is all that's needed, why do VPNs recommend using them at public locations? Just false advertising? I click on my bank app and it always wants a password and I guess I don't know enough about network engineering. I'm interested in Android Development but don't know much about WiFi I guess.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Marketing mostly. The vpn makes an encrypted tunnel that you're traffic goes thru. If using https and vpn there are 2 layers of encryption. It's not false advertising bc an extra layer doesn't hurt. Now if your sending password over http it would help but you shouldnt be using a site that sends passwords over plaintext. I would say vpn is mostly to either hide your ip from websites or to hide internet activity from your isp

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

So more for privacy than security, so it would make sense to use a VPN depending on your threat model I suppose, or how much you care.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 11 months ago

Yeah it's more for privacy. Still you can just have it always on and it really wont cause many issues except for sites that block vpns.