{"id":428530,"date":"2022-04-08T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/heres-what-a-vpn-cant-protect-you-from\/"},"modified":"2024-10-03T11:14:28","modified_gmt":"2024-10-03T08:14:28","slug":"heres-what-a-vpn-cant-protect-you-from","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/heres-what-a-vpn-cant-protect-you-from\/","title":{"rendered":"#Here\u2019s What a VPN Can\u2019t Protect You From"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a27876fe82cc\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a27876fe82cc\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/heres-what-a-vpn-cant-protect-you-from\/#What_VPNs_Will_Protect_You_From\" >What VPNs Will Protect You From<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/heres-what-a-vpn-cant-protect-you-from\/#VPN_Marketing_Claims\" >VPN Marketing Claims<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/heres-what-a-vpn-cant-protect-you-from\/#How_Youre_Vulnerable_Even_With_a_VPN\" >How You&#8217;re Vulnerable, Even With a VPN<\/a><ul class='ez-toc-list-level-3' ><li class='ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/heres-what-a-vpn-cant-protect-you-from\/#Tracking_Issues\" >Tracking Issues<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VPNs are powerful tools that can help keep you safe on the web, but they aren&#8217;t some kind of magical armor that will protect you from all online dangers&#8212;no matter how much VPN providers promise that they are. Let&#8217;s take a look at some of the dangers a VPN can&#8217;t help you with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-vpns-will-protect-you-from\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"What_VPNs_Will_Protect_You_From\"><\/span>What VPNs Will Protect You From<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before we get to that, though, it&#8217;s probably best to go over&nbsp;what virtual private networks are&nbsp;and what they&#8217;re good for. When you access the internet, you do so by connecting first to a server run by your&nbsp;internet&nbsp;service provider, which then connects to the website you&#8217;d like to visit, in this case, How-To Geek.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A VPN reroutes your connection: From your ISP&#8217;s server, your connection goes to one operated by the VPN provider, and then to the site you&#8217;d like to visit. From the website&#8217;s perspective, it looks like you&#8217;re accessing it from a different&nbsp;IP address&#8212;the VPN server&#8217;s rather than your own&#8212;which means you can <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ear as if you&#8217;re elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This comes in handy when you&#8217;re trying to&nbsp;access the Netflix library&nbsp;of another country&#8212;or if you want to avoid blocks placed by your government. This is an issue for people in Russia and China, for example&#8212;countries where the&nbsp;internet looks very different.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s the first big advantage of using a VPN, the ability to spoof your location. However, these services have another trick up their sleeve, namely what&#8217;s called a secure or encrypted tunnel.&nbsp;In short, this means that the VPN creates an encrypted connection between your devices and the VPN&#8217;s server.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a result, anybody that wants to see what you&#8217;re up to&#8212;which in this case could mean either the site or your ISP&#8212;will be met by an assortment of random gibberish, the tell-tale sign of an encrypted connection. It&#8217;s one of the reasons why VPN use is recommended in cases of Wi-Fi hijacking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"vpn-marketing-claims\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"VPN_Marketing_Claims\"><\/span>VPN Marketing Claims<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VPNs are the best possible way to protect yourself from anybody using your IP address to track you. This <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/general\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"General\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">general<\/a>ly includes any kind of surveillance&#8212;either by governments or corporations&#8212;as well as dodging censorship. We have an article on all the&nbsp;things you should use a VPN for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, as we&#8217;re dealing with matters most people aren&#8217;t familiar with, it&#8217;s very easy for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.opera.com\/features\/vpn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">VPN providers<\/a> to claim all manner of benefits to VPN use in an attempt to draw more customers in. These attempts can range from the relatively innocent to the downright nasty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A good example of the latter can be found in our piece on&nbsp;untrustworthy VPNs: RusVPN uses the below box on their site to scare people into signing up to the service. However, armed with the knowledge we outlined earlier, you&#8217;ll quickly realize most of these claims are complete nonsense: a VPN can&#8217;t foil hackers who are after information like your bank account information or your address. It just doesn&#8217;t work that way.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static1.howtogeekimages.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/rusvpn-scare-tactics.png\" alt=\"Infographic from RusVPN\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, this is just a particularly egregious example. Many of the&nbsp;best VPNs&nbsp;are guilty of at least exaggerating what their product can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>RELATED: What Do VPNs Share With Law Enforcement?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NordVPN, for example, has a habit of overpromising on its&nbsp;&#8220;double VPN&#8221; feature, while ExpressVPN claims its being headquartered in the British Virgin Islands will keep you safe from governmental warrants&#8212;it won&#8217;t though, as we explain in our article on&nbsp;what VPNs share with law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"how-you-re-vulnerable-even-with-a-vpn\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"How_Youre_Vulnerable_Even_With_a_VPN\"><\/span>How You&#8217;re Vulnerable, Even With a VPN<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As useful as VPNs are, they&#8217;re simply not a one-stop cybersecurity shop. Though we don&#8217;t want to become scaremongers ourselves, the large variety and number of threats on the internet simply can&#8217;t be held back by just one type of software. While VPNs will make sure your IP can&#8217;t be tracked&#8212;at least the good ones will&#8212;anything that tracks you using other means won&#8217;t be put off by a VPN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This includes the obvious, like confidence scams. These include old favorites such as the Nigerian prince or&nbsp;emails where you&#8217;re told the IRS is after you&nbsp;and you quickly need to pay a fine using gift cards; examples abound.&nbsp;Viruses and other malware&nbsp;are generally not stopped by VPNs, nor are things like&nbsp;keyloggers. Think of it this way: if the threat isn&#8217;t interested in where you are, then a VPN likely won&#8217;t help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"tracking-issues\"><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Tracking_Issues\"><\/span>Tracking Issues<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That said, even when it comes to tracking VPNs aren&#8217;t bulletproof. When a site or organization is trying to figure out who you are&#8212;usually so they can tailor ads to your browsing habits&#8212;the IP address is only one of many data points used for that. Much more valuable is your overall browsing history, which can be pieced together even when you use a VPN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first way is to track you uses your online accounts from sites like Google, Microsoft and <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Facebook<\/a>. You may not realize it, but as long as you don&#8217;t expressly sign out of these, they&#8217;re following along as you browse and slurping up all that sweet, sweet data that makes these companies all their money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The easiest way to prevent this type of data collection is to simply not sign up to any of these accounts. As that&#8217;s likely not possible for everybody, the next best thing is to&nbsp;switch on incognito mode&nbsp;whenever you&#8217;re browsing&#8212;or at least when you don&#8217;t want to be tracked. Incognito mode signs you out of all your accounts, thwarting their data collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> has gotten advanced enough that even using a VPN and signing out of social media accounts, you can be reliably tracked using something called&nbsp;browser fingerprinting. Using this technique, sites can create an accurate profile of who you are simply by analyzing little tell-tale signs like the device you&#8217;re using as well as your browsing habits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the end, no matter&nbsp;how good your VPN&nbsp;and your other precautions, you&#8217;re going to have to accept some kind of tracking. The only real way to avoid it is not going online at all&#8212;no matter what security companies tell you.<\/p>\n\n\n<blockquote>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span> too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more like this article, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/technology\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Technology category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/787934\/heres-what-a-vpn-cant-protect-you-from\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VPNs are powerful tools that can help keep you safe on the web, but they aren&#8217;t some kind of magical armor that will protect you from all online dangers&#8212;no matter how much VPN providers promise that they are. Let&#8217;s take a look at some of the dangers a VPN can&#8217;t help you with. What VPNs&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":428531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.howtogeek.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/shutterstock_444293932.jpg?height=200p&trim=2,2,2,2","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[1570,151997,133812],"class_list":["post-428530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-features","tag-vpns","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428530\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/428531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}