Internet Service Providers or ISPs pose a great threat to user privacy when they browse the web. There are several other agencies, including governments that try to access user data by various means. In a nutshell, the internet is very unsafe, and users must take measures to protect their privacy when using the internet. It is true for all users from individuals to business organizations who must know how to defend themselves on the internet.
Data breaches have now become commonplace as the threat of data theft and misuse looms large across the web. Large organizations like Yahoo, Equifax, Uber, and many others have experienced serious data breaches in the past, and still, there is no respite in the security threats. Clandestine use of personal data has earned a bad name for ISPs that make money by selling personal data.
Privacy protection rules supreme
Against the above backdrop, internet users have become ultra-sensitive about protecting their privacy on the internet networks they use or any new network they sign up with. You must learn about specific settings on your device that protects against unwarranted intrusion into the network. Use adequate password protection to prevent hackers and even protect your privacy when you exchange data with others on your network. That should keep your data protected and help in browsing the internet in private with no chances on anyone keeping a tab on your online behavior. Another measure to take in protecting your online privacy is to apply your discretion in sharing personal information online, especially with social media channels and retailers. It is never obligatory to answer all the questions they ask.
The same precaution is applicable when you load different apps on your mobile device. Apps provide a lot of convenience in our daily lives, and many are quite essential. However, you must share only minimal personal data during loading to keep your digital privacy intact. Privacy protection settings on devices do ensure protection to some extent. But it does not guarantee overall privacy. ISPs enjoy complete access to user data that they can misuse by keeping a tab on everything they do on the internet.
Why is the internet unsafe?
Lack of safety is inherent on the internet because when it all began; the focus was on sending across data packets efficiently and reliably across the network as the technology was new and unstable at times. Methods of communicating on the internet or internet protocols were built around the concept of overcoming failure rather than considering data security. All applications you use today from email to web messaging, and social media channels have the IP core at its base. Even though some standards have developed with time, many networks still do not use any safety measures in data protection.
Therefore, internet users are vulnerable to criminals who can steal your personal data; governments snoop down on citizens to throttle their freedom of expression. Other internet users also want to spy on you for using your data for nefarious reasons.
Keep away from ISPs – Use VPN
Public networks are unsafe because the data packets transferred across the networks do not have any protective encryption. Thus, it exposes you to anyone who wants to access it. To protect online privacy, it is essential to ensure that data transmitted across networks remain duly encrypted. Thus, it will be impossible for anyone without access to the decryption keys to read it. ISPs use open networks without any data protection and is the biggest privacy offender as it keeps close surveillance on users.
To stay safe on the internet with adequate privacy protection, you must stop accessing the internet with the help of ISPs and instead use a VPN or Virtual Private Network connection. It transmits data with end-to-end encryption and thereby ensuring complete protection of user privacy.
What is a VPN?
Clarity about private and public network should help in understanding the VPN. All computers connected by LAN or local area network but without any internet connection are typically private network. On the other hand, the internet that allows transferring data from one private machine to another is an example of a public network. VPN technology enables you to convert the public network or the internet into a private network but virtually. Since the connection across the network happens from a remote server without any physical connection, it is virtual. Data encryption and use of a password to access the network makes the system private.
VPN uses a combination of technologies to create a tunnel for communicating data from an otherwise unprotected network. Before transmitting any data packet, the technology allows its encryption with a new header. The header contains routing information so that it travels through a public network before reaching the end-point of the tunnel. The path through which the data travels forms the tunnel that prevents its visibility to ISPs or other internet users.
VPN data encryption
VPNs send data packets to a remote server. Before sending it adds an extra layer of security and anonymity by encrypting data all the while it travels through the tunnel and then decrypted on reaching the end of the tunnel. The data encryption remains until data packets reach the server where there is the proper decoder to make data accessible. However, there is no data encryption when it travels from the server to that targeted website that you want to access because that website does not have the key to decrypt data. However, your IP address remains concealed during these vents.
The most common forms of encryption are public-key encryption and symmetric key encryption.
Symmetric key encryption – This type of encryption involves the use of the same key for encrypting and decrypting a message by users.
Public key encryption – This method of encryption consists of using a public-private key pair for each user or computer. The message encryption happens when one computer uses the private key while another computer uses the public key for decrypting it.
However, to apply encryption VPN needs much more than keys and uses various protocols to strengthen the process.
The best VPN providers use 256-bit AES encryption, which is the industry standard that protects data completely. A 256-bit key can create 1.1×1077 types of combinations. AES 256 data encryption complies with the OpenVPN protocol, which is one of the many protocols in use. Some other VPN protocols are faster and even safer.
Types of VPN
VPNs can be firewall-based, hardware-based, software-based, and SSL or secure socket layer VPN. For more information, visit Fastest VPN Guide.
- Firewall based VPNs have firewalls along with the VPN capabilities. The firewalls provide security by restricting access to an internal network with the help of user authentication, address translation, logging, and alarms.
- Hardware-based VPNs ensure improved performance and reliability provided by high network throughput, and it can be quite costly.
- Software-based VPNs work well in managing traffic with flexibility. That is ideal for a system where the same party does not control the end-points, and different routers and firewalls are in use.
- Secure socket layer VPNs are for users who want to connect to VPN devices by using a web browser. It helps to encrypt data between the VPN device and the web browser.
Complete privacy guarantee is not possible
VPNs are quite useful in ensuring privacy, but it will be wrong to expect all-round privacy protection because VPNs have limitations. VPNs ensure that when you connect with some website, no one can intrude into your privacy. However, it does not have any control over the way the website behaves. For example, privacy violations can happen from the site to which you connect because the website might track visitors by using cookies about which VPN cannot do anything. A VPN cannot prevent websites from recording information about products that you take an interest in. Even if a website parts with your email address and sells it to someone, there is no way that a VPN can prevent it.
Be careful about VPN log handling
The significant difference between a VPN provider and ISPs is that the former does not maintain any user log hence no fear of tracking. While this sounds good, you must check with the VPN provider that they do it because some providers maintain logs. To maintain anonymity, VPN providers must not keep any log of user activity on their servers. Instead of assuming that, it will be good to be clear about it before signing up with the provider. Check the privacy policy of the VPN provider to see how they handle logs.
Before you decide to use VPN check if it is legal in your country. It is not legal in many countries like China, North Korea, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Some countries ban the use of proxy servers in place of VPN. The number of restrictions and penalties vary between countries. In some countries, users can end up in jail for using a VPN.
If you have clarity about the situations when VPN can offer complete privacy, it should help to set the right expectations about its capabilities in privacy protection.
