Freedom Isn't Free: VPN Edition

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Freedom Isn’t Free: VPN Edition

In The Block’s last article, we covered what a VPN is and how it works, with a particular focus on the VPN used by Blokada itself. As a discerning consumer of technology, you might be interested in using a VPN elsewhere besides your Android phone. To get started, you may well want to use a free VPN—after all, why not take the opportunity to dip your toe in before going for a swim? As I mentioned in a previous article, there’s a truism on the Internet: if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. Therefore, it’s worth carefully reading the privacy policy of any VPN product you use, especially the free ones, to see what the provider is doing with your data. On the other hand, most VPN providers know that their audience is likely to be privacy-conscious, so their free offerings are more focused on limiting overall traffic or particular protocols or services. If you do find that a VPN package wants to install adware or other unwanted third-party software, my advice is to skip it and go with something else. One thing’s for certain, there is no lack of choice in the VPN provider marketplace right now. With that said, here are some key factors to consider when choosing a VPN client.

Bandwidth/throughput

Many VPN providers offer a free tier that limits either the overall data you can transfer or the amount you can transfer in a given time period. If you’re a light data user and/or not particular about your transfer rates, a free VPN with a low data cap may be worthwhile if it offers other features such as desirable server locations or greater ease of use. If you find yourself needing to download more content, then you’ll need to either switch VPN providers or move to a paid tier.

Server access

In some cases, the VPN provider may only allow access to servers in certain parts of the world at the free tier, or certain servers may be reserved only for paid subscribers, generally meaning that paid subscribers will get more variety and likely faster service. The location of the VPN server may affect latency, which is the time it takes for your Internet traffic to get to its destination and back, and it may be important if you are trying to bypass certain geographic restrictions. Even different paid services may not offer equivalent server capabilities, so you should research each provider’s capabilities ahead of time.

Protocols/Streaming

Many free VPN providers restrict which protocols can be accessed, in particular BitTorrent, so if you want to use a blocked protocol, you’ll probably need to pay. I have not seen any free VPN clients which permit both unlimited consumption and unlimited protocols. Also worth considering is that some streaming services block known VPN providers, so if you want to watch Netflix or Hulu, you should probably test those services first with a free VPN before making the investment. Of course, if you plan on streaming a lot of media, a free VPN is probably not for you. Also, note that a streaming service may block a VPN service without warning, so there’s no guarantee that a VPN will continue to work with that service.

User experience

How easy is the software to set up and use? This criterion is really about personal taste and willingness to wrangle client configuration. If you find a client that meets your other requirements, you may be willing to struggle with an unintuitive interface to get your job done.

VPN Client Requires Unknown Third-Party Software

I said it above, and I’ll say it again: just don’t bother. Some free VPN software will pop up advertising, which you as a consumer can certainly accept or not as you choose, but I recommend avoiding anything that attempts to install third-party software of any sort. Such software often constitutes a malware vector and will almost certainly do something you don’t want.

Other alternatives

Rolling your own: If you have a robust technical background and some time, why not build your own VPN server in the cloud? Freelan is an open-source project that attempts to democratize VPN software. For the price of a low-cost cloud instance, you can deploy an OpenBSD server for maximum security, install and configure Freelan, and you’re up and running! Particularly sagacious and entrepreneurial readers will note the opportunity for bootstrapping their own VPN business in this fashion. Let us know how you get on.

Tor: The Tor Project browser is an option for the seriously privacy-conscious. While not a full VPN, the Tor Browser provides enhanced encryption and anonymization. Alternately, it is possible to combine VPN and Tor to get the advantages of both technologies, with the caveat that such a connection is likely to be quite slow and thus unsuitable for certain types of Internet browsing.

The old switcheroo: If you can’t or don’t want to afford a VPN, but the free tier of any one is insufficient, you always have the option of installing multiple clients and using the one that fits your needs at a particular moment. How much inconvenience are you willing to tolerate to avoid coughing up your hard-earned? More seriously, this approach may be suitable for the extremely cautious; if you don’t want to trust a particular VPN provider, you can always rotate through them so that no one has a complete picture of your Internet browsing history. Using the VPN + Tor approach mentioned above may be more convenient, though.

In Conclusion

When it comes to choosing whether to use a free VPN or paid one, the main question is what you want to do. Light Internet users should have no problem finding a free or low-cost product which suits their needs. Heavier users, especially those who stream or download significant media, will want to research and test individual products to find one that fits their needs, and it’s unlikely that a free product will be sufficient. Finally, individuals looking for even greater anonymity or a challenge may want to consider looking beyond a single VPN provider.

Have fun!

3 Likes

What about orbot +Tor on android? I never saw any kind of restriction there besides the slow connection.

1 Like

That’s hard to tell.
TOR by itself is a awesome idea to increase your privacy yet you’ll have to use it correctly. Additionally it is unclear whether or not there are honeypots in place serving as nodes.
And of course: The speed.
It’s just well below average and if you’re not hunted by authorities there’s just no need for such an extreme solution. (but that’s just my opinion)

2 Likes

I agree with you :-). However sometimes it feels good to become invisible(I mean that in good way ofc).

1 Like

I am sometimes put off by the tedious lack of speed with tor, but can anyone come up with any browser…from one of the top three of four countries,… which pride themselves in security and privacy, foremost, but have created an open project for a higher speed vpn browser. I mean i could root my phone and computer, and go all developer on my tech, but it’d just be easier to find the right apps?
Moonbeam

I just cannot say it, there is one thing most tend to just slip by. Newer and better encrypted or genius handcrafted Tor so are and will become. At the very same time we all work and evolve this very unique code in what project it might be, there is still a way to really get most developers at google to get so confused and soooo over the edge close to lose their mind. Heck, even the most newly as experienced code analytic today will get an beating for something so simple as anyone anywhere from time then and then.

And the answer is so easy and obvious you won’t believe, if you ever take your time to collect and rebuild a PC from 1996 as youngest to 1987-85 as oldest. You can then once again be totally 100% in any way you think off always until someone figures out you are using a fossilized technology.

It so happens that modern decoding and speed of the decoding can’t handle the faulty old stuff just did, being the hiccups + random freeze ups old PC’s did in the hardware. Tried this just about 7-8 years ago back in collage. And no, I’m so far way from decoding/ encryption you can get from education. Just something to think about, no means at all to say no one is wrong. Just a fun reminder even old wonders still can perform =^~^=