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Online Security

I know that this has most likely already been covered in one of the responses above, but I'll preface it again. Please, if you are serious about keeping yourself safe online do not opt for a VPN. There are plenty more solutions out there that provide better efficiency when it comes to keeping your online activity anonymous and in-turn, you safer.

Thank you.
 
0x47 said:
I know that this has most likely already been covered in one of the responses above, but I'll preface it again. Please, if you are serious about keeping yourself safe online do not opt for a VPN. There are plenty more solutions out there that provide better efficiency when it comes to keeping your online activity anonymous and in-turn, you safer.

Thank you.
Click to expand...
It does not matter what you use, if you are doing it on your phone, you are screwed anyway. :D For a multitude of reasons.
And for good measure pair it with face unlock. :D
 
aqua said:
Tor Browser is the safest available method. It is built on Firefox ESR and highly customized to protect you in ways a standard browser can't. But web browsers all have flaws, so it's still possible to find and exploit those flaws to escape the browser to the host operating system and reveal who you are. The way to mitigate that possibility is to increase the security level in Tor Browser from 'Standard' to 'Safer' or 'Safest' and try to put up with websites being kind of messed up. It varies from site to site.

If you're really concerned about that kind of intrusion, you have to run Tor Browser in a disposable environment like TAILS or Qubes-whonix. TAILS is easy, Qubes is hard. Try TAILS sometime if you haven't, it's pretty nice.

It's more nuanced than that. Combining Tor with a VPN hurts performance, offers little to no extra protection, and is only useful in rare circumstances. There are two combinations. The "X" marks a connection that is outside the Tor network and not protected by Tor:


(You) <---> (VPN) <---> (Tor) <-x-> (Website)

In this case, the VPN provider is not able to read your Tor traffic. Your connection to Tor is highly resistant to man-in-the-middle attacks. This is one of Tor's most important features because it enables you to use internet connections you don't trust.

Maybe do this if your local network is blocking Tor traffic but not VPN connections, and only after trying to connect to Tor directly with an unpublished Tor Bridge first.

Maybe do this if you're unable to turn off WebRTC without breaking a website you want to use. Certain functions in WebRTC can leak your real IP, so in that case a VPN could offer a little bit of protection. This only applies other browsers you are connecting to Tor by proxy, which you should never do unless absolutely forced, and to Tor Browsers on iOS which all have to use Apple's Safari browser underneath.


(You) <---> (Tor) <-x-> (VPN) <-x-> (Website)

In this case, the VPN provider is able to read your Tor traffic, because it has already left the Tor network. However, the VPN will only see that it is traffic coming from a Tor exit node, and the VPN will know who you are because you subscribed to them. Some VPNs like Mullvad allow anonymous signup and payment. The content of your traffic could reveal enough personal information for others to deanonymize you.

Doing this is a bad idea and the need for it is very rare. Basically it's a way to hide the fact you're using Tor from a website that blanket blocks connections from Tor exit nodes, since exit nodes are well known. However you lose some anonymity because your traffic is more unique and interesting. To an outside observer, you are no longer a Tor user with traffic coming from a Tor exit node like all the others, you're a VPN user with regular traffic on one side and Tor traffic on the other. That's not great.

In either case you are creating nested TCP connections, which can be very finicky and slow.

?
Click to expand...
This is the right way to go!

6k9 said:
A little note on DEVICE SECURITY:

Even if you properly use TOR to obscure your internet traffic, you gain very little if you use a device that's reporting your activity to the big tech. This includes all things Apple, anything Microsoft, Google's Android. Either phones or desktops.

There's a simple solution - set up yourself a dedicated Linux laptop, use it only for the stuff that's supposed to be hidden. It's safe, it's simple, it's not as scary as you think. I recommend TAILS, a nice Linux distro with properly set up TOR.

Bonus points if you use a machine which does not have the Intel's Management Engine, which is a known backdoor. This requires some more effort however as pretty darn much every relatively new machine has it.

Oh, and do encrypt all your drives. Linux does this out-of-the-box with no special effort.
Click to expand...
This is great to know thanks
 
0x47 said:
I know that this has most likely already been covered in one of the responses above, but I'll preface it again. Please, if you are serious about keeping yourself safe online do not opt for a VPN. There are plenty more solutions out there that provide better efficiency when it comes to keeping your online activity anonymous and in-turn, you safer.

Thank you.
Click to expand...
VPNs aren't inherently an issue. The bigger issue is people are lazy and unwilling to do research. Is your VPN based in a five eyes country? Do you pay your fee anonymously (btc, ltc, giftcards, etc.) or do you use standard clearnet payment options? Are you running tor through your VPN, or your VPN through tor?

I agree that VPNs aren't a magic bullet, on the other hand. I'm happy with tor, but I also live in a country that's relatively safe for this topic and none of the information I use on ZV is contaminated anywhere else. I use an email and password that serves no other purpose than to allow me to have a ZV account, and the only photo on my profile has never been shared anywhere.
 
No, you should use TOR.
You are currently paying you ISP for internet. Your ISP stores your payment information and logs of what you are doing.
With VPN you are paying your VPN for internet as well. Your VPN claims to not store logs (which you can not verify in any way) and they store your payment information.

No company will ever risk their business to protect you when they get a request for data from authorities.

VPNs are not built for privacy. The primary purpose of public VPNs is overcoming censorship.

pes said:
Read the post above.

- YouTube

W YouTube możesz cieszyć się filmami i muzyką, które lubisz, przesyłać oryginalne treści i udostępniać je swoim bliskim, znajomym i całemu światu.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
Click to expand...
Watch this.
 
pes said:
No, you should use TOR.
You are currently paying you ISP for internet. Your ISP stores your payment information and logs of what you are doing.
With VPN you are paying your VPN for internet as well. Your VPN claims to not store logs (which you can not verify in any way) and they store your payment information.

No company will ever risk their business to protect you when they get a request for data from authorities.

VPNs are not built for privacy. The primary purpose of public VPNs is overcoming censorship.


Watch this.
Click to expand...
Thanks
 
For security I'm running Linux in a VM (Encrypted) and use NordVPN in the Guest machine. I advise people to be wary of Windows, especially if you use the porn section of this site.
 
Could you elaborate a bit more on why we should be wary of Windows? Like are there specific things to watch out for or do or not do?
 
slvrbunnyboi said:
Could you elaborate a bit more on why we should be wary of Windows? Like are there specific things to watch out for or do or not do?
Click to expand...
Tons. :D
Their AI tool that takes screenshots every 5 seconds for example.
Their telemetry sending usage information to Microsoft all the time.
OneDrive integration if you are using it.
Now to be honest google has similar issues with Android and Apple too.
The system is not yours, it is used to get information about you. And that can be used against you.
But I do not know how often it is used.

If you want to use windows, focus on how to keep your files private. You can find gigabytes of videos on that on youtube.
But if you have to ask like this, you are not at admin level knowledge and all of it will be pretty confusing.
 

- YouTube

W YouTube możesz cieszyć się filmami i muzyką, które lubisz, przesyłać oryginalne treści i udostępniać je swoim bliskim, znajomym i całemu światu.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
Until what I know it showd be ok unless you are a very important person, because none know if the VPN staff is really taking good care of your data. Or if the staff is going to keep your data safe under government/justice pressure. You are probably right, they are probably only selling your data for ads company
 
bluecooltwo said:
Until what I know it showd be ok unless you are a very important person, because none know if the VPN staff is really taking good care of your data. Or if the staff is going to keep your data safe under government/justice pressure. You are probably right, they are probably only selling your data for ads company
Click to expand...
I’m just a regular person in the PNW so I think I’m okay. I can’t afford a VPN and I’ve been accessing this site without one for years so it’s probably fine
 
Best VPN in my opinion is Proton - they also offer a great Mail-Service, too!

Create an Account, get yourself a yearly subscription and leave it on at any time - never had any Connection-Problems nor am I loosing much bandwidth by doing it.
 
This is mainly related to people in Australia, but applies to many jurisdictions. DO NOT go near the porn section of this site. You can literally go to jail for possessing this stuff. Is it worth it? I don't think so. In many ways, it's more dangerous than the real thing. Be careful!
 
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