In many cases when selecting a VPN, you may come across a ton of reviews that suggest to you the best VPN service providers in the business. You might even check these services out for yourself, and note that they all seem promising and offer the best services.
This brings up a question though: with all the claims these providers make, how would you know if you can trust them?
Are you even sure they are what they say they are?
Well – with this article in mind, it will help you answer these questions.
How do you know whether to trust your VPN provider?
Never underestimate the power of a good marketing campaign, as is the case with every VPN service out there.
They will all tell you they will never track down your online activities. However, this is all on a word-of mouth basis because there is hardly any information to back up the claim. This raises the question on whether you can entrust private information about yourself to your VPN service provider.
If you are
going to use a VPN, there needs to be some extent of trust between the provider
and yourself. The provider gives you security, while also protecting your
account from snoopers and hackers. They will also provide you with servers that
you can use, and these servers are located in different parts of the world –
but you will also need to trust that their server is in that specific locale.
Why would you need to rely on them though?
Before signing up for a VPN service, it is always important to remember that not all providers are worthy of your trust. While some of them will tell you of their tracking policy before you sign up, others will prefer to keep the activity secret.
The general reasoning behind the tracking is that they want to ensure your activities are not illegal or you are doing anything that threatens the safety of anyone else. However, that is not the reason you signed up – it was because you did not want anyone to snoop your activities.
Rather than this, the good VPN providers to trust are those that practice minimum policies when it comes to user oversight, which means they will minimize keeping tabs on your activity as much as possible. Some are discreet enough to avoid keeping tabs on your logs.
With this in mind, it is good to know the checklist of what to look for in a VPN provider and make sure you are signing up for a service that is worth your money and time.
Criteria to use
The logging policies
There are numerous VPN providers that will not have a clear-cut policy on the data of their users that they store. Regardless of that, it is certain that many of them will have some basic information on their users; this is important because it helps them ultimately control the traffic. Despite this though, there is a chance that the provider collects more than just basic information.
That makes it very important to read the log policy of the VPN service you are signing up for, as no two providers will have the same policies, and do a comparison of VPN service providers.
An IP test will not give you everything you need
When you decide to sign up for a VPN, make sure you perform IP tests regularly. In order to do this, there is a website to allow you to do so: WhatIsMyIP.Network.
You simply note the IP address of your site, and then connect it through VPN and check the address. If the IP address is visible, then the VPN is not effective enough at its job.
Additionally, you can check the vulnerability of the VPN to WebRTC by visiting the WebRTC test page and seeing the results. There are other tools to help you test the VPN as well.
Asking questions
You might see these factors, yet still be unsure of whether the VPN works. You can always ask the provider questions to clarify some things. Some of the items to ask include their logging policies and data storage, as well as what information they will keep.
Do note
that this will only work if you are a premium user of a VPN service instead of
someone using the platform for free.
Knowing why you are using a VPN service
Regardless of whether you are on the search for a good VPN service provider or are already using one, it is important to know why you are thinking of using it in the first place. All of the criteria above keeps in mind why people should use a good VPN, but this ultimately will come down to two main reasons – promoting privacy, and keeping high levels of security.
If you are only thinking of maximizing your security, and are already using a VPN service, then you are already set. Any VPN service will cover you in terms of security, since your only concern is preventing prying eyes from seeing your logs, especially if they are in the same network as you – for instance, the same coffee shop, the same hotel, and so on.
However, if
you are concerned with your privacy, then there is more you need to think
about. You need to trust that the service provider is not handing over your
information to whoever comes calling to them with authorization letters. You
also need to think about the information the provider is keeping, just I case
third parties come looking for it for whatever reason.
Avoid falling for geography traps
There are VPN users that are fully convinced that they can only use servers from outside their country, probably because they know their local laws prevent privacy, or providers in their country go through manipulation by third parties.
However, this is not always the case: geographical locations of servers will not always save you. If law enforcement or private groups want to secure information, they can do so if they are persistent enough, so remember to keep that in mind.
Conclusion
VPN service providers are quitter famous in their own right, but it is not strange to find that these providers compromise their customer security and privacy. It is therefore essential to ensure your VPN provider is the right one for you.
