Norton Secure VPN
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I signed up a few months ago. It seemed to get good reviews. I have no idea how to tell if it really does what they say though. 
I'm not tech savvy.
Hopefully somebody who is will chime in and say I didn't waste my money.
I'm not tech savvy. Hopefully somebody who is will chime in and say I didn't waste my money.
VPN is good, I use the one our university requires us to use when I am working from home or on a trip to
access wifi in hotels.
access wifi in hotels.
pikepole20
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I use one a lot. I have not used Norton but it gets good reviews. I use one called express VPN. Combined with an anonymous browser such as duckduckgo, I guess you are about as safe, secure and anonymous as you are going to get. Some sites, such as Draftkings, will not let you set up a line up since they are unable to tell what state you are in. Data encryption is supposed to be a big benefit as well.
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Norton is US company and subject to turning data over to government. It's best to find an off shore company, that is safe from the US government.
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pikepole20
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Express VPN is not. Virgin islands I believe.
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random
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I signed up a few months ago. It seemed to get good reviews. I have no idea how to tell if it really does what they say though.
Hopefully somebody who is will chime in and say I didn't waste my money.
They're all about the same IMO. You may get different speeds from the different ones. Offhand I know of Nord and Norton, but there's quite a few out there.
Basically, you're protecting your traffic from potential hackers. It doesn't really do much to protect against tracking, since you're still making the connection from point A (your computer) to point B (wherever) via your ISP. More than anything, it protects against hackers monitoring your traffic in an attempt to get ahold of your logins, credit cards & banking info, etc.
You get a LITTLE privacy because the VPN exit point is what shows up as your location. For example, for work I use a VPN, and when I'm logged in to it, websites detect my location as Reston, VA. When I'm NOT on it, my location is detected in Utah (which I guess is the home base for the satellite I'm tied to).
Pretty much the same for most jurisdictions. You should see the EU rules.
If your intent is private, untracked browsing, TOR (The Onion Router) is the way to go. But that comes with its own set of drawbacks - for one, many sites reject TOR traffic. There's ways around that, too, but it starts getting complicated.
When I'm on TOR, my location shows up all over the place. I've seen Britain, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, China, etc.
Cnet has a good list of VPN services, including legal jurisdictions: https://www.cnet.com/best-vpn-services-directory/https://www.cnet.com/best-vpn-services-directory/
I don't think VPN's do what most people think they do. You're basically just changing where people think you are coming from. Most people who have laptops for work also have a VPN from their work - it allows them to create a secure "tunnel" back to their work, and then jump off into the internet from their work. You can verify this by turning off your VPN and going to something like tracemyip.org. You should your city/state (or close - depending on your ISP). Turn on the VPN - and revisit the site. You should now see your location as somewhere else (in this case Norton's data center).
The VPN is really only protecting you from the ISP seeing your unencrypted traffic. The payoff is there is a bit of overhead with the VPN, so you will probably see slower speeds.
The VPN is really only protecting you from the ISP seeing your unencrypted traffic. The payoff is there is a bit of overhead with the VPN, so you will probably see slower speeds.
random
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All good points, stated better than I did. For many, it gives a false sense of security. Certainly doesn't hide your browsing from the letter-agencies, if that's your concern.
I don't connect online unless it's through a VPN. Simply for the security aspect. With all due respect to Geerubb, a VPN (while not perfect) offers far more than simply disguising your surfing habits to your ISP. They've been collecting that for years through DNS, which is its primary function. A VPN makes it so (in theory) nobody, even your ISP can sniff your traffic, passwords, data, Man in the Middle attacks, etc. There is a long list of benefit that far outweigh the overhead of encryption which is rarely noticed, if noticed at all.
That being said, while I don't use Norton, my FiL does. He loves it, it works for him, seems to integrate well into Windows, his tablet, phone, etc.
That being said, while I don't use Norton, my FiL does. He loves it, it works for him, seems to integrate well into Windows, his tablet, phone, etc.
It keeps the ISP from seeing your traffic - that's it. You are still susceptible to man in the middle attacks - you are just moving your exit point into the internet. You are actually opening yourself up to attacks from whichever VPN provider you choose - because now THEY get see all your traffic unencrypted on their network.
Think about it like taking a trip on the highway. Normal operation: you get in your car and drive from your house in Raleigh to Bass Pro in Charlotte. You take some side roads out of your neighborhood (your local wifi network), jump on a main road (your ISP - Spectrum, CenturyLink, etc), and then onto the interstate (basically lots of ISP's joining together to move traffic from one spot to another), the repeat the process in reverse to get to Bass Pro (whatever website you are accessing).
Now let's take the "trip" on a VPN. You are basically loading up your car in a closed up 18 wheeler in your driveway and letting them take you to their hub in Atlanta (your VPN provider). You then unload your car and repeat all the same steps from the previous trip - but now you are just leaving from Atlanta.
There is some benefit to masking your traffic - I'm not denying that point. I just don't want people to think that once they are on a VPN they are getting their car loaded up at their house, and delivered all the way to the destination. You ARE NOT making a VPN to each website you visit - just a VPN to your VPN provider.
To continue this analogy, you’re leaving Atlanta (the exit node IP) along with a thousand other cars that look identical except their numbered, 1,2,3,...1024 and only the terminal controller knows who got which vehicle. You’re traffic is masqueraded with everyone else.
Bonus points for crossing an autonomous switch that makes it difficult for an ISP to track and exiting in a foreign country which muddies US legal jurisdiction.
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I used this site to pick a VPN: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/ and this helps explain their process: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-chart-formulas/