Should you be always connected to a VPN? Answering more of your questions
We’re continuing our TechTok series, where we answer your questions about ad blocking, VPNs, and technology in general. Today we continue exploring VPN-related topics, as they've proven to be quite popular among our readers.
Ash asks:
Should I always be connected to a VPN to always stay private?
The short answer is “Yes,” but, as it is often true with such questions, the real answer is: “It depends.” Specifically, it depends on what meaning you put into the phrase “to stay private.” Let’s look at a couple scenarios to put things into perspective.
Scenario 1. You’re at a cafe, at an airport, or in a different public space that offers Wi-Fi. You connect to this public network and start browsing. You can hardly feel safe in this situation, as there are a number of reasons why your privacy might be compromised. Many public hotspots lack encryption, which makes it easy for a potential cybercriminal to hijack your traffic and capture sensitive information about you — it may be credit card numbers, login credentials, private messages, and so on. There are more threats looming around public Wi-Fi, such as rogue access points or man-in-the-middle attacks. The exact list of potential dangers isn’t what we need to focus on here, the main point is — it is vital to always use VPN to encrypt your traffic whenever you connect to the internet using public Wi-Fi.
Scenario 2. But what about the more interesting case? What if you’re on mobile data, or better off, in the (assumed) safety of your home Wi-Fi? Things aren’t that clear cut anymore, as the threats aren’t that immediate. Most, if not all, modern routers come with out-of-the-box encryption, so you can be sure that your traffic is secure. Home networks are generally less susceptible to all kinds of cyberattacks than public Wi-Fi. One could come to a conclusion that a VPN isn’t that much of a must-have in this scenario. This is somewhat correct, but before you make a decision to turn off your VPN (let’s say you’re on a limited traffic plan), consider that there are other facets to it.
When talking about threats to your online privacy, we always mention cybercriminals — but also ISPs, your Internet service providers. While your ISP wouldn’t (probably) steal your financial information and max out your credit card, it absolutely would collect data about you and your online behavior to later sell it to third parties. The fact that often this is happening within legal framework, after obtaining user consent through dark patterns or by other questionable methods, doesn’t make it any more acceptable. Using a VPN here would mask your traffic and send the ISP’s tracking algorithms down the false path. So while a VPN may not be as essential in this scenario as with public networks, it is still a good idea to have VPN on at all times if you value your privacy any your subscription plan allows for it.
Ash follows it up with one more question:
I have sometimes encountered issues with VPNs when using banking websites. But shouldn’t I be extra private when using banking?
Another question in the similar vein comes from Dave:
Why is it that some companies ask you to switch off your VPN while using their apps and websites and will not allow using them otherwise?
Let’s tackle these two questions together as they touch more or less on the same subject.
It is true that with some apps and websites you can run into all kinds of problems when using them with an active VPN. Some will ask you to disable the VPN, some will show errors, and some outright won’t work at all. One reason why you may be asked to turn your VPN off is legal and licensing issues, for example, in the case of streaming apps. Some shows and movies are licensed worldwide, while others — only in specific countries, so streaming services could detect the use of VPNs and encourage you to disable them to avoid legal risks. Another common reason, especially on mobile devices, is compatibility issues. There are types of apps, such as antiviruses and other network-level applications, that can’t operate alongside a VPN properly or at all.
Possibly a much more well-known case of apps disliking VPNs is banking apps. It is somewhat of an agreed upon notion that banking apps are secure as is, and there is no need for VPNs there. This is not entirely correct. A VPN doesn’t become any less effective when you use it for such sensitive business as financial operations. If anything, it becomes even more important when you operate with highly sensitive data. In fact, not all banks refuse access when you connect through a VPN. Bank of America, for example, goes as far as recommending using a VPN service (however, even they will sometimes block VPN connections despite their own advice). So where does this adversity towards VPNs come from?
Mostly, it is for security reasons. Using a VPN means you aren’t accessing the website or the app with your real IP address. Banks and other financial institutions often rely on IP for user verification, so whenever your IP suggests that you are connecting from a different country, the bank may consider it an unusual behavior and deny the connection to avoid possible fraud. Funnily enough, if you are physically in another country (for example, on a vacation or on a business trip), you may be denied service, and connecting to a VPN server located in your home country may help you gain the access. To sum it up, unless your banking app straight up doesn’t work with a VPN, there is no reason to disable it — on the contrary, keeping the VPN enabled will help better protect your financial data. But if you have to, at least save yourself some time and taps and add the banking app to the exclusions instead of flipping the protection switch on and off every time. Many VPN apps, AdGuard included, support split tunneling, which allows you to exclude specific apps from the VPN tunnel.
We hope that we’ve answered the question fully and that you find our new rubric useful. Send your questions over through this form, and you might see the answers already in the next TechTok edition!
