4 ms·

Will your ISP or government get interested in you if you anonymize your connection through VPN or Tor?

• noarchy 14y ago
  They might, but as many HNers can no doubt testify, many of us use VPNs for remote work, and I know a fair number of government workers who do this, too. It isn't optional; it is a requirement.
  • donniezazen 14y ago
    Can one say more number of people use VPN/Tor for legal purposes than illegal?
    • noarchy 14y ago
      VPNs, possibly. I don't know, for sure, how many use them for work, versus those who use them to evade governments. In the latter category it could encompass things as varied as pirating tv shows, to circumventing the Great Firewall of China. But Chinese workers use VPNs for remote work, too. As for Tor, I doubt that anyone is using that for work, but I also doubt that many are really using it for anything illegal. To be sure, there are the Silk Road-type sites, but Tor speeds are not conducive to piracy (and Bit Torrent is highly discouraged on the Tor network).
• unsignedint 14y ago
  There's incentive to use VPN beyond the simple matter of anonymity. I, for example, often work/connect from Starbucks, and their wi-fi is not encrypted, and anything with Wi-fi monitor capability can pretty much scan all the traffic going through. (Theoretically, someone with a malicious motive can scan your traffic at VPN end, but what I'm talking about here is more of an unmanageable risk of someone with Wireshark at the range of WI-fi. Using the same with Tor is probably a bad idea, as potentially, anyone operating exit nodes can potentially log the traffic.) Especially in the case your work really doesn't offer real VPN to their corporate network, it is the next best thing to have. (Especially when they are affordable) You could have VPN looped through your home, but in this age of bandwidth capping, it is getting a less appealing option.