- Did you know that. - With this VPN, you can protect yourself from all hackers trying to
get into your personal data. - What? Who told you that? That's crazy. - Hackers can set up fake access points. They're able to sniff out
any important information, steal it, and you get ripped off. - That's not entirely true. What I was going to say was that. - [Announcer] Without a VPN, your internet browsing data
can be tracked by your ISP, cellular provider, ad
companies, and hackers. - All right, would you just stop? This is getting ridiculous. - [Narrator] I use ExpressVPN because it keeps my information anonymous. - NordVPN. - ExpressVPN. - ExpressVPN. - Okay, okay, okay, that's enough. You need to understand this. There are good reasons to
use a Virtual Private Network or a VPN, and I'll share
what those are in a moment but judging by all of the content you'll read or watch online, you'd be forgiven for thinking
that this piece of software is the ultimate solution to every hacking and security problem we
have in the world today. Welcome to All Things Secured. My name's Josh and my goal here is to
clearly explain three ideas. First, the security you
already have without a VPN, the legitimate reasons to use a VPN. And finally, the things
that a VPN cannot do 'cause let's face it, there's a lot of confusing information about Virtual Private Networks. And if you watch through
the end of this video not only will you have
a better understanding of what a VPN can do for you, I'll also share with you the number one threat to
your security and privacy that no VPN can protect you from. So to help us sift through
the truth versus fiction, let me share with you
five things that are true about your internet connection right now even if you're not using a VPN. One, your ISP or Internet Service Provider can broadly see which websites you access. So while it may not know exactly which YouTube video
you're watching right now, they can know that you accessed YouTube. Two, HTTPS is now an internet standard. All this military grade
encryption you hear about marketed by tech companies is present in more than 85% of
the websites you visit. If you see the padlock
on your web browser, your internet traffic is
already being encrypted. Three, despite this encryption, our browsing activity is being tracked by more companies than you might realize. Using tools like cookies,
the Facebook pixel cookies, the Chrome browser and well, cookies. Four, your device is
assigned an IP address wherever you get online. This IP address provides information about your geographic location which is how online streaming
services can restrict content in specific countries or locations. Five, our security and
privacy is a product of trust. Sure, we can encrypt our data in transit, but what about your login information that gets stored on target servers or our credit information
that's with Experian? When we give them our data, and sometimes we don't even have a choice, we're trusting that
they'll keep it secure. And that's usually not under our control. You have to trust somebody. You're either trusting your ISP, the owner of the Wi-Fi
you're using, the Tor nodes, or if you're using a VPN, the VPN company. It's virtually impossible
to be 100% private. So how does a VPN help in
any of these situations? Well, let's lay the groundwork here by discussing what a VPN does well. What are the legitimate reasons you might want to use a
Virtual Private Network? Well, the most common use
of a VPN around the world is to combat censorship. I used to live in China where the government blocks everything from Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Wikipedia, the New York times. And dare I say, even YouTube. A VPN is the perfect tool to bypass this kind of state censorship
to access the free internet. Along those same lines, a VPN is a good tool for location spoofing which basically allows
you to hide your location and make the internet think
you're located somewhere else. The most common use case here
is streaming blackout content from major networks or
geo restricted content on platforms like Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, Pandora and others. For example, I'm here in Thailand where Disney hasn't yet
launched for some odd reason. By connecting to a VPN
server in the United States and paying for my Disney subscription fee, I can access this geo restricted content as if I were in the US. Ironically, the last
legitimate reason to use a VPN is actually what it was
initially developed for, for encrypting data. As I said earlier, internet security has already
become more than acceptable. And when you're accessing something like your bank via HTTPS,
which all of them do now, a VPN doesn't make that
connection stronger, it just acts as a safety net. The only exception worth mentioning here is that a VPN does
encrypt your DNS requests. Remember when I told you that
your internet service provider can see what websites you're accessing even if they don't know what
you're doing on those websites. Well, a VPN will hide that
information so that your ISP, your university, or
whatever network you're on doesn't know anything
about your connection. So really all that talk about a VPN protecting you from hackers and offering military grade encryption. I mean, it's a half-truth. I think there is value in
having that backup security for those who are at a
higher risk of attack, but for most people it's
just redundant security. And before I forget, let me be clear about what a VPN does not do. And you may hear what I'm about to say and think it was completely unnecessary. But trust me, these are questions that
I get every single day in my email inbox. First, a VPN isn't an internet connection. You have to connect to the internet, whether that's on your cellular network, your home network or public Wi-Fi, and then you connect to a VPN. Second, a VPN isn't a
cloak of invisibility that will let you do whatever
illegal thing you wanna do while you're connected. Every commercial VPN company claims they don't keep
activity logs on their users, but they have no
accountability of that claim. So don't do it. Finally, a VPN doesn't protect
you from viruses and malware. I mean, some providers have
that as an additional service but that's not inherent feature of a VPN. A VPN is a tunnel that can
encrypt every kind of data including viruses and malware being delivered to your device. And that's the perfect
segue to my final point here that I'm glad you've stuck around to hear. As my friend, Ron White
is known for saying, - You can't fix stupid. - The biggest single threat
to your online security and privacy is not
hackers, it's not malware, it's not viruses or
tracking software, it's you. If you're not aware of
the common scams today, if you're not skeptical
of every email you receive and every link in every email,
I can guarantee that no VPN and no antivirus software is
gonna be of much help to you. Before you succumb to
the fear of marketing that might lead you to purchase this kind of software, know this. You can avoid more than 80% of the problems people face
with their online security and privacy by just using common sense. I mean, things like
using better passwords, turning on two factor authentication, monitoring your credit and identity, and especially being skeptical of every inbound email and
phone call that you receive. If you've made it this far please take a moment to browse through some of the videos that I've linked to in the description below that will help you do all
of these things better. Subscribe to this channel if you're interested in more
honest clear explanations of online security topics like this. I hope it's been helpful, thanks.
Poorly titled
post. The video outlines good reasons to use a VPN, together with stating what VPNs can and can't do.Go ahead and use a VPN. Just know what it does, and what it can't, do.
Uses a VPN, opens Chrome browser.
A VPN has uses. Understand which ones before connecting.
Brought to you by your friends at the National Security Agency. NSA - because we care.
Do use DNS adblocking
https://nextdns.io
Not going to bother watching the video, I'll take my chances using a VPN thank you.