Using a VPN
With the on going crisis of internet privacy I have had many conversations with people about VPNs. I often hear people say, "I have nothing to hide" this is not the reason to get a VPN. You shouldn't have to hide anything because the default of the internet should be no tracking, E2E encryption, and decentralization wherever possible. Unfortunately this is not the case and so in order to circumvent the mass amount of data collection that happens whenever you do anything on the internet there are several things that you can and should be doing.
In this post I will focus mainly on VPNs. There are many other things that can be done to reduce your digital fingerprint but that will come later.
Choosing a Service#
There are a massive number of VPN providers out there and it can be a daunting task picking the right one. To simplify this I will tell you about the VPN provider I use and the reasoning behind it.
Desired outcome#
- Obscured Location
- I want my location to be obscured whenever possible. Do I have something to hide? No. I don't want my location obscured because I am on the run or trying to hide from some one. As anyone moves from site to site they must reveal their IP along the way to things like Internet Services Providers(ISP), websites, or apps to name a few.
- Zero Knowledge
- If I am using a VPN the goal is to maximize my anonymity as I traverse the internet. If my VPN is logging my IP address then it reduces my location anonymity. If they are logging anything else this creates a whole other problem. I might be reducing my digital fingerprint in relation to the services I use but now my VPN is creating a fingerprint. Totally defeating the purpose of a VPN.
- Another issue with VPNs keeping logs is government entities can legally force them to provide this information. So when choosing a VPN I want one that doesn't log by default so there is nothing to be requested.
- Personal Information Required
- Since my goal is to reduce my digital fingerprint I want to share the minimum amount of personal information.
- When creating an account for a VPN service I want it to be as difficult as possible for the account to be link back to me.
The Verdict#
With all of this in mind I want to find a VPN that fits this criteria. After lots of research and suggestions from others I finally landed on Mullvad. While there are other decent options out there like NordVPN, ExpressVPN, or ProtonVPN. They do not provide my desired outcome and if so not the extent of Mullvad.
A huge selling point for me is the lack of personal information required. Mullvad doesn't ask me for my name, email, address, or any other information even for payment. In fact I can't give them this information even if I wanted to.
When I created my account Mullvad generated a unique 16 digit number that is both my account number and password. That is the only piece of information ever traded between myself and Mullvad outside my payment method. What if I lose my account number? Well then I'm out of luck and have to create a new account. This might seam like a flaw. It is not. If I don't want others storing, tracking and selling all my data and truly want to call it my own then I am responsible for keeping track of it. A fatal flaw in the way we have come to view the internet is that everything should be done and saved for us. We need to take back the information we call our own and be responsible for said data.
There is much more that can be said about the amount and types of information that's tracked and the way in which that happens but I will leave that for another post. In order for the internet to change in a positive direction individuals must take responsibility for their personal information. A great place to start is using a VPN. It's a simple and low impact way to step into the world of digital privacy and responsibility.