A few weeks ago I told you that I only use Apple apps, which I have good reason for. I also talked about the third-party apps I use and how I audit them to make sure I can trust them. Today, continuing on the theme of security and privacy, we Let’s talk about using a VPN service. Something that has been on all my devices for many years.
A connection that helps maintain privacy
There are several reasons that led me to have a VPN service installed on both my iPhone and my iPad and Mac. I’m still connected and configured to cut all connections if they cannot be made through the VPN itself. All my reasons for doing this have to do with security and privacy, but they break down into several considerations.
One of the selling points of VPNs is prevent unsecured connections from being overheard when using public Wi-Fi. The truth is that with the mobile data rate, I hardly use Wi-Fi networks that are not mine, but this point has never worried me much either. In the end, almost 100% of connections are made in https and via secure protocols. So an untrusted access point could see where I’m browsing, but not modify any of the information in question, or even see it. Still, seeing the VPN icon in the status bar or menu of my devices when connecting from a hotel, for example, is still nice.
Where I’m much more interested in using VPN is my relationship with the phone company, the ISP. I don’t even need my carrier to know when I’m using Disney+, although they don’t necessarily know what I’m watching, whether I’m using Apple Music or Spotify (Apple Music, of course) or absolutely nothing about my browsing habits. Besides carefully changing my ISP’s router settings, even if I’m using it connected to mine, so it can’t be accessed remotely or send data back, using a VPN service is essential for me.
A service with which our operator will know much, much less about us.
But it goes much further. Operators have a duty to block connections to certain sites via DNS resolutions, which a VPN, with its own DNS, avoids. And there’s more: operator caches. Oops, that could make for more than one article, but I’ll sum it up in one very clear example.
When reservations open for a new iPhone and we all fly to order ours there are people to whom the reservation is opened before the others. Because? Due to caches in the carrier distribution network which, if not updated promptly, may deliver non-live content. Yes, it can be as little as 10 minutes, but in some ways finding a connection that skips those caches makes a difference.
And there is a third and final aspect that has made me a NordVPN user for many years: the privacy-friendly sites and services. yes I know for fingerprinting we can be identified very easily, which I also try to combat, but the IP address remains a key point in the recognition of visitors by services and websites.
How many times have we seen a sign equivalent to “you have reached the daily usage limit for this free service, come back tomorrow to continue enjoying it”. Change VPN and voila. But the same goes for advertisements, flight reservations and, in general, all network activity. Use a VPN service I remove an additional identification point from my navigation, which I really appreciate. An additional identification point, which allows anyone to know where you are connecting from.
And here someone will say, what about iCloud Private Relay? apple service it is, by far, far superior to any VPN because you no longer have to trust the service or its privacy policy no logs. Nobody, not even Apple, can know where we are surfing. The thing about Private Relay is that, for now, it only applies to Safari traffic. Meanwhile, a VPN acts on the whole system and applications and for me it is essential. Hopefully, when Private Relay comes out of beta, it will roll out to the rest of the system.
Overall, a a good VPN service is an essential part of maintaining privacy on our devices. A connection that prevents the operator and any part of the network from interfering with navigation, which prevents websites from locating us on a map, which prevents site closures and which allows us to browse with greater privacy.
