What is the best anonymous VPN service in 2021?
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Does VPN Make You Anonymous?
First of all, what is an anonymous VPN? It will be a VPN that will do everything in its power to keep you anonymous on the Internet. Whether or not its success depends on the level of anonymity you require and what you do. If you just need an anonymous VPN to protect you from snoopers trying to find out what you are doing online, then yes, your online identity will be completely safe. But if you want to be completely invisible online, you need more than just an anonymous VPN service.
With or without a VPN, it is very difficult to be 100% anonymous on the Internet. There are many ways to reveal your identity and location without knowing it – you probably do now.
Top online anonymity threats
There are a lot of different snoopers online who can find out who you are in different ways. Then there are services that require you to reveal your identity online in order to use them. Let’s find out who might be snooping on your online activity behind your back.
1. Wi-Fi networks
Whoever owns the Wi-Fi network you’re connected to has a great deal of power over your internet connection, including the ability to monitor what you’re doing. Additionally, in unsecured public networks, there are ways for other participants to see what other people are doing as well.
Most websites use trackers and cookies as well. Cookies can be useful because they can save login sessions or shopping baskets. However, they also play a huge role in creating your “user profile”. This personal information about your identity and the products or ads you interact with can then be sold to third parties. You can avoid this by manually deleting cookies after each browsing session or installing browser plug-ins.
2. Internet Service Provider (ISP)
Since your ISP handles all of your traffic, it has extraordinary access to everything you do online. In most countries, they are given broad rights to profit from their internet data or share it with government monitoring agencies.
If you don’t use a VPN, your ISP can see what websites you visit (via their IP addresses) and how much time you spend there. They know who you are and your original IP address, so without a VPN, they can track any information back to you. In the US, they don’t even need your permission to record, share, or even sell your browsing history.
With VPN software enabled, your ISP can no longer see what you’re doing online. However, your ISP will always know your real IP address because they have assigned it to you. You pay for the service so they need to keep a record of your personal and payment details. The only way to get them out of the loop is to use someone else’s internet (like public Wi-Fi), but you’ll still need a VPN so they can’t see what you’re doing.
3. Government monitoring
The anonymity that a VPN provides against government surveillance largely depends on the surveillance methods your government uses. The tools that the government has at their disposal go far beyond the scope of protection that a VPN provides. As far as your internet connection is concerned, a VPN can go a long way to maintaining your privacy.
However, keep in mind that there are countries where VPNs are either banned or considered illegal. In repressive regimes with strict internet censorship laws, governments want complete control of cyberspace. As a result, they find ways to track you and violate your privacy. In some countries, only government-approved VPNs are allowed, and approval usually means allowing the government to monitor users of those VPNs.
4. Websites
Websites need your IP address to be able to send you their content. Unless you are using a VPN, this IP address will be your real IP address, revealing your location and possibly other information about you. Even with a VPN, websites can see what operating system and browser you are using, which plugins you have installed, your CPU, and even whether you are currently logged into any social media platforms. Do you trust every website you visit with this information?
A VPN will not prevent you from collecting cookies – only your browser can. However, with a VPN, you can prevent websites and their cookies from detecting your real IP address.
Any website where you upload anything, including but not limited to social media, will be able to see your metadata as well – if you have it. Metadata is data attached to your digital documents and photos that can reveal who created the document, what organization they were a part of, when it was edited, and the device and even software used to create it. Metadata is automatically generated for most document types, but it can be removed manually.
5. Social media platforms
Social media platforms make money from ads, so it’s in their best interest to get as much information about you as possible. From your email address and the pages you’ve liked to the friends you’ve interacted with the most and what your face looks like – they know it all.
Anonymity on social media depends on how much data you give up, but it generally requires very little just to sign up. If you willingly share this information with social networks and the people in them, then an anonymous VPN will not protect you. You do not protect your privacy if you maintain your social media profiles publicly or share sensitive information publicly. If you forget to disable your location settings, the social media giants and anyone else can see where you are in the world every time you post anything online. Make sure your social media profiles are as private as possible.
6. Google and other search engines
Similar to other social media platforms, this tech giant has built its business on tracking devices and advertising. However, the worst part about Google is that it has a large number of different platforms and the more apps you use, the more information they collect about you. The “user profile” they create is very accurate and includes a lot of personally identifiable information such as your location, age, gender, things you’ve searched for, and videos you’ve watched on Youtube. Let’s not forget that Google tracks your location even if you disable your settings.
It uses face recognition technology to scan your photos, its bots crawl through Gmail and Google Drive documents, and Chrome keeps track of all the websites you visit and the ads you interact with. This information is used to feed your ads. You should learn how Google tracks you and look for privacy-oriented alternatives.
7. Payment service providers
Your credit card and digital payment platforms also leave a mark and are personally identifiable. They can reveal where and when you shop, where you got on the train and where you got off, and which cities or countries you’ve traveled to. Most financial systems require this level of identification, so maintaining anonymity without using cryptocurrency or cash is difficult. This is why privacy-focused companies like NordVPN are now accepting payments in cryptocurrency.
8. Applications
We place a great deal of trust in apps from the moment we download them to our devices. Almost every app will ask for permission to access certain parts of your device and you will need to grant this access to use them. What they do with this access is up to the creators of the app.
Then there are the apps we share our private data with – messaging apps, photo editing apps, and more. If you want to remain anonymous to others while browsing the web, this may not change much, but app creators or service providers can still access all of that identifying and private data.
When downloading an app, make sure you trust the developers. Also look for any that have good security and privacy features. For example, you can choose a private and encrypted messaging app instead of some of the more popular options.
Can you be tracked using a VPN?
A private VPN will make it very difficult to track your online activity. It all depends on what kind of tracking you may be subject to and what you do. If you’re using Chrome connected to your Google account, it doesn’t matter that your traffic is encrypted. Google will know the sites you’ve visited and the content you’ve interacted with. Your ISP or government won’t be able to tell you what you’re doing online after you connect to the VPN server – but they may be able to ask Google.
If you live in a totalitarian regime with highly restrictive internet rules, the authorities will be able to tell you that you are connected to a VPN, but not what you did next. However, NordVPN does have a feature called Obfuscated Servers that will help make your secure VPN connection more difficult to detect.
Is NordVPN an anonymous VPN service?
Yes. While it is practically impossible to grant absolute anonymity online, NordVPN does its best to provide fast and reliable security and privacy. We have an industry leading list of powerful features to help you stay anonymous, but with that said, you’ll need to take other precautions to stay anonymous. In addition to what has been said…
Here are some of the features that help NordVPN keep your information as private as possible:
- Strict no-logs policy. We only collect data necessary to provide our services. We VPN without logs. We believe our first industry audit shows that we will not share your information with government agencies because we simply do not have it;
- Next-generation encryption. We offer some of the best VPN protocols available, including our high-speed NordLynx protocol. Your browsing is private and cannot be seen by hackers or your ISP;
- DNS leak protection. Your traffic is routed through our dedicated DNS servers, so your IP address will not be leaked to a third party;
- obscure servers. These private servers hide the fact that you are using a VPN connection at all. This makes it easy to enjoy unrestricted internet access in authoritarian countries and other environments where VPN access may be blocked.
- kill switch. Your IP address should not leak even if your VPN connection drops.
- Cryptocurrency payments. Anonymous payments bring you one step closer to complete anonymity.
- high speeds. The faster your VPN is, the more it will be used and the better your privacy will be protected.
Online security starts with one click.
Enhance your anonymity online with the world’s leading VPN
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