any help Is appreciated so just answer as many as you feel like
General question: what do VPN’s protect against, and what do they not protect?
If I buy something from a shady website will the VPN protect my credit card info?
Will a VPN make it impossible for my pc to be tracked by the government? (This isn’t an issue, just wondering)
4a. If I wanted to download a whole bunch of sketchy shit can I do that? For example if I downloaded a pirated copy of Minecraft or a song I like and some movies from marvel or Disney. (Will these still give my virus’s or hack my pc?)
4b. VIRUS’S and HACKS: do VPN’s protect against these?
If I click on a link from an email am I safe to do that or do I still have a risk?
There are way more knowledgeable people here, but :
A VPN takes your traffic, routes it through a server somewhere, and then delivers it. Traffic coming to you is first routed through said server. It makes it so your computer appears as the server, so you can make it appear you’re located elsewhere, or access resources only available to computers on a local network. They don’t protect against a ton, but can help cover your tracks a little bit.
Probably not, if the info has been entered then it’s been entered.
It makes it harder to track you, but any government ( or company, more like) that wants to track you can get around a VPN pretty easy. Things like comparing data you enter while on the VPN to data while off, generally anything you do or have done off of the VPN could be compared to what you do on the VPN to make a connection.
VPNs are used to pirate because they hide the destination of shady downloads. Your ISP knows what you’re doing, but they don’t care. You only get in trouble for pirating from your ISP because copyright owners or other entities see that their content is being illegally downloaded, and then trace the destination (your IP) to your ISP and complain to your ISP. ISP doesn’t want that, they tell you to stop. VPN covers that, the upset party can’t go knocking on your ISP’s door.
4b. VPNs do not protect against viruses. They could help protect you against hacks, maybe. But not much.
VPNs won’t protect you from any malicious links or websites, at most they could help deter someone from tracking you down. But if you click a link that downloads a virus or something, or gives someone access to your computer, VPN does nothing.
VPNs encrypt all traffic between your computer and the server that is run by the VPN company. From that point ‘out’, the traffic is as per normal. Hopefully you’re using https as opposed to merely http.
A VPN will absolutely not protect you from entering your credit card on a shady website.
A VPN will absolutely probably not protect you from the government.
A VPN will not protect you from viruses in pirated software.
A VPN will probably barely, or not, protect you from viruses or ‘hacks’.
VPNs basically only add a layer of protection from internet traffic being intercepted between your computer and the server you’re connecting to. That’s basically it.
If you click a sketchy email link, a VPN will not do much for you.
any help Is appreciated so just answer as many as you feel like
General question: what do VPN’s protect against, and what do they not protect?
If I buy something from a shady website will the VPN protect my credit card info?
Will a VPN make it impossible for my pc to be tracked by the government? (This isn’t an issue, just wondering)
4a. If I wanted to download a whole bunch of sketchy shit can I do that? For example if I downloaded a pirated copy of Minecraft or a song I like and some movies from marvel or Disney. (Will these still give my virus’s or hack my pc?) 4b. VIRUS’S and HACKS: do VPN’s protect against these?
If I click on a link from an email am I safe to do that or do I still have a risk?
VPN protect against man-in-the-middle attacks when you use public (shared) internet access points.
No.
No.
4a) Yes, and you will get all the viruses.
4b) No, they don’t protect.
If you click a link from an email, your email client does something with it. Usually opens the link in a browser.
A VPN is just a proxy. Nothing more. A VPN serves two purposes:
Provide a shared IP address.
Mask traffic between you and the proxy (that IP address).
Your ISP knows what you’re doing, but they don’t care.
Good response, one correction though. A VPN connection is encrypted, that is the data sent over the connection cannot be read by your ISP or anyone else that might intercept your traffic between you and the VPN server. All your ISP knows is you connected to IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx and they could determine that that belongs to a VPN provider. They cannot however see what sites you connected to after the VPN server. They also cannot see what, if anything, you’re downloading.
A VPN is just a proxy. Nothing more. A VPN serves two purposes:
If you mean a consumer VPN, you’re right.
A private or business/corporate/enterprise VPN protects the network traffic between you and the internal network behind the server - as long as that traffic does not exit in the end on the public Internet.
A consumer VPN provider in your context is essentially just a virtual ISP, provided over the Internet. With a VPN, the ISP no longer sees your traffic, but the VPN provider can instead.
That’s the big one, getting it configured so there are no leaks.
With that assumption then the connection from your PC to the VPN server is a black box. The ISP, and anyone else between you and the VPN server, can see the connection’s there but have no way to see the traffic itself.
Now, taking an devils advocate position one could say no encryption is 100% effective. Somewhere, at some time, someone is going to be able to crack it but unless you’re concerned about nation states taking an interest in you you can assume it’s safe.
Where people with VPNs get caught is in your #3 item. If you’re stupid enough to log into the same account with and without the VPN then, yeah, they’ll find you.
If they already have an interest in you then connecting the dots isn’t hard:
Threatening post on site XYZ at .
Subpoena ISP records showing connection to VPN IP at .
Same ISP records show connections to XYZ at other times without VPN.
That’s probable cause to get a warrant and search your house, including all your computers.
it’s impossible (assuming there aren’t any leaks) unless you also do the stuff you are planning on doing on the VPN without it then it’s possible to cross analyze your data and traffic if someone really wanted to, but unless you are a cyber criminal or something this is not happening.