Virtual Private Networks

VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) are tools for routing traffic through an encrypted tunnel before it reaches the Internet. When used properly, a trustworthy VPN can protect data sent over the Internet, circumvent censorship, and circumvent surveillance. But not all VPNs are created equal.  Many (read: almost all) popular VPNs — including those advertised by many famous radio and podcast hosts — are little more than smoke and mirrors. Sure, they hide your traffic from your ISP and even from the owners of the sites you visit, but by the very nature of a VPN, the folks running the VPN have access to ALL of your traffic. And most of these VPN companies are in the same business as other Big Tech compaines: Your data is a hot comodity. Beyond that, almost all VPNs keep logs of your IP addresses, locations, data, and sites visited. 

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For this reason, we only recommend using a VPN from organizations/companies whose sole business is privacy. Our go-to VPN is ProtonVPN. Proton started out providing encrypted email services to individuals and companies and has been working for the past several years to develop an ecosystem of privacy-friendly tools to rival the usability of what Google offers. In addition to ProtonMail, Proton now offers ProtonVPN, ProtonCalendar, and ProtonDrive, with contacts, maps, and more on the horizon. 

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Proton is a Swiss company, so they have no jurisdiction agreements with either the U.S. or the EU. Besides that, Proton employs "Zero Knowledge" technology, which means that your data is end-to-end encrypted (it is encrypted on your device before being sent) and Proton does not have your password. Not only do they promise never to look at your data, they have created an infrasctructure that means they cannot look at your data. 

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Learn more about ProtonVPN and how to get it below.