The legality and safety of VPNs

There are so many legal and safety questions associated with the use of VPNs.

If you are worried about whether or not using a VPN is legal or secure, don't fret. VPNs are used all over the world, and are a very common tool to help web users safeguard their personal privacy and security online.

They're also great for expats and travellers who need to access their accounts, apps and favourite websites from back home.

In this blog, we'll break down some of the concerns and other potential ramifications of using a VPN.

Is using a VPN connection illegal?

To overly simplify things:

1.    Using a VPN is legal in most of the world.

2.    VPNs are only banned in 10 countries: China, Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Iraq, Turkey, UAE, and Oman.

3.    Using a VPN is generally more secure than a normal connection.

4.    You’re likely to sail by just plainly if you use a VPN connection for accessing regular, legally accessible content.

Note that, however, using a VPN to do something illegal online still remains illegal - it's the same as with your normal internet connection.

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How many people use a VPN globally?

VPNs are used all over the world. With a whopping 55% of its total internet usage attributed to VPNs, Indonesia tops the list of countries with the most VPN users by percentage.

India comes second with 43% of the population using VPNs regularly. Now, of course, the Indian population is much larger than Indonesia, so technically this makes India the biggest user of VPNs.

The Global Web Index reports that the next countries on the list are UAE (although VPNs are banned there), Thailand and Malaysia – with a remarkable 38% of the total population relying on VPNs.

Apart from individual users, governments and corporations also utilize VPNs to keep their information secure from third-party attackers or trackers, as well as to access otherwise blocked resources to gain a competitive or political advantage.

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Are VPNs legal?

Using a VPN connection to browse the internet as you usually would is not illegal. You can use a VPN as much as you like, but you should not do something you’re not supposed to do.

For example, trying to illegally torrent or visiting inappropriate websites.

Another key consideration here is making sure you are always abiding by the terms of use of any online service. Just because you are able to switch IP addresses using VPN, does not give you license to abuse services and platforms in any way.

This is especially important with a residential VPN like Mysterium, where there are real people sharing their IP address with you. Mysterium VPN plugs into a peer-to-peer network, and expects that any user of the service will respect its fellow peers and ensure their online behaviour while connected remains within legal boundaries.

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How secure are VPNs?

A VPN can help enhance your online privacy. However, there are certain things it cannot help protect you from:

🦠 A VPN cannot offer protection against malicious websites that install viruses on your computer, especially if you click on something that triggers a download. A VPN is neither an antivirus software, nor a personal consultant for good browsing practices.

👀 A VPN is not an anti-phishing or anti-scam tool. Make sure you're always logging in to the right webpage, email, social media and banking accounts, by checking the URL and SSL security certificate in your browser. Otherwise you may be entering your password and sensitive information on fake websites.

🔏 A VPN is not able to defend you against getting "pwned", with hacked databases where your passwords were leaked. If your passwords have been compromised, it's time to change them (especially if you use the same combination across many websites).

So what is a VPN good for? 

🍪 Are you trying to lose the cookie crumb trail of sinister 3rd party trackers that know everything about you?

🥸 Are you worried about identity theft?

📖 Are you trying to be more invisible online so your search, download and browsing history remains a permanent blank page?

You are in luck! A VPN can help protect you against these problems. It gives you a different IP address so you are anonymous online, preventing snooping, tracking, and logging of your browsing history. Your physical location cannot be identified or traced back.

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Decentralized VPNs: the next level of anonymity

Traditional VPN companies like to keep logs of their users behaviour, for example, which websites they are accessing. Though many VPN services claim that they don’t keep logs, there have been cases in the past where logs were hacked, released to government agencies, or even sold to 3rd parties.

Decentralized VPNs operate differently. There are no centralized servers to collect or store this data. Instead, users connect randomly to any of the thousands of IP addresses offered by everyday people. There’s no company or system to keep a track of all the logs. Decentralized VPNs are a community-powered solution.

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