Can a VPN Hide What I Do on the Internet From My Employer?
When it comes to privacy issues, the best advice is the simplest one: don’t mix work and play. This means you don’t need to install BitTorrent on your work laptop; No looking for naughty things when connected to your company’s Wi-Fi (or VPN), and no forwarding company secrets (or inappropriate memes) using your work email. No no no.
These rules are easy to follow, but people still don’t follow them all the time and end up getting fired ( or worse ). However, the world of higher education is getting a little darker, and we return to the ivy-covered walls of your alma mater with a 911 call this week.
How can I encrypt everything I do so that my wife’s company can’t see it?
As Lifehacker reader Dean writes:
“My wife is a big shot at the university and we are moving to university-operated premises served by the university’s Internet and Wi-Fi system. I really want to keep some anonymity, and I want my Alexa requests, Nest camera pictures, and browsing history to be kept private. I’ve heard about services like Express VPN, but I would appreciate your advice. ”
Advantages and Disadvantages of Using a VPN for Everything
I fully understand your desire for privacy. When your home internet connection is provided by your employer – and it’s not even your job – the last thing you want to do is break the rules by running BitTorrent, asking Alexa to play your university rival’s battle song, or posting on Reddit.
I’m kidding, but I also understand that there are very good reasons for hiding what you do from a company that you or your partner rely on for your livelihood. Unfortunately, your wife’s employer uses the Internet for your entire life situation, which complicates things.
However, having worked at the renowned University of Silicon Valley, as well as the IT department of a much smaller university in Chicago that will never win a soccer game, I have good news: Your university’s IT department has much better stuff. do than search the internet for what you are looking for.
Some bored IT pros don’t care if you’re wasting time online (usually)
I am assuming that your wife’s university gave you access to the internet without any restrictions or firewalls installed. This means you don’t need to, for example, log into an account to get started, and you don’t need to install any certificates on your system (s) to enable Wi-Fi or Ethernet access.
If yes, then yes, your wife’s employer could see what you are doing on these computers. Again, they probably don’t care if your browsing history isn’t filled with “how to make a bomb” or “kid nudez” searches. The university’s network setup could presumably be configured to tag certain keywords and record the IP address of the requesting system, but given how many requests go through the university’s servers on a given day, I think it would be a reasonable approach to tag only the most problematic and / or repeated violations of university policy. This probably doesn’t apply to most people (even students hungry for porn).
Otherwise, if you just have direct access to the Internet – for example, if you plug your router into a university-provided Ethernet port in the wall – then I wouldn’t bother with that. Your web searches should be secured with HTTPS, even though the university can theoretically log your DNS requests to find out where you are surfing the Internet. I think your campus IT team has better things to do, unless you live in one of those far-right universities where dance and entertainment are banned.
If you are taking a place that would waste an irrational amount of resources to make sure you are not streaming a show with adult content (or themaster swears ), they are likely to be pissed off with any measures you take use to bypass their espionage; you’d better pay for a Wi-Fi hotspot so that your blasphemous quest is completely excluded from their network.
So what about a VPN?
Your VPN idea is compelling; VPNs are a great way to hide what you do online. However, in this case, this is not an ideal solution. Most consumer routers don’t have a mechanism to route all of your traffic through the VPN. They may offer you a way to connect back to them – essentially creating your own VPN that you can use when you’re on the go – but that traffic ends up going through your ISP (in this case, your university).
There are routers that can pass all of your traffic through the VPN, but you need to make sure the specified router supports VPN Client mode and not VPN Server mode I just described. This is a feature you’ll most often find in Asus routers, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any other options to explore .
Which router is the best choice? Generally speaking, I would suggest that you compare any “VPN client” routers you are considering with any performance reviews you can find on IP. If you are buying a new and potentially expensive router, you need to make sure it is at least half decent in terms of range and speed.
Resist the urge to buy a VPN Client router that has much more wireless power than you need, as you might pay more for a connection that doesn’t matter. The high speeds in the worst range are not nearly as impressive as the reasonable speeds you can use from anywhere in your home. If a single router you’re considering costs more than $ 200 or $ 300, consider if there is a cheaper solution that works almost as well for your setup.
As a former reviewer of many routers, it hurts me to give general advice instead of specific advice, but there just aren’t enough people doing the correct benchmark tests on every router you could potentially buy. It takes a bit of work to find the perfect router for you, but it’s not impossible.
Third Party Firmware May Provide You The VPN You Are Looking For
If you can find a great router that also supports third-party firmware such as DD-WRT , you can always flash the router with new firmware to unlock its VPN client functionality. It sounds like a complicated process, but it shouldn’t be any more difficult than what you usually do to manually update your router’s firmware. In other words, anyone can do it. However, this can void your router’s warranty, making the process intimidating.
There are many tutorials to help you set up and start VPN service on your DD-WRT router. The said service may even have a dedicated manual for running DD-WRT. You will need to dig a little, but it should be easy enough.
Using a VPN for everything can be frustrating
Even if you set up a VPN, your plan has several drawbacks to allow all of your traffic to go through one of them. First, using a VPN for everything can slow down your (probably very fast) connection, depending on the quality of the service you are using. You may also run into hiccups along the way: your streaming service may not work because, for example, it detects that you are connected to a VPN, or you cannot use the app to turn on your home security cameras when you are away because you blocked their network.
And if your VPN is having interruptions or connection problems, you won’t have any internet at all. I hope your router is smart enough to just deny all connections in this case, rather than just letting your traffic go through as usual without a VPN.
There is a lot to think about when using a VPN, not to mention using a VPN to encrypt your traffic 24/7. I don’t say do n’t do it; the privacy afforded can be worth the slight technological discomfort. Although, to be honest, I think this is overkill.
Some of the best 24/7 VPN alternatives
What would I do? Well, I wouldn’t worry about what I tell my Amazon Echo is end-to-end encryption, and I haven’t heard of any cases where companies (or universities) have broken through to find out what people are saying to their smart assistants. I believe you are just as safe with your Nest camera. As Google told CNET :
“The information passed between Nest Detect and Nest Guard is encrypted at multiple levels, including encryption during transmission, additional encryption specific to the home where the products are located, and encryption between our products and the cloud.”
I’d be more worried about someone hacking into your Google account or exploiting a vulnerability on an unsecured camera than anything else. This leaves us with your web traffic. I suppose most of what you look for on the Internet is boring; on the few occasions when you’re looking for things that might get you or your wife in trouble, just use Tor .
It’s much easier to switch to a private browser for a few minutes (or a day) than fiddling with a constant VPN. If you need extra protection – perhaps you’re downloading BitTorrents or doing something else that the university would not approve of – sign up for a trusted VPN and run your shenanigans through it . You only really need it for the devices you normally use for what you do; Devices like Smart TV, Amazon Echo, and Nintendo Switch don’t need VPN protection.
In fact, I feel pretty confident in saying that as long as your web traffic doesn’t consume an inordinate amount of resources or otherwise forces the university to deal with copyright infringement notices or other legal requests, your wife’s employer. most likely won’t. I don’t care what you do on the campus network. Running a file server for the Internet in general is a great way to get noticed; If you Google about your kink, your wife won’t quit unless you do so after logging into her account, on her work laptop, or at her campus office.