A VPN Jurisdiction Guide For Choosing Privacy-Friendly Countries
A comprehensive guide to understanding which countries offer the best legal protections for VPN users seeking privacy and which jurisdictions to avoid.
Should I use a Virtual Private Network (VPN)? Maybe!?
A VPN is a virtual private network that allows you to browse the internet anonymously and securely from anywhere in the world by creating an encrypted connection between your computer and the VPN server.
A VPN is a great way to protect your privacy and security online (assuming your VPN provider doesn't snoop on your traffic), but it can also be used for other purposes such as accessing geo-blocked content or bypassing censorship restrictions.
Whether you should use a VPN depends on your threat model, but in short, you can:
Improve your Internet privacy
Since a VPN creates an encrypted tunnel for your Internet traffic it makes it hard for public access points or your ISP to track what specifically you are doing. This is especially useful if you access the Internet from public WiFi networks or you are working around ISP usage restrictions.
Bypass geo-restrictions
A VPN can be used to bypass geo-restrictions and access content that is not available in your region. For example, you could use a VPN to watch Netflix shows that are only available in other countries. Although I am not saying you should do this! ;)
Secure your internet traffic
There are better ways to secure your Internet traffic than using a VPN such as only using HTTPS websites, enabling DNS over HTTPS, and using a password manager. However, a VPN can be a useful tool in your security toolbox.
Debug/test geo-specific functionality
As an infrastructure engineer, I often need to debug geo-specific functionality. For example, I might need to test a feature that is only available in the EU. In this case, I can use a VPN to connect to a server in the EU and test the feature.
Block ads and malware
Ad and malware blocking over VPN works by filtering out unwanted traffic before it reaches your device. This can be done using a variety of methods, such as:
- DNS filtering: This method blocks requests to known ad and malware domains.
- IP blocking: This method blocks requests to known ad and malware IP addresses.
- Web filtering: This method blocks access to known ad and malware websites.
- Heuristic filtering: This method uses artificial intelligence to identify and block ad and malware traffic.
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