VPNs Offer Limited Anonymity, Pose Risks, Israel Hayom Reports
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), widely used to mask online activity and change IP addresses, do not provide complete anonymity and can carry hidden dangers, according to an Israel Hayom report. While VPNs encrypt data between a user's device and a remote server, they do not prevent tracking through accounts, cookies, or browser fingerprinting.
When a user connects to the internet without a VPN, their provider can see visited sites, and websites see the user's public IP address. A VPN reroutes this connection through an encrypted tunnel to a remote server before reaching the destination. This obscures the user's activity from their internet provider and masks their real IP address from websites, replacing it with the VPN server's IP.
However, this encryption does not stop services like Google or Facebook from identifying users through their logged-in accounts. Websites can also use cookies and browser fingerprinting, which analyzes device characteristics like operating system, screen resolution, language, and time zone, to recognize users even if they switch VPN servers.
Free VPN services can be particularly risky. Some may collect browsing data and sell it to advertisers or third parties. Others might inject ads, contain malware, or use a user's connection to relay traffic for others. The report emphasizes that the safety of a VPN depends more on the developer's reputation, privacy policy transparency, encryption protocols, and independent security audits, rather than whether it is free or paid.
VPNs remain useful for securing connections on public Wi-Fi networks, though HTTPS already protects content on secure sites. They can also hide a user's IP from websites and allow access to geo-restricted services. Nevertheless, VPNs do not protect against phishing, password theft, malware, or fraudulent websites, for which users still need strong passwords, two-factor authentication, and updated software.
