Do gouvernement be able to access my data if i us a VPN

[headhunter18]

In my country government is planning to intercepts all internet communication and there is a law they set a proxy server server to do so. need to know if they can access my message like on whatsapp if i use a vpn like nord vpn 

 

[Levent]

They can always capture your data but removing the encryption wont be so easy depending on what kind of VPN service you use and how its encryption is setup.

[akio123008]

4 minutes ago, headhunter18 said:

In my country government is planning to intercepts all internet communication and there is a law they set a proxy server server to do so. need to know if they can access my message like on whatsapp if i use a vpn like nord vpn 

 

They can't access your data regardless. They may be able to see what server/service you connect to (like "oh, @headhunter18is using whatsapp again") but they can't see the actual content that you're transmitting to or receiving from those services (as in, they can't see the messages) because that's encrypted.

 

A VPN will also stop them from seeing which destination you connect to, but the data itself is already secure without a VPN.

[headhunter18]

is nord vpn a good one to do so 

 

[Tegneren]

I recommend watching Tom Scotts video on VPNs and what they are good for vs what they are advertising

 

[headhunter18]

Thanks for every one to help me 

[empireOS]

A VPN is a great start, but just remember that it's only one layer of protection against data collection.  The following elements of your computer (among others) may also collect data about you, which your government may have direct/indirect access to.

• Your web browser.  Some, like Google Chrome, collect vast amounts of data from you and offer little in the way of protection from websites fingerprinting you.  I recommend using Brave Browser (which is based on Chromium).
• Your Operating System.  Windows 10 caught a lot of flak over claims of being Microsoft spyware back when it was first released.  Things have gotten better since then, but there's still a lot of evidence of telemetry baked into the OS.  I recommend using macOS or Linux.
• Services you use online.  Brave Browser helps prevent a lot of the tracking big sites like Google, Facebook and Twitter use, but if you're logged in to a service, there's little you can do to stop them monitoring your activity on their platform.  You can switch services (such as from Google to DuckDuckGo), or you can block Cookies entirely on sites you don't need to be logged into using a Chrome extension (works on other Chromium browsers like Brave), such as Disable Cookies.
• Apps you install to your computer.  Almost everything has an app these days.  Some electric toothbrush manufacturers even sell models with a companion app.  Before downloading, you should assess whether or not you need that app and, if so, check if it has a good track record with privacy before installing.

[mousesnob]

20 minutes ago, empireOS said:

 

Not to be tinfoil hatty but hardware should be conisdered too, like intel me and amd psp

[Vishera]

Use Tor.

[Tsukashi]

A lot of things people tend to overlook are the VPN's themselves. There's literally nothing stopping a VPN from sharing your data independently, and this 100% happens. Most VPN's contain fine print about the collection of your data as well as the distribution of said data. If a VPN claims to not collect your data, you need to make sure that it's not limited to you having an active subscription to the service. For example, if you sign up for a VPN and decide you don't like the service and move to another, there could be a clause in the terms of use that makes all data you transmitted while you were using the VPN fair game for redistribution. 

[Kisai]

7 hours ago, headhunter18 said:

In my country government is planning to intercepts all internet communication and there is a law they set a proxy server server to do so. need to know if they can access my message like on whatsapp if i use a vpn like nord vpn 

 

The safest answer is "yes... but"

 

VPN's encrypt data between two points, they do not protect those on either end. So if you trust both end points, then the VPN is fine. Otherwise, your "VPN" doesn't really protect you from anything. Most non-enterprise VPN's are used exclusively for piracy, and to believe otherwise is to be incredibly naive. The operators can be compelled to turn over data if you are paying for it. Y'know, unless you've bought prepaid credit/debit cards months in advance from a different country just to do that. Because again, they can also compel the payment operator to turn over data as well.

 

Instant messaging programs generally are no better than unencrypted IRC of the 1990's. It's basically putting a password to a private club's door, but the password is on a stickynote on the door. (which is what invite codes are effectively. Nothing stops you from sharing that invite code with everyone, including those snooping on you.)

 

Only point-to-point communications that are encrypted end-to-end are safe from snooping, and that requires exchanging encryption tokens in person to set up the E2E. If you have to send people a key via an untrusted mechanism, it can be intercepted. 

 

People often conflate encryption with security. It's not that simple. By forcing all websites to operate in TLS, Google, and Firefox made the web a much less safe,  much easier to spoof, because people had been trained that the "key" or "lock" icon meant the site was secure... but also made all the fake bank sites also have lock icons. This can of course be rectified by explicitly indicating what files or pages require TLS, and what files do not require TLS and can be fetched without cookies and query strings, but too often websites personalize (for ads) and this results in leaking identity information to third parties.

 

If you want to be safe from spying, you pretty much can't use anything that is ad-supported, paid, or "uses cloud services" to operate. Because all of that will come back to identify you.

 

[thrasher_565]

if you have a cell phone then your probably compromised all ready. cell phones ping the network to look for hot spots like that modem to connector to well that data is sent to the cloud saying so and so was trying to coronet to so an so router at so and so time basically making a map of every ware you bean. hakers can get this data an follow you, rape, kill, or w/e they want to do. 

 

there nothing says the gourmeant cant pay to get your data. you can get data from apple too at a cost.

[Mark Kaine]

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but to my understanding they can still "intercept" the data, a vpn just makes it a bit more difficult. 

 

And from the sound of the op, using a vpn will immediately make you suspect to the government and they might look at those a bit more closely (for whatever reason) 

 

Of course if I'm a evil government that wants to control people's internet behavior vpn is the first thing I'd make illegal ,so that question doesn't really add up to me, but maybe I would be a specifically good "bad" government. 

[CaptainReynolds]

On 4/19/2021 at 3:27 PM, Vishera said:

Use Tor.

Depends what country you're in. The CIA and FBI can clearly assess your TOR history, it was invented by the US military afterall!

[Skiiwee29]

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