VPN service

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A virtual private network (VPN) service is a proxy server marketed to help users bypass Internet censorship such as geo-blocking and users who want to protect their communications against user profiling or MitM attacks on hostile networks.

Contents

A wide variety of entities provide VPN services for several purposes. Depending on the provider and the application, they do not always create a true private network. Instead, many providers simply provide an Internet proxy that uses VPN technologies such as OpenVPN or WireGuard. Commercial VPN services are often used by those wishing to disguise or obfuscate their physical location or IP address, typically as a means to evade Internet censorship or geo-blocking.

Providers often market VPN services as privacy-enhancing, citing security features, such as encryption, from the underlying VPN technology. However, when the transmitted content is not encrypted before entering the proxy, that content is visible at the receiving endpoint regardless of whether the VPN tunnel itself is encrypted for the inter-node transport. On the client side, configurations intended to use VPN services as proxies are not conventional VPN configurations. However, they do typically utilize the operating system's VPN interfaces to capture the user's data to send to the proxy. This includes virtual network adapters on computer OSes and specialized "VPN" interfaces on mobile operating systems. A less common alternative is to provide a SOCKS proxy interface.

In 2025, 1.75 billion people used VPNs. By 2027, this market has been projected to grow to $76 billion. [1] As of 2022, recommendation websites for VPNs tended to be affiliated with or even owned by VPN service providers, and VPN service providers often make misleading claims on their products. [2]

Reasons for use

Accessing geo-restricted content

VPNs allow users to bypass regional restrictions by hiding their IP address from the destination server and simulating a connection from another country.[ citation needed ]

Improving privacy on public Wi-Fi

Where public Wi-Fi networks do not provide isolated encryption for each connected device, VPN services can provide a certain level of protection. When in use, potential eavesdroppers on the network can only observe that a connection to the VPN server is made by a user's device. [3] As of June 2025, however, approximately 98% of human-generated internet traffic was encrypted using TLS through the HTTPS protocol; [4] when TLS is used, network eavesdropping can only point out the IP addresses or hostnames a user is connecting to. Interception of network requests by a bad actor in the form of a Man-in-the-middle attack will most likely result in a certificate warning in being displayed in the user's browser. [5]

SSL stripping, the practice of downgrading a connection to unencrypted HTTP, [6] [7] doesn't always result in a browser warning,[ citation needed ] although this has been partly mitigated by the implementation of HTTP Strict Transport Security. [8] [9]

Improving privacy

Activists and journalists working in restrictive or authoritarian regions often use VPNs to maintain anonymity and protect sensitive communications. VPNs mask IP addresses and encrypt data, ensuring safe access to information and secure communication channels.[ citation needed ]

By geographical region

As of 2025, four of the top six countries of VPN adoption rates from 2020 through the first half of 2025 were in the Middle East: UAE #1, Quatar #2, Oman #5 and Saudi Arabia #6 [10] Aside from bypassing a block of content it is thought that bypassing of restriction of voice over internet protocol (VoIP) services,like WhatsApp, Skype, and FaceTime are motivating facctors. [10]

Criticism and limitations

Users are commonly exposed to misinformation on the VPN services market, which makes it difficult for them to discern fact from false claims in advertisements. [11] According to Consumer Reports, VPN service providers have poor privacy and security practices and also make hyperbolic claims. [12] The New York Times has advised users to reconsider whether a VPN service is worth their money. [13] VPN services are not sufficient for protection against browser fingerprinting. [14] The provider may log the user's traffic, although this depends on the individual company.{{cn]}} Users can still be tracked through tracking cookies even if the user's IP address is hidden.[ citation needed ]

A VPN service is not in itself a means for good Internet privacy. The burden of trust is simply transferred from the Internet service provider to the VPN service provider. [15] [16]

Legality

China

In China, unlawful use of VPNs may result in criminal prosecution under the relatively obscure Supreme People’s Court guidelines: the Criminal Information Technology System Security Offense Adjudicative Guidelines [17] and the Damage to Telecommunications Market Integrity Adjudicative Guidelines [18] .

According to the guidelines, however, the simple use of typical VPN tunnels is not inherently unlawful because it does not achieve the elements of a computer crime, i.e. intrusion or unlawful control of a computer. [17] VPN providers themselves can be prosecuted because providing a type of VPN in a way that severely disrupts the telecommunications market constitutes the offense of unlawful business operations. [18] Additionally, if a VPN is used to commit illegal activities, then its provision could fall under aiding and abetting a crime. This was the logic applied by Chinese police in the widely publicized case involving a Chinese programmer who was penalized on grounds he used an unapproved international connection to provide internet consulting services to a Company for 1,058,000 CNY in unlawful income. [19]

Russia

Russia banned various VPN service providers in 2021. [20] Law No. 276-FZ (2017) requires VPN/anonymizer services to prevent access to sites on the government blacklist; it prohibits owners of virtual private network (VPN) services and internet anonymizers from providing access to websites banned in Russia. The obligation is codified via amendments adding Article 15.8 to the Information Law and enforced by Roskomnadzor. [21]

North Korea

VPN use is subject to a blanket criminal ban protecting the North Korean internet firewall; communication through other countries’ communication networks without approval within the territory of the Republic is not allowed. The 2023 revision of the Radio Wave Control Law also provides penalties including fines and “up to three months of unpaid labor or punishment by labor education. [22]

Iran

VPNs are subject to general criminalization, but with discretion by the government to allow certain permissible uses. Use of filtering-circumvention tools (e.g., VPN services) is prohibited unless legally authorized by permit under the Supreme Council of Cyberspace’s 2024 resolution (cl. 6). [23]


Comparison of commercial virtual private network services

Privacy

In 2018 PC Magazine recommended that users consider choosing a provider based in a country with no data retention laws because that makes it easier for the service to keep a promise of no logging. [24] PC Magazine and TechRadar also suggested that users read the provider's logging policy before signing up for the service, [25] because some providers collect information about their customers' VPN usage. [26] [27]

Technical features

ServiceLeak ProtectionProtocols Obfuscation / Censorship AvoidanceNetwork NeutralityServer
First-party DNS servers IPv6 supported / blocked Offers kill switch Offers OpenVPN Offers WireGuard Supports multihopSupports TCP port 443 Supports Obfsproxy Offers SOCKSLinux supportSupports SSL tunnelSupports SSH tunnelBlocks SMTP (authent.)Blocks P2PDedicated or virtual Diskless
Avast SecureLine YesYesYesYesNoNoNoNoSome [28] Dedicated [29] No
ExpressVPN Yes [30] YesYesYes [30] NoNoYes [30] Yes [31] No [32] Both [33] [34] Yes
Hotspot Shield NoNoYesNoNoNoNo?
IPVanish Yes [35] Yes [36] YesYes [37] Yes [38] NoYes [39] Yes [40] Yes [37] Yes [41] NoNoNo [37] No [37] DedicatedNo
IVPN Yes [42] No [43] YesYesYesYesYesYesYesYes [44] Yes [45] No [46] No [47] Dedicated [48] No
Mullvad Yes [49] Yes [49] YesYes [49] Yes [50] Yes; WireGuard [51] and SOCKS5Yes [49] No [52] Yes [53] [49] Yes [54] YesYes [49] No [49] Yes [55] Dedicated [56] Yes [57]
NordVPN Yes [58] No [59] YesYes [60] Yes; NordLynx based on WireGuard [61] Yes; OpenVPN [62] and SOCKS5Yes [63] Yes [64] Yes [65] YesNo [66] DedicatedYes
Private Internet Access Yes [67] Yes [68] YesYes [69] Yes [70] Yes [71] Yes [72] NoYes [73] Yes [74] Some [a] No [76] Dedicated [77] Yes [78]
PrivadoVPN YesYesYesYesYesYesYesNo
ProtonVPN YesNoYesYesYes [79] YesYesNoNoYes [80] YesYesSome [b] Dedicated
PureVPN YesYesYesYes [82] NoNoOnly through SSTP [83] NoNoYes [84] NoSome [85] Both [86] [34] No
Surfshark YesNoYesYesYesYes (WG, OVPN, IKEv2)YesNoNoYesSomeNoBothYes
TunnelBear Yes [87] YesYesYes [88] [89] NoNoNoYes [90] [91] YesYesNo [92] Some [93]
Windscribe YesYesYesYesYes [94] YesYesNoNo [95] Yes

(via Stealth protocol)

NoNoNoDedicated [c] Yes [97] Yes

Notes

  1. ↑ The support team may be willing to whitelist your email provider's SMTP server upon request. [75]
  2. ↑ Only on free plan. [81]
  3. ↑ With the exception of one virtual server located in Antartica. [96]


Encryption

ServiceData encryptionHandshake encryptionData authentication
Default providedStrongest providedWeakest providedStrongest providedWeakest providedStrongest provided
Avast SecureLine AES-256
ExpressVPN AES-256 CA-4096
Hotspot Shield AES-128 [98] TLS 1.2 ECDHE PFS [98] HMAC [99]
IPVanish AES-256 [100] RSA-2048 [100] SHA-256 [100]
IVPN AES-256 [42] RSA-4096 [42]
Mullvad AES-256 (GCM) [49] ML-KEM [101] RSA-4096 [49] SHA-512 [49]
NordVPN AES-256 [102] AES-256 (CBC) [102] 2048-bit Diffie-Hellman [102]
Private Internet Access AES-128 (CBC) [103] AES-256 [103] ECC-256k1 [103] RSA-4096 [103] SHA-1 [103] SHA-256 [103]
PrivadoVPN AES-256
ProtonVPN AES-256RSA-4096HMAC with SHA-384
PureVPN AES-256
SaferVPN AES-256 [104] 2048bit SSL/TLS [104] SHA-256 [104]
TunnelBear AES-128 (CBC) [a] AES-256 (CBC) [88] 1548 bit Diffie–Hellman [b] 4096 bit Diffie–Hellman [88] SHA-1 [c] SHA-256 [88]
Surfshark AES-256AES-256 (CBC)2048-bit Diffie–Hellman
Windscribe AES-256 [105] RSA-4096 [105] SHA-512

Notes

  1. ↑ Only on iOS 8 and earlier. All other supported devices and operating systems use AES-256 (CBC). [88]
  2. ↑ iOS 9 and later use 2048 bit. iOS 8 and earlier use 1548 bit. All other supported devices and operating systems use 4096 bit. [88]
  3. ↑ iOS 8 and earlier use SHA-1. All other supported devices and operating systems use SHA-256. [88]

Definitions

The following definitions clarify the meaning of some of the column headers in the comparison tables above.

Anonymous payment method
Whether the service offers at least one payment method that does not require personal information. Even if a service accepts a cryptocurrency like bitcoin, it might still require that the customer hands over personally identifiable information (PII) like their full name and address.
Bandwidth
Whether the users' bandwidth is logged while using the service, according to the service's privacy policy.
Diskless
Whether the service's server hardware is connected to hard drives, according to the service provider. If the servers are diskless, the service provider should be unable to log any usage data.
First-party DNS servers
Whether the service provides its own domain name system (DNS) servers.
Kill switch
Whether the service has the ability to immediately sever your connection to the Internet in the event that the VPN connection fails. This prevents a user IP address leak. [106]
Logging
Whether the service stores information about their users' connection or activity on the network, according to the service's privacy policy or terms of service. If logging isn't mentioned in those sections but denied somewhere else on the website, the particular table cell will be marked as "No" in yellow and include an explanatory note.
Privacy Impact Score
An indicator of a website's usage of potentially privacy intrusive technologies such as third-party or permanent cookies, canvas trackers etc. [107] The score can be in the range from 0 to 100, where 0 is minimal privacy impact (best) and 100 is the biggest privacy impact (worst) relative to other web sites. [107] The score also has a simplified letter and colour presentation from A to F where A is "No cookies" and F is "Score above three standard deviations from the average". [107] The metric is developed by WebCookies.org. [107]
Obfuscation
Whether the service provides a method of obfuscating the VPN traffic so that it's not as easily detected and blocked by national governments or corporations. [108] [109]
Offers WireGuard
Whether the service provider offers the WireGuard tunneling protocol.
SSL rating
The service's website's overall SSL server rating according to Qualys SSL Labs' SSL Server Test tool.
Supports Obfsproxy
Whether the service has an implementation of the Tor subproject Obfsproxy. [108] [109]

References

  1. ↑ Hooson, Mark (3 March 2025). "VPN Statistics". Forbes UK. Retrieved 19 March 2025.
  2. ↑ "Investigating the VPN Recommendation Ecosystem" (PDF). IEEE Security.
  3. ↑ Karaymeh, Ashraf; Ababneh, Mohammad; Qasaimeh, Malik; Al-Fayoumi, Mustafa (October 2019). "Enhancing Data Protection Provided by VPN Connections over Open WiFi Networks". 2019 2nd International Conference on new Trends in Computing Sciences (ICTCS). pp. 1–6. doi:10.1109/ICTCS.2019.8923104. ISBN   978-1-7281-2882-5.
  4. ↑ "HTTP requests by HTTP/HTTPS time series: Distribution of HTTP requests by HTTP protocol (HTTP vs. HTTPS) over time". Cloudflare Radar. Retrieved 9 June 2025.
  5. ↑ Boeyen, Sharon; Santesson, Stefan; Polk, Tim; Housley, Russ; Farrell, Stephen; Cooper, David (August 2008). Internet X.509 Public Key Infrastructure Certificate and Certificate Revocation List (CRL) Profile (Report). Internet Engineering Task Force.
  6. ↑ Greenberg, Andy (18 February 2009). "Breaking Your Browser's 'Padlock'". Forbes. Archived from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2025.
  7. ↑ Shahid, Muhammad Azhar; Akram, Urooj; Shahid, Muhammad Mazhar Ali; Samad, Ali; Mushtaq, Muhammad Faheem; Majeed, Rizwan (November 2020). "A Systematic Approach Towards Compromising Remote Site HTTPS Traffic Using Open Source Tools". 2020 IEEE 23rd International Multitopic Conference (INMIC). pp. 1–6. doi:10.1109/INMIC50486.2020.9318180. ISBN   978-1-7281-9893-4.
  8. ↑ Ali, Junade (20 October 2017). "Performing & Preventing SSL Stripping: A Plain-English Primer". The Cloudflare Blog. Retrieved 9 June 2025.
  9. ↑ Bramwell, Phil (2018). Hands-on penetration testing on Windows: unleash Kali Linux, PowerShell, and Windows debugging tools for security testing and analysis. Unleash Kali Linux, PowerShell, and Windows debugging tools for security testing and analysis: Packt Publishing. ISBN   978-1-78829-509-3.
  10. 1 2 Deimantė Karaciejūtė (21 October 2025). "VPN adoption rates by country: trends and statistics".
  11. ↑ Perta, Vasile C.; Barbera, Marco V.; Tyson, Gareth; Haddadi, Hamed; Mei, Alessandro (1 April 2015). "A Glance through the VPN Looking Glass: IPv6 Leakage and DNS Hijacking in Commercial VPN clients". Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies. 2015 (1): 77–91. doi:10.1515/popets-2015-0006. hdl: 10044/1/56834 . ISSN   2299-0984. S2CID   3468680.
  12. ↑ Grauer, Yael (30 September 2022). "VPN Testing Reveals Poor Privacy and Security Practices, Hyperbolic Claims". Consumer Reports . Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  13. ↑ Chen, Brian X. (6 October 2021). "It's Time to Stop Paying for a VPN". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  14. ↑ "You Tossed Your Cookies But They're Still Tracking You; Here's How to Hide Your Browser Fingerprint". PCMAG. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  15. ↑ "Understanding and Circumventing Network Censorship". 25 April 2020. Archived from the original on 15 October 2022. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
  16. ↑ "Techsplanations: Part 5, Virtual Private Networks". 16 October 2018. Archived from the original on 15 October 2022. Retrieved 15 October 2022.
  17. 1 2 "关于办理危害计算机信息系统安全刑事案件应用法律若干问题的解释". 最高人民法院、最高人民检察院 (in Chinese). 1 August 2011 [Issued 2011-08-01].; Translated in "Criminal Information Technology System Security Offense Adjudicative Guidelines". CBL Translations. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  18. 1 2 "最高人民法院关于审理扰乱电信市场管理秩序案件具体应用法律若干问题的解释". 最高人民法院 (in Chinese). 12 May 2000 [Issued 2000-05-12].; Translated in "Damage to Telecommunications Market Integrity Adjudicative Guidelines". CBL Translations. Retrieved 26 September 2025.
  19. ↑ Hawkins, Amy (9 October 2023). "Chinese programmer ordered to pay 1m yuan for using virtual private network". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  20. ↑ "Russians' demand for VPNs skyrockets after Meta block". Reuters. 14 March 2022. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  21. ↑ "Russia: New Legislation Attacks Internet Anonymity". Human Rights Watch. 1 August 2017. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  22. ↑ Kim, Yonho (8 July 2025). "North Korea's Revised Radio Wave Control Law: Implications for Information Control". 38 North. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  23. ↑ "Freedom on the Net 2024: Iran". Freedom House. 2024. Retrieved 8 October 2025.
  24. ↑ Eddy, Max (15 January 2018). "The Best VPN Services of 2018". PC Magazine. Can You Trust Your VPN Service?. Archived from the original on 18 January 2018.
  25. ↑ Athow, Desire (13 January 2018). "The best VPN services for 2018". TechRadar. How to test a VPN. Archived from the original on 17 January 2018. We were looking for features, value, and clear and honest pricing. Free ways to learn more about a service - free plans, trial periods, refund periods - were important, and we also looked for companies which maintained your privacy when you signed up (no email address required, trials available without credit cards, Bitcoin available as a payment option).
  26. ↑ Paul, Ian (2 January 2018). "Best VPN services of 2018: Reviews and buying advice". What to look for in a VPN. PC World. Archived from the original on 4 January 2018.
  27. ↑ Krebs, Brian (17 March 2017). "Post-FCC Privacy Rules, Should You VPN?". Krebs on Security. Archived from the original on 18 January 2018.
  28. ↑ "Avast SecureLine / A VPN to protect your online activities". It’s your Internet. Take it back - Connect with your peers. No tricks. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. We support peer-2-peer (P2P) networking in some of our server locations.
  29. ↑ "Avast SecureLine / A VPN to protect your online activities". Where speed meets capacity - Rows upon rows of dedication. Archived from the original on 29 December 2017. All of our VPN gateways run on dedicated hardware servers.
  30. 1 2 3 Eddy, Max (12 May 2017). "ExpressVPN". PC Magazine . Archived from the original on 14 May 2017.
  31. ↑ ExpressVPN. "Stay Safe and Keep Your Online Privacy With a Secure VPN". ExpressVPN Features. Archived from the original on 4 January 2018. Our network is SSL-secured
  32. ↑ Williams, Mike (23 October 2017). "ExpressVPN review". TechRadar . Archived from the original on 4 January 2018.
  33. ↑ ExpressVPN (4 December 2017). "Virtual server locations". Archived from the original on 4 January 2018.
  34. 1 2 Paul, Ian (20 September 2017). "ExpressVPN review: A good service with no public leadership". PCWorld . Archived from the original on 4 January 2018. Similar to PureVPN, ExpressVPN says it uses virtual servers in certain locations due to infrastructure issues.
  35. ↑ "DNS Leaks". IPVanish. 29 March 2025.
  36. ↑ "IPv6". IPVanish.
  37. 1 2 3 4 "The Best VPN Service Provider with Fast, Secure VPN Access". www.ipvanish.com.
  38. ↑ "WireGuard® VPN Protocol - What is WireGuard? | IPVanish". 12 October 2021.
  39. ↑ "Ports used for VPN Protocols". IPVanish. 18 April 2025.
  40. ↑ "Android VPN Software Setup - IPVanish". www.ipvanish.com. 8 October 2021.
  41. ↑ "VPN Software Setup - Choose Your Platform - IPVanish". www.ipvanish.com. 6 October 2021.
  42. 1 2 3 IVPN. "Why IVPN". IVPN offers you more than any other VPN. Archived from the original on 26 March 2018.
  43. ↑ IVPN. "Do you offer IPv6?". IVPN Help Center. Archived from the original on 25 July 2019.
  44. ↑ IVPN. "VPN Setup guide for Linux using the terminal". Archived from the original on 26 March 2018.
  45. ↑ IVPN. "Does IVPN protect SSH connections?". Archived from the original on 26 March 2018.
  46. ↑ IVPN. "Do you allow SMTP (email) whilst connected to IVPN?". Archived from the original on 26 March 2018.
  47. ↑ IVPN. "Do you allow P2P / BitTorrent / torrents downloading?". Archived from the original on 26 March 2018.
  48. ↑ IVPN. "Answers for "18 Questions to ask your VPN service provider"". IVPN Help Center.
  49. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Features / Mullvad". Details. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
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  51. ↑ "New features for WireGuard users". 7 August 2017. Archived from the original on 24 March 2018.
  52. ↑ Mullvad (24 October 2017). "Client version 65 released - Blog / Mullvad". Blog. Archived from the original on 11 January 2018.
  53. ↑ "Increased security with SOCKS5 proxy - Blog / Mullvad". 29 November 2016. Archived from the original on 27 December 2017.
  54. ↑ "Linux OpenVPN Installation - Guides / Mullvad". Archived from the original on 26 December 2017.
  55. ↑ "Removing the support for forwarded ports". Mullvad VPN. 29 May 2023. Archived from the original on 22 December 2024. Retrieved 20 July 2025.
  56. ↑ "Features / Mullvad". Technical. Archived from the original on 22 December 2017. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
  57. ↑ "We have successfully completed our migration to RAM-only VPN infrastructure". Mullvad VPN. 20 September 2023. Retrieved 25 March 2024.
  58. ↑ NordVPN (15 June 2017). "Use DNS Leak Test & Quickly Identify DNS Requests Exposure!". How can it affect you?.
  59. ↑ NordVPN. "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)". Do you support IPv6?. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. No, but we are planning to add the support of IPv6 in 2018.
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  62. ↑ NordVPN (14 June 2017). "Extra Security With Double VPN". What is Double VPN & how does it work?.
  63. ↑ NordVPN. "What is OpenVPN?" . Retrieved 14 March 2018. For OpenVPN TCP connections - port 443.
  64. ↑ NordVPN. "Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)". Do you offer socks5 proxies?. Archived from the original on 13 January 2017. Yes, we do support Socks5 proxies as well as HTTP proxies (1 HTTP and Socks5 proxy at each of our VPN server destinations).
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  67. ↑ "Client Support Area / Private Internet Access VPN Service". DNS Leak Protection. Archived from the original on 31 December 2017. Retrieved 31 December 2017. We use our own private DNS servers for your DNS queries while on the VPN.
  68. ↑ "Client Support Area / Private Internet Access VPN Service". IPv6 Leak Protection. Archived from the original on 31 December 2017. IPv6 leak protection disables IPv6 traffic while on the VPN. This includes 6to4 and Teredo tunneled IPv6 traffic.
  69. ↑ "How a VPN Tunnel Works / Private Internet Access VPN Service". Archived from the original on 27 December 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2017. This is used in conjunction with the OpenVPN protocol [...]
  70. ↑ "WireGuard on PIA is out of beta and available to use on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS". 10 April 2020. Retrieved 4 February 2023.
  71. ↑ "Understanding the Multi-Hop Feature - Knowledgebase / Technical / Application Settings and Features / Application & Features - PIA Support Portal". helpdesk.privateinternetaccess.com. Retrieved 6 June 2022.
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  73. ↑ "Client Support Area / Private Internet Access VPN Service". SOCKS5 Proxy Usage Guides. Archived from the original on 31 December 2017. Although quite different from a VPN, we provide a SOCKS5 Proxy with all accounts in the event users require this feature.
  74. ↑ "Stats on 89 Linux VPN Providers Across 16 Linux Distributions" . Retrieved 15 February 2018.
  75. ↑ "Why can't I send email when on the VPN? / Private Internet Access". 31 October 2017. Archived from the original on 27 December 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2017. Any VPN provider that does not retain logs must block outgoing SMTP traffic due to rampant spam associated with usage of VPN services. With that said, we can whitelist (allow) any outgoing email server that a) require authentication, and b) is correctly setup so as not to be an open relay.
  76. ↑ "How a VPN Tunnel Works / Private Internet Access VPN Service". Archived from the original on 27 December 2017. In addition, any blocked software by your ISP including P2P and other various software applications will be unblocked and unrestricted on our systems.
  77. ↑ Private Internet Access™ is default secure from this vulnerability since we use real bare metal servers.
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  82. ↑ "PureVPN Features - Get Premium Anonymity, Security, & Privacy All In One!". Archived from the original on 12 November 2020. 10 Multi-Logins per Household
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  98. 1 2 "Hotspot Shield Privacy Frequently Asked Questions / Hotspot Shield". How does Hotspot Shield secure my Internet connection?. Archived from the original on 28 December 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017. Turning Hotspot Shield on encrypts all of the traffic between your device and our servers using TLS 1.2 with perfect forward secrecy (ECDHE), 128-bit AES data encryption.
  99. ↑ "AnchorFree Hotspot Shield Privacy Policy". Security. 29 November 2017. Archived from the original on 28 December 2017. We encrypt all of the traffic between your device and our servers using TLS 1.2 with perfect forward secrecy (ECDHE), 128-bit AES data encryption, and HMAC message authentication.
  100. 1 2 3 "Online Data Encryption - IPVanish VPN". www.ipvanish.com. 13 October 2021.
  101. ↑ "Quantum-resistant tunnels are now the default on desktop". 9 January 2025. Archived from the original on 11 January 2025.
  102. 1 2 3 NordVPN (2 March 2020). "Military-Grade VPN Encryption". How secure and reliable is NordVPN?.
  103. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Private Internet Access / VPN Encryption". Archived from the original on 27 December 2017. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
  104. 1 2 3 SaferVPN. "VPN Protocols". Archived from the original on 16 January 2018.
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