On 6/20/21 8:05 PM, Douglas McGarrett wrote:
I have had some evidence of a lack of privacy in my system, and I have a couple of questions. This lack of privacy is a function of the internet, not some person having physical access to the computer.
I realize that a vpn will definitely work with email, but will it work with Thunderbird? And will it work with vendors on the 'net? Can one access (for example) Amazon, peruse a category and purchase an item from them via vpn? Is it vendor neutral, so it works with any vendor of any type of product?
Assuming the answers to the previous questions are positive, which vpn would be easiest to set up and to use in practice, without being a 'nix guru?
I think you'll need to clarify your "lack of privacy" first. You shouldn't select a solution before you fully define the problem. Yes, Thunderbird will work with a VPN but it's not needed if you use TLS for sending/receiving email. A VPN will just encrypt the already encrypted traffic between your host and the VPN exit node. Vendors on the net? How would you access them? Web browser? Certainly you'd be connecting with https, which will give you TLS encryption between your host and the vendor. A VPN will do nothing for you if you can't trust your vendor in the first place. VPN's are useful if you want to circumvent geographical content restrictions, or if you want secure access into a remote subnet. Businesses can use VPN to enable their secure remote access privileges for their employees. I'd guess that you really don't need a VPN service. Just make sure that the protocols you use are already encrypted with TLS. Maybe others here have different opinions? Regards, Lew