VPN Security – Choosing a Mobile VPN Provider

VPN Security – Choosing a Mobile VPN Provider

Whether you use your phone for business or pleasure, accessing social media, online shopping or just sending messages to friends and family, it’s more than likely that, unless you specifically intend otherwise, you will want your communications to remain private.

However, transmitting data over the Internet is not as secure as many people like to think, while the preponderance of apps that we increasingly use for chatting and messaging has only increased the risk of data being intercepted, as their use essentially grants a third party direct access to your mobile device.

In reality, the only safe way to transmit data over the Internet from your phone is via a VPN, as this will mask your location and IP address, and securely encrypt your data in such a way that, even it is intercepted, it can’t be decrypted and used. However, at the same time it needs to be remembered that not all VPNs do the job they’re supposed to.

What makes a good VPN app?

If you’re in the market for a VPN app for your phone, it’s important to know what to look for. The market is crowded, and it can be hard to effectively compare the competing claims of VPN providers, especially for the layman. There are, however, some important questions to ask if you want to get the highest level of security possible.

Most important of all is to determine whether a VPN app logs your Internet activity. Any app that does so is effectively rendering itself useless, as this is contrary to what most of us want to use a VPN for — to mask our location and IP address so that we can remain anonymous. Determining if a provider logs activity or not can be tricky; the best advice is to assume that if an app does not state explicitly in its privacy policy or elsewhere that it does not log your activity, it is best to assume that it does.

Why is logging of your activity a problem? Apart from stripping away your anonymity, it means that your Internet usage is retained and can be made available to law enforcement agencies, and/or can be sold on to third party advertisers or marketers.

You should also attempt to discover whether a VPN app is ‘zero knowledge’ when it comes to chatting and SMS messages — this means that the VPN provider is unable to get access to your messages, decrypt them or read them.

So what does a good VPN app do? Rather than simply create a ‘tunnel’ through which your data is transmitted to a remote server, it will also encrypt it so that it can’t be ‘read’ by others. If an app does encrypt, it’s also important that it does so using the most recent Internet Protocols.

In terms of meeting the criteria for an effective and secure VPN app, Express VPN Mobile has proven itself to be ahead of the curve, as has VyperVpn. These both have good public security records, are clear about the fact that they don’t log your activity, and are zero knowledge with regard to messaging. In addition, both have server locations across the globe, use 256-bit encryption and allow you to have more than one connection at a time. You are required to pay for these services, but you need to consider how much your security is worth.

What other security measures can you take?

There are some other security measures you can take to protect your phone. The first of these is to avoid using public networks unless you have a VPN app installed, as data is not transferred securely on public wi-fi networks.

For messaging, only use apps that employ encryption, as this prevents your messages from being read even if they are intercepted. Consider an app like Proton Mail to encrypt emails sent from your phone as well.

You should only download apps from trusted sources, like Google Play, the Android Store or iTunes, and resist the temptation to ‘jailbreak’, or download apps from third-party providers. You are at more risk of your data being intercepted, or installing malware, with apps from unrecognised sources.

Also, take care to manage your app permissions, as this controls which information that is stored on your phone (e.g., contacts, messages, etc,) is accessible by the app.

Bottom Line

VPN Mobile apps are an essential tool if you want to be able to communicate privately and securely, access the Internet anonymously, or keep your operating system safe from malware and other attacks. However, it’s important to know that not all VPNs are created equal and that you should make sure precisely what a VPN does in terms of logging your activity and encrypting your communications, and what it does with your data and personal information, before you can be confident that you’re getting absolute, foolproof mobile security.