They don't really mention anything about Opera VPN... but they do call out it's previous incarnation, Surfeasy, for the use of tracking/ad libraries. I wonder if the current Opera branded version has removed those or not...
Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps
51–60 of 64 posts
Re: Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps
#52As far as I know, Android VPN API does not expose setting up IPSec or IKEv2, it just creates a TUN device and forwards all the IP packets to you, it is upto you to handle it, therefore most devs I guess just sends the packet without encrypting. This does not mean they should be insensitive, but it is not suprising the most people have chosen the easy way. I guess iOS allows setting IPSec and IKEv2 VPN profiles, but did not try it. And, to actually create a TUN-device like functionality, it requires manual permisson from Apple, as OpenVPN did.
Re: Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
Can you elaborate where you are seeing this? Is this as the post-secondary level or lower? I worked in higher-ed in the US and almost uniformly our institution and those we talked to in mailing lists were adamantly anti-blocking. Remembering back to when I was in HS and our library was outfitted with a few donated computers that shared a 56k connection, I know they had a net-nanny installed, but that was quite some t…
Schools blocking stuff is very active still- it's extremely prevalent up to and including high school, and only a handful of colleges do any sort of filtering. Furthermore, kids find increasingly shady free vpns as IT blocks more and more free vpns. Lots of kids will use free vpns to get their SAT/ACT/AP scores a day or so early.
> Lots of kids will use free vpns to get their SAT/ACT/AP scores a day or so early.
I don't understand - how does a VPN help there? Are schools actually blocking the websites that publish the test results?
Re: Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps
#54considering 99% install a vpn on android for two reason:
1. bypass content restrictions by geoip (e.g. pandora, netflix)
2. a vpn that is just a local traffic monitor to tweak iptables(?) and block apps from using the network (to download ads). (e.g. netguard)
Re: Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no anonymity if you roll your own. The whole idea of VPN providers is that a lot of users have a connection to the same server so it's hard to monitor who talks to who.
Perhaps you're confusing VPNs with Tor. The latter seeks to provide anonymity; the former protects traffic traveling over a potentially untrustworthy network. Sure, a lot of folks seem to use VPNs lately as just a proxy to bypass geoblocking or whatever, and that works if the upstream endpoint is in the right place - but that's no reason to get confused about what the tool under discussion actually is able to do.
I am not confused there are just more cases.
A lot of people are using VPN providers to download illegal content via torrents. And in case there are no logs on the servers (which most providers advertise) the copyright holder has no way of knowing who you are since they only see that the traffic is coming and going from the providers IP address.
Re: Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Schools blocking stuff is very active still- it's extremely prevalent up to and including high school, and only a handful of colleges do any sort of filtering. Furthermore, kids find increasingly shady free vpns as IT blocks more and more free vpns. Lots of kids will use free vpns to get their SAT/ACT/AP scores a day or so early.
> Lots of kids will use free vpns to get their SAT/ACT/AP scores a day or so early. I don't understand - how does a VPN help there? Are schools actually blocking the websites that publish the test results?
Some standardized test scores are released on different dates depending on the location of your IP (divided into zones like Eastern, Central, Western US, and International).
Re: Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps you're confusing VPNs with Tor. The latter seeks to provide anonymity; the former protects traffic traveling over a potentially untrustworthy network. Sure, a lot of folks seem to use VPNs lately as just a proxy to bypass geoblocking or whatever, and that works if the upstream endpoint is in the right place - but that's no reason to get confused about what the tool under discussion actually is able to do.
I am not confused there are just more cases. A lot of people are using VPN providers to download illegal content via torrents. And in case there are no logs on the servers (which most providers advertise) the copyright holder has no way of knowing who you are since they only see that the traffic is coming and going from the providers IP address.
Those people are in for a series of nasty surprises if copyright enforcement ever grows teeth, because whoever's providing such a VPN service with backhaul certainly has enough information to tie them to their activity.
Re: Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Why would you need a third party app on Android? Because the consensus seems to be that if you use any VPN besides OpenVPN you're a moron, and therefore some build-in solutions for some OSes only support OpenVPN.
Now I'm all confused. Let me check the built-in support for OpenVPN: Windows - nope. Android - nope. Linux - nope. iOS - nope. OS X - nope. The consensus you are referring to seems to be quite imaginary - or I'm missing something. What is it?
Some routers have built-in OpenVPN in their Linux distros.
Re: Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Tor == "The Onion Router". TorGuard == something completely unrelated to Tor. Per the TorGuard website ( https://torguard.net/faq.php ): "Is TorGuard related in any way to the “tor” project? No, The reference to "tor" in TorGuard relates to "torrents" and guarding one’s privacy when using bitorrent. We are not related in any way to the “tor” project however the company does support through donations." Orbot, OTOH, is…
Well that's.. stupid. Ok, I entirely agree they (and I) are wrong. But obviously I'm going to take the position that it isn't unreasonable to think something called "TorGuard" has something to do with Tor.
If you're just doing a google search then yeah it's reasonable. It's less so when you're a professional who's supposed to be an expert on these things. If you can't spend more than 5 seconds double checking the accuracy of your research why should I trust it?
Re: Privacy and Security Risks of Android VPN Permission-enabled Apps
#60Slightly off topic, but I'd be interested while I have the VPN people here to hear opinions about Softether. I've been using it for a while and like it. But I can't get much independent information about it from a security point of view.
I once looked extensively into Softether. It's the work of a Japanese professor and his lab. It's over a million lines of code because squeezes different VPN protocols into one server. IIRC it might even require some binaries as a prerequisite to installation. Nobody has ever audited its source code (how could they? it's million+ lines), and it has not popular long enough to have faced serious scrutiny. I would assum…
That's interesting. Guess that might be a problem for the people who use http://www.vpngate.net/en/ which I know the Softether guys created expressly to help people circumvent Governmental level firewalls.