Just for some clarification. VPN's are to block your internet provider from seeing where you are going or to appear that your traffic is coming from wherever the VPN is instead of where you actually are.. They do not necessarily give you any extra security when accessing a site or service. what gives you security in that case is making sure you have "https" and the little lock shown on the address bar of your web browser in the locked position. if you have that lock, locked, you're good. The commercials that they are giving you some sort of extra security at all times is very misleading.
Let me explain 4 scenarios.
Lets say you use a vpn but you access a site that doesn't have that encryption lock, what happens is this. your RAW traffic gets hidden in a tunnel between you and the VPN people, so that your internet provider cant see where your traffic is going or what kind of traffic it is (ie: going to a website or file sharing), but then from that point on, The VPN people take you out of the tunnel and your raw data gets forwarded from the vpn people, out onto the regular internet, to the actual site that you were going to, without any security, and your data can be picked up anywhere along that route.
now, using a vpn but the lock in your browser is locked: your ENCRYPTED data is now sent through a tunnel so that your internet provider can't see where your traffic (or what kind of traffic) is going . once it gets to the VPN people, the VPN provider now takes you out of the tunnel and send your data out on the regular internet to the site you wanted to go to. It is still encrypted and therefore safe from prying eyes but any internet provider along the route can see where it's going. they have to in order to direct it where it needs to go.
Using No VPN but the lock IS locked in your browser: Your ENCRYPTED data is sent and your internet provider can see where the traffic is going (naturally, so that it can send your data where it needs to go) but they can't see the actual traffic because its encrypted. no one else can see the data anywhere along the way but they can see where the encrypted data is going so that they can get it there. The data is safe from prying eyes.
Last, No VPN, No lock: your raw data is sent, your internet provider can see where it's going and what the data is. anyone along the internet can see that also.
For those who, right about now, are now in a panic about enabling the little lock on the web browser. don't worry, all your banks, paypals, financial institutions and bill payments and just about every official website (even this one) these days uses https and encrypts your data and that lock gets locked automatically. look at the top of your web browser to the left of the DR1 address.. you'll see the lock.
As long as the lock is locked, you're safe from data being hacked even without a vpn. In most cases, VPN's are just adding extra stops along the way and slowing your traffic down. If youre in the DR, I'm pretty sure no one even cares if you're watching US streams. The DR is not under US copyright laws. (kind of like how they had generic viagra there while pfizer still held the viagra copyright in the US)
When people were getting in trouble for copyright stuff on the net, it was in using file sharing apps. In that case, your computer was making direct shares to other peoples computers. the problem was that some of the other peoples computers, weren't other peoples. they were computers at the motion picture association of america offices and they were logging who was sharing the movies and reporting you to your internet provider. In that case, a VPN would help because they could only see as far as back to the vpn, they could not see back through the "tunnel" to find your actual internet address or who your provider was.
helpful?
