Technology

37599 readers

277 users here now

A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.

Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.

Subcommunities on Beehaw:

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Does a VPN used on a smartphone with Wi-Fi disabled (mobile data only enabled) provide any sort of protection? (beehaw.org)

submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

65 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I've never completely understood this, but I think the answer would probably be "no," although I'm not sure. Usually when I leave the house I turn off wifi and just use mobile data (this is a habit from my pre-VPN days), although I guess I should probably just keep it on since using strange Wi-Fi with a VPN is ok (unless someone at Starbucks is using the evil twin router trick . . . ?). I was generally under the impression that mobile data is harder to interfere with than Wi-Fi, but I could well be wrong and my notions out of date. So, if need be, please set me straight. 🙂

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 months ago

Even though most data traffic is encrypted who you're talking to is not encrypted.

So a third party can observe, who you're talking to, how much data you're sending to them, how frequently you talk to them....

The classic example is if you start visiting a suicide prevention website, even though they don't know the content that you're being served, they can guess oh you're having mental issues. We should revoke your security clearance... Etc