Privacy on the internet is very important for many users, to achieve this they resort to TOR or a VPN. ButWhich is better? What are the advantages of using one or the other? In today’s article we are going to see in detail all the advantages and disadvantages that both have.
If we talk about internet privacy, generally the common people do not pay much attention to it. They have all their data in their Google accounts, they log in anywhere, their social networks are not configured to protect their privacy.
We could be giving examples all day. But what can happen if I expose my data in this way? The simple answer? Anything.
From attacks by cybercriminals, to the surveillance of different government agencies, limitation of access to websites, etc. Anything can happen, since information is one of the most powerful tools you can give to a company or individual.
When we surf the internet in a normal way, so to speak, we are never doing it anonymously. Even the incognito mode of the most popular browsers is not an effective method to achieve this.
It is precisely by this method that many users decide use a VPN or browse through Tor. The two systems are very good for browsing the internet anonymously, although their differences are notorious and we will mention them below.
Main advantages of using a VPN network
Explaining the operation of a VPN network is quite simple: it adds a private network to our connection. In short, the VPN network takes our connection, takes care encrypt it and then send it to the destination server.
The way it works is too simple, at least in a basic way. Instead of directly entering a website, we first go through an intermediate server and then enter the destination site through this intermediate server.
Using a VPN network is highly recommended for those who connect to the internet from public WiFi networks. Also, one of the great advantages it has is that you can camouflage your real location.
Let’s pretend you are in Argentina, but the VPN server works in the United States. All the websites you access will believe that you are precisely in the United States. Which comes in handy to bypass any kind of content blocking on the internet.
Main advantages of using Tor
The idea of Tor is to keep the user anonymous at all times when browsing the internet. To get it, our information passes between a large number of nodes before we can see the website. In this way, it is not possible to determine our location and our connection information such as IP.
Although, it is a reliable system that improves our privacy on the internet. In reality, browsing completely anonymously is not possible and neither is it in Tor. Since, in the final node the data is decrypted to be able to access the site in question. Yes we are exposed although it is much more complicated for them to find out something about us. Tor takes care of that.
When we use Tor, we are much more secure than when using any common browser. But you must bear in mind that it is not an infallible system. Although we will be much safer when visiting websites with secure connections (HTTPS) than in sites that do not have encryption activated.
A very important extra that you should always keep in mind is that: if the website is not secure, that is, it is not encrypted (HTTPS), do not enter any kind of information to it. By this we mean login information, email, bank accounts, credit cards, etc.
Tor vs VPN Which one should you use?
The first thing you should know is that most quality VPNs are paid. In the case of Tor, this is totally free and we will not have to pay absolutely anything at any time.
Another thing to keep in mind is that VPN services do store user data for obvious reasons. Anonymity is lost this way, especially if they had to face the law.
In the case of Tor this does not happen, the only problem with the latter is that the browsing speed is not exactly the bestregardless of the speed of your connection.
The bottom line is pretty simple: If you are an average user who is concerned about how companies use your private data, then it is best to use a VPN network. This will be faster than Tor which will allow us to consume multimedia content without any kind of problem.
In the case of Tor, it is used for those people who need a lot of anonymity on the internet. It is something quite common that we see in people who have to face governments. Like the case of different journalists in Venezuela, to give an example.
The differences between Tor and a VPN network are quite clear. Each one is used for something slightly different, the two promise anonymity. But you must bear in mind that long-term and total anonymity on the internet does not exist.
[Source: This article was published in explica.co - Uploaded by the Association Member: Anthony Frank]
