Since your IP address is your unique identifier, if your VPN service suffers from leaks, it can very well compromise your online privacy.Įven if someone can’t necessarily hack you using your IP, it can easily disclose a lot of information about you. It’s meant to obscure your identity and online activities from the rest of the world, by masking your original IP address. In essence, a VPN is meant to protect your online privacy by establishing a secure encrypted tunnel between you and the internet. Let’s start with IP leaks first… IP Address Leaks IP address leaks (IPv4, IPv6, and Torrent IP leak).There are essentially three (3) different types of leaks you should be concerned about: While VPN leaks do have a lot to do with bugs and flawed protocols (more on that later), unaddressed vulnerabilities in existing technology are the prime suspect for leaking your true identity.īrowser using WebRTC, browser plugins and even operating systems on our phones and other devices are just to name a few. That’s a clear indication of a VPN leak.īut you can’t entirely blame your VPN provider for leaks. The reason is simple, the service or website you are trying to access is actually tracking your true IP rather than the IP of your VPN provider. Everything seems fine and dandy, but you’re still unable to access that particular content. Let’s say you connect to a VPN server of your choice and try to access to a geo-blocked website. We’ve found ExpressVPN as the best VPN with DNS leak protection and provides complete security with high connectivity speeds. And why not? After all, leaks are pretty common with low-end or budget VPN services. I bet you’ve experienced one of these leaks at least once with your own VPN service. When a VPN app sends user’s DNS requests to public DNS servers other than that of the VPN provider.When a VPN app exposes public IP address to third parties.When a VPN app allows the flow of unencrypted traffic from the device.Now there’s no textbook definition of VPN leaks, but based on my VPN test, I would explain it as:Ī VPN leak occurs when user’s real IP address or DNS is disclosed despite using a VPN’s encrypted private tunnel VPN Leaks and its impact on your Privacy. To conduct one of the most thorough research on the internet, I’m going to cover 55 VPN providers in the industry and see which VPNs fail to fulfill their destined purpose.īut before we begin, let’s first start by talking about VPN leaks and its types. A study released by Internet Measurement Conference revealed 25 out of 62 VPN providers to be leaking user’s traffic.īased on such strong concerns, I’ve decided to conduct my own VPN test. IP and DNS leaks are not just limited to Android apps. According to a research, out of 150 VPN apps on Google Play Store, 25% of them suffered from DNS leaks. Now I know you have no idea about DNS, WebRTC and IP leaks, but bear with me as I’ll discuss everything in great detail in this VPN leak test guide.īut right now, what I’m trying to say is, you can’t put your blind faith in VPN providers. What leak am I talking about? Believe it or not, no matter the level of encryption your VPN provider promises to provide, it can very well be susceptible to DNS, WebRTC and IP leaks.
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