![]() ![]() ![]() If a researcher finds a genuine vulnerability and reports it to the company, they could receive up to $1,250. To encourage experts to take a look, PIA recently announced a Bug Bounty program. The company’s apps are open source, allowing others to examine the source code, look for bugs, and see whether it's doing anything which might compromise the user's privacy. Again, Private Internet Access has way more to boast about than many rivals. It’s important for a VPN to show transparency, to offer real evidence that it’s living up to its promises. But with PIA, nothing gets sent unless you go into the Settings panel and turn on the feature yourself (it's the 'Help improve PIA' option in the Help area, if you're curious). Some turn this on by default, with the VPN presumably hoping users never realize what’s happening. Many VPNs have an option to send anonymous connection data back to the company, to help improve the service. The best providers show they respect your privacy, and PIA scores here, too. Private Internet Access managed to protect all of our data from DNS leakage in the tests we performed (Image credit: Private Internet Access) Private Internet Access says that if you purchase a new account more than three months after the last refund, you're eligible for another. Many VPNs say customers are only allowed one refund, ever. ![]() PIA's Terms and Services (opens in new tab) has another surprise (and unusually for small print, it's a good one). There's a free 7-day trial for mobile users, and you're also covered by a 30-day money-back guarantee. You can pay for PIA via Bitcoin if you're looking for extra privacy, or by card or PayPal, plus there are other methods depending on your region (Amazon Pay is supported in the US, for instance). NordVPN is a little more expensive at $5.83 a month on its annual plan, but Ivacy undercuts everyone at just $1.99 a month. Pricing for a dedicated IP is reasonable at $5 a month, $4.25 on the one-year plan, $3.75 over three years. But using the same IP also means you're more likely to be recognized by websites, so this isn't an ideal option for everyone. These get you the same IP address every time you log on, and as no one shares it, you're less likely to find you're block-listed due to someone else's dodgy activities. PIA offers dedicated IPs in Australia, Canada, Germany, Singapore, UK and US, and recently added Japan and Switzerland. Putting that into perspective, Hotspot Shield’s Premium plan costs $95.99 for one year’s protection PIA asks only $79 for your first three. The annual plan (opens in new tab) is cheaper than most at a low $3.33 a month, but opt for the three-year plan (opens in new tab) and this drops to just $2.03 ($2.19 on renewal). The Private Internet Access monthly plan (opens in new tab) is fair value at $11.95. Even your internet service provider won’t see it.Private Internet Access provides a range of payment methods (Image credit: Private Internet Access) Private Internet Access pricing This keeps the contents of your internet traffic completely private. Encryptionĭata inside the tunnel is also encrypted in such a way that only the intended recipient can decrypt it. This makes it harder for third parties to read in transit. Tunneling is a process by which each data packet is encapsulated inside another data packet. VPNs also protect the connection between client and server with tunneling and encryption. Once authenticated, the VPN client and VPN server can be sure they are talking to each other and no one else. AuthenticationĮstablishing a secure connection is a tricky problem solved by clever mathematics in a process called authentication. This makes you more anonymous on the internet. The VPN server acts like a proxy, or stand-in, for your web activity: Instead of your real IP address and location, websites you visit will only see the IP address and location of the VPN server. Here are several key concepts related to VPN that will help you understand how a VPN works and the benefits it provides: Proxying ![]()
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