Hobby Phones vs Google Voice

[RustyBalls]

Not only will telecom and service providers turn over information to gov authorities with warrants, they will also turn it over to attorneys with approved legal demands and subpoenas for information in legal cases, divorce proceedings, etc. There is also difference between call detail records (numbers you call and who called you, plus duration of call) and call content (voice content with legal wiretap, and text msg content). It's very easy to get order of call detail records for voice and text messages, text message content requires additional effort but is easily available, while voice content required prior approval of a wire tap and can only be operated by law enforcement and only under the most strict and stringent monitoring rules for limited time periods.

Your biggest risk is records of your calls and text messages and text message content which are easily available with legal paper. Voice call content is very hard to obtain..

Yet, most folks these days avoid voice calls and prefer to use text messages, of which message times and content can easily (and legally) be obtained by either law enforcement or divorce attorneys. Go Figure?

[Seldom_Seen_Smith]

This.

A VPN encrypts traffic to a particular endpoint (usually in another city) but from there your out on the Internet you get no protection. Think of it like running a really long cable from your house up to Dallas then plugging into your cousin's house. So anything your computer sends to the Internet is just as trackable. A simple test is to connect to your VPN then go to http://www.google.com. If that page comes up, then any website tracking (on your PC) will continue to work. Also keep in mind that some websites send the data directly to Google, so no matter how you access it they are collecting usage data.

What a VPN DOES do for you is prevent your ISP from seeing what you are doing. So if you were up to something nefarious and the government authorities go to them to get all your usage logs they'll get a big stack of encrypted traffic to your VPN provider, which would be useless to them. They could then go to the VPN provider and request logs but most of them (the good ones) keep 0-day logs, meaning just connection/disconnection times for billing purposes.

I'm not saying VPNs are useless - I use one. But just want everyone to understand that having one doesn't protect you from the all-seeing eyes of the Internet. They just protect the portion between you and your VPN endpoint.

As to the thread discussion, Google Voice is a great alternative to using your own phone number in respect to privacy from providers/hobbyists/bookies/etc... But does little to protect you from a governmental investigation. Any of the software solutions like GV will happily turn over usage logs and info to any authority that shows up with a warrant. But aside from a burner phone only ever paid for with cash there's not much more you can do.

When it comes to privacy/protection from authorities the main thing you have to consider is how badly they want to get you. If you're just a hobbyist or provider chances are the amount of time and money it would take to get warrants and proper investigation won't be worth the conviction. However, if you are a pimp actively engaging in human trafficking, those numbers shift rapidly in their favor.

No it doesn't actually. It encrypts all your data, or should, by creating a 'tunnel' for you when on the net, that tunnel is encrypted throughout so no one can see your data. This is from Nord's website.

A VPN service provides you a secure, encrypted tunnel for online traffic to flow. Nobody can see through the tunnel and get their hands on your internet data. NordVPN is the best VPN if you’re looking for a peace of mind when on public Wi-Fi. Securely access personal information or work files, encrypt your internet connection, and keep your browsing history private. Buy a VPN to get online privacy and security.


That's why people use vpn's. If it didn't do that for all your data why use one at all?

Seldom Seen Smith

[quzi]

Using an app like Google Voice will send all sorts of data back to Google and whoever they sell that data to. Location data (either GPS or triangulated from nearby towers) is the most valuable data that gets sold.

A VPN will not prevent this collected data from getting back to the app developer, third parties they use, and anyone that wants to buy it. You would need a specialized service separate from a VPN (or maybe provided by the VPN service) to block that metadata from reaching its home.

As for NordVPN, this blog post from them says
Here’s what it won’t do:

• It won’t protect you from social engineering or device theft. You are responsible for keeping your passwords safe. Don’t download suspicious files, and make sure you always know where your device is and who’s using it.
• It can’t secure data that you willingly surrender to a third party. Even large and trustworthy corporations can be hacked into. NordVPN secures your traffic, but once you agree to give someone your information, its security becomes their responsibility. This also includes big data giants like Google and Facebook. If you agree to use their services, that usually means you must also agree to sacrifice a great deal of your privacy.

Using an app involved consenting to their license. If you read the fine print, it says it will collect data about your usage and other information that the app will collect from your phone. It may include information about other companies that data will be shared with or potentially sold to.

Free apps sell your data. It's very hard to stop that unless you quit using them.

[Voy_1947]

I am not nearly as knowledgeable as some of the posters in this thread. I tend to think of whether the concept makes sense. Having encrypted data between my computer and the other end of the VPN conduit makes sense. Having encrypted data between my computer and the end point (OH2?) does not. I cannot imagine what OH2 does if uniquely encrypted data arrives.

[backformore]

From https://www.smartydns.com/knowledge-...pn-encryption/

How Does VPN Encryption Work?
If the security truck metaphor wasn’t enough, here’s a clear overview of the entire VPN encryption process:

Once you run the VPN client, and initiate a connection to a VPN server, the client encrypts your traffic.
Nobody can monitor the data you send to the VPN server now.
When the server receives your traffic, it decrypts it, and forwards all your connection requests to the Internet.
Next, the server will encrypt any data it receives from the web, and send it over to the VPN client on your device.
Once again, nobody can see the contents of the traffic – not your ISP, not your government, and certainly not advertisers.
When the VPN client receives the data you requested, it decrypts it, allowing you to view it securely.

[backformore]

So your data (outbound) is decrypted at the VPN endpoint but the originating IP address is not publicly available for tracking....so yes you do have a certain amount of anonymity. The VPN encrypts your data between the VPN client and the VPN server AND plus your originating IP address on the public WAN is show as the IP address of the VPN server not your actual IP address. I think it is prudent to not fully rely on just having a VPN service if you want to protect your identity. You should also use disposable accounts which have zero ties to any of your real world personal accounts or data.

[Seldom_Seen_Smith]

You can also use the TOR browser with your vpn. That will keep you almost invisible.

Seldom Seen Smith

[Micio Consigliere]

So your data (outbound) is decrypted at the VPN endpoint but the originating IP address is not publicly available for tracking....so yes you do have a certain amount of anonymity. The VPN encrypts your data between the VPN client and the VPN server AND plus your originating IP address on the public WAN is show as the IP address of the VPN server not your actual IP address. I think it is prudent to not fully rely on just having a VPN service if you want to protect your identity. You should also use disposable accounts which have zero ties to any of your real world personal accounts or data.

WOW! Great information. A hobby phone(s) not tied to you, pay as you go, in the name of Bradly Pitts, works like a dream.