- Tor or VPN?
The truth is, it's not an apples to apples comparison.
And since you really care about your privacy and security,
I'm going to give you a basic understanding
of how each of these tools works
and the specific jobs that they're built for.
Welcome to All Things Secured.
My name's Josh, I'm going to start
off the answering this question with another simple
yet important question of my own, is your reason
for using this kind of privacy technology to keep you
from getting in trouble?
If the answer's, yes,
well, then Tor is probably your best option.
If your answer is no,
well, then VPN might be recommended.
And when I say trouble,
I'm not talking about illegal activity.
I'm specifically referring to dissonance
in places like China or Russia, fearing political backlash
to journalists, looking to protect their sources
or to whistleblowers, hoping to protect themselves.
Because as an average internet user,
you need to be honest with yourself here.
True security and anonymity is impossible
unless you abandon the internet altogether.
So everything else is best measured, not in binary terms.
Yes, this is private,
no, this is not private,
but rather measured in degrees of strength.
And that's why a nuanced answer is necessary
when comparing Tor versus VPN.
Now, I'm going to provide a comparison between the two,
but if you watch to the end of this video,
I want to offer another lesser known solution
that might work because it combines the strengths
of both of these tools into one.
And while we're at it,
click on that subscribe button below to make sure you
get more great security content on this
All Things Secured channel, okay.
Let's dive in, Tor.
Also known as The Onion Router, takes its name
from the way in which it transmits data in layers.
It takes your data, including identifiable information
such as your IP address.
And it wraps it up in multi-layered encryption and sends it
through a network of randomly selected relay servers.
Each of which only knows their small portion
of the journey and not the entire entry to exit transfer.
Let me give you another simplified example
to help you explain this better.
Imagine that I want to send a top secret message
to my parents, without them knowing
that it was me who sent it.
I wrap up this message in an envelope and address it
to my friend, but I don't put my return address on it.
So when I give this envelope to the mailman,
he doesn't know where the letter
is ultimately going to end up.
He just knows to deliver it to my friend.
Now, when my friend receives the letter
he doesn't know where it came from
since it has no return address.
All he knows is that when he opens it up,
there are instructions to give it to my parents.
And finally, when my parents received this message,
all they know is that it came from my friend
but they won't have any information as
to the origin of the message.
That in simple terms is Tor.
This approach provides a lot of anonymity
and it's the best option for those who are truly concerned
about somebody following their internet traffic
but Tor does have weaknesses.
First of all, it's very slow.
And that makes sense
if you consider all that's happening
with the data when it passes through the Tor network.
So if you're wanting to stream video content online,
download large files or do anything other
than basic internet browsing or messaging,
Tor is going to be frustrating for you to use.
Second, because the Tor project publishes
the full list of exit nodes,
there are a lot of online services
that either block access to their website
for anybody that comes from one of these exit nodes
or they force repeated security challenges such
as Capture and other measures.
This means that when you're using Tor,
instead of having freer access to the internet,
you might find yourself a bit more restricted.
Third, for the average internet user,
the only way you're going to access the Tor network is
via the Tor browser.
This means that any other app or data transfer
on your device that doesn't go through that browser also
does not receive the privacy benefits of the Tor network.
A system-wide or device wide Tor connection is possible
but it's not going to be easy for you,
the average person to kind of set up.
And finally, as I preach
over and over on this YouTube channel,
no tool, no tool is 100% secure or 100% private.
And there are still ways to pierce the veil
of anonymity in Tor.
Over the years, various security consultants
and researchers have claimed ways
to compromise the integrity of the Tor network.
But unless your communications are high value,
it's unlikely anybody would make the effort to do this.
The more likely scenario is that you compromise yourself
by sending along identifiable data, almost as
if I had signed the letter to my parents.
It completely defeats the purpose
of sending an anonymous message in the first place.
Oh, and I almost forgot to mention one last thing,
Tor is free, which is definitely a bonus
but this reliance on volunteers is precisely
why the network hasn't grown very fast over the past decade.
And it brings up legitimate concerns
about who owns these nodes
and why they're willing to absorb the costs
of running them for free.
How does this compare
with a Virtual Private Network or a VPN?
Well, to start, VPN wasn't designed to be a privacy tool.
It was initially designed
as a way to securely connect to a remote server.
This is often used by companies to allow remote employees
or offices to plug into the primary company network.
But the idea has since grown to include individuals
like you and me who want to either hide our IP address
or connect internet from a different geolocation.
And that's really what a VPN does best,
hiding your IP address and changing your perceived location.
I mean, there is an additional layer
of encryption that happens between you
and that VPN server you connect to,
but once your internet traffic leaves that VPN server
the encryption is also gone.
So take that for what it's worth.
And this is why it bothers me that so much
of the VPN industry and many of the influencers
and content creators who make money here
tend to promote the privacy
and security as the primary selling points of a VPN.
As I've made clear in another video,
about why you should stop using VPN,
the truth is that Virtual Private Network
is best used to evade censorship,
protect your IP address
and or access georestricted content
like Disney plus, BBCI Player, and more.
Unlike Tor, a VPN allows you to easily choose your exit node
which is better when trying to stream this kind
of blocked content.
It's also significantly faster for streaming content
and easier to use, not just for your browser
but for your entire internet connection on your device.
And on the one hand VPN encryption
is extremely difficult to break
but on the other hand, as I've talked about before
on this channel, using the commercial VPN is simply a shift
of your trust away from your internet service provider
and into the hands of a VPN company.
Most of these VPN companies seek to earn that trust
through independent audits and no logs claims.
But the truth is that the promise is just that,
it's a promise and there's always
a risk that it could be broken.
I'm comparing the two side by side here,
but as I said at the very beginning of this video,
this really isn't an apples to apples comparison.
We're comparing a de-centralized privacy tool, Tor,
with a centralized secure access tool or VPN.
If your data presents a danger to you,
Tor is probably your best option.
For everything else, a VPM probably
does everything you need and better.
But hold on, I think it's important to note
that these aren't the only tools available to you.
There are many, many more ways to do this
but I want to highlight two variations
of these privacy tools that build
on the strengths of each and minimize their weaknesses.
First, there's what's known as Tor Over VPN,
also called Onion Over VPN
where you're basically connecting
to a VPN first and then accessing
the Tor network from there.
It hides the fact that you're using Tor and it prevents any
of the Tor nodes from seeing your home IP address,
if for some reason that matters to you.
The other option that I like more is
a decentralized VPN or DVPN for short.
This is a fascinating new technology that combines the speed
and control of a VPN
with the privacy and de-centralization of Tor.
It's also run by a network of volunteer nodes
but since they get paid
for the bandwidth they provide using crypto,
there's an understandable incentive
for the growth of the network.
Now, I'm not going to go
into depth here since I already have another video
on this channel that describes it better,
so go check that out
to see how DVPN works and how I use a service
like Mysterium to access that network.
I'm not here to declare a winner between VPN and Tor,
or to tell you that you need to use one over the other,
what I hope is that you now have a basic understanding
of how they work and what they're best used for.
Thanks for watching, you know, videos like this
take time to research and produce, and one
of the best ways that you can support my work
is to hit that like button and subscribe.
I also try to answer all questions
in the comment section below, stay safe.