VPNs for activists

There is a lot of debate online about whether a VPN is useful or not. The answer depends on what you're trying to protect and who you're trying to protect it from.

What is a VPN? A VPN is an app you install on your phone or computer that redirects all your internet traffic through its servers. Its main purpose is to change your IP address (which is your computer's "home address" on the internet). Normally all the devices in your house have the same IP address, and all of your traffic is carried by your internet provider. If you use a VPN, you share the same IP address with thousands of other users, and your traffic goes through the VPN company instead of your internet provider.

This does two things: it keeps your browsing away from your internet provider, and it hides your real IP address from the websites you visit. It can also get around location-based blocking, because the IP address you get from the VPN can be in another country.

For activists specifically, our online activity can be used against us in court, even if what we're doing is legal. So protecting our data is important. A VPN can help with that, but it's not a silver bullet. It protects a narrow slice of your data, and it is not as big of a privacy win as most VPN marketing webpages and YouTuber sponsored ads would have you believe.

Do you need a VPN?

Maybe, but probably not.

A VPN gives you a different IP address and moves your internet traffic away from your internet provider. That's worth something, but there are many other ways our online activity gets tracked, and a VPN doesn't help with most of them.

There are a number of things that are much more helpful for activist digital security than installing a VPN:

• Turn off location permissions for most apps
• Disable ad ID on your phone
• Use a privacy-focused browser with ad-blocking enabled by default
• Use a privacy-focused search engine
• Use a privacy-focused map/navigation app (Apple Maps or Magic Earth)
• And everything else on our Essentials checklist...

Once you've done those, a VPN is useful for activists in a narrow set of cases that we describe in the next section.

And if you only occasionally need to protect what you're doing in a browser, Tor Browser is free and does more to provide anonymity than a VPN.

Cases where a VPN might be useful

✅ You want to make it harder for data brokers to collect your browsing and location data (which cops can use to target you)

ICE and other law enforcement agencies are using tools like Tangles and Webloc to track phones. They have a long history of using buying location data, and targeting communities based on data they purchase from data brokers.

The best way to prevent the cops from using location data to target you is to disable location permissions for most apps and disable ad ID on your phone.

But, installing a VPN can help in three other ways:

• It can stop your internet provider from selling your browsing data to data brokers, which can end in the hands of police.
• It can give you a different IP address, making it harder for your city-level location to end up in a data broker's database and for your web traffic to be as easily correlated. (But it does not make you anonymous online, see the limits of a VPN below.)
• It can make it easier to block ads, which is part of how data brokers get info about you, even if you never click an ad. Not every VPN does this, but the ones we recommend do (IVPN calls it "AntiTracker," Proton calls it "NetShield"). Note: There are other ways to block ads, but they are harder to set up for most users. See AdGuard and read more below about encrypted DNS.

These are the main reasons why we still think a VPN is worthwhile for higher-risk activists. It's possible that a VPN doesn't offer any significant protection against these threats. But it's also possible that it does, and the downsides to using one are relatively small.

✅ You want to stop your internet provider from selling your data or turning over your data to the cops

If you are concerned that your home internet provider or your cell company (which provides data to your phone) sells your data or turns your data over to the cops, a VPN takes that data out of their hands. All your internet provider can see is that you are connected to a VPN.

The tradeoff is that your VPN company can now see that same information instead. You are not eliminating the risk, you are choosing who holds it. That is why it matters so much which VPN you pick (see our recommendations below).

✅ Other cases where a VPN might be useful

• A VPN can be useful if you're trying to bypass internet censorship in your country (or if you're traveling abroad).
• It can also let you bypass location-based restrictions on streaming services.

Why VPN advice online is so unreliable

It helps to know why so many people believe a VPN does more than it does.

VPN companies pay a commission for every person who signs up through an affiliate link. That is why your favorite YouTuber's video opens with a VPN ad, and why the internet is full of "best VPN of 2026" listicles.

It goes further than ads. Kape Technologies owns ExpressVPN, CyberGhost, Private Internet Access, and ZenMate. In 2021 it also bought two of the largest VPN review sites, vpnMentor and Wizcase, which ranked all three of Kape's own VPNs in their top three recommendations.

None of this means every VPN is bad. It means the loudest voices telling you that you need one are paid to say so, and their claims run well ahead of what the technology actually does.

The limits of a VPN

A VPN does one narrow thing. Here is what people expect it to do that it doesn't.

A VPN does not make you anonymous

It only changes your IP address. On most major websites (Google, Instagram, etc.) you are also logged into an account, which identifies you no matter what IP address you are using. Even when you aren't logged in, those sites combine other details to uniquely identify you: your browser version, operating system, screen size, timezone, browser plugins, etc. This is called your browser's "fingerprint." Check out Cover Your Tracks from EFF to see your browser's fingerprint.

For real anonymity, use Tor Browser for your most sensitive online activity.

Being based in another country doesn't put a VPN out of reach of the US government

The US has something called a "mutual legal assistance treaty" (MLAT) with many countries. This means they can submit a warrant to that country and they will use their legal system to execute the warrant. It usually does take a lot more work and time than if the company were based in the US, so there is a slight advantage. But it doesn't mean the data is safe.

Even if your VPN doesn't keep logs, the cops could ask them for your payment information if you use a VPN attached to your email address. (This is why we recommend a service like IVPN that gives you a unique account ID not attached to an email.)

You don't need a VPN on public Wi-Fi

This advice was popular around 2010-2015, and it stuck around long after it stopped being true. These days, most websites use a secure connection (HTTPS) by default. The coffee shop, the airport, and everyone else on the network can see the domains you visit (example.com), but not what you are doing there (such as the articles you read, the posts you view, or your password or credit card number).

A VPN does not protect you from being hacked

The most common attacks don't care whether a VPN is on. Phishing (where you accidentally give your password to a fake website) works exactly the same. So does a malicious email attachment.

Exception: Some VPNs do have a setting that blocks known malware domains. That only catches a narrow slice of attacks, and most browsers and many DNS providers already offer similar filtering.

Paying for a VPN doesn't make it trustworthy

Price tells you nothing about whether a company will protect you. Some of the VPNs we specifically do not recommend are also the most expensive and the most heavily advertised.

A bad VPN is worse than no VPN

A VPN can see all of your internet traffic. If they keep logs, they can turn this data over to the cops just like your internet provider could. They can also use it to sell data about you to advertisers and data brokers

Most "free" VPN apps are really sketchy. Some are effectively malware that let other people maliciously use your internet connection.

This is why "just use a VPN" is bad advice on its own, and why we keep a list of the ones we have vetted.

You don't need a VPN to block ads and trackers (but a VPN can make it easier)

Many VPNs do offer this, and it is a real feature. But your browser does it better: use a privacy-focused browser like Brave (or Firefox with uBlock Origin installed).

Where a VPN helps is with mobile apps that don't use a browser, since your browser's blocker can't reach those. You can also get that through custom DNS resolvers, but it is much more complicated to set up.

How to set up a VPN

Downsides to using a VPN

• You will encounter more CAPTCHAs on websites (those little "prove you are a human" puzzles)
• Some websites may block VPN access, and you'll have to disable it and remember to re-enable it later
• Some streaming services might not work
• Public Wi-Fi that makes you sign in on a pop-up page (airports, planes, hotels) often won't load while the VPN is on. You usually have to turn the VPN off to sign in, then turn it back on. This can be espcially annoying if you forget that the VPN might be the cause of the problem.

If you experience odd behavior on a website, try turning off the VPN temporarily to see if it will load. IVPN offers a "pause for 5 minutes" option, which helps you not have to remember to turn it back on later.

Note: You must use a trusted VPN that doesn't keep logs of your internet traffic and will push back on government requests. We've vetted our top recommendations.

✅ VPNs we recommend for activists

• IVPN: We recommend IVPN for activists. They've built trust over the long term with privacy advocates.
• Proton VPN: Good if you need a free option. Slight downside: it is harder to have an anonymous account and payment method. But can be good if you already pay for other Proton services.
• RiseupVPN: Good if you need a free option. Doesn't receive frequent security updates, but it is run by trusted activists in the US. (Normally we don't recommend using US-based VPNs. We make an exception here because Riseup is built to not retain the kind of data that would be useful to law enforcement in the first place, so there is very little for them to hand over, and they have a long history of pushing back on government legal requests.)

🟡 VPNs that we don't have a verdict on yet

• Windscribe: Has a decent track record. Not as feature-rich as IVPN.
• NymVPN: Has an interesting design, but too new for us to recommend. Needs a security audit and a longer track record. Possible that their "mixnet" mode might actually be as secure or more secure than Tor, but it will be a while (years) before we know that for sure. Founder appears to have leftist politics.
• Obscura: Looks legit, but too new for us to recommend. Needs a security audit and a longer track record.
• AirVPN: Popular among some privacy advocates.
• Hide.me: Decent track record, and we have no big flags. But it doesn't have the anonymous account features that IVPN offers (through vouchers). And it hasn't invested as much in security audits over the years.
• Apple iCloud Private Relay: Built into iCloud+ on iPhones and Macs, so many Apple users already have it on. It's quite well-designed (your traffic goes through not just Apple, but also a 3rd party provider, so it is much harder to track), but it only works on Safari and Apple Mail. So it isn't a full solution.

❌ VPNs we do NOT recommend

We strongly suggest not using any VPN that isn't in the recommended list above.

A VPN has access to the domain name (example.com) of every website you visit, and can turn this information over to the cops (like PureVPN did for the FBI) or sell it to data brokers, which the cops also sometimes use for warrantless surveillance.

FAQ

What about encrypted DNS?

A common argument against VPNs is that you can just use an encrypted DNS resolver service to get many of the same benefits (and usually at no cost). Encrypted DNS will hide the domains (example.com) you visit from your internet provider, but it will not hide your IP address or approximate location.

We love offering free options, but the reason we still recommend a VPN is primarily for usability. Setting up custom DNS across every device is too challenging for most users. If you can figure out how to set up encrypted DNS (on your phone and laptop) and enable ad blocking, then you will get a number of the privacy benefits of a VPN without the cost.

If you want to use a custom DNS resolver that doesn't require a highly technical setup, we recommend AdGuard ($1-3/month).

You don't need to use this if you're using one of the VPNs we recommend, because ad-blocking DNS is already included as a feature.

Learn more

• What is a VPN? - Privacy Guides
• Attack of the evil baristas - Why you don't need a VPN at a coffee shop