For the most part, if you pick one of our best virtual private network services here, you'll be well protected. But if your VPN is leaking data, there are steps you can take.
Just how secure is your private data? You may think you have a Fort Knox-like setup, but don't take risks with your personal info. It's worth confirming that the virtual private network, or VPN, software you use is actually doing its job, or if it's allowing your personal data to go hither and thither without your knowledge.
For the most part, if you pick our VPN services, you'll be well protected, be it on a PC or even a smart device. But if you use other services it never hurts to check. Things break, new exploits are found, and there's always a chance your VPN may be leaking more data than you prefer. Here are some steps you can take to see if that's true.
Check Your IP Address
Your home has an IP address, not just a street address. The IP (internet protocol) address is the unique number assigned to your router by your ISP. (Your internal home network in turn gives each node in your home—PCs, phones, consoles, smart appliances, anything connected to the router—an IP address. But in this case, we're only concerned with your public-facing IP address.)
The IP address is how your computers/router talk to servers on the internet. They don't use names—because computers prefer numbers. IP addresses are typically bound not only to the ISPs that assign them, but also specific locations.
When someone has your IP address, they get a lot more than just some numbers: they can narrow down where you live.
IP addresses come in several formats, either a IPv4 (internet protocol version 4) version like 172.16.254.1 or an IPv6 type that looks like 2001:0db8:0012:0001:3c5e:7354:0000:5db1.
Let's keep it simple. Your own public-facing IP address is easy to find
(see more here: How to Find Your IP Address).
Also you can go to Google and type "what's my IP address." Or go to sites like Tenta Browser Privacy Test, IPLocation, WhatIsMyAddress.com, or WhatIsMyIP.com. They'll display more than your IP; they'll also give you the Geo-IP—the location linked to the address.
Take the IP address that comes up and search for it in Google with IP in front, like "IP 172.16.254.1" (sans quotation marks). If it keeps coming up with your city location, your VPN has a big, messy leak.
The leak could be caused by what's known as the WebRTC bug; WebRTC is a collection of standards that look hard to find your IP address, to make things go faster when you use the internet and services like video chat and streaming. If you've got a modern desktop browser, you're likely to have this, as the browsers all enable WebRTC to work better.
VPNs that work via an extension in a browser will turn it off, among other things. Or disable WebRTC in browsers directly yourself.
Chrome Requires an extension like WebRTC Network Limiter or WebRTC Leak Prevent, or try WebRTC Control to toggle it on and off from the toolbar.
Edge You can't really fix it, but you can hide your local IP address entirely by typing "about:flags" and checking the box next to "Hide my local IP address over WebRTC connections." It probably hurts you with location services more than it helps protect you.
Safari It shouldn't be an issue, as Apple's browser doesn't share like the rest.
Firefox Type "about:config," click on the "I accept the risk!" button, type "media.peerconnection.enabled" in the search box, then double-click to change to the Value column to say False.
Opera Go to View > Show Extensions > WebRTC Leak Prevent > Options. Choose to disable it and save the settings.
Check for DNS Leaks
The internet domain name system (DNS) is what makes IP addresses and domain names work. You type the domain name into a web browser, the DNS translates all the traffic moving back and forth from your browser to the web server using the IP address numbers, and everyone is happy.
ISPs are part of that—they have DNS servers on their networks to help with the translation, and that gives them another avenue to follow you around.
Using a VPN means, in theory, your internet traffic is redirected to anonymous DNS servers. If your browser just sends the request to your ISP anyway, that's a DNS leak.
Plug Other Leaks
Your location is probably something you've plugged into your browser at some point. If so, your browser is typically more than willing to share that information with the websites you visit, even if your VPN does not.
Use an alternative browser when you want to be at your most secure—the Tor Browser, for example. It's all about keeping you anonymous, by bouncing your requests around the world before they land on the web server you want, then back again. That makes it hard for you to find your local info and can slow things down overall, but it's a good bet for security.
If you can't stand the thought of giving up your current browser, use incognito mode, go the complicated route of setting up a fake location, or just get an extension like Location Guard (for Chrome, Opera, or Firefox) to spoof your whereabouts.
Hope we helped.
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