Using a VPN will not keep your browsing habits anonymous, nor will it add additional security to non-secure (HTTP) traffic.
If you are looking for anonymity, you should use the Tor Browser instead of a VPN.
-If you're looking for added security, you should always ensure you're connecting to websites using encrypted DNS and HTTPS. A VPN is not a replacement for good security practices.
+If you're looking for added security, you should always ensure you're connecting to websites using HTTPS. A VPN is not a replacement for good security practices.
If you're looking for additional privacy from your ISP, on a public Wi-Fi network, or while torrenting files, a VPN may be the solution for you as long as you understand the risks involved.
Download Tor Tor Myths & FAQ @@ -178,8 +178,9 @@ breadcrumb: "VPN"In most cases, most of your traffic is already encrypted! Over 98% of the top 3000 websites offer HTTPS, meaning your non-DNS traffic is safe regardless of using a VPN. It is incredibly rare for applications that handle personal data to not support HTTPS in 2019, especially with services like Let's Encrypt offering free HTTPS certificates to any website operator.
Even if a site you visit doesn't support HTTPS, a VPN will not protect you, because a VPN cannot magically encrypt the traffic between the VPN's servers and the website's servers. Installing an extension like HTTPS Everywhere and making sure every site you visit uses HTTPS is far more helpful than using a VPN.
The answer to this question is also not very helpful: it depends. Your VPN provider may have their own DNS servers, but if they don't, the traffic between your VPN provider and the DNS server isn't encrypted. You need to trust the encrypted DNS provider in addition to the VPN provider and unless your client and target server support encrypted SNI, the VPN provider can still see which domains you are visiting.
-However you shouldn't use encrypted DNS with Tor. This would direct all of your DNS requests through a single circuit, and would allow the encrypted DNS provider to deanonymize you.
+Unless your VPN provider hosts the encrypted DNS servers, no. Using DOH/DOT (or any other form of encrypted DNS) with third party servers will simply add more entities to trust, and does absolutely nothing to improve your privacy/security. Your VPN provider can still see which websites you visit based on the IP addresses and other methods. Instead of just trusting your VPN provider, you are now trusting both the VPN provider and the DNS provider.
+A common reason to recommend encrypted DNS is that it helps against DNS spoofing. However, your browser should already be checking for TLS certificates with HTTPS and warn you about it. If you are not using HTTPS, then an adversary can still just modify anything other than your DNS queries and the end result will be little different.
+Needless to say, you shouldn't use encrypted DNS with Tor. This would direct all of your DNS requests through a single circuit, and would allow the encrypted DNS provider to deanonymize you.
VPNs cannot provide strong anonymity. Your VPN provider will still see your real IP address, and often has a money trail that can be linked directly back to you. You cannot rely on "no logging" policies to protect your data.