What are some tools that are actually better than vpn when it comes to privacy browsing?

VPN
1

I’m complete dumbass when the subject is online safety. So, therefore, I come here to ask you guys for some tips, actually step-by-step guide, on what to do while using any browser.

2

There’s no blanket “better than VPN” or “best”. There are different tools with different qualities. For example:

  • ISP only (and using HTTPS): best performance, least protection

  • proxy: better performance, less protection

  • VPN: medium performance, more protection, some have more features such as ad-blocking, protects traffic from all apps

  • Tor Browser: worse performance, most protection, most likely to be blocked, doesn’t protect traffic of other apps and services and updaters etc

  • send all traffic through onion gateway: worse performance, most protection, most likely to be blocked, doesn’t support UDP, protects traffic from all apps

So, depending on which factors matter most for you, one or the other is the “best” solution.

3

I use a VPN 24/365 to protect the non-Tor traffic of my system. Then when I want to access an onion site, I launch Tor Browser and thus have Tor over VPN.

Tor Browser is secure by itself. Tor Browser doesn’t need help from a VPN. VPN doesn’t help or hurt the Tor traffic. VPN is there for the non-Tor traffic.

4

VPN requires you to trust the provider

It’s easy to sign up to a VPN with fake/no ID, they don’t care as long as your payment works. They’re used to customers who want to hide their ID.

So then, if you’re using HTTPS, all the VPN would know is “guy at home IP address N is doing encrypted traffic to domains A, B, C”.

5

According to privacyguides using tor with VPN does hurt and your anonymity becomes a bit insecure.

6

That’s mostly wrong. Tor Project has a warning that adding a VPN may help or hurt your privacy, and you have to know what you’re doing. But “know what you’re doing” mostly amounts to “use Tor over VPN” (run VPN first, then Tor Browser), not “VPN over onion”.

If you use Tor Browser over VPN, all the VPN sees is “someone at IP address N is accessing onion entrance node at IP address M”. Same thing your ISP would see if you didn’t use a VPN.

7

Thanks for clearing that out. I was a bit surprised when I saw that but this makes more sense