NordVPN: How Private is it Really?

The concept of ‘privacy’ has been in the news a lot recently, with the Facebook data breach scandal, the Cambridge Analytica data misuse incident, and others.

In the world of personal data privacy, many companies that handle sensitive information have acquired the status of ‘data hoarders’, which is problematic because data is now more accessible than ever before.

The question is: with all this data awareness, how private is my personal information and are my personal details really safe with these big companies?

To find out, I spoke to Chris Vickery, a tech security expert from the cyber security consulting firm UpGuard, about the privacy and security measures employed by NordVPN.

Global Data Encryption

One of the things that sets NordVPN apart from other VPN providers is the use of end-to-end encryption—the process of encrypting all the data that is transferred between your device and the VPN server, including all the connections along the way. Let’s take a look at how this technology works.

To see if end-to-end encryption is enabled by default on your device, visit the Settings app, click on VPN, and scroll to the bottom of the page. You’ll see a toggle switch for ‘data encryption’ next to the server details.

Enabling data encryption will prevent any third-party—whether it’s a hacker, government agency, or corporation—from accessing your personal data while you’re connected to a VPN. Your data always remains encrypted while it is in transit, so it is invisible to any third parties (not even the VPN provider).

Stealth Mode

Another interesting feature that sets NordVPN apart from other VPN providers is its Stealth Mode, which is designed to make you virtually indistinguishable from regular internet users when connected to a VPN. In most situations, a VPN will make you appear as a different user to any websites or servers you connect to.

To activate Stealth Mode, connect to a VPN and click on the gear icon in the top right corner. From here, you can select a VPN profile that suits your needs and use the toggle switch to switch between ‘on’ and ‘off’. Once you’ve done this, you can click on the gear icon again to access more settings.

To turn off Stealth Mode, you can select the no stealth option from the VPN drop-down menu or select ‘off’ from the toggle switch.

Stealth Mode is a valuable tool for anyone who uses the internet for nefarious purposes. As a VPN user, you become virtually impossible to trace because all your internet activity is encrypted, making it almost impossible for websites or other users on the internet to know that you are using a VPN. This is why you should always turn on Stealth Mode whenever you connect to the internet via a public Wi-Fi network or another person’s computer, especially if you’re planning on doing anything sensitive.

Secure And Private PORT Forwarding

With the development of Secure AND PRIVATE PORT FORWARDING, NordVPN takes its users’ data security and privacy one step further. To get started, you’ll first need to connect to a VPN (recommended), open the Settings app, and scroll to the bottom of the page. Here, you’ll see a toggle switch for ‘secure and private port forwarding’ next to the server details.

When this feature is enabled, you can use any supported PORT forwarded to connect to any server, and all your internet activity will be encrypted. So, as we’ve mentioned, all the data in transit is secure and private. It arrives at its destination with no third-party data in sight. Also, all the data stored on the VPN server is also secure and private. This is because all the data is encrypted before it is stored, and the encryption keys are kept separately from the data.

Zero Knowledge Database

In addition to all the security benefits that come with end-to-end encryption, the use of a VPN also means that you no longer have to worry about your personal data being stored in a giant data vault accessible to all the world. With a VPN, your personal information is stored only on the server, and only the server has access to it. This makes your personal data virtually impossible to steal or lose because it can’t be accessed by any other entity.

To learn more, visit the NordVPN website or contact their support team.