Privacy deep dives

Utiq is a new European adverting technology that claims to replace cookies with a more privacy-friendly alternative. We investigate.

2025 marked another challenging year for democracy and internet freedom. We use Proton VPN's unique insights to analyze censorship trends.

Surveillance or personalized pricing means the price you see is not the same others see. It's based on how much algorithms think you're able (or willing) to pay.

We look back at how citizens around the world turned to Proton VPN in 2025 to defeat internet and social media censorship.

Crunchyroll's transformation from pirate site to the world's default platform for fully-legal anime content is remarkable. But is it safe?

Discord is a wildly popular text, voice, and video chat platform, but is it safe? We take a deep dive to answer that question.

Omegle may be gone, but similar sites are just as risky to kids. Learn how to protect your child from dangerous chat apps and online predators.

Brazil is piloting a bold initiate that allows citizens to control and sell their personal data. Is this a good thing?

Instagram 's vanish mode allows you to send messages that disappear once they are read. It can be fun, but it is not secure.

What is UPnP, what is UPnP port forwarding, and should UPnP be on or off? We take an in-depth look at UPnP.

A burner phone is a disposable prepaid mobile phone intended for short-term use before being discarded. We take an in-depth look.

We take a detailed look at how governments censor online services like TikTok and how VPNs and other technologies can (and can't) overcome such bans.

In a spectacular about-face, Google has given the go-ahead to use unsafe and unfair ad tech tracking to identify internet users and track them across the web.

In 2024, Proton VPN provided free VPN access leading up to elections in countries with a history of disinformation and silencing political opponents.

We ran a survey in the Netherlands and found that 51% of Dutch adults are worried about their online privacy. See the rest of the results.

How safe a browser extension is depends almost entirely on how trustworthy its developer is. We take a deep dive.

Here's why you might want to consider a Discord alternative — and the pros and cons of seven other apps like Discord that you may want to switch to instead.

Is Telegram safe to use? As we’ll discuss in this article, that very much depends on how you use it.

Proton VPN doesn't use RAM-only VPN servers because we believe them to be marketing hype. In this article, we explain why.

Tor is a powerful tool for browsing the Dark Web anonymously, but your ISP can still see your activity. By using a VPN you add an extra layer of privacy.

Smart TVs may allow you to instantly connect to streaming apps, but they collect and share data about all the shows you watch and have poor cybersecurity.

Apple is facing a lawsuit claiming stalkers are tracking victims using AirTags. Here's what you should know about AirTag stalking and how to keep yourself safe.

Here’s how to flush your DNS cache across devices and operating systems — and why you might want to consider it.

We compiled a list of the best private, open source video conferencing alternatives to Zoom and Google Meet. Learn more from Proton VPN.

Private DNS encrypts DNS queries made by your device to a DNS server,but it isn’t needed when using a VPN.

The top alternatives to YouTube for video streaming, content creation, and more, that protect your data from Google and its advertisers.

Ewin attacks used to be a menace on public WiFi networks, but the widespread adoption of HTTPS has drastically reduced the risk.

Freenet is a decentralized, encrypted, open-source dark web notable for the ability to create closed and almost undetectable “darknets”.

Google’s new feature for its Chrome browser claims to help mask your identity, but the company’s business model is incompatible with privacy.

WPA3 is the latest security standard for keeping your WiFi connections secure, and a great improvement over its aging predecessor (WPA2).

Perfect forward secrecy ensures that even if an internet session is compromised, past and future sessions remain secure.

A zero-day is a previously unknown software vulnerability. A zero-day exploit is a cyberattack that takes advantage of a zero-day.

IKEv2 is a VPN protocol used to secure a VPN connection. Part of the IPsec protocol suite, it is sometimes referred to as IKEv2/IPsec.

Amazon Alexa devices undoubtedly bring unparalleled convenience to our lives. But this convenience comes at the price of privacy.

OpenVPN is a secure and battle-tested VPN protocol that remains useful despite showing signs of age.

WireGuard is a fast, lightweight, and secure VPN protocol that now servers as the default protocol for Proton VPN.

In this article, we’ll look at what ISPs are and how they work, then we'll focus on the more controversial aspects of ISPs.

China is infamous for its internet censorship program, widely known as the Great Firewall of China. We take an in-depth look

Deep packet inspection (DPI) is a censorship tool used by repressive governments everywhere. We take a deep dive.

iPhones are inherently quite secure, but there are many things you can do to tighten up your iPhone privacy and security settings.

A VPN will prevent many forms of online tracking, but it’s important to understand what they can and can’t do.

In this article, we look at some of the best legitimate Tor websites on the dark web.

The Indian government has unrestricted access to local internet providers, allowing it to spy on Indian internet users in real time.

We explain how OpenVPN, IKEv2/IPSec, WireGuard, L2TP/IPSec, and PPTP work, and then compare them to see which VPN protocol is the best.

Unfortunately, internet censorship is becoming more common worldwide. We explain what it is, how it works, and how to defeat it.

We asked 1,000 Americans questions about their online habits to reveal what they are doing to keep their online data secure.

AES is a fast, efficient, and secure encryption standard. We look at how it works and whether it is truly secure.

OpenVPN and WireGuard are arguably the two most useful VPN protocols for modern VPN users. We look at the pros and cons of each.

The ability to access the internet varies greatly from country to country. We look at where people have the most and least digital freedom.

PPTP is an obsolete and insecure VPN protocol that nevertheless remains popular in 2021. We take an in-depth look at it.

A technical look at how virtual private networks (VPNs) work, and at what the implications of this are for users

Far from ensuring privacy, Google's new VPN actually increases Google's ability to collect private data about you. Don't fall for it.

The Patriot Act allows the US government to collect your Internet browsing and search history without a warrant. But there are ways to protect your privacy.

We discovered a security vulnerability in Apple’s iOS that causes connections to remain unencrypted even after connecting to VPN.

Amazon Ring has entered into secretive agreements with police departments across the US to let them access video feeds without a warrant.

Find out what data fitness and health apps collect, who they share it with, and what you can do to protect your privacy.

The Swiss National Council ratified that individuals can download their content for their personal use. ProtonVPN has several P2P servers in Switzerland.

HMAC stands for hashed message authentication code and is an important factor in VPN security. Learn why strong HMAC auth matters for VPN security.

The European Parliament passed a new copyright directive containing the controversial Article 13, the so-called “meme ban.” Proton VPN is committed to helping mitigate the negative effects of this law on Internet freedom. 

Tor is a free, global network that lets you browse the Internet and the dark web anonymously. There are, however, a few things you need to keep in mind to use Tor securely.

Smart speakers and their digital assistants are here, constantly listening to you, waiting to respond to your requests. Yet they are less like helpful bots and more like diligent stenographers, compiling comprehensive reports of every interaction so

The challenge of achieving a free and private Internet is not merely a question of infrastructure and tools, but of public attitude. That is why educating more people about cybersecurity and data privacy is so important.

We wanted to learn more about our users’ privacy concerns, so we posed a series of questions that asked which types of personal data you felt were most sensitive and over 2,000 of you responded. Today, we look at how certain leaks could put more data

Here are the top six countries where online freedom is compromised, and some ways you can reliably bypass censorship and safeguard your privacy.

The US is a great place for many tech companies. Unfortunately, it is a poor location for any company that wishes to seriously protect privacy.

A list of the Five Eyes countries of the UKUSA and other intelligence-sharing agreements, including the Nine Eyes and Fourteen Eyes.

The Australian government proposed new legislation that would allow authorities to undermine end-to-end encryption and grant them “alternative-collection powers.”

An easy to understand explanation of net neutrality and what it means for your online freedom.

Are VPNs blocked or banned in your country? Here’s the updated list of countries that are trying to make VPNs illegal.

Security researchers have discovered a vulnerability in the WPA2 protocol which allows for virtually any WiFi network to be hacked, exposing sensitive data.