I always use a VPN when I’m either travelling, or on a sit, on my smartphone, laptop and FireStick, as I don’t know how secure the Internet connection might be. Is there a device connected to the coffee shop wireless network that’s snooping and capturing traffic, has the host’s router or wireless access points been compromised.? Do other sitters practice the same?
Yes, I use a VPN. But VPNs can sometimes mess with a connection for certain SIM/eSIMs, so I will turn them off in that case.
More people should use VPNs or refrain from using public wifi, for security and privacy reasons. Microsoft for instance recently put out a warning about Russian hackers and hotel wifi.
Yes, we use a VPN on an everyday basis. Aside from security then it removes adverts, tracking, malware. All good. We never use public wifi.
On housesits, we also carry a travel router. It is convenient, secure and functional. Our travel router connects to host wifi; our devices connect wirelessly to travel router. We find that internet technology varies a great deal by property - many people use old equipment given free to them by internet provider.
Do you know who owns all the VPN servers, are you unknowingly feeding the data centers under the pretense that it’s no log, private network.
VPN’s are great for general public, but they are not really doing much in terms of protecting your privacy. It sucks, but that is the world we live in.
There’s no perfect privacy or security protection. Even if you were a Luddite, someone could be opening your mail and snooping. And that happened in centuries past as well.
I profoundly disagree, there are VPN providers that do provide no log connections and whether or not my connection is logged is of no interest to me. But my reason for using a VPN is to secure my connection on an untrusted network. I also use it to connect to services that are restricted by location e.g. BBC iPlayer. A properly configured VPN connection does a great deal to protect my Internet privacy, at least according to GCHQ.
A VPN connection for individuals using an untrusted network is recommended by the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre. That’s good enough for me.
I mean each to their own.
But again, for general public its nice, but for privacy it won’t do much for you. even more so in the future. There are Tor networks, or a Tor browser, but then you lose the internet speed and conveniences of logging directly into pages with google etc.
I love this topic, but I will refrain from touching more on it. 
Quite, I can’t eliminate the risk altogether while living the lifestyle that I chose to. But I can reduce it to a level that is acceptable and using a VPN connection is part of my strategy.
Well this topic was started asking if sitters use a VPN when they’re travelling or on a sit, that’s the scope. The activities that I’m using the Internet for on a sit don’t require me to use Tor, or the dark net. I suspect that’s the same for most sitters in those two scenarios.
I was just chiming in saying that it doesn’t provide the privacy most think it does. It’s kind of like walking through the body scanners at the airport, most people do it, but most people don’t understand what is visible when you get scanned.
Just bringing people’s attention to it.
Pragmatically, a VPN betters my odds vs. doing nothing.
You can take your chances, of course. We all have choices to make.
In a way it does. Yes
That kind of reply seems passive aggressive and not useful on a thread meant to help sitters.
I used to have a travel router, but now I just have a paid subscription for the software. The VPN router became another device for me to either lose or break as well as to keep up to date. It’s range was also limited and wasn’t so good for a large house, so I’d have to unplug it. move it, restart it and the connect to it again. 
I always use a VPN, and while I understand it’s not perfect, I am not enough of a techie to get into the details.
My work provides its own VPN that anyone working remotely even a few blocks away needs to use to access the org’s network. That one, I trust - but I only use it for work.
That is your opinion from reading text. I didn’t mean it in a passive aggressive way. I was simply agreeing with you.
Yes, even workplaces know there’s no perfect protection, but better than not doing anything. Like I’ve worked at places where we’ve handled users’ personal finance info, along with credit card data. My husband has worked at places that handle users’ health info. And our employers have always required VPN beyond their own secured networks. Such measures were actually required by business partners, contractually.
Plus to add to it, there is a 10 letter minimum, so a simple “true” is not allowed, so I had to add extra words to get it approved
No - and I use as much free public WIFI as possible. #Livinglifeontheedge