Hi, wondering if anyone can provide me with the basics of how VPNs work on cell phones. I’ve been using a VPN service for my computer and cell phone for the past 6 months or so. Did a decent amount of research back before picking a provider, so even though I don’t have much of any technical background I at least understand a little of how VPNs work on computers. I haven’t been able to find much about information about running a VPN on a cell phone for privacy/security purposes though. Does the VPN pretty much only affect the data used by my phone, so like internet browsing on the phone and some app use? I’m assuming it has no effect on phone calls, text messages, etc.
Basically just curious if there’s any easy way to understand how the VPN service I subscribe to affects the things my phone does, in comparison to how it affects the things my computer does. Thanks in advance!!
A VPN just routes IP data in a certain way, so no, it won’t affect voice and text, the cell tower treats internet data differently to voice and text. Same way your PC doesn’t try to route your bluetooth speaker connection over the VPN.
Your phone is just a little PC and you can run a VPN app in exactly the same way as a PC does.
What about background apps and the idea that apps ‘calling out’ to the web could be identifying/de-virtualizing or whatever… I’ve read that browser add-ons, extensions, and task-bar apps can ‘phone-home’ and that can be identifying… .Whatever the phone version of that is with apps in the background…
Depends on what you mean by that. They will work perfectly fine with a VPN.
If you mean does the cell tower route “voice over data” and “text over data” differently to any other internet data of course not, it’s just data to it.
But OP wanted to know if VPN affected sms or telephony voice which it doesn’t, they’ll keep working fine. So will voip.
yeah, I understand that. I’m more concerned with the possibility of being identified (or de-privacied, whichever the term is) to my isp, mobile data provider or anyone else trying to listen in to my web traffic.
Not off hand but here’s the first couple of links from a search (“privacy mobile phone”) that looked useful (I suggest you don’t use google for the search for obvious reasons)