Is your VPN secure? How to check for leaks

[tarekma7]

A trustworthy virtual private network (VPN) is a good way to keep your internet usage secure and private whether at home or on public Wi-Fi. But just how private is your activity over a VPN? In other words, how do you know if the VPN is doing its job or if you’re unwittingly leaking information to prying eyes?

To find out, you first need to know what your computer looks like to the internet without a VPN running. Start by searching for what is my IP on Google. At the top of the search results, Google will report back your current public Internet Protocol (IP) address. That’s a good place to start, but there is more to your internet connection and its potential for leaks.


Your public IP address is one way private information can leak over a VPN, but you can also leak information via Domain Name System (DNS) queries, WebRTC, torrents, and geolocation. To see what you look like in your default state, visit IPLeak.net. This website checks all the previously mentioned methods for leaking data. Take note of all the data you see on this page so you can compare it to your VPN’s.

Some top VPN choices:

Many VPN services these days do a good job of preventing the various data leaks that could reveal your identity, and our top-rated VPN services should all work well. Still, if you’d like some specific advice, here are four VPNs that do a good job of protecting against data leaks on both Windows and Android. In most cases, you shouldn’t have to make any settings adjustments to the VPN, but if there are any notable settings to be aware of we will note them here.

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