What is the best Apple approved VPN service for me to use on my 2023 MacBook Pro 14"; M2

Domane70 wrote:

I seem to be subject of phishing

Everyone who has an email address is the subject of phishing and a VPN won't stop that.

This is one of the best articles I know on basic security:

Effective defenses against malware and ot… - Apple Community

Some additional details to add to KiltedTim's excellent answer:

Don't use VPN services

Domane70 wrote:

I seem to be subject of phishing and intrusion for financial opportunity and wish to return to using a VPN to help reduce the risk. Not all VPN services are equal and since Apple has built three options into the OS System settings, seems this forum is a good p-lace to start.

What to use? Private Relay (Two-hop Tor-like implementation) and TLS (robust end-to-end tunnel).

Or sure, as was mentioned else-replies here, load some unnecessary and oft-problematic and poorly-secured apps (known creds) that badly solve a problem that hasn’t existed for a decade or so, but that badly solve it in a way perfect for collecting personally-identified connection metadata and all while providing negligible added security.

Using a VPN to access the Internet will do absolutely nothing to reduce your risk, or protect your privacy. It actually poses more of a security risk than not using a VPN at all.

VPNs are intended to connect computers and devices securely across the Internet to a private network such as your employer or school so that you can safely access resources on that network.

So-called public VPN services are nothing more than glorified proxy servers that do nothing but collect data on everything you do on-line.

Don’t get sucked into their trap.

There are only 2 reasons to use a VPN:

A) Location shifting. You want to pretend to be located in a different country so you can access country specify restricted web services (such as streaming some BBC shows, watching your favorite sports team, or similar).

B) You work for a company that requires VPN access in order to access the company's internal network. In this case the company will specify and provide the VPN client, along with connection details.

All other VPN uses are exactly what MrHoffman, Old Toad, IdrisSeabright and KiltedTim have told you.

KiltedTim wrote:

Using a VPN to access the Internet will do absolutely nothing to reduce your risk, or protect your privacy. It actually poses more of a security risk than not using a VPN at all.

VPNs are intended to connect computers and devices securely across the Internet to a private network such as your employer or school so that you can safely access resources on that network.

So-called public VPN services are nothing more than glorified proxy servers that do nothing but collect data on everything you do on-line.

Don’t get sucked into their trap.

A sub-category for case A, would be if you are in an environment where they block access to specific Internet services, and you wish to by pass those blocks. It could be a school network, company network, or it could be a restrictive country.

Although a country that blocks access will be looking for well known VPN services and blocking them as well. But if you are traveling and have setup a VPN server on a home system, that might get past the censors. Then again, it might get you arrested instead ⛓️‍💥

However, 99% of the users on these forums asking about VPN services are just buying into the hype that it makes you more secure, which is far from the truth.

Actually there are two more situations where a VPN would be warranted: if banks or universities require them to access their servers.

Old Toad wrote:

Actually there are two more situations where a VPN would be warranted: if banks or universities require them to access their servers.

Yes. That would be case B, above.