Vent: People keep calling VPNs the same as encrypted messaging

I hear it all the time on here. A VPN hides your IP but your messages are plain text unless you use Signal or something. My buddy in Austin lost a freelance gig because a client thought a VPN meant end to end encryption.

3 comments

3 Comments

the_max2d ago

blake302, so if Signal encrypts the message itself, what even does the VPN encrypt?

blake3025d ago

Wait, doesn't Signal actually use E2E encryption while VPNs just reroute your traffic?

gavin_kim34d ago

Signal does use E2E encryption, but that's for the messages themselves, not your IP address. VPNs encrypt your traffic to the server, not what's inside it, so the two things solve completely different problems. If someone called a VPN "a tunnel for your IP" and Signal "a locked box for your messages," it would save a lot of confusion.