There’s been some trouble lately in which free VPN services have been collecting and selling your data. Others have had major leaks or hacks (such as the new TunnelVision attack). So why not set up your own VPN and avoid those issues?

A few important reminders. VPN’s do not make you anonymous. They only create a secure pipe between you and that server. From that point on, your traffic can be collected and used – and many free VPN services do exactly that. Anonymity comes only if you use things like the TOR network.

But instead of paying a VPN service fee or potentially having your data collected and sold, you might set up your own VPN server on a Rasberry Pi.

1. Create an account on a cloud hosting provider like DigitalOcean
2. Download Algo VPN on your local computer, unzip it
3. Install the dependencies with the command lines on this page
4. Run the installation wizard
5. Double click on the configuration profiles in the configs directory

It’s important to note that there are some limitations. This setup is good if you need a secure connection from where you are to the location of the server (ex: You’re in China and need access to US services that are blocked). Again, this doesn’t make you anonymous as your data exits the VPN and becomes public again.

Paid VPN services also often offer servers in different countries so you can spoof being in specific countries. This will not do that unless you have paid for hosting in those countries.

Articles:

• https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/09/how-i-made-my-own-vpn-server-in-15-minutes/