Basic security question

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Theoilman
OpenVpn Newbie
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:14 pm

Basic security question

Post by Theoilman » Wed Jan 21, 2015 7:19 pm

I'd like to use openvpn connect to keep myself safe on public wifi. I don't need this often so I'd like to get by on free VPN servers. But it occurs to me a free server could potentially be as unsafe as public wifi. When visiting a site with HTTPS through openvpn, can the VPN server see that data, or is that encrypted all the way back to me? In other words is it safe to use openvpn with a public server for sensitive data on sites with https?

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Traffic
OpenVPN Protagonist
Posts: 4066
Joined: Sat Aug 09, 2014 11:24 am

Re: Basic security question

Post by Traffic » Fri Jan 23, 2015 12:36 am

*** All things being configured correctly and all parties playing by the rules ..

The outgoing edge of the public 'free' VPN server will see all data as it is presented to the internet. The VPN layer of data encryption is between you and the public VPN server not the subsequent HTTP/S website.
Theoilman wrote:In other words is it safe to use openvpn with a public server for sensitive data on sites with https?
The 'free' VPN server will see data encrypted at the HTTPS layer as encrypted, the VPN server cannot decrypt the HTTPS layer. *** See my first condition ..

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