Filed under: iPhone
Securing your iPhone web traffic with Hotspot Shield
Have you ever wondered whether the wifi data you send and receive with your iPhone or iPod touch at the local coffee shop or airport is secure? Well, I bet if you hadn't wondered that before, you are now. It's easy to forget that inside that cute little handheld device live the guts of an actual computer, and likely a lot of personal data. Depending on your surfing habits, you could be sending and receiving personal information in a non-secure way over public wifi. If you're concerned about your data's safety, consider using Anchorfree's Hotspot Shield free VPN service. Hotspot Shield has been a great way to lock down your laptop's wifi for a long time now, and just recently they have released instructions on how to take advantage of their service on an iPhone / iPod touch. Pleasantly, the service does not require that a program be downloaded to your device, but rather takes advantage of the iPhone and iPod touch's built-in VPN functionality.
My only gripe with Hotspot Shield is that it can sometimes be challenging to get the VPN to successfully connect. Anchorfree recommends performing a quick reboot of your device to get your connection going, but in my experience even that can be a hit-or-miss scenario. But it's still better than letting that creepy guy that keeps hitting on the barista peruse my http requests. 'Cause I'm not paranoid, but I'm sure that's what he's doing.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Cowfodder said 8:22AM on 12-06-2008
Way to spam the comments section.
This is some useful info, not that what I browse would really be that interesting to others.
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anonym said 8:42AM on 12-06-2008
What are some free vpn servers other than anchorfree's? Anyone know?
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Denzel said 9:13AM on 12-06-2008
Does this service work outside the US, say...Singapore?
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anonym said 9:19AM on 12-06-2008
Why not try it and see? The non-iPhone version certainly works fine.
samu said 9:35AM on 12-06-2008
If you pay for a VPN, you get a more elegant, reliable solution. I've been using WiTopia's $39.99 service, which covers both my laptop and phone. A month ago I'd have recommended it unreservedly, but performance lately has been disappointing, given the cost; video streams, for example, are often unwatchable. It's still less clunky and erratic than free services I've used, but other paid services (I've heard PureVPN highly spoken of) may be better yet.
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RobK said 10:00AM on 12-06-2008
It is my understanding that Hotspot Shield is ad-supported and installs a toolbar in Windows. Is this the same for the Mac?
Why is TUAW promoting adware?
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RobK said 10:09AM on 12-06-2008
When using any of these FREE VPN Services, you must ask yourself whether you TRUST the company. If you look at the reviews at Macupdate, some people are concerned with the lack of disclosure on the Hotspot Shield website on what they will do with your data flowing through their servers.
It is also interesting that a Privacy Policy does not appear to be available on the website.
In their Terms Of Service, it is stated:
"We believe strongly in providing you notice of how we collect and use data, including personally identifiable information, from the Site. Therefore, we have adopted a Privacy Policy, linked from the bottom of each page of this Site, to which you should refer to fully understand how we collect and use information."
Where is the Privacy Policy referred to above? I don't see it. This is a RED flag in my view.
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freediverx said 11:03AM on 12-06-2008
I think this is a terrible recommendation.
For starters the service is completely unreliable. I could not get it to connect after numerous attempts, and yes, I restarted my iPhone per their instructions.
Worse yet, what's the point of trying to protect your privacy and security by funneling all your internet traffic through an unknown company that offers no contact information, no privacy statement, displays no third party privacy or security certification, and right out claims the right to ue our personally identifiable information?
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zebrum said 12:04PM on 12-06-2008
The last 2 commenters are exactly right. Do not trust this company they will be logging all of your activity for one reason or another. You are probably at higher risk using them than no VPN. Better would be to VPN to your home or work.
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8corewhore said 1:14PM on 12-06-2008
A vampire will not enter through the window to suck your blood, you must invite him in first.
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aj_robins said 1:29PM on 12-06-2008
At public hotspots, I tend to limit my activities to two things:
* Mail reading/writing. For me, this is secure, because I'm using SSL for both the incoming mail accounts and the outgoing SMTP servers (note that these are separate settings in the iPhone, in different dialog boxes). Of course, I only have email accounts that support SSL (e.g., gmail, my local ISP, etc.).
* General web browsing via Google Reader. Even though I'm not really dealing with sensitive personal information, I still use the https interface. This hides the Google Reader data from prying eyes, but does nothing for the articles that I view via Google Reader.
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dylan said 3:06PM on 12-06-2008
TUAW staff,
Madmax has been spamming your (and other Weblog Inc posts) for awhile now. Can you do something to stop this?
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Michael Rose said 7:11PM on 12-06-2008
Thanks Dylan, we're deleting him & banning him.
Norm said 4:59PM on 12-06-2008
So would this allow me to use the Pandora iphone app in Canada? I use hotspot shield on my computer to access hulu.
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Raphael Salgado said 5:29PM on 12-06-2008
If you trust your home network (which I hope you do), just get iVPN and throw it on your Mac. Open up the TCP port 1723 and/or and UDP ports 4500 and 500 on your router to point to your Mac and you'll not only have a secure connection, but you'll have access to all your machines in your home network as well for VNC or RDP access (if you use Jaada/Mocha VNC and/or WinAdmin).
It's 14.99 GBP and worth every penny.
http://www.macserve.org.uk/projects/ivpn/ (not affiliated with company or product.)
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Brian said 6:59PM on 12-06-2008
We have quite a few folks running iVPN on their mac minis we colocate for them. The app works great, though don't use it on Leopard Server.
billso said 9:22PM on 12-06-2008
Looks like the home page of the PureVPN.com web site hasn't been updated in almost a year.
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Tales said 3:47AM on 12-07-2008
you can find a privacy statement and terms on http://www.anchorfree.com/
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RobK said 8:23AM on 12-07-2008
Thanks. But the Terms of Service on http://www.anchorfree.com/ is different than the Terms Of Service posted on http://www.hotspotshield.com . Which applies when I use its service?
If I believe the terms of service posted at http://www.hotspotshield.com , then where is the Privacy Statement? CONTRARY to this terms of service posted here, Anchorfree has NOT posted a link to their Privacy Statement on its web page.
I just looked at its Privacy Statement hotspotshield.com and like many other ad-ware companies it is pretty awful IMHO. It automatically collects a lot of info including your IP address, "searches you perform, geographic location data, and all web sites that you visit and pages you view on such sites". "Additionally, AnchorFree may store some combination of this data locally on your computer to aid its advertising targeting capabilities"
If you don't mind doing that then Hotspot Shield may be for you. But I am saying "no thanks". I would rather use my Mac (or even my Windows computer) has a VPN server. Both Mac and Windows have this capability build it. Or if you don't want your computer running al; the time, then buy a router with VPN built in (eg Linksys BEFSX41 and IPSecuritas software). (Or Linksys WRT-54GL and DD-WRT firmware with OpenVPN). There are lots of great FREE VPN options out there where you don't have to give up your Privacy.
Or if you are just checking your EMAIL at a public hotspot, you often do not even need a VPN. Many webmail services offer free SSL encryption such as GMAIL.
But with GMAIL, you must FIRST surf to its web site using https (note the s on the end of http) BEFORE you log in. E.g Surf to mail.google.com. Then sign in. All communications will now be encrypted.
Jash Sayani said 2:42PM on 12-08-2008
Thanks a lot Jason !!
I have been looking for this from a long time... Maybe, iPhone should also support OpenVPN now. AlwaysVPN is a great free-VPN service and I think it should be soon ported to the iPhone.
Hope to see a OpenVPN patch or something for the iPhone.
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