Proxy servers and VPNs can both protect your privacy but they work in very different ways. Generally, a VPN is enough to protect your privacy but we will come straight to the point: you can use a proxy server in combination with a VPN and it can even improve your online browsing. Read on to find out more.
What’s a proxy server?
A proxy server acts as something of a middleman between your device and the rest of the internet. It receives any requests you make e.g. for web pages and forwards them to the internet. It can also forward requests back to you.
What are the advantages of a proxy?
Proxies are extremely easy to set up and there are even web pages with dozens of listings for “free” ones. Specialized “anonymizing” proxies also claim to mask your IP address and browsing habits.
Certainly, if you’ve correctly configured your device to connect to a website or online service via a proxy, they’ll see only the IP address of the proxy server, not yours. This can protect your location and can be useful for accessing geo-restricted services like Netflix.
What are the downsides of a proxy?
Proxy Servers weren’t built specifically with privacy in mind, so even modern ones using the SOCKS5 protocol won’t encrypt your data by default. This means your ISP and anyone with access to their records can see exactly which sites you’ve been visiting and the content you’ve viewed.
Since anyone can set up a supposedly “anonymous” proxy, you’ll also need to find a reliable provider whose service doesn’t spy on you, such as Hide.me’s own online proxy.
What’s a VPN?
A VPN is slightly different to a proxy. Your device does establish a connection to a VPN server, which fetches content for you like a proxy. However, when it does so it establishes a secure encrypted virtual tunnel.
As all your web traffic is routed through this tunnel, anyone monitoring your connection would only see encrypted data: not your browsing history or content you’ve accessed.
What are the downsides of using a VPN?
Using a VPN can be slower relative to using a proxy, as your data has to be encrypted and decrypted as it moves between your device and the server. This may be overkill if you just want to spoof your location to watch a show on Hulu.
Some online services like Netflix also monitor people trying to connect to known VPN servers and block them from connecting.
It’s very unlikely that they’d do this for someone connecting via a proxy, as organizations like schools and offices connect to the internet in this way.
Some e-mail servers also block messages sent from known VPN servers, due to high amounts of spam.
Can’t I just change my IP?
If you’ve visited a website or are trying to send an e-mail and find that you’re blocked due to using a VPN, then the simplest solution is to try to switch to another server in the same country.
The IP address for this server may not have been recorded by the website/e-mail provider so the service may work the second time round.
Some VPN providers offer a static IP address when you connect to their service. At hide.me we don’t do this, as we feel it undermines your security: if your VPN service has to assign you a unique IP address each time you connect, then this means they have to store personally identifiable information about you.
How can a proxy help?
If you connect to a proxy server whilst using your VPN, your IP address will still appear to be that of the proxy server.
This means if you were previously blocked by a website or online service as you appeared to be connecting via a VPN server, you may well now be able to connect.
As all your traffic is encrypted, you also have better protection from online snoopers, who won’t be able to see the websites you visit.
What if the proxy server is hacked?
Since your IP address appears to be that of the proxy server, if any bad actors are trying to locate you they’ll try to compromise it first.
Still, this wouldn’t do them much good as they would only be able to recover encrypted VPN traffic, not the specific data you’ve accessed. Your real IP address will also be safe, as you connect by a VPN server which keeps your location anonymous.
What if the VPN Provider is hacked?
If you’re using a proxy server and VPN together and your VPN server is compromised, an attacker would be able to see and manipulate your internet traffic such as which sites you visit.
Still, provided the connection to your proxy server was still working correctly, your real IP address and location would not be exposed to the rest of the internet.
What are the downsides to using a VPN + Proxy?
When you use a proxy server and VPN together your traffic is effectively being moved through two servers rather than one. As you’ve seen, you also don’t get much extra protection if your VPN provider’s servers are hacked.
Are there other ways to boost my online security?
If you don’t want to trust your privacy to just one VPN server, you can employ Double VPN (sometimes known as “multihop). This encrypts your traffic through two or more different VPN servers.
Like using a proxy, this will slow down your encryption but provides better separation of your IP address and web traffic, making you much harder to trace online.
If you haven’t yet subscribed to a VPN service and want to do this, make sure your provider offers this feature before signing up.
You can also boost your security by using open-source apps like Signal which use end-to-end encryption. As your messages are encrypted before ever leaving your device, even if your VPN service is compromised an attacker won’t be able to read them.
We love bringing you this content and hope it helps keep you safe and secure online. Feel free to share it with your friends, too.
Here at hide.me we are all about internet freedom, and we are happy to be in a position to bring that to everyone. That is why we give you a 30-day money-back guarantee on our Premium plan. No questions asked and no logs recorded.
If you have any questions, please feel to contact our 24/7 support team either at support@hide.me or via live chat.
Harriet Wainwright 
Avery Davis 