I have a Windows 7 computer running Glasswire. I installed VirtualBox. I installed Debian barebones with Openbox and Google Chrome. I started monitoring traffic on the virtual machine with just Chrome set to Google.com at idle (no activity). Google Chrome indeed connects to several places by itself while the computer is completely idle. So, I know what activity is specifically from Google Chrome. I then installed the TunnelBear Google Chrome extension and activated it. I kept the virtual machine idle to monitor the activity while TunnelBear was on. TunnelBear seems to connect to multiple places as well, and I don’t know why or if it’s a breach of security/spying. It seems to connect to lazerpenguin.com and various IP addresses. The list of connections grows over time while active and idle (the computer is not in use by any person on my end). What are your thoughts? Can Tek Syndicate investigate TunnelBear connectivity and security?
Well that doesen't sound too weird to me. Constant connection made by Chrome I guess is used to keep track of the activity from a security standpoint. About Tunnelbear I don't know what to say but that might be a way to keep the connection open but can't guarantee on that since I'm no expert in networking. If you don't feel safe check out this genius portable Tor Router: https://hackaday.io/project/9346/instructions
P.S. can also be made fully wireless using two wi-fi dongles.
According to HAK5, it's having blind faith.
yeah, blind faith is the real problem with VPNs. Some have better policy on paper than others, but still, you're trusting someone else with your traffic and its security.
I did a lot of research back when, and I chose Private Internet Access. I don't know if it was the best, but I ran sort of the same test as you have and I felt reasonably comfortable with the results. Just my opinion, though.