VPN vs. Smart DNS: Which One’s Better at Protecting Your Privacy?

Alexandru_BD

VPN and Smart DNS proxies are handy if you want to hide your digital identity from various online services. However, their functionality is wildly different, and one of them is considerably more effective than the other at safekeeping your privacy.

It’s no secret that VPNs are one of the most efficient ways to anonymize your online traffic, but they’re not the only privacy protection tool on the market.

Proxies, Tor and even the Incognito mode of some browsers can help you evade online profiling and prevent various entities from monitoring and logging your traffic.

However, few know of another type of service that can protect your privacy, called Smart DNS (also referred to as smart DNS, SmartDNS, or Smart DNS proxy).

Although Smart DNS proxies and VPNs seem to work in a similar way, several factors set them apart.

Full article at the link below:

https://www.bitdefender.com/blog/hotforsecurity/vpn-vs-smart-dns-which-ones-better-at-protecting-your-privacy/

jdk

I have been using SMART DNS PROXY for 5 years to enable me access tv outside france. I have had zero problems. However, since starting to use Bitdefender, it has blocked this service. I did tell me that it had detected a service which should be blocked. Without thinking I agreed. Consequently I no longer can access the service. Can someone explain how I can cancel this ? I have been looking for a list of current blockings and the facility to cancel from that list. Can't find it. Thanks very much for your help

jdk

Liobet

Hi jdk,

You could repair Bitdefender

https://www.bitdefender.com/consumer/support/answer/13429/

or another tip, to deinstall / reinstall your bitdefender software from your bitdefender central account. (export your wallet/password manager first if you have one)

Cheers,

L.

Alexandru_BD

Hi @jdk,

Where did you look for the list of current blockings? Can you access the notifications panel in Bitdefender and let us know if the previous prompt to block the detected service is still there? This way, we can try to find out what security module blocked the service.

Regards

garioch7

@Alexandru_BD

I don't think this is supposed to happen when viewing this topic.

https://flic.kr/p/2pgUzmd

Have a great day.

Regards,

Phil

Alexandru_BD

Hello @garioch7,

Are you getting this while navigating on the forum?

As far as I know, blogapp.bitdefender.work is no longer in use. The domain is not intended to be used directly either. blogapp.bitdefender.work was feeding content via API to consumer and lab blogs on bitdefender.com/blog/

Gjoksi

@Alexandru_BD

There you go, buddy, this notification just came out:

Like i already said, this happens ONLY while navigating on the forum, in no particular time intervals.

Regards.

Alexandru_BD

Yeah, last time I saw this notification was two years ago. I'll ask our infrastructure engineers to investigate further.

Thanks for your feedback! 👍️

garioch7

@Alexandru_BD

I got that notice while perusing this particular News and Blog Forum yesterday and again just now. Up until now, I have not yet seen that warning while perusing other Forums here.

I will post back if I do. Have a great day.

Regards,

Phil

Alexandru_BD

Hi @garioch7,

It has to do with some posts here that have a link to the Bitdefender blog where blogapp.bitdefender.work is still present. I've reported this and I'm currently waiting for advice. The notification is not triggered for the forum, it pops up just for specific blog articles shared on our pages.

Regards

garioch7

@Alexandru_BD

Thank you for the explanation. I was not expecting to get a warning from BDTS when visiting BD Forums! That is why I reported it.

Have a great day.

Regards,

Phil

garioch7

@Alexandru_BD

The warning just came up again after my last post.

Have a great day.

Regards,

-Phil

Alexandru_BD

@garioch7 may I kindly ask you to add an exception for that, you can do this from the notification window directly as I don't have any other solution at the moment...

garioch7

@Alexandru_BD

I was not complaining, just reporting an issue of which I thought you might be unaware. Seems I might have been right. Yes, I could add an exception, but the warnings don't bother me. I think it is kind of ecumenical that BD even warns us about its own Forums!

I mean, how is that for non-discrimination?! That module is doing its job regardless of who owns it! You could use that in your advertising! 😉

I am confident that your experts will solve the problem shortly. I concede the warnings might be a bit embarrassing to Bitdefender, the company, and to you and your fellow Moderators here, but hey, lighten up. It was never my intention to turn this into a capital case. I simply wanted to report what I regarded as an anomaly because I thought that BD might be interested, and it amused me. OK, I have a strange sense of humour . . . 😎

Have a great day.

Regards,

Phil

Alexandru_BD

😅😅

Alexandru_BD

Can you check again now, please? 😅

Gjoksi

@Alexandru_BD

It seems that the problem has been solved, no more notifications about the untrusted/expired certificate.

Well done, well done.

Cheers.