Open Technology Workshop – Revisiting Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)

Meeting Details

November 18, 2026
Topic: Revisiting Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
Description: You hear sponsorship breaks for VPNs and people say that they’ll keep you safe online. But these broad claims come with a lot of asterisks and a helping of nuance. At this workshop, we’ll discuss how VPNs work, how they can protect you, and most importantly, what they cannot do. This is followed by a discussion on how determine whether a VPN provider is trustworthy. Finally, we’ll demonstrate how you can set up a VPN on your home network so you can access your media server from anywhere!

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/vpn/
https://protonvpn.com/
https://www.ivpn.net/
https://mullvad.net/

Feel free to bring your laptops and we'll dive right in! If you've got some questions you'd like to talk about, put them in the Meetup comments below!