Of the services of Virtual Private Network we have had occasion to speak to you often. We have recommended the best ones VPNdeepened the service giving a definition and describing how it works. And a good VPN is a great way to protect your privacy, browse more anonymously, and even access region-blocked content, such as for unblock Netflix from abroad or access the catalogs of other countries.

But however high the quality of a service is, no provider can 100% guarantee the effective concealment of all your data. Although the encrypted tunnel through which the VPN directs traffic is able to protect you quite well from third parties willing to collect data about you (whether they are ISPs, malicious people, or government bodies), there are always techniques with which it is possible to obtain some information, for example on the time zone time set on the client device (to infer the actual location) and other methods that can defeat the functions of the VPN.

We tested the Vytal extension by setting Tokyo as the location

Of course, the extreme cases in which this constitutes a real danger are not very many (unless you are using the Internet in a country that severely punishes those who violate restrictions, or you are not using the VPN in connection with particularly serious illegal activities), but be aware that not even the best VPN in the world will be able to protect you 100%.

That said, fortunately, there are some solutions to the problem that, in combination with a Virtual Private Network, they help you to maintain an optimal degree of online anonymity. One of them is Vytal, a free extension for Google Chrome and for other browsers based on Chromiumhow Microsoft Edgefor example, which spoofs information obtained with JavaScript methods such as Intl.DateTimeFormat (). ResolvedOptions () for time zone retrieval or Date (). ToLocaleString ()which returns the client’s local time.

In total, Vytal does it spoofing from time zone, language, geolocation and user agent, all elements that can be traced back to the real location and other information about the user who believes he is safe behind a VPN. Spoofing takes place via theAPI chrome.debugger, therefore, the data is “disguised” in frames and web workers, as well as during the initial loading of the website. Furthermore, the transaction appears to be undetectable.

For example, after installing the extension, you can choose a location from a predefined list, change the data to match the IP address or add a custom location. This is useful when using a VPN, to make sure that the data collected via JavaScript methods is consistent with the location of the VPN server in use. We tried to set up Tokyoafter connecting to a VPN server in the Japanese capital and then checking the IP address, which was consistent with a location in Japan.

The tool works fine, but there is still room for improvement as a delay between the page load and the start of spoofing, with a possible leak some data. In any case, the script is very effective in hiding position information. The developer, however, plans to update the tool, adding new features and improving existing ones, so it may be even more secure in the future.