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Kudos0

Norton VPN complicates web login (e.g. login to Amazon.com)

Posted: 02-Sep-2021 | 11:47AM · 9 Replies ·

My "Norton 360 Deluxe" (aka Norton LifeLock) software recently recommended that I turn on its "Secure VPN" feature, because it "encrypts your online activity and helps protect your online privacy... Use a VPN to keep your browsing activity and location anonymous, block online ad trackers and encrypt the data that is sent and received whenever you’re connected to the internet."

After I turned on the Norton VPN, my logins to websites including Amazon.com began to require me to follow difficult procedures to authenticate my identity. One of these websites sent its authentication link to my backup email address, while Amazon.com sent its authentication link in a message to my mobile phone. For various reasons, none of these procedures was easy for me to follow.

First, I contacted Amazon.com support. It took a long time for me to repeat my problem description for each person I spoke with. In the end, the only thing they could do for me was to send their authentication link to my primary email address (only a little easier for me to view and select), in addition to my mobile phone (very difficult for me to select). 

Then I contacted Norton Support, beginning with a "virtual assistant," and ending with a phone conversation with a "support representative." It took a long time to make my problem description clear. In the end, the only thing the "support representative" could tell me was that the Norton VPN was operating properly, and that there was no other way for it to operate in order to work better with my logins to websites including Amazon.com.

So my only practical option is to turn off the Norton 360 "Secure VPN" feature. Although I liked the idea of it "helping to protect my online privacy..." I'm unable to live with its unwanted side-effects.

File Attachment: 
PDF icon Screenshots re. Norton VPN side-effects.
Labels: Norton 360, Norton Secure VPN

Replies

Accepted Solution
Kudos0

Re: Norton VPN complicates web login (e.g. login to Amazon.com)

Posted: 02-Sep-2021 | 4:15PM · Permalink

What you are seeing is web sites protecting your account. When the VPN is active, the web site sees a login attempt for your account from a location that it does not expect. So to protect your account, there are extra security measures you need to follow to confirm it is you logging into your account. 

There is nothing a VPN vendor can do to bypass this additional protection.

Some sites will block access completely from known VPN IP addresses.

Kudos0

Re: Norton VPN complicates web login (e.g. login to Amazon.com)

Posted: 03-Sep-2021 | 6:04AM · Permalink

One thing a VPN provider like Norton 360 could do would be to inform its customers of the "extra security measures" they would need to take, if they were to turn on the VPN. As it was, it took me a while to figure out what the problem was, and and a while to ask my web-service providers and Norton 360 what I might do to solve it. As I wrote in my problem description, my only practical solution was to turn off the Norton 360 VPN.
Kudos0

Re: Norton VPN complicates web login (e.g. login to Amazon.com)

Posted: 03-Sep-2021 | 6:31AM · Permalink

I hear you. There is this big push to get everyone to use a VPN, but no education on how to do it.

There is a Split Tunnel function that can be used to exclude a specific app from the VPN function. But if you are just shopping online with your browser, that is not practical. If you are using a mobile device, you can use the Split Tunnel feature to exclude the apps. I just checked and you can get an Amazon app to use instead of a browser. You could exclude that app to access your Amazon account without interference from the VPN.

Kudos0

Re: Norton VPN complicates web login (e.g. login to Amazon.com)

Posted: 03-Sep-2021 | 6:43AM · Permalink

Thanks for the info, PeterWeb. Unfortunately, Amazon.com isn't the only website to which I'd need to find an alternate route. Plus, I'm old, and don't want to use mobile phone for anything other than calling and messaging.

Kudos0

Re: Norton VPN complicates web login (e.g. login to Amazon.com)

Posted: 03-Sep-2021 | 8:30AM · Permalink

I just used Amazon as one example, the same way you mentioned Amazon as an example of what you are seeing.

Kudos0

Re: Norton VPN complicates web login (e.g. login to Amazon.com)

Posted: 03-Sep-2021 | 12:38PM · Permalink

Yes, I had problems with two web-service providers; and I don't have the technical skill or interest to figure out and implement a workaround for each of them--or any others with which I might encounter problems in the future. Two is already too many for me.

Kudos1 Stats

Re: Norton VPN complicates web login (e.g. login to Amazon.com)

Posted: 03-Sep-2021 | 4:38PM · Edited: 03-Sep-2021 | 4:42PM · Permalink

There is no work around if the site owners have added the extra security measures to protect your Account. All you can do is disable VPN when you need to access those sites.

As long as you have properly set up your home network with a strong WPA2 passphrase in your router, the VPN is of little extra protection. The protection a VPN provides is most needed when you are using an unsecured public network, where hackers may also be connected to that network. If they happen to try to intercept your communications, and you have the VPN active, the encryption from the VPN will leave them with a lot of gibberish. 

Kudos0

Re: Norton VPN complicates web login (e.g. login to Amazon.com)

Posted: 04-Sep-2021 | 10:28AM · Permalink

That's helpful to know about the router security.

Correction: with the VPN active, there are two options to login to a website on which "the site owners have added the extra security measures to protect your Account":

1) Follow the authentication process that the website requires, or 

2) "disable the VPN when you need access to the website."

Kudos0

Re: Norton VPN complicates web login (e.g. login to Amazon.com)

Posted: 04-Sep-2021 | 3:51PM · Permalink

All you can do is disable VPN when you need to access those sites.

Correction: with the VPN active, there are two options to login to a website on which "the site owners have added the extra security measures to protect your Account":

1) Follow the authentication process that the website requires, or 

2) "disable the VPN when you need access to the website."

Correction accepted and agreed with.  

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