system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What's the difference between a VPN, proxy, and Tor

They all help with privacy? Can't your ISP see that you're connected to one of these?
gpt
A **proxy** is just an intermediate server you route your traffic through.  They are useful for bypassing network filters  and access restrictions. On its own a proxy isn't usually used for privacy. An ISP can still see unencrypted traffic, and while your IP may be masked from the websites you visit there are other ways they can attempt to track you.

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A **VPN** uses an encrypted tunnel to route your connection through their proxy server. Because the packets are encrypted, your ISP doesn't know the content of your requests even if you are connecting to a service that is using HTTP.  In addition, since your traffic is being routed through the VPN server the websites you visit can't see your IP address. With a VPN you rely on the VPN service to provide you privacy. A good VPN won't keep logs, but there are numerous examples of VPN's lying about this. If you really care, simply using a VPN isn't enough, you need to be aware of how you can be tracked in other-ways.

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**Tor** works by encryting your traffic in layers and  routing it through a series of random volunteer run relays. Each relay decrypts one layer to discover the next relay, which decrypts the next and so on. This means the exit node doesn't know where the traffic originated from, nor does the entry node know where the traffic is going. Your ISP will know you are using Tor, but not know what you are using it for or who you are communicating with.