threat model

who veil helps against, stated plainly

Every security tool has a shape — a set of adversaries it actually changes the odds against, and everyone else it does nothing for. Most products blur that shape on purpose. This page draws it in as much detail as we can.

helps against

  • passive, mass surveillance — bulk collection that doesn't target you specifically, the kind that logs everyone's traffic by default and sorts out who mattered later.
  • ISP visibility — your internet provider seeing every domain you look up and every destination you connect to, just by being the network you're plugged into.
  • commercial tracking that relies on network-level signals — a stable MAC address fingerprinting your device across networks, plaintext DNS handed to an ad-adjacent resolver, unencrypted traffic readable by anyone sharing your Wi-Fi.
  • your own misconfiguration — a VPN that's installed but not actually routing traffic, a firewall that's present but not enabled, disk encryption you assumed was on and isn't.

does not help against

  • a targeted adversary — someone specifically investigating you, with resources and legal reach, is not stopped by better DNS hygiene.
  • physical access while you're logged in — an unlocked, decrypted, already-running session gives up everything regardless of what veil configured.
  • malware already running on your machine — veil audits network and disk posture; it isn't an antivirus and doesn't detect or remove anything already executing with your permissions.
  • the services you talk to — a messenger, a website, a game server still knows it's talking to you, VPN or not. veil hardens what your network exposes, not what you tell an app directly.

what veil does not do

stated as a feature, not buried as a disclaimer

This section exists because we'd rather you trust the parts we're honest about than discover the limits the hard way. Nothing below is a warning-styled callout — it's just true, and stated the same way everything else on this site is.

not anonymity

veil hardens what your ISP and local network can see. It does not hide who you are from the services you use — logging into an account is still logging in.

not a guarantee

No software makes a machine unhackable. veil reduces exposure to mass, passive surveillance — it is not a defense against someone specifically targeting you.

not untraceable

A determined, resourced adversary with legal reach can still find you. veil raises the bar for dragnet collection, not for a targeted investigation.

not an antivirus

veil doesn't scan for malware, doesn't sandbox anything, and doesn't watch running processes. It checks network and disk posture, not endpoint behavior.

not a VPN provider

veil ships no tunnel of its own. It audits whatever VPN you already run and can help configure it correctly — the tunnel itself is your choice, your provider, your trust decision.

not automatic

Nothing changes on your system without you explicitly running a fix. There is no silent background hardening, no default-on automation you didn't ask for.

we'd rather you trust the 90% we're honest about than sell you the 10% we can't deliver.