Encryption & tunnels

Encryption is what turns a simple relay into a private connection. It gives your traffic three properties:

Confidentiality

Data inside the tunnel is unreadable to anyone who intercepts it, including the network you're connected to.

Integrity

Any attempt to alter data in transit is detected and the tampered data is discarded.

Authentication

Your device verifies it is talking to a genuine Pivien server before any of your traffic is sent.

Keys and sessions#

Pivien is designed so that every connection uses fresh session keys, rotated while you stay connected. That way, even if a single key were ever exposed, it couldn't be used to read past or future sessions.

Encryption alongside HTTPS#

Most websites already use HTTPS, which encrypts the content of the page between your browser and the site. The Pivien tunnel adds a second layer around all of your traffic: it also hides which sites you're visiting from the local network and covers apps and services that don't use HTTPS.