What Is Camouflage Mode on Surfshark?

Camouflage Mode was Surfshark’s name for its obfuscation feature, which masks your traffic’s metadata to make VPN traffic look like regular web activity.

Surfshark now simply calls it obfuscation, and it switches on automatically whenever you connect over the OpenVPN protocol. That means it isn’t always on from the first click: the app’s default protocol setting is Automatic, which often picks WireGuard instead.

Many other VPNs have their own version of a Camouflage Mode, and you can find out which providers use the technique further in this article.

Keep reading to find out why Surfshark Camouflage Mode is helpful, as well as answers to several other frequently asked questions.

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The Benefits of Surfshark Camouflage Mode

Camouflage Mode is Surfshark’s secret weapon in the fight to take back your internet privacy.

The feature makes the job of ISPs and internet snoopers more difficult, but there’s plenty of other reasons why this characteristic is so useful.

Enhance Your Security

Whether you’re surfing the web or downloading torrents, your ISP will be able to track your activity and also keeps logs of what you’ve been up to while using a direct connection (without a VPN).

Camouflage Mode works on the OpenVPN protocol, which Surfshark’s help center lists in its apps for Windows, macOS, iOS, Android and Linux, to obfuscate your VPN traffic, using a tool called OpenVPN Scramble (sometimes known as XOR.

This technique masks any OpenVPN traffic it identifies.

ISPs use scanning and tracking tools to detect OpenVPN metadata, but XOR cipher is sophisticated enough to scramble your traffic, leaving no trace of a VPN footprint.

Bypass Content Filters

Many websites use advanced scanning techniques that identify VPN traffic from regular traffic and, as a result, block connections they detect coming from a VPN IP address.

One example is the online chat and video service Omegle.

Entering the site with a VPN is possible, but when a user attempts to begin a conversation with a stranger (that’s how the service works), the VPN connection is detected.

An error appears to show there’s been a problem connecting.

In reality, Omegle has blocked the connection attempt.

By using Surfshark Camouflage Mode, it makes it harder for websites like Omegle to identify the traffic as a VPN connection attempt and has a tougher time blocking the connection.

Geolocation Spoofing

Like the above scenario with Omegle blocking any activity, it detects as coming from a VPN, many sites like BBC iPlayer place restrictions on connection attempts identified as coming from outside the UK (where residents hold a TV license).

Camouflage Mode scrambles the traffic to make it appear like regular traffic, while connecting to a UK server is what makes the data transmitted over your connection appear to come from the UK.

This is important if you intend to access BBC iPlayer.

The service uses your GPS location and your IP address location together and blocks the connection if the traffic is unmasked.

Other VPN Providers That Use Camouflage Mode

Camouflage Mode was Surfshark’s own name for its obfuscation (today it just calls it obfuscation), and other VPN providers use a similar technology under different names.

NordVPN doesn’t use any fancy name but instead refers to its version of Camouflage Mode as “obfuscated servers.”
ExpressVPN uses a similar technology which it calls “Sealth Servers” to mimic ordinary traffic.
PureVPN lists “obfuscated servers” among its specialized servers, so you pick one of those locations when you need your VPN traffic to blend in with regular traffic.

While the providers above name their obfuscation technologies differently, the purpose is very much the same.

How to Enable Camouflage Mode In Surfshark?

For Camouflage Mode to work, you need to ensure you are using the OpenVPN protocol.

OpenVPN isn’t the default, though: the app’s protocol setting starts on Automatic, which often picks WireGuard, so switch to OpenVPN (TCP or UDP) by following these steps:

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Download and install the Surfshark application for your chosen device.
Run Surfshark, and enter your login credentials (usually your email address and a password you would have set) when prompted. Hit “Log in”.
Click Settings and then select VPN settings.
Under Protocol, please select OpenVPN (UDP or TCP) from the dropdown list.

Hit “Connect” and Surfshark’s obfuscation will now be on.

What Is VPN Obfuscation?

Obfuscation is a technology that is used both by VPNs and Tor respectively.

Most VPN providers use their own techniques and naming conventions to enable obfuscation, but the end result remains very much the same; to mask the privacy protection software being used as a means of making the traffic appear like regular internet traffic.

If a VPN provider states they offer obfuscated servers, they can hide VPN traffic to make it appear the same as would be visible with a direct internet connection.

VPN obfuscation is useful for hiding internet activity from your ISP and snoopers, bypassing internet censorship in places like China, and beating an internal network that doesn’t allow VPN traffic.

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Conclusion

Surfshark camouflage feature is perfect for bypassing content restrictions for websites that block VPN traffic.

The technology switches on automatically whenever you use the OpenVPN protocol, which you can pick in the app’s VPN settings.

Other VPN providers use their own terms for obfuscated servers, but the principle remains the same; to mask VPN traffic enabling you to access sites that block online privacy software.

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