VPN,are you wasting your money ?

[Guydodge]

im going with yes,dont buy into it

https://youtu.be/XVPfyO0c_b4

[Veni vidi vici]

This has to be the only place on the net where you'll see people hating on vpn's

[Omega]

Messaggio originale di Veni vidi vici:

This has to be the only place on the net where you'll see people hating on vpn's

One of the few places which isn't filled with tech illiterate "normies".

[Si]

It’s good practise to have your browser clear the cache on exit anyway.

Some vpn providers don’t log data as proven by court records, of course the problem is it’s essentially Russian roulette as to which ones are genuine and which aren’t. They all say they don’t.

Finally never, ever use a free VPN. The way they make money is by seling your data.

[Lord Flashheart]

Not really a shock.
Advertise anonymous browsing.
Most countries now it seems require the isp or vpn provider to keep logs.
Ideal honeypot for the dumb.
Of course legally you are unlikely to be able to do much about it.

[Out Of Bubblegum]

Messaggio originale di Omega:

Messaggio originale di Veni vidi vici:

This has to be the only place on the net where you'll see people hating on vpn's

One of the few places which isn't filled with tech illiterate "normies".

LOL. But it is filled with tech illiterate gamers that think they know stuff. But most don't even know how to configure Windows.

[Castyles]

I never trusted them, even before they became a trend. They always seemed sketchy.

[Veni vidi vici]

Messaggio originale di Omega:

Messaggio originale di Veni vidi vici:

This has to be the only place on the net where you'll see people hating on vpn's

One of the few places which isn't filled with tech illiterate "normies".

LOL you have low standards

[Drystoner]

I use Proton VPN. No money wasted.

[Omega]

ProtonVPN is the only VPN provider I actually trust. I pay for a ProtonMail Plus account, and use the included Free VPN in case I need to get around something region locked or for testing.

[plat]

Messaggio originale di plat:

Surfshark is a possibility and it's free. I'd just read up on it, incl. legit user reviews.

Surfshark doesn't disclose its ownership. Never mind.

Edited to correct something.

[nightnight]

What about for traveling? Staying in hotels and such.

[Omega]

Messaggio originale di tariqari:

What about for traveling? Staying in hotels and such.

As long as you connect to websites using HTTPS there is nothing to worry about.

[druuu]

I don't get why people are obsessed with being anonymous online and making sure people don't know who they really are. Like..... I'm sure no one really cares about your online activities unless you're like a special agent on a secret mission, which you're not.
You're just some kid looking at fortnite videos lol

[r.linder]

You're not 100% secure anyway unless you're taking every single possible measure to ensure you're not being tracked.

The irony is, most people have a smartphone, which can always be tracked in numerous ways, but yet they only seem to be concerned with their PC.

[Omega]

Messaggio originale di dru:

I don't get why people are obsessed with being anonymous online and making sure people don't know who they really are. Like..... I'm sure no one really cares about your online activities unless you're like a special agent on a secret mission, which you're not.
You're just some kid looking at fortnite videos lol

Because this data is used to influence and exploit you. The main example being how you see ads targeted at who you are as a person, this can be simple "please buy X" ads, but also political ads playing in to your interests and worries.

Often you don't even know that content is targeted at you. Examples of this being the videos YouTube recommends you and the posts Facebook shows on your main page.

Targeted ads and content are infringing on privacy and are unethical, they should not exist.


At least targeted content is starting to be cracked down on, take the cookie banners on most website as an example, this is an EU law cracking down on tracking cookies.


I have nothing against ads, I have DuckDuckGo whitelisted in my adblocker for example. Why? Because I like the service and want to support it. Not that you need to adblock DuckDuckGo, it even has a settings page where you can disable ads if you want.

Messaggio originale di Escorve:

You're not 100% secure anyway unless you're taking every single possible measure to ensure you're not being tracked.

The irony is, most people have a smartphone, which can always be tracked in numerous ways, but yet they only seem to be concerned with their PC.

Yes most people are idiots. But not everyone. That is why I and others can be such a free software evangelists, I am trying to educate people on this topic.

But there are always people ignorantly pushing back with defeatism or out of blind loyalty to a company who's products they like.

Getting rid of all the bad stuff is really not hard.
1. Use exclusively free/libre software
- Exceptions are allowed for software you really can not live without
2. Don't (directly) use products and services which infringe on your privacy
- So no YouTube, no Facebook etc..
- You can often use alternative front-ends to these services allowing you to still (semi-)privately interact with them, such as FreeTube and Invidious for YouTube, or Libreddit for Reddit.
3. Agressively block the crap out of web trackers
- Firefox set to Strict privacy mode will do this

This is all you have to do to avoid the vast majority of the bad stuff, and this should not impact your workflow or how you use your computer in any meaningful way, you can still do pretty much everything you did before. Only difference being that you will now be using something other then Google Chrome as your main browser.

Only with smartphones is the running fully free software part a challenge, but it is improving, my phone only runs free software, it just run Debian with some minor tweaks and added modem firmware.