Get a VPN, yes or no?

[Win2000Fan]

What are your thoughts on VPN's? I have been thinking of getting one for my family. However, I am not completely convinced getting one is a good idea. I have read here lately some have been raided by the police and some people are still being discovered even though they are using a VPN. I do not torrent download but it's more of a security thing for me as I do not want someone spying on me. Another issue I have is the bombardment of VPN ads and reviewers being bought out for said VPN company making their recommendations useless. What are your thoughts, broth pro and con? Thanks

[Pierce Dalton]

Автор сообщения: EnÐסGeÑe§¡§

Автор сообщения: Pierce Dalton

Pff, these people will not be interested in a hard drive from a random nobody. Besides, passwords obviously aren't stored there so the only thing they can possibly get is some nudes

hmm impressively wrong methinks

Well they don't need to buy it from me, I can give them my old laptop hard drive.

They would be impressively bored...

[crunchyfrog]

It's entirely down to what you want to do - do you NEED one?

For the most part, there's a few reasons to have one and the most popular is region hopping for TVs and film services, for example. Or getting to access servers on games in other regions (great if you have friends in other countries and games are split by region).

For myself, I have zero reason at present to use one though as I hate TV and don't watch it at all. I buy all the films I want, so while they are good things to use, they're utterly useless for me at present.

So it entirely depends on whether you have a use for one. Don't get one just because there's adverts. That's daft.

[Pocahawtness]

Автор сообщения: 10Transistor

What are your thoughts on VPN's? I have been thinking of getting one for my family. However, I am not completely convinced getting one is a good idea. I have read here lately some have been raided by the police and some people are still being discovered even though they are using a VPN. I do not torrent download but it's more of a security thing for me as I do not want someone spying on me. Another issue I have is the bombardment of VPN ads and reviewers being bought out for said VPN company making their recommendations useless. What are your thoughts, broth pro and con? Thanks

A VPN alone is not an answer to security. It's really just a way to bypass local restrictions and hide your activity from your ISP. Great, if you want to watch a region locked channel, but it doesn't hide your activity from the likes of Google and the countless other tracking companies. That's down to your browser and the way you use it. For that you need a browser that has security options enabled. In particular, anti-trackers and using the browser in private mode so that it deletes cookies when you exit.
A VPN is only as good as the company that provides it. HMA, for example, will shop you out if you are up to no good. Many VPN's, however, keep no records at all, so could not shop you out even if they wanted to.
If you are really serious about security then something like Tor, but that is very slow. The advantage of that is that it already has all the security options enabled and doesn't cost anything.

[Supafly]

I have a VPN to encrypt my data because I frequently access free wifi. While security has come a long way there are still risks accessing networks that are not your own. Never know whose is on the network and whether their devices are infected.

[Tiberius]

I use opera built-in vpn

[AustrAlien2010]

No. Not for your privacy.

VPN's are developed for something else than your privacy. That's just some idea they try to sell you, by feeding on your paranoia, but it's not made for that.

[Kamiyama]

Most normal VPN's are useless because websites will just block the exit nodes. This is where all the traffic leaves the VPN and enters the normal internet, and will have a limited range of IP addresses assigned to that VPN. It's easy to block them all with IP range bans.

If you want to use a functional VPN you will have to use a decentralized VPN like Mysterium VPN. I've tried it out and ti does work. You need Paypal and it doesn't charge a monthly fee but it does charge for bandwidth. Also you can make money by choosing to become a exit node.

So Mysterium has thousands of exit nodes to choose from, and they change. So it's impossible to block all of Mysterium with IP bans since the exit nodes change each day. If one doesn't work you just change to a different one.

If you become an exit node you can earn money from people who pay to use yours. If you use someone else's exit node you pay them money. It's pay as you go. I uses some crypto coin for payment but you can cash out using paypal if you're in it for the profit.

It's not perfect. Some countries are already trying to make VPN's illegal. DVPN's like Mysterium threaten the digital police state so they are no doubt going to crack down on it any way they can.

I've talked about this before I think there could be a hardware solution that protects internet anonymity. Any hardware solution has to exist at the ISP. Something like Starlink where each satellite has say 10 connections to the ground-based internet and when users connect to it, the satellites can transfer encrypted user data around like a VPN before letting them out onto whatever exit node they choose. If there's like 5,000 satellites then you have like 50,000 or whatever exit nodes to choose from. Why not let users choose their own exit node? This is something ISP's haven't given users in the past but they totally could.

An ISP doing this would probably infuriate all the jack-booted internet fascists. You would see countries ban this ISP from "their internet".

The internet was designed from the beginning to be decentralized and allow for the free flow of data. It was never supposed to morph into the very centralized very controlled thing it is today. It's already dead in spirit and as soon as countries (like China already has) start walling off their own sections of it, the corpse of it will be rotten for everyone to see.

[Sir Dookface McFerretballs]

VPNs are great if you have a nosy ISP and you like to sail the high seas.

[AustrAlien2010]

Which ISP spies on it's users? I never heard of an ISP that does that. You?

This is just another example of unfounded nonsense that people on the internet have to endure, and why they start paying for a useless VPN connection that they do not even need.
It's all a marketing ploy to make you pay for something that you do not need.


You know what? I don't care about you or your family. Just get it. Pay for it!
VPN is a great way to make money off people who do not understand VPN or what it's for. Simply tell people it's for their privacy, or make up some other nonsense, and they will pay for it.

[Phénomènes Mystiques]

Me using a VPN? What am I going back to Reddit? The answer is no, a solid no for both questions.

[Sir Dookface McFerretballs]

Автор сообщения: AustrAlien2010

What ISP spies on it's users? I never heard of an ISP that does that. You?

This is just another example of unfounded nonsense that people have to endure, and why they start paying for some useless VPN connection.

LOL Must be nice living under a rock to be so confidently incorrect.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_surveillance_in_the_United_States#Internet_communications

https://cdn-resprivacy.pressidium.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/FTC-ISP-Report.pdf

https://restoreprivacy.com/internet-service-providers-isp-privacy-data-collection/

ISPs are recording:

-Every website you visit
-Information from your web browser
-Data from other connected devices on your network
-Location data from mobile devices

Combined, this information could be useful for creating a very detailed profile of you that is extremely valuable for advertisers. But it gets even worse.

Remember that the big 6 US ISPs are now tech giants. They provide all sorts of services that have little or nothing to do with getting you connected to the internet. That means all sorts of additional information is available within their overall empire.

They could also have access to information like:

-Your television viewing history
-Email and search results
-Data from your home security
-Connected vehicles you drive
-Other internet-connected devices, such as fitness trackers, appliances, and other Internet of Things (IoT) devices

[AustrAlien2010]

But your government should already protect you from being spied on by companies that make money from you. I thought the United States government protected it's people from companies even more than most other places on Earth, and you should be well protected, even without VPN.

Or at least, that's what I thought. If you ask me, it's a waste of money if you pay for more so-called privacy, when your privacy is already protected by your government through taxes.

If it makes you feel safer I understand you want to pay for it, but I thought your privacy is already protected well, without you having to make additional costs for it.


Your government is highly protective towards you, and there's no way people can just access your private information.

[zuppaclub]

if you need to use vpn, use it, if not, don't.

[AustrAlien2010]

Even if you ever download something that you should not, you can always say you had some friends over, and they used your internet or whatever, and you don't know anything about it.
There's no way they can trace it back to you.

[Good Night Owl]

Автор сообщения: AustrAlien2010

Even if you ever download something that you should not, you can always say you had a friend over, and they used your internet or whatever.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't work that way. The owner of the device is probably going to be held responsible.