Pornhub launches VPNhub, its own virtual private network app • Hacker News Board

Re: Pornhub launches VPNhub, its own virtual private network app

#51

Post by skrowl » Thu, May 24, 2018, 4:25 PM UTC

berbec wrote: post #26

chii wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if more peopled used TOR, and also ran public exit nodes and/or relays, it will work better than private VPN companies.

Afaik, Tor is not recommended for high bandwidth activities like bittorrent and streaming. I'm sure it works, but probably would break the network if too much of it went on. I'd be happy to know this never was the case or changed. Its the reason I never got on the tor bandwagon.

Trying to stream video over tor is a terrible experience, even if you stay within tor onion sites and don't rely on the too-few-and-too-overloaded exit nodes

Re: Pornhub launches VPNhub, its own virtual private network app

#52

Post by BicyclRepairMan » Thu, May 24, 2018, 4:29 PM UTC

gnode wrote: post #30

chii wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if more peopled used TOR, and also ran public exit nodes and/or relays, it will work better than private VPN companies.

The fundamental problem with this is that it's charity / freeloading. I don't mean this as an ethical complaint, just that the economic incentive isn't there. I could imagine cryptocurrency potentially offering a solution to this which solves both issues of trust and economics, but it would be a challenge to guarantee its security.

I seem to remember implementations like this already being in formation. Jay Freeman (aka saurik) is working on one called Orchid with a handful of other big names IIRC. I think I read about it here on YC.

Re: Pornhub launches VPNhub, its own virtual private network app

#53

Post by monkeynotes » Thu, May 24, 2018, 4:29 PM UTC

stuaxo wrote: post #25

mediocrejoker wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>So wait, as a UK citizen I can use Pornhub's VPN to circumvent the UK Government's "Porn Filter", a system that's run by..... Pornhub. I had no idea that PornHub is in charge of filtering adult content for the UK government. Got any more info about this relationship?

A scheme, where other porn companies can pay them - and if they can't afford it, go out of business.

I don't really understand how a country can ask a website to comply with its laws if the content is not hosted in that country. I guess it could be asked to comply under threat of being blocked in response to non-compliance.

It's such a weird area.

Re: Pornhub launches VPNhub, its own virtual private network app

#54

Post by solarkraft » Thu, May 24, 2018, 4:30 PM UTC

gnode wrote: post #30

chii wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think if more peopled used TOR, and also ran public exit nodes and/or relays, it will work better than private VPN companies.

The fundamental problem with this is that it's charity / freeloading. I don't mean this as an ethical complaint, just that the economic incentive isn't there. I could imagine cryptocurrency potentially offering a solution to this which solves both issues of trust and economics, but it would be a challenge to guarantee its security.

It would be easy to make the Tor browser also a tor node. This would unfortunately however have negative effects for users depending on secrecy, I think.

Re: Pornhub launches VPNhub, its own virtual private network app

#55

Post by choward » Thu, May 24, 2018, 4:31 PM UTC

Is this going to be the new trend? This is worse than Facebook with Onavo.

Re: Pornhub launches VPNhub, its own virtual private network app

#56

Post by pavel_lishin » Thu, May 24, 2018, 4:39 PM UTC

w0m wrote: post #31

pavel_lishin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> maybe this VPN service effectively solves both of those problems. Sure, for the low, low price of $12/month.

> VPNhub is free and unlimited, anonymous and easy to use, ... Though I didn't actually RTFM, was posted elsewhere here.

Whoops, how'd I miss that :/

Re: Pornhub launches VPNhub, its own virtual private network app

#57

Post by Coding_Cat » Thu, May 24, 2018, 4:40 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #35

Assuming that people were using a VPN to browse pornography, doesn't the ownership of this VPN by a Porn hosting company kind of eliminate the anonymity benefits of using it? I'm also confused by why the gentleman in the ad was going to browse PornHub in a crowded coffee shop while waiting on his coffee.

People use a VPN for much more than browsing porn. Jsut because Pornhub is behind it doesn't mean it's limited to that.

And I care less about a Pornhub knowing what I watch - if anything ;) - than the Government, ISP, or anyone in a position of power. With browser/cookie fingerprinting PH probably already can id people reasonably accurately, VPN or not, if they wanted to.

Re: Pornhub launches VPNhub, its own virtual private network app

#58

Post by brettz » Thu, May 24, 2018, 4:47 PM UTC

fencepost wrote: post #45

The pricing on this seems out of line with other VPN providers unless I'm missing something. $12-14/month = $144/year give or take. Even if they do a "2 months free if you pay annually" it's still $120/year while something like privateinternetaccess is $7/mo, $40/year or $70/2 years. Unfortunately the vpnhub site appears to have been hammered into the ground as of time of posting.

The yearly price for now is $69.99 in the US. Site is back up.

Re: Pornhub launches VPNhub, its own virtual private network app

#59

Post by gnode » Thu, May 24, 2018, 4:48 PM UTC

chii wrote: post #48

gnode wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fundamental problem with this is that it's charity / freeloading. I don't mean this as an ethical complaint, just that the economic incentive isn't there. I could imagine cryptocurrency potentially offering a solution to this which solves both issues of trust and economics, but it would be a challenge to guarantee its security.

it would be nice if TOR had reciprocity where a user using it will also donate some network bandwidth. But i guess that might not really work since it forces you to run an exit node, which is where the dangers of running TOR is currently.

That's not actually true; nodes can be non-exit and relay only. This helps insofar as to reduce the relaying load on the exits too.

Re: Pornhub launches VPNhub, its own virtual private network app

#60

Post by AndrewKemendo » Thu, May 24, 2018, 4:50 PM UTC

Coding_Cat wrote: post #57

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #35

Assuming that people were using a VPN to browse pornography, doesn't the ownership of this VPN by a Porn hosting company kind of eliminate the anonymity benefits of using it? I'm also confused by why the gentleman in the ad was going to browse PornHub in a crowded coffee shop while waiting on his coffee.

People use a VPN for much more than browsing porn. Jsut because Pornhub is behind it doesn't mean it's limited to that. And I care less about a Pornhub knowing what I watch - if anything ;) - than the Government, ISP, or anyone in a position of power. With browser/cookie fingerprinting PH probably already can id people reasonably accurately, VPN or not, if they wanted to.

Certainly, however I have to assume Pornhub is jumping into the VPN game because they realize a substantial number of their users use VPNs for exactly that.

It's not about anonymizing to PornHub, but about anonymizing to your ISP or AP.