Don't Use VPN Services (2016)
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Don't Use VPN Services (2016)
1–10 of 61 posts
Re: Don't Use VPN Services (2016)
#2This is a pretty printing article that completely misses one of the main reasons to use VPN: browsing resources blocked in your country. I use VPN to open LinkedIn and watch West wing on Netflix, and I couldn't care less about who gets to know about it.
Re: Don't Use VPN Services (2016)
#3> Because a VPN in this sense is just a glorified proxy. The VPN provider can see all your traffic, and do with it what they want - including logging.
Wow, I didn't know VPN providers have broken SSL and can read all that traffic.
This was on the frontpage before. Are people just upvoting it for the clickbait headline without reading the points that are being made?
Re: Don't Use VPN Services (2016)
#4This is a pretty printing article that completely misses one of the main reasons to use VPN: browsing resources blocked in your country. I use VPN to open LinkedIn and watch West wing on Netflix, and I couldn't care less about who gets to know about it.
Unless you are a high profile target, the most important factor would be whether you trust it more than your ISP (which you should in most part of the world).
Re: Don't Use VPN Services (2016)
#5There are definitely lots of miss-conceptions about VPNs and some ridiculous claims by VPN providers for things like security or malware protection.
Still VPNs can be useful to access content\networks that otherwise you can't.
As for privacy, it comes down to trust. You mentioned HideMyAss but other services have good track record, far better than most ISPs that publicly state they share information with 3rd parties.
Re: Don't Use VPN Services (2016)
#6I guess the point is do you trust your hotel more than your VPN provider or not.
Re: Don't Use VPN Services (2016)
#7Only reason for VPN I see is circumventing geo-fencing. And even then you need to remember that it can put your account at risk. For subscription services this might be insignificant, but for likes of gamestores it might prevent you from making future purchases at some point.
Re: Don't Use VPN Services (2016)
#8This is a pretty printing article that completely misses one of the main reasons to use VPN: browsing resources blocked in your country. I use VPN to open LinkedIn and watch West wing on Netflix, and I couldn't care less about who gets to know about it.
Also bypassing throttling like cell carriers limiting video bandwidth to a small fraction of normal speeds. The article also ignores the multiple VPN providers who have been subpoenaed in court and replied that they have no logs. So either they don't log or they're willing to lie to a judge on their customer's behalf.
I feel like every few months one of these holier-than-thou anti-VPN articles hits HN where the author completely ignores the real demographics and use cases of commercial VPNs and acts like our primary concerns are ISPs finding out what color of underwear we like. Most people use VPNs to watch Netflix and steal Game of Thrones. They don't leave them turned on because they noticeably increase browsing and gaming lag.
Re: Don't Use VPN Services (2016)
#9> Because a VPN in this sense is just a glorified proxy. The VPN provider can see all your traffic, and do with it what they want - including logging. Wow, I didn't know VPN providers have broken SSL and can read all that traffic. This was on the frontpage before. Are people just upvoting it for the clickbait headline without reading the points that are being made?
Well he's not wrong. traffic is far more than perfectly configured TLS.
DNS, SNI and mixed content are all insecure for the vast majority of users. You can learn a lot from HTTPS traffic.
Re: Don't Use VPN Services (2016)
#10My main reason for using a proxy is to prevent my government from tracking and logging all my internet activity (when you look at the huge list of agencies the UK government has allowed access to that information you can see why).
I skimmed through this article but I don't think it addressed this use case. Sure, my VPN could be tracking me, but I have much more trust in Mozilla than I do any other internety company. This article seems to be arguing that because perfect browsing privacy isn't possible that you might as well not bother with any.