VPNs on iOS are a scam

Post by anyfoo » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:51 AM UTC

_8j50 wrote: post #104

anyfoo wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You are wrong on this, the private part indicates the privacy it provides not the destination. I remember using VPNs long before, to my knowledge, people were using them in the way you describe, and I was always under the impression that the "P" in VPN meant "connecting private networks" together over the Internet. This document from 2001 agrees with me: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/i.…

Yes, too bad about the downvotes but let me add on that and ask those who disagree what P stands for in WEP and WPA? lol. Wep is wired equivalent privacy. A connection that does not provide privacy like a GRE tunnel for example is called a tunnel never a VPN or more and GRE specifically connects networks which are typically private. You can also have VPN between two ASes on on the internet which are public networks.…

Post by dcow » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:54 AM UTC

Post by autoexec » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 1:59 AM UTC

anyfoo wrote: post #119

autoexec wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I took it to mean a private network connecting two end points, not necessarily connecting two private networks, just that the tunnel (the network between them) was virtual and secure so the traffic exchanged couldn't be eavesdropped on, or modified, by every random node as it passed though the untrusted internet. I might have been influenced by the product we were selling though. These were dial up users on workstati…

Fair, it does seem that "privacy" VPNs are a lot older than I thought and possibly as old as the "VPN" moniker. (Assuming that your project was in the 90s, which it sounds like.) At this point it just seems like arguing for arguing's sake, but I was rejecting the notion that VPNs were always intended for privacy (along with saying others are wrong for suggesting otherwise). It still seems to me that VPNs did not alwa…

Post by anyfoo » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 2:06 AM UTC

autoexec wrote: post #125

anyfoo wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fair, it does seem that "privacy" VPNs are a lot older than I thought and possibly as old as the "VPN" moniker. (Assuming that your project was in the 90s, which it sounds like.) At this point it just seems like arguing for arguing's sake, but I was rejecting the notion that VPNs were always intended for privacy (along with saying others are wrong for suggesting otherwise). It still seems to me that VPNs did not alwa…

I agree, VPNs were absolutely not always used to hide internet activity, but sometimes they were. Early on they were certainly most often used by companies to connect networks or to connect to resources on their intranet, the need (and the money) was primarily there, but I'm not surprised that using VPNs for privacy reasons got more popular as time went on. Even back then I thought it was pretty cool/useful tech and…

Post by mike_d » Wed, Aug 17, 2022, 2:34 AM UTC

chakalakasp wrote: post #114

Aaargh20318 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> VPNs were always meant to carry internal traffic to a private network, not the public internet This. And the idea that these so called ‘VPN’ services somehow improve your security and privacy on the internet is laughable. All they do is let you get onto the public, untrusted, internet through a different on-ramp. There is no point to them. The internet is just as untrustworthy through a VPN service as it is through…

Thing is, if you ping experts in the privacy field (like Mike Bazzell, the former FBI OSINT guy who billionaires and celebs hire to keep their personal info off the internet), they will all say the VPNs are a very important tool to create a layer of privacy between you and the site you are visiting and also a good tool to prevent said sites from easily profiling you. No, they are not a panacea -- much like the securi…