Live data from Hacker News

Hola VPN turns 10M users into exit nodes

8ch.net

31–40 of 144 posts

Re: Hola VPN turns 10M users into exit nodes

#31

Anyone knows a better alternative to luminati.io? We've been using it in our company but it feels expensive. I thought this thread may be good place to ask for an alternative.

> We've been using it in our company but it feels expensive.

I just looked up the cost and no kidding at $20/GB.

Re: Hola VPN turns 10M users into exit nodes

#32
post #28
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What happens when the Feds are knocking on your door because someone routed kiddie pr0n or drug deals through your connection?

Doesn't that same risk exist if you're running a Tor exit node?

That's exactly the point, people hosting tor exit nodes are very aware of the risk they're taking. Hola users aren't.

Most people use Hola to watch internet shows not available in their country. Or, for example, some people use Hola to watch southparkstudios from Sweden, because it's freely available there, but in the US it requires hulu plus.

I'm on a college campus, I am always peeking at people's screens in the library and I'll see the little Hola flame in their navbar. I even saw it on a CS grad student's browser once before class.

No one has any idea.

Re: Hola VPN turns 10M users into exit nodes

#33
post #29
post #3

They explicitly state in their FAQ how this works and why their service is able to be free: http://hola.org/faq#in_how_is_free They even have a non-free option that eliminates the VPN as a proxy feature. "Hola built a peer to peer overlay network for HTTP, which securely routes the sites you choose through other Hola users' devices and not through expensive servers. Hola never takes up valuable resources from these u…

Hello, Fredrick Brennan here (8chan owner). They changed their FAQ IN RESPONSE to my breaking the story on this. Proof: Google cache of Hola FAQ as of 26 May: https://archive.is/tgujS As you can see, there is no mention of Luminati, or the underlying mechanics at all. I published hola.html and updated my global announcement just hours before the FAQ change: https://twitter.com/infinitechan/status/603178141650026498 T…

It looks like they clarified their story, not changed it? It did say that it uses idle resources collaboratively...I'm not really trying to argue, just wondering if it was really that deceptive. I had never heard of them until this post.

Re: Hola VPN turns 10M users into exit nodes

#34
post #29
post #3

They explicitly state in their FAQ how this works and why their service is able to be free: http://hola.org/faq#in_how_is_free They even have a non-free option that eliminates the VPN as a proxy feature. "Hola built a peer to peer overlay network for HTTP, which securely routes the sites you choose through other Hola users' devices and not through expensive servers. Hola never takes up valuable resources from these u…

Hello, Fredrick Brennan here (8chan owner). They changed their FAQ IN RESPONSE to my breaking the story on this. Proof: Google cache of Hola FAQ as of 26 May: https://archive.is/tgujS As you can see, there is no mention of Luminati, or the underlying mechanics at all. I published hola.html and updated my global announcement just hours before the FAQ change: https://twitter.com/infinitechan/status/603178141650026498 T…

Also, Luminati was falsely claiming that they were more anonymous than Tor before I did some digging. They changed that too: https://twitter.com/infinitechan/status/603512756331913216

Shady business all around.

Re: Hola VPN turns 10M users into exit nodes

#35
post #34
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello, Fredrick Brennan here (8chan owner). They changed their FAQ IN RESPONSE to my breaking the story on this. Proof: Google cache of Hola FAQ as of 26 May: https://archive.is/tgujS As you can see, there is no mention of Luminati, or the underlying mechanics at all. I published hola.html and updated my global announcement just hours before the FAQ change: https://twitter.com/infinitechan/status/603178141650026498 T…

Also, Luminati was falsely claiming that they were more anonymous than Tor before I did some digging. They changed that too: https://twitter.com/infinitechan/status/603512756331913216 Shady business all around.

Ok, yeah, that's nonsense.

Re: Hola VPN turns 10M users into exit nodes

#37
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello, Fredrick Brennan here (8chan owner). They changed their FAQ IN RESPONSE to my breaking the story on this. Proof: Google cache of Hola FAQ as of 26 May: https://archive.is/tgujS As you can see, there is no mention of Luminati, or the underlying mechanics at all. I published hola.html and updated my global announcement just hours before the FAQ change: https://twitter.com/infinitechan/status/603178141650026498 T…

It looks like they clarified their story, not changed it? It did say that it uses idle resources collaboratively...I'm not really trying to argue, just wondering if it was really that deceptive. I had never heard of them until this post.

> It did say that it uses idle resources collaboratively

So does Folding@Home. So does tor onion routing (relay node). Nowhere did it say outside of the EULA that they are using all their users as exit nodes.

They failed to specify which "resources". It's indefensible, and people would have fallen for this cover up had Google not archived it.

Re: Hola VPN turns 10M users into exit nodes

#38
post #30

What if a node messes with the response and returns fake data? Do they route the request over multiple nodes and compare the results? Then what if someone owns a lot of nodes?

Hola's browser extension is proprietary. A friend of mine has been considering reverse engineering it but is not sure of the laws.

Re: Hola VPN turns 10M users into exit nodes

#39
post #29
post #3

They explicitly state in their FAQ how this works and why their service is able to be free: http://hola.org/faq#in_how_is_free They even have a non-free option that eliminates the VPN as a proxy feature. "Hola built a peer to peer overlay network for HTTP, which securely routes the sites you choose through other Hola users' devices and not through expensive servers. Hola never takes up valuable resources from these u…

Hello, Fredrick Brennan here (8chan owner). They changed their FAQ IN RESPONSE to my breaking the story on this. Proof: Google cache of Hola FAQ as of 26 May: https://archive.is/tgujS As you can see, there is no mention of Luminati, or the underlying mechanics at all. I published hola.html and updated my global announcement just hours before the FAQ change: https://twitter.com/infinitechan/status/603178141650026498 T…

I see this Hola thing get upvoted all the time on reddit as a way to watch region-locked videos. Pretty disgusting that they've tricked millions into installing their software without informing them of all the illegal activities that could be funnled through their IP.
Post reply on HN