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VPN owners: 97 VPN products run by 23 companies

vpnpro.com

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Re: VPN owners: 97 VPN products run by 23 companies

#161

Post by usaphp »

Traster wrote: post #91

People should take this list with a serious health warning. Firstly, a lot of this is just 'internet sleuth'ing and innuendo. Plenty of companies want to operate multiple services to be able to use different marketing and differentiation strategies. Secondly, the fact that the site is funded by affiliate links to a coupole of the big VPN services should really ring alarm bells. I trust we all learned from the Mattres…

> For example: NordVPN, one of their "Top VPN providers" is run by the same guy who runs a Lithuanian data harvesting company [2]

Did you even read the article you linked? Nowhere in that article it says that NordVPN is ran by the same guy as data harvesting company. Also the same article you linked says in the end: "However, after thoroughly investigating this recent “scandal”, we still feel confident that NordVPN is still one of the safest VPNs around. It’s quite possible that its rapid growth and increasing popularity are part of the reason it’s being attacked by other VPN providers."

Re: VPN owners: 97 VPN products run by 23 companies

#162

Post by oil25 »

_8j50 wrote: post #39
oil25 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, a more secure and practical alternative to "VPN services" is the Tor network, which externalizes the cost of infrastructure to volunteers and thus reduces the risk inherent with centralized control. While Tor is also not without risk, I really wish more privacy oriented services and software had decentralization as a core tenet of their design.

You trust Tor exit nodes over vpn providers?

Sure, I do. TLS provides end-to-end encryption and sites which don't support it are not allowed to run Javascript in my browser.

Re: VPN owners: 97 VPN products run by 23 companies

#164

Post by trickstra »

thehashrocket wrote: post #160
andrepd wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find myself just searching what I want + "reddit", to avoid the seo crap.

Can you trust reddit, though? There's plenty of social media campaigns out there that have people plugging stuff on reddit to promote some company or agenda.

the per-community moderation makes marketing spam much harder

Re: VPN owners: 97 VPN products run by 23 companies

#165

Post by oil25 »

cmroanirgo wrote: post #61
_8j50 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Like they do with Tor nodes?

"Fact-checking the Tor Project's government ties" > The Tor Project, a private non-profit that underpins the dark web and enjoys cult status among privacy activists, is almost 100% funded by the US government. https://surveillancevalley.com/blog/fact-checking-the-tor-pr... https://www.documentcloud.org/public/search/projectid:37206-...

The hyperbole is strong in this article. It's no secret nor mystery that the US Government is interested in Tor, but the thesis that it's untrustworthy because it is funded "100%" by them is just ridiculous.

Re: VPN owners: 97 VPN products run by 23 companies

#166

Post by oil25 »

detaro wrote: post #131
ubercow13 wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any need to trust Tor exit nodes at all?

Is all traffic you send across them secured in a way that the exit node can't do anything bad to it? (Tor exit nodes have been caught injecting malware into binaries downloaded over HTTP through them, for one possible problem if it isn't)

> Tor exit nodes have been caught injecting malware into binaries downloaded over HTTP through them

It's more accurate to say bad actors have been injecting malware into HTTP-downloaded binaries. Some of these bad actors use Tor exit nodes, some use free WiFi hotspots, and some run their own VPN services. Framing this as a Tor problem is like blaming violence on weapons instead of the perpetrators.

Re: VPN owners: 97 VPN products run by 23 companies

#167

Post by novaleaf »

Private Internet Access (PIA) doesn't seem to be mentioned in the article nor HN posts.

I think that must be good then. I've been a happy PIA customer for about 5 years. They probably arn't the fastest (I get aprox 3.5mbit/sec on them) but so far none of the mud slung against them sticks.

There's a lot of shady shit in the VPN industry, so glad they are above it.

Re: VPN owners: 97 VPN products run by 23 companies

#168

Post by oil25 »

EastSmith wrote: post #118

Why would I need a VPN for browsing if all my traffic is https and I use HTTPS DNS?

> Why would I need a VPN for browsing if all my traffic is https and I use HTTPS DNS?

Until TLS 1.4 is deployed, each HTTPS-protected site you visit will still reveal the domain name in its certificate, giving your ISP a pretty good idea of your browsing patterns, which it will in turn sell or turn over to authorities when asked.

Re: VPN owners: 97 VPN products run by 23 companies

#169

Post by auslander »

dontbenebby wrote: post #141
Traster wrote: post #91

People should take this list with a serious health warning. Firstly, a lot of this is just 'internet sleuth'ing and innuendo. Plenty of companies want to operate multiple services to be able to use different marketing and differentiation strategies. Secondly, the fact that the site is funded by affiliate links to a coupole of the big VPN services should really ring alarm bells. I trust we all learned from the Mattres…

This is why I self host algo vpn. I seriously doubt my hosting provider would jeopardize their business by snooping on/messing with a vpn given the breach of trust would cause large customers to ditch them.

> This is why I self host

Goals are to hide your traffic from ISP (1) and your real IP from internet (2). Self host VPN achieves (1) but not (2), your VPN's IP is yours truly.

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