41–50 of 666 posts
I don't understand the obsession with VPN providers. Funneling all your Internet access through a single entity no matter where you connect from just seems like a fundamentally bad idea to me, especially if that entity's business is getting people to funnel all their traffic through, making them a juicy target for governments or hackers.
NordVPN is being recommended a lot to people who don't know better by influencers on social media, especially on YouTube. This kind of endorsement is recklessly negligent and needs to stop. https://drewdevault.com/2019/04/19/Your-VPN-is-a-serious-cho... Edit: note that I don't blame these influencers for their ignorance on the risks of using a VPN; rather I blame the shady VPN providers for overselling the security v…
In my opinion there's also another problem that needs to be considered, regardless of security skills: none of these VPN providers' business models are sustainable; they offer "lifetime" plans for cheap to begin with but also tack on extreme discounts (I once saw 83% off) in addition to paying influencers money to promote those discounts. There has to be a catch.
Someone is probably going to ask what other HN users recommend as an alternative. Personally, I use Private Internet Access because they're the only provider I've found with a track record of demonstrably not being able to turn your records over to someone asking for them [1]. [1] https://torrentfreak.com/private-internet-access-no-logging-...
I am surprised why isn’t anyone suggesting Cloudflare’s Warp VPN? Genuinely curious what is the difference. I guess Clodflare one is only for mobile?
I don't understand the obsession with VPN providers. Funneling all your Internet access through a single entity no matter where you connect from just seems like a fundamentally bad idea to me, especially if that entity's business is getting people to funnel all their traffic through, making them a juicy target for governments or hackers.
Personally, I don't like the idea of my mobile provider profiting off knowing which applications I am using and what sites I visit.
Someone is probably going to ask what other HN users recommend as an alternative. Personally, I use Private Internet Access because they're the only provider I've found with a track record of demonstrably not being able to turn your records over to someone asking for them [1]. [1] https://torrentfreak.com/private-internet-access-no-logging-...
I don't understand the obsession with VPN providers. Funneling all your Internet access through a single entity no matter where you connect from just seems like a fundamentally bad idea to me, especially if that entity's business is getting people to funnel all their traffic through, making them a juicy target for governments or hackers.
Because for certain types of things, like pirating movies, it's good enough.
When I want to secure a shady connection in a coffee house, I have a raspberry 3 at home that I use only for that purpose with an openVpn setup with https://www.pivpn.io/ - super easy to use. Downside, I rely on my isp not to spy on me. Upside, it's mine and unless I'm specifically targeted it's unlikely someone will mitm me.
To hide my location for various purposes, I have used TigerVPN. They have been reliable so far, but I wouldn't trust entirely any third party when it comes to privacy. Upside - somewhat reliable and not my isp. Downside - for all I know someone in Czech Republic is watching what I stream with a bucket of popcorn
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My layman explanation is: You have to take your choice of VPN seriously. When you use a VPN, they can read all of your internet traffic, so choose a company you can trust with that information. If they screw up, like NordVPN did, then anyone can read all of your internet traffic even when you think you're safe. You're often better off without a VPN than with one.
This seems like an overstatement. Five years ago, mostly true, but can they mitm my ssl connections? (I'm getting mixed answers on StackExchange, but it seems like generally no.) They can see what sites I visit, but for most of those sites, they still shouldn't be able to see the content. (This might be more nuanced than the layman explanation needs to be. Just curious for my own sake.)
1. All of the apps and sites you care about are HTTPS-only and don't rely on, say, an HTTP-to-HTTPS redirect which can be bypassed.
2. The VPN client doesn't do something like configure a proxy.
3. Your OS, apps, and browser don't have exploitable bugs or weak software update mechanisms, or that the VPN provider or whoever compromised them isn't going to try exploiting them.
Obviously the third one is a relatively low probability since it's noisy but it's the kind of thing which would be hard to rule out since VPN providers have a market incentive to cut corners if they think it won't be noticed and by their nature it's easy to imagine a law-enforcement or intelligence agency thinking it'd be a good service to compromise to get access to a userbase which contains people who are trying to hide something of interest.
I don't understand the obsession with VPN providers. Funneling all your Internet access through a single entity no matter where you connect from just seems like a fundamentally bad idea to me, especially if that entity's business is getting people to funnel all their traffic through, making them a juicy target for governments or hackers.
I am guessing #1 is mot wanting your internet provider (eg. AT&T) knowing what you are doing, then Netflix, Torrents, getting better deals on tickets and such, maybe activities of questionable legality? Personally, I don't like the idea of my mobile provider profiting off knowing which applications I am using and what sites I visit.