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Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

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Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#41

Post by Lammy »

VonGuard wrote: post #6

Been saying it for YEARS: 95% of VPNs sell your data. It's where they make their money. It's absolutely insane the push-back I get when I say this online. I get downvoted to hell and back. Source: I bought this data from VPN companies... Hell, you can inject ads and surveys if you want!

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of them have like a Crypto AG thing going on and have the capability to use paying customers as exit nodes as a way to launder consent-manufacturing bot bullshit through legitimate-looking residential and mobile connections.

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#42

Post by octo888 »

elorant wrote: post #9
plmpsu wrote: post #4

Just pay for and use Mullvad.

I do and I like them, but Cloudflare blocks their ips aggressively.

There was a bumpy ride with CF a while ago but they seem fine now (still plenty of captchas, of course)

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#43

Post by Lammy »

mr_mitm wrote: post #31
VonGuard wrote: post #6

Been saying it for YEARS: 95% of VPNs sell your data. It's where they make their money. It's absolutely insane the push-back I get when I say this online. I get downvoted to hell and back. Source: I bought this data from VPN companies... Hell, you can inject ads and surveys if you want!

How does that work with HTTPS being practically ubiquitous?

If HTTPS were for privacy it would be called HTTPP. Security features tend to make things less Private, like how opening apps on a Mac makes it phone home for OCSP check.

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#44

Post by qntmfred »

octo888 wrote: post #19

Are we allowed to discuss (edit: if it's not too political?) if Kape Technologies has any connections to Israeli security services, given the nature of VPNs and given the amount of data that can be trivially collected, and: "Being from Israel, Teddy Sagi had connections with the Israeli military intelligence sphere and was able to procure himself a real-life cyber spy [his co-founder] from the famed Unit 8200 (kinda…

[flagged]

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#45

Post by gruez »

justapassenger wrote: post #8

Is there any other real world usecases for VPN nowadays other than: 1. Getting access to geolocked data 2. Torrenting "Linux ISOs" ?

Protection from IP tracking, especially if your ISP doesn't do CGNAT. Of course there's a trade-off here between

a) your ISP (who knows your billing information) knowing which sites you visit, and any site you visit can correlate internet activity back to your household

b) your VPN provider knowing all the sites you visit

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#46

Post by numpad0 »

justapassenger wrote: post #22
zer0tonin wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those two are pretty big already to be honest. I guess a third one would be avoiding eavesdropping on public wi-fis.

With TLS being everywhere, and just few clicks away from having DNS over TLS, I really don't get eavesdropping on public wifi prop value.

VPN unifies all destination IPs to server.ip.addr.ess. IP reverse lookups tells some stories if you are to be so paranoid

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#49

Post by hemabe »

justapassenger wrote: post #8

Is there any other real world usecases for VPN nowadays other than: 1. Getting access to geolocked data 2. Torrenting "Linux ISOs" ?

In Germany (and probably in the UK too), you now have to be very careful about what you write online. There is actually a section 188 that makes insulting, defaming, or slandering people in political life a criminal offense. You can now face heavy fines for minor insults (“idiot”) or even have your home searched. A VPN can be useful here.

Re: Who owns Express VPN, Nord, Surfshark? VPN relationships explained (2024)

#50

Post by hansvm »

justapassenger wrote: post #8

Is there any other real world usecases for VPN nowadays other than: 1. Getting access to geolocked data 2. Torrenting "Linux ISOs" ?

A ton of ISPs use deep packet inspection for various kinds of filtering (and other shenanigans). When they get it wrong it manifests to the user as certain websites or access patterns being inaccessible and the ISPs customer support agreeing that you should have access and being able to do fuck all to fix it. A VPN in the middle usually solves the issue.
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