Why doesn't everyone just use Tor?
Because Cloudflare and Google Recaptcha will lock you out.
Top VPNs recording users, potentially leaking data when visiting their websites
51–60 of 61 posts
Re: Top VPNs recording users, potentially leaking data when visiting their websites
#52With how much of the internet is over TLS, and the fact the you still have to trust someone , be they a VPN operator or ISP, aside from georestrictions and piracy, VPN services are mostly snake oil. It shouldn't be surprising that they're employing marketing tools to sell more of it. As for them even selling privacy, while I don't trust major ISPs, at least there are more eyes on them. You generally have no idea who'…
Not really. VPN is great to be able to connect from a different country that has fewer of less severe restrictions on free speech, for example.
Re: Top VPNs recording users, potentially leaking data when visiting their websites
#53Maybe it's just me, but it feels like this is trying to scare people into thinking that the VPNs mentioned are doing this tracking on the sites you visit while using their VPN, when it's really only about the VPN's own website (which people usually visit only when they sign up). It doesn't explicitly say the tracking is happening while using the VPNs in question, but I would bet a large portion of readers assume that…
If the VPN company insists on tracking me to this extent when I'm on their website, why should I trust them to not track me when I'm using their VPN? You would think a company whose core product is supposed to be about privacy would be extra careful to respect its customers' privacy on their own website.
Valid point, but the e-commerce side of the business benefits immensely from these tools (I use FullStory every day for debugging, it's a life saver). I wouldn't say that simply having a replay script on your page is the scarlet letter the author of the post makes it out to be.
All of these VPN services lean really hard into the fear factor for marketing, and this article seems no different. Just identifying a minor worst-case risk on their competitor's sites, extrapolating that risk and hoping no one notices these are websites (not services), and bundling it up nicely in an SEO-friendly blog post. VPN services are notoriously suss when it comes to disclosure anyway, but they're largely marketing to the lowest common denominator of the privacy-paranoid.
Next week's cruft article: "Your VPN provider knows your IP address"
Rinse and repeat.
Re: Top VPNs recording users, potentially leaking data when visiting their websites
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
i don't know if that's particularly practical to build up your own VPN if that's your implication?
actually much easier than you'd think https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2017/05/how-to-build-your-ow...
Thanks, this is super helpful.
Do you think it's possible to have real privacy/security for someone who faces state suppression a la Edward Snowden?
Re: Top VPNs recording users, potentially leaking data when visiting their websites
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm a technical person, and the title absolutely baffles me. "Top VPNs Recording Users" "Potentially Leaking Data When Visiting Their Sites" what data, and how would I be leaking it to their site? Why is this pertinent and what does it have to do with them recording users? Are they recording users history and leaking it to their own sites? So many questions, so much click-bait. The net result is that I had to waste t…
Yeah... but that last part is crucial "... when they visit their website" It's like a title saying "US government tracks travelers when they visit the US" I wouldn't right off the bat assume that the US gov't is tracking all travelers all the time. I'd assume it's only when they land in the US
I know it's the crucial part, that's why they included it in the title as an easy-out in case someone calls them out on their dishonesty.
I'd rewrite your example as below in order to more clearly illustrate how I view the VPN title:
US DoHS Keeping Track On World travelers movements, potentially leaking data when visiting the US.
Note the main title, then the comma, and then the minor clarification. Firstly, the "main" point is at the beginning so that's the one that has the most effect and evokes an emotional response that colors the entire reading. Secondly, the last portion is separated with a comma, adds two points, doesn't clearly state how it modifies the first part of the title and is also ambiguous on its own. It vaguely confuses that tracking happens when they visit the US with the interpretation that the tracking happens all the time but only leaks when they visit the US. It also allows your interpretation that they only tracking while they visit the US. The comma should at the very least have been an "and".
If we wanted a real title that wasn't click-bait, here is my stab at it:
Top VPN providers record website-visitor's click/browsing behavior on their sites, potentially leaking it to metric providers with various degrees of anonymization.
OR.
Analysis of User-Behavior Tools On VPN Providers' Sites. can have an honest internet that isn't driven by click-bait, and could instead rely on the integrity of publications and the authors.
Re: Top VPNs recording users, potentially leaking data when visiting their websites
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the VPN company insists on tracking me to this extent when I'm on their website, why should I trust them to not track me when I'm using their VPN? You would think a company whose core product is supposed to be about privacy would be extra careful to respect its customers' privacy on their own website.
Valid point, but the e-commerce side of the business benefits immensely from these tools (I use FullStory every day for debugging, it's a life saver). I wouldn't say that simply having a replay script on your page is the scarlet letter the author of the post makes it out to be. All of these VPN services lean really hard into the fear factor for marketing, and this article seems no different. Just identifying a minor…
The whole article seems like almost entirely fluff to me. The real concern they posed, and the question they didn't actually answer for some reason:
Which VPN providers are using replay scripts on their website from services that don't properly exclude passwords, payment information, and PII from the replays?
That's actually worth reporting about. The rest seems like fearmongering.
Re: Top VPNs recording users, potentially leaking data when visiting their websites
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Any third party will behave this way. This is the behavior of businesses that need to increase their effectiveness. It's really not the "third parties" to blame here for the most part. You can make a viable business from selling a VPN service in exchange for money with a contractual requirement that you be respecting privacy in particular ways, so that you can actually get in trouble for not doing it. But when Shad…
I hope that, by now, with all the research coming out about that, that people would have stopped using free VPNs by now. it's more than likely a big hustle to do something shady
> it's more than likely a big hustle to do something shady
Of course it is. But it's also the case that doing the opposite of whatever idiots do isn't necessarily smart.
It's like the thing where people say don't use Google because "if you're not the customer you're the product" but then the same people are pushing Microsoft products that not only charge you money but then still do the same thing as Google or worse.
If you're not paying them then you can guess how they're making money, but just because you are paying them doesn't mean they're not doing the same thing. You still have to read the fine print.
Re: Top VPNs recording users, potentially leaking data when visiting their websites
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If the VPN company insists on tracking me to this extent when I'm on their website, why should I trust them to not track me when I'm using their VPN? I think you make a valid point, but there's a difference between their sales pipeline and their actual product. These VPN providers are businesses, and they're trying to optimize their sales. What demographics are most interested in their products? How did they get th…
> What demographics are most interested in their products? How did they get there? Does Google Analytics (or Facebook, or similar) have profiles on people shopping for VPNs? Are there advertising patterns that could have better ROI for attracting users? Great. But being privacy-conscious organizations, the VPN providers are surely including a clear and explicit opt-in/opt-out to any kind of data collection. Right? Ch…
Something something IPMI backdoors something.
Re: Top VPNs recording users, potentially leaking data when visiting their websites
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah... but that last part is crucial "... when they visit their website" It's like a title saying "US government tracks travelers when they visit the US" I wouldn't right off the bat assume that the US gov't is tracking all travelers all the time. I'd assume it's only when they land in the US
I know it's the crucial part, that's why they included it in the title as an easy-out in case someone calls them out on their dishonesty. I'd rewrite your example as below in order to more clearly illustrate how I view the VPN title: US DoHS Keeping Track On World travelers movements, potentially leaking data when visiting the US. Note the main title, then the comma, and then the minor clarification. Firstly, the "ma…
> US DoHS Keeping Track On World travelers movements, potentially leaking data when visiting the US.
Even with you changes it still looks easy to tweak or turn into click bate. "Potentially" is a weasel-word, because even safe things could potentially go wrong.
"Every time you fart you spread germs, potentially infecting everyone in the room around you with cholera or other diseases"
Re: Top VPNs recording users, potentially leaking data when visiting their websites
#60Why doesn't everyone just use Tor?
Too slow for daily use, and not really worth it if you're just trying to keep your ISP or other low-effort groups from annihilating your privacy.