But it is not more than a promise, it just shifts the promise "our company isn't watching" into "our two companies aren't sharing data." I think it is an improvement on the status quo but it is frustrating to see false claims like that.
Obscura VPN – Privacy that's more than a promise
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Re: Obscura VPN – Privacy that's more than a promise
#72But it is not more than a promise, it just shifts the promise "our company isn't watching" into "our two companies aren't sharing data." I think it is an improvement on the status quo but it is frustrating to see false claims like that.
There is always a little asterisk: "unless required by law".
Police can ask the service provider to assign you to a specific exit node.
Once you are on that specific exit node it's over.
It's easy for the police to convince you, the CEO of Obscura wouldn't want to be charged as an aid in a crime.
Re: Obscura VPN – Privacy that's more than a promise
#73Interesting concept. The blog has a lot more details[1]. One comment/question about the exit nodes. Can someone correct or validate my thoughts: It’s a WireGuard tunnel from the user to Mullvad, so while Obscura can’t see the user traffic, couldn’t the Mullvad exit node see the traffic, and using knowledge of the users WireGuard public key, associate all that users traffic with that key? So even if they can’t associa…
(Carl from Obscura here)
This is actually quite an interesting point that we’ve been discussing internally.
Right now Obscura rotates your WireGuard key on every “Connect”, but in a future release we will start caching (persist) your WireGuard keys on your client. When we flip that switch, we will also enable recurring key rotation and add a button in the UI for manual key rotation. This rotation would make it harder for Mullvad to track a user across the same key. (Not that they would anyway)
All of this is available for folks to verify at on our GitHub repository: https://github.com/Sovereign-Engineering/obscuravpn-client
Re: Obscura VPN – Privacy that's more than a promise
#74Just to note here - with Mullvad you can pay via gift card that you can find at various retailers (to get a one-time code that you can use to create an account). Of course they can see your IP address but there is no payment/contact information on the system.
In theory, there could still be a possibility to track through the retailers who bought which one-time code (or have particular buyers be sent particular codes). But Mullvad also simply accepts cash by mail.
Re: Obscura VPN – Privacy that's more than a promise
#75Just to note here - with Mullvad you can pay via gift card that you can find at various retailers (to get a one-time code that you can use to create an account). Of course they can see your IP address but there is no payment/contact information on the system.
(Carl from Obscura here)
Totally! Mullvad is _the_ pioneer in this space, and we look up to them. This is why they were our top pick for being an exit hop provider!
Re: Obscura VPN – Privacy that's more than a promise
#76Just to note here - with Mullvad you can pay via gift card that you can find at various retailers (to get a one-time code that you can use to create an account). Of course they can see your IP address but there is no payment/contact information on the system.
You can mail them cash too
careful not to mail them from close to home, or have any handwriting, or leave any fingerprints
Re: Obscura VPN – Privacy that's more than a promise
#77I'm not clear on the technical details here. > Obscura’s servers relay your connection to exit servers but can never decrypt your traffic. Doesn't that rely on us trusting that the server runs the code they claim it does? Or is there a way to prove that their server can't get the decryption key (i.e. by proving that it's not possible for them to switch the final hop, or add undisclosed hops in between)?
The client is open source, and I believe the E2E encryption is done when the client creates a new Wireguard tunnel. At least, that's what I'm seeing here[0]. Still poring over the code.
[0] https://github.com/Sovereign-Engineering/obscuravpn-client/b...
Re: Obscura VPN – Privacy that's more than a promise
#78So tor with 2 hops?
(Carl from Obscura here) Tor still offers more privacy benefits than Obscura for sure, but you want a shorthand, “Tor with 2 hops” works :-)
For people who are only somewhat familiar with Tor or Obscura: how about three hops?
https://tor.stackexchange.com/questions/491/why-does-tor-use...
Re: Obscura VPN – Privacy that's more than a promise
#79Privacy focused VPN that only supports MacOS. Amazing.
Re: Obscura VPN – Privacy that's more than a promise
#80This was already discussed last week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43016574
The security on the whole thing still relies on the idea that those two providers, who are partnering to offer this service and sharing the cost, would only try to attack you separately and not together. I don't buy it.