The issue is who he sold it to -- the notorious creator of some pernicious data-huffing ad-ware, Crossrider. The UK-based company was cofounded by an ex-Israeli surveillance agent and a billionaire previously convicted of insider trading who was later named in the Panama Papers. It produced software which previously allowed third-party developers to hijack users' browsers via malware injection, redirect traffic to advertisers and slurp up private data.
I personally use perfect-privacy, which didn't turn up any red flags when I did research a few years ago. it's a little lacking in features but openvpn isn't that hard to set up on linux & android. no clue how well their desktop app works.
Westerners don’t want to admit this, but the only safe VPNs are made by their enemies lol. And this isn’t even “tankie” propaganda. If you were Russian or Chinese it’d be your best interest to use western VPNs. Maybe not American ones unless you want to end up like burned Iranian CIA assets
Seconding Mullvad, you can send them an envelope of cash or buy a code off amazon if you really care about it that much. Technically they're in a 14 eyes country but no one here is important enough to worry about that.
I also was just looking, and that "reasonable price if you prepay for two years" nonsense is, well, nonsense. I ain't exactly looking to spend $120+ all at once while crossing my fingers in the hopes the service doesn't suck.
Kaspersky seems like a good move, the page is saying it renews at $40/yr which is only $10 more than my current provider. Only five devices is a shame, though.
I was leaving towards them too. I paid for two years of NordVPN and got a refund when it sucked ass, so I'm guessing other companies do that if it isn't great
There’s a significant difference between the threat model surrounding vpns that you intend to use for port forwarding torrents and vpns you intend to use to protect yourself from data harvesting/the cops.
I totally agree. I made my post for the same reason but not in direct reply to anyone talking about torrenting.
E: the thing I’m generally posting in the direction of is that all vpns aren’t the same and just turning yours on before you click on the link while you flip down your sunglasses and say “I’m in” or even checking out a company’s reviews before you sign up isn’t enough to keep you protected in the limited ways that VPNs are able to.
I’m using a hypothetical “you” here, not trying to accuse you of those practices in a passive aggressive way.
Sorry for messaging on a month-old thread but you seem like you know what you're talking about. Choosing a solid VPN seems like a minefield between paid sponsorships and reviews, location of headquarters, potential ties to intelligence agencies, privacy features, prices, etc. etc. etc.
I wanted to get your thoughts on Windscribe as a potential all round good VPN. They talk a real solid game in their blog posts and seem to be very ideologically driven, and they tick all the right boxes... except that they are headquartered in Canada. Do you have any thoughts about them? Would you recommend steering clear or do you think they're solid?
The ideology and commitment of a service provider is irrelevant. Companies doing business in a nation are compelled by force to follow those nations laws.
I would advise against looking for an “all round” vpn. Think about it more like a tool. No one would recommend you replace a socket wrench set with a gerber multitool because the gerber has a lifetime warranty and a screwdriver and wire cutter built in. Those are great things to have and gerber really will honor that warranty when you break the pliers fucking around with barb wire but the multi tool isn’t a socket wrench.
I use a few vpns. Mullvad, air, proton and a few classic style lil servers that just handle traffic. Air and proton are both very good for torrenting and running services. Mullvad is nice for getting/being serious about privacy from states.
To use another metaphor, think about a vpn like a gun. They’re not all the same and if you try to use one to do something it’s not suited for you’ll by unsuccessful.
If you feel comfortable talking about it, what are you planning on using a vpn for?
I'm sure they still spy on my torrents but this is why I don't use any vendor provided apps or software for VPN shit (or anything else without a very compelling reason tbh), it's practically guaranteed to be adware or spyware
I guess it's time to check if my provider is on this list though
I don't know the situation on Windows but the network manager VPN integration on Gnome is actually pretty amazing. Just have my VPN set to auto connect and it just works and comes right back up without any drama when the system wakes from sleep or switches access appints etc. definitely +1 for not using the vendor apps.
Huh I've been using that same integration for years with ubuntu, and now pop os, and haven't seen an option to auto-connect... Not sure I'd want to anyhow for this particular device since I have a bunch of different vpns configured but wondering where you set that? Maybe it's just Pop that doesn't have that in the UI? I'm sure I can toggle it in nmcli
That's interesting to know about, I guess. I signed up ages ago, on a lifetime $30/yr deal, so they'd have to do something genuinely evil for me to consider some service that's 2-4x the price.
I dont think anything conspiricy brained me quite as much as what happed to the person who leaked the Panama Papers. Not Epstein, not the Jakarta Method, not that time when the FBI and CIA found out every member of the Trot Org they were infiltrating was an informant...
Any body know of any good ones that use wireguard? I have PIA (didn't do anything I needed to be actually secure on fortunately) since I get amazing performance with wire guard vs openvpn, or least it seems to be a lot less picky when the underlying connection is weird or unreliable.
Also, for anyone who needs to hear it, a VPN alone will not protect you and you shouldn't use both at the same time unless you know what you're doing and the security consequences.
The other reply is correct about wireguard and privacy. If you have concerns about the connection to the vpn server being traced back to you, don’t use wireguard.
Wireguard uses perfect forward secrecy, which means that no one can see the private keys and none of your information is ever revealed to a man in the middle. A man in the middle would, though, be able to see that a connection was made between the vpn server and your ip.
It’s worth investigating why that would be a concern and I’ll outline an example here:
You connect your computer to the vpn and go do some stuff. Unbeknownst to you, someone’s been packet sniffing the vpn server you use for along ass time and has accumulated enough information to say for certainty that you were connected right before the stuff was done. Based on recent examples, that’s enough to get a warrant!
How would you mitigate that? Key and server rotation! For example, if you created a wireguard config for a bunch of vpn servers and switched them up from time to time and/or deleted your old config and made a new one with a new key. Easy peasy.
There’s a good overview of some of the problems wireguard can face here. Some of them are shared by other protocols and some are much different than what we’re talking about. Generally though wireguard is very good and almost all concerns are alleviated by key/server rotation.