How important is a VPN to you?
from kapulsa@feddit.org to privacy@lemmy.ml on 25 Oct 09:03
https://feddit.org/post/20704313
from kapulsa@feddit.org to privacy@lemmy.ml on 25 Oct 09:03
https://feddit.org/post/20704313
And if you use one, are you happy with it?
I’m trying to get more into privacy and security and VPN is currently a struggle for me (and it seems also for some people in my social circle). It’s mostly cost, effectiveness, but also connection issues (not being able to connect to servers, not reaching websites, sometimes slower speed.
threaded - newest
Using only one is silly you should at least use Rethink, Foxyproxy, etc
They all have tradeoffs and trust is an intricate one that’s easily swept aside and forgotten with assumptions like “Swiss privacy law is strong”. Plus some are designed for streaming some are not, fingerprinting is less impactful when every fingerprint has a different address
I connect to my home network via VPN if I’m out and about. There’s no additional cost, but I feel more secure in a public wifi and have access to all my internal services as I’m used to.
Same here. My mobile provider blocks the standard VPN ports, and also access to other DNS servers, so I am pretty sure, their low price means they are selling my data. Going through a VPN on a non-standard port to my home network, from where I can go out through DNS over https and also a pi-hole, and being protected by my own firewall, gives me the (false?) feeling of an additional layer of security.
Wtf kinda mobile service is that?
Cheap MVNO with enough data and good coverage/no outages. The low price comes from somewhere, I guess…
I bought a SIM from lebara mobile when traveling to europe once because it had 10x more data than other companies for the same price and it blocked VPN.
Native Mullvad app when home using my own DNS server, Tailscale through a gluetun container + headscale when away. The latter eats up battery quite a bit otherwise I’d just keep that on all the time.
Very happy with mullvad VPN ,use it mostly for accessing annas archive with is blocked in my country ,thanks to cloudflare
it all depends what you do, the average person honestly does not need a VPN, is it still “nice”? sure, getting over streaming restrictions or getting cheaper flights, and if you desire to sail the seas to any degree than also yeah get a VPN, and ofc, getting over porn bans
Love the people coming into the privacy community to say they don’t value privacy rather than explaining the limits of a VPN in that regard
They didn’t say they don’t value privacy; a bit of a strawman. Most connections are private even if not anonymous. TLS is sufficient for many uses. Knowing this allows one to be discerning about when a VPN is more useful.
Actually maybe I misread your intent. On second glance, looks like you might be yes-and’ing.
“I value privacy I just think TLS is sufficient” is exactly the kind of crud I’m talking about hahaha. You guys would be so easy to DNS poison
Don’t think this attitude will survive long once Copilot & stuff starts making meemaw and peepaw into Minority Report-style billboards for gallblader medication
Are you saying TLS doesn’t make the data that traverses a connection private? If so, I think we’ve discovered the deficiency in your viewpoint.
e: missed a word
That must sound really epic if you don’t know anything about how internet security works at all and have no threat model outside of a guy sharing public wifi with you. No important personal information, photos, professional files, financial documents, websites. Which would track for a Lemmy.world reply guy who apparently got roused from days of slumber by me impertinently pointing out I am the only person in the thread advocating thorough privacy practices
No. You’re the only one I see implying there are no cases where data is private outside a VPN. Strictly speaking, if you need only the data across a connection to be private TLS is sufficient. Who is implying that is a complete threat model. You are building more and more strawmen against which to argue, but it really just sounds silly. I’m a professional that has been in the industry for decades, so your dick waving contest just doesn’t move me.
Yes, a more complete risk analysis in many cases may show that you’d like the host one is reaching to also be private, but nobody is saying such a situation doesn’t exist; you’re barking at the moon.
.
Why are you so angry? Who hurt you?
You should try being correct about something. It’s much better than being angry. It’s like pissing on a guy who keeps drinking it, but complains about the flavor. If you could hold your own, you wouldn’t feel the need to make so many reply guy accounts to seem less alone. (It doesn’t work.)
Swing and a miss, my guy. Try being less angry.
Take it down a notch Scotty. We’re all here for a common purpose. No need to brow beat people. It’s exactly this attitude that I harp on in privacy forums. It’s like, give a guy some information and suddenly they think they’ve got some moral or intellectual high ground and others are mere normies, sheep, et al. Some people don’t need a VPN with a triple hop Socks proxy. Their threat model doesn’t dictate that. Where as I want all the obfuscation I can get.
Funny you say that since a few hours ago someone on here posted “how did reddit ban my alts??” and you’re acting like this is an issue that only affects hobbyists and experts. My guess is you don’t say anything interesting enough to have issues.
Interesting. I think we’ve met a couple weeks ago.
At any rate, have fun storming the castle and have a great day.
Foxyproxy and rethink are extremely simple to set up. Goodbye forever
Lunatique Princess@lemmy.ml 2.0
The average person doesn’t know how to use a VPN, either. They turn it on once, expect magic, and don’t go beyond that.
I have 2 that I use regularly. PIA to unblock things on the internet (and change how things are logged) and Tailscale to access my home network remotely. I’m happy with both of them.
Tailscale works really well for me as well.
VPN’s are like a condom for the internet. With much of the internet trying to fuck you putting on a wrapper is probably a good idea.
Eventually you get used to the slower speeds, rarely have issues with connection and if I do I just change IP. If a website doesn’t allow a vpn I really don’t need to go there and for the sites that I do want to visit there are optional different front ends I use.
A vpn and a good add blocker is pretty much a necessity for me at this point.
Indeed. If all my obfuscation techniques break a site, and I can’t fix it by hopping onto a new VPN IP, I go somewhere else. The internet is a vast library and usually, one site’s info is replicated somewhere else more easily accessible. I mean, when you stop and think about it, at no other time in human history have we had the sum total of the world’s knowledge in the palm of our hands or on our desk. Maybe not wisdom, but certainly vast stores of knowledge. The great libraries of Alexandria would look like my magazine rack in comparison. It’s all out there, sometimes you just got to dig for it.
Slower speeds? I get my full 110 megabytes per second downloading with my VPN hahaha
Thanks for rubbing it in… and failing to mention what service you use.
That’s cuz I get a negative reaction when I mention it hahaha. I use Nord. Got it a few years ago to support Eric from Internet Comment Etiquette, and it just worked for me so I haven’t changed. It used to cap out at maybe 15/20MB per sec, but now I get my full-ass gigabit speeds when downloading stuff. I’ve considered switching but it works great for me and I get max speed, so ehhhh
lol… I get that ;]
I’d probably stick with it as well. My current view is that VPN mostly just provides a cover for general piracy. If “they” wanted to devote the effort they could figure out who I was. But I am sure a lot of vpns serve as honey pots and you wouldn’t want to blow your cover just for someone downloading a movie they never would have paid for anyway. They got the signature thing, but if I was doing something serious then that is going to be quite different than my general use signature and match every other user of Tails or whatever. The signature thing really sucks, but we do have control over what signatures we leave where and via vpns and tor those different “personas” don’t need to be connected by singular ip address.
Or at least that is my present opinion. If anyone here has a good argument against it, I’d like to hear it.
I’m fully with ya there. If I was doing anything more than downloading media, I’d be using something like tails with TOR or i2p or whatever. But without having any issues with my ISP chastising me in years (since I began VPNing), I’m happy with what I’ve got.
If I didn’t torrent, I likely wouldn’t use a vpn. With https sites, my isp can’t really see what I’m up to and my ip is never my actual location.I can’t get Freetube to work so I’ve been downloading youtube videos with PipePipe on my phone and watching them on my laptop. No way could I do this without a vpn.
Using Proton right now, it’s ok (kind of lacking some features on Linux). Planning on switching to Mullvad before next summer.
I use both all the time in the same VPN. Other then sometimes switching locations to find a good one, never a problem.
Are you using the Invidious API? Those are broke as hell.
I was using whatever api Freetube comes with. Do you have a recommended of one that works?
YT broke the Invidious API last month, which barely worked to begin with.
Use your VPN for the thing it’s meant to do and don’t use any API. Just change the VPN to a non-primary location, and turn off the API or use the local IP fallback. If it doesn’t work, change locations again until it works.
I’ll give it a shot. Thanks very much.
I installed Freetube again and it’s working without making any changes. Looks like a different Invidious instance is set as default.
Just turn them off and default to local IP. The Invidious API doesnt work right now.
Over the past few years, there has been a great increase in websites using geoblocking. Half the local news sites in the USA block traffic from the EU for example, likely because they want to inject 300 advertising trackers in a manner that would violate EU law. I’ve been using Mullvad for years, and I am happy with it.
Sometimes lemmy.world blocks me from posting from it, which I am not happy with. They were even critical of its strict privacy stance, which I found to be a weird take from a fediverse project.
I do understand their reasons, yet the majority of lemmy.world is shitposting assholes so there’s some flaws somewhere…
I understand Lemmy doesn’t provide a way to fuse multiple signals like the combination of a high-reputation account with a low-reputation IP address and it would be too much to ask volunteer server admins to develop their own. I’m OK with that answer. I don’t expect to dictate the terms by which they give me free services.
The part I didn’t like was their dim view of the fact that Mullvad actually provides privacy to its users. I believe private internet access is valuable to the world even if it enables some harms.
Not related to vpn. But Lemmy.word is also banning users that supports Palestine without notice.
Fortunately, Lemmy has public modlogs. I do see some accounts banned for antisemitism recently, but they weren’t just supporting Palestine; they were using slurs in post titles or blaming everyone Jewish for the actions of Israel’s government. I would ban those accounts if it were up to me.
Australia is prepping for that social media ban in December (and maybe the UK porn ban too). Have ‘been in’ New Zealand ever since that news came out
There’s a whole world out there and you pick NZ?!
I’ve still to find any geo-restriction on AUS and NZ sites from Bahamas and considering how AUS and NZ have acted on average the last five years, I’m not browsing the internet from either even if on an anon VPN.
Would be interested to know your views on NZ
I will never have anything to do with any nation that under ANY circumstance demand to be the sole source of truth.
I’ve been using PIA since 2015, and I’ve never really had any issues with it, it does what I need it to do and it only costs $40 a year.
PIA is owned by an Israeli data-harvester, Teddy Sagi.
I use Mullvad daily. Never turn it off.
Same
This is my rule, too.
I don’t use one except for work (to connect to corporate networks).
A VPN mostly changes which entity you have to trust (from your ISP to your VPN provider). I don’t have a reason to distrust my ISP any more than any VPN provider. I don’t have any need to regularly get around any geoblocking.
When I do privacy-sensitive things, I use Tor, which is actually effective at hiding who I am and what I am doing.
Some VPN providers are pretty transparent with how they do things though, and publish annual audit results. Much better than an ISP that is opaque and will definitely snitch on you.
My VPN provider has no legal obligation to work directly with my national law enforcement and if there’s an international warrant for my internet traffic, there’s no logs.
I don’t want ANYBODY knowing what I do on the interwebs even if it’s just personal stuff not a james bond villain crime webring.
And TOR over VPN is so standard several VPN providers have TOR exit nodes, though that negates a lot of the no-trust chain of TOR.
10/10
If you’ve never lived in a place where you complain about having speeds being throttled, then 2 guys come to your house with a full color printout of your internet use over the last few months, then walk around looking at everything you have and basically asking for a bribe just becaise, then you haven’t fully understood the use case “masking traffic from your ISP.”
I use
I also use split tunneling, inclusive (e.g. everything but Firefox) or exclusive (e.g. only qbittorrent) whenever I don’t want to tunnel all my traffic.
Very important, and becoming more important by the day as more and more regions agegate the internet. You need to change regions so you can access sites without guaranteed identity theft.
If you don’t use one, it’s fairly trivial to link your activity across the internet, as well as trace any internet traffic back to you, personally.
Connectivity is certainly a problem. For the most part, if they block my access, then I consider them not worth visiting.
Vital. I host my own VPN so I can have a dedicated IP which is firewall whitelisted to all my provisions to access Ssh and self hosted app ports.
I don’t think most ppl need a vpn for at home stuff but I do use Mullvad since I spend a lot of time on college WiFi and they might not like how I access my textbooks and research papers.
Not using VPN - tried it, didn’t gain anything from it…
Super duper important. I won’t run my network without one. So if we ever get to a point where a VPN is prohibited by law, I will unplug and go work on some of my other hobbies like creating bonsai. Any no, I don’t run the 'arr stack, I’m not a hacker, nor do I torrent. I just prefer the absolute minimum number of people knowing who I am or what I’m doing. I’m that way irl.
Indeed, anything you put between you and your target will slow speeds, especially if you’re running everything through a double hop Shadowsocks proxy. That is the trade off. All technology wields a double edged sword. Additionally, you will encounter more captcha than normal, tho 99% of what I see are Cloudflare verification. Again, yet another trade off. You might even be precluded from accessing some websites. Me personally, I’ll accept the captcha/verification, slower speeds, and occasional site blocks, for security, privacy and anonymity. Also, in regards to sites blocking a VPN ip, it’s not a common occurrence on my network, but when it does happen, I find that the information contained on the blocked site, is freely available somewhere else.
The only VPN I use is:
Wireguard and OpenVPN to connect to my home network.
AirVPN for a server that I may or may not have on my home network that may or may not be sailing the high seas (allegedly).
absolutely crucial. All my devices are always connected through a VPN, and usually I try to route my traffic through a different country. When your country is paying for a service to monitor citizen’s internet traffic, anonymity is worth paying for.
If you’re worried about slower speeds and higher ping you can split tunnel applications so they wont be affected by the VPN i do this for things like games and freetube(doesn’t seem to work with my vpn enabled).
.
I always use a vpn when downloading and managing my linux iso’s. For everything else I can’t really be bothered half the time.
My house has 2 other units and we all share one network. Without a VPN, my neighbors could see all my network traffic. I don’t think they know or care how to do that but it’s enough to keep me on a VPN at all times.
Use it daily, Client > Home > ProtonVPN - essentially made my own multiple hop network.
It’s not cost effective to lose your privacy, you’ve merely haven’t realized you’ve been paying all along. Also you are the product being sold.
I use it everyday, so it’s very important.
I guess this really depends on the country you’re sourcing from.
.
It’s become a critical aspect of my online experience. I currently use Mullvad since leaving PIA. Mullvad seems to suffer from being too popular for it’s own good. An Increasing amount of websites are trying to identify and block traffic coming from VPN servers, sites like Kroger.com, USPS.com, Reddit. I never previously had this much trouble on PIA, but maybe it’s just that the times are a changing. I may search for alternative VPN when my service is up with Mullvad, though. I definitely don’t like the idea of using the internet without a VPN anymore.
My assumption is that Mullvad allowing port forwarding previously forced a large number of their IPs to be blocked due to misuse and that’s having carryover effects. I know very little about Mullvad or the IP address market though.
It isn’t just Mullvad. I’m sure it is also AirVPN and I presume that it includes all of the popular ones. I doubt port forwarding has anything to do with it.
PIA isn’t, and IIRC it’s also the cheapest. This is deeply suspicious and I’m trying to think of an alternative explanation to the obvious one.
A browser can be fingerprinted so I only use it in a separate OS install when I want to keep something private, but it’s indispensable so that I have that option.
It can, but it isn’t likely as specific as an ip is.
My view is that security/privacy is a sliding rule and that every little effort helps.
Browser fingerprinting is quite specific.
amiunique.org/fingerprint
I strongly believe nobody is entitled to keep a registry of the sites that we visit online. Not the gov, not your ISP, not your carrier. Thats why its essential for me.
A few sites wont load sometimes, which is my only exception to turn it off, and then on again, but its a habit i have gotten used to and its not that much work, given the benefits of an always-on trustworthy VPN.
I’m doubtful it does much in most cases due to browser fingerprinting, but I still use it and it sometimes can be useful to get around geo issues, plus it’s just a bit more privacy to stack on top of the measures I’m already taking, so for the price I feel like it’s worth it.
I’d like to not get doxxed (made mistake of befriending some one in the past who I find out years later mighta doxxed some one for drama I had nothing to do with (infact , was already excised from that friend group by that point)) , tho not sure how well VPNs protect against online (stalk|identity correlat)ing by random internet users
commercial VPNs are sus. and israel have been buying up a lot of them.
i trust my ISP and my country’s laws more than i trust any of these shady providers which may or may not be tapped by the nsa. and that’s a low bar to clear let me tell you.
I use a VPN for bittorrent and to access content that’s inaccessible in my area. For privacy, I use Tor. Most the time, I don’t use a a VPN or Tor at all. I might start using a VPN all the time with how bad surveillance is getting. I trust my VPN more than my ISP being able to see every IP I exchange data with.