Why I no longer use a VPN (most of the time) and nor should you
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In this episode, we explore why I no longer use a VPN (most of the time) and nor should you.==============================SUGGESTED==========================...
        • toastal ( toastal@lemmy.ml ) 
          8·
          2 years ago

          Didn’t watch the video, but… Traffic is often already encrypted with TLS or other encryption & you don’t have to use the ISP for DNS. This would cover a lot of the data you would be discussing. Instead if using these advertized commercial VPNs you are giving the data to those corporations instead which is hardly better in many cases—luckily most of your traffic is encrypted with TLS & you don’t have to use them for DNS …which takes us back to the previous statement for concerns.

          There’s still value in VPNs for a several online activities (censorship, piracy, activism, etc.) & threat models to certain folks, but assuming the ISP is the bogeyman in most common scenarios for non-niche use cases is incorrect—but it isn’t how these commercial VPNs are selling themselves. If the ISPs possess the ability to break TLS encryption we’d have bigger issues to worry about & VPNs wouldn’t help. I would assume the video goes in this route but chooses the clickbait title for views.

            • toastal ( toastal@lemmy.ml ) 
              1·
              2 years ago

              If it’s all encrypted & they don’t have the DNS requests, all they can see is that you sent X bytes to some IP which isn’t very helpful. Who’s to say these VPNs aren’t selling their data back to the ISPs anyhow?

                • toastal ( toastal@lemmy.ml ) 
                  1·
                  2 years ago

                  By who? Who is auditing the auditors? That’s not to say audits aren’t good, but when the code is proprietary, a lot of trust is required. I would prefer banking on solid, open tech which the TLS standard is. There is still use cases for VPNs, but outside like streaming piracy, you might be better served by the Tor network.

              • Lemongrab ( Lemongrab@lemmy.one ) 
                1·
                2 years ago

                Encryption doesn’t mean perfectly hidden. Metadata isn’t encrypted for HTTPS iirc. And the ISP knows who your sending traffic to since they are routing you there and are usually your DNS. When connected to a good and trusted VPN, all that is hidden, your DNS can’t give away your location, and the only server you contact is the VPN

                • toastal ( toastal@lemmy.ml ) 
                  1·
                  2 years ago

                  What metadata? The headers are as encrypted as the payload. That there was a key exchange between you & a server isn’t too useful.

                  “Usually” is a strong word for DNS as well since all OSs let you change it & the megacorporations like Google & Cloudflare have already compelled a lot of folks to use their DNS ta resolve faster since the ISP ones are slow (& the smarter, curious folks used that as a launching point to find other provider or self-host). Some platforms have even been shipping DNS-over-HTTPS to get around some of these issues (since the payload & headers are encrypted under TLS).

  • Leraje ( leraje@lemmy.blahaj.zone ) English
    25·
    2 years ago

    Do ISP’s monitor or sell or pass on your data? Yes.

    Do VPN’s? Depends on the VPN. Find one that doesn’t and can back that up with 3rd party audits and legal encounters.

    So can a good VPN protect your privacy? No, not by themselves. A VPN is part of an overall toolkit to be as private as you personally would like to be. It can help protect your privacy, that’s all.

    It’s really that simple.

    • ExtremeDullard ( ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org ) 
      21·
      2 years ago

      half of the video is solely a critique of NordVPN

      I don’t know how good or bad NordVPN is. I have never used it. But I never will. EVER.

      You know why?

      Because they paid so many interesting Youtubers to shill their stupid VPN service, ruined so many otherwise interesting Youtube videos and wasted so much of my time that I swore I would never give them a single dollar of my money.

      I can’t stand advertisement and advertisers, and NordVPN has been truly heavy-handed. They’re not the only ones: Brilliant comes to mind too. They can all fuck off. They’ve achieved the exact opposite of what their ads was supposed to achieve with me: I’ll never patronize them.

  • noodle (he/him) ( noodlejetski@lemm.ee ) 
    13·
    2 years ago

    many ISPs over here offer a ~5-10% discount on monthly bills if you agree to have your traffic analysed for marketing purposes. the last time I signed a contract I had to explicitly opt out of that. the ISP providing internet to all of my landlord’s flats offers a similar deal when signing a contract, and 1. I’m willing to bet that my landlord has opted in, and 2. I have no way of opting out of that for my flat. I think I’ll stick with a VPN for the foreseeable future.

  • ExtremeDullard ( ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org ) 
    6·
    2 years ago

    Firstly, using a VPN ultimately consists in trusting the company providing the VPN service that it won’t be fucking around with your privacy. Considering that all your traffic goes through it, that’s a lot of trust to place in one company. And I generally don’t trust any tech company to resist the lure of selling your data for profit for very long in 2024 - even those that profess to be privacy-friendly.

    Secondly, modern corporate surveillance doesn’t rely on IP addresses anymore. So if you think a VPN protects your privacy, it really doesn’t. All it does is tell Google et al. which VPN provider you’re a customer of - i.e. you’re giving them even more data that they don’t need to have.

    That’s why I don’t even bother with a VPN. I only use one to evade geo-blocking every once in a while.