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0 pointswhatisthiseven2mo ago0 comments

Which VPNs are people using that actually care about the user's privacy? Most of them don't, sell their home IP to buyers, sell their DNS history to others, etc. Worse, some of them could require invasive MITM cert stuff most users will just click yes through.

I have yet to see a use case for VPNs for the casual internet audience, and for a tech savvy user, their better off renting through some datacenter or something, which at that point is hardly a VPN and more home IP obfuscation. All the same downsides, and at least you get real privacy.

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12 comments · 5 top-level

traceroute662mo ago· 3 in thread

> Which VPNs are people using that actually care about the user's privacy?

Mullvad.

It has been proven in a court of law that when Mullvad says "no logging", they mean it.

They also regularly have security audits and publish the results[2][3]

[1]https://mullvad.net/en/blog/mullvad-vpn-was-subject-to-a-sea... [2]https://mullvad.net/en/blog/new-security-audit-of-account-an... [3]https://mullvad.net/en/blog/successful-security-assessment-o...

thisisnow2mo ago

Second for Mullvad, I am quite distrusting in general but more I know about Mullvad, more I am convinced they really are serious about user privacy

monista2mo ago

I don't use the VPN, but I still happily use their privacy-oriented (Firefox-based) Mullvad browser.

https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser/

mahmoudimus2mo ago

Seconding Mullvad. I am paranoid and I think they're trustworthy

evilduck2mo ago· 2 in thread

Using any popular datacenter's IP range for a personal VPN is likely to be outright blocked.

Imustaskforhelp2mo ago

Also you only get 1 IP so its not really anonymous and you definitely would have a fingerprint.

thisisnow2mo ago

you just rotate it?

Imustaskforhelp2mo ago· 2 in thread

ProtonVPN with bitcoin which you get from a monero swap is a good idea for complete privacy if you want port forwarding.

MullvadVPN is also another great one.

I have heard some good things about AirVPN, but I can absolutely attest for mullvad and to a degree ProtonVPN (Just with Proton, depending upon your threat model, do make the necessary precautions like buying with monero for example)

There are others, but mostly its the 2-3 that I trust.

lxgr2mo ago

How do you square "complete privacy" with the fact that you're authenticating to these VPNs with a persistent username or other credential and are then sending traffic through them, both from an IP address that might identify you, and to services that you authenticate against?

Best case, the VPN learns your residential IP and the names of every HTTPS host you connect to (if not your entire DNS traffic as well); worst case, they collude with any of the services you use (or some ad tracker they embed) and persistently deanonymize your account.

VPNs are structurally not great for privacy.

Gormo2mo ago

> How do you square "complete privacy" with the fact that you're authenticating to these VPNs with a persistent username or other credential and are then sending traffic through them, both from an IP address that might identify you, and to services that you authenticate against?

IIRC, Mullvad allows anonymous accounts, allows payment in cash and via other methods that don't link PII to the transaction, and claims not to log inbound connections.

lxgr2mo ago

I'm forced to use a VPN to occasionally check my US bank account, since a foreign IP address is obviously a harbinger of unspeakable evil (while the friendly Youtube advertised neighborhood VPN is obviously evidence of pure intentions).

gruez2mo ago

>Most of them don't, sell their home IP to buyers, sell their DNS history to others, etc. Worse, some of them could require invasive MITM cert stuff most users will just click yes through.

Source? I haven't seen any evidence that the major paid VPN providers engage in any of those things. At best it's vague implications something shady is happening because one of the key people was previously at [shady organization].

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 comments

12 comments · 5 top-level

traceroute662mo ago· 3 in thread

> Which VPNs are people using that actually care about the user's privacy?

Mullvad.

It has been proven in a court of law that when Mullvad says "no logging", they mean it.

They also regularly have security audits and publish the results[2][3]

thisisnow2mo ago

Second for Mullvad, I am quite distrusting in general but more I know about Mullvad, more I am convinced they really are serious about user privacy

monista2mo ago

I don't use the VPN, but I still happily use their privacy-oriented (Firefox-based) Mullvad browser.

https://github.com/mullvad/mullvad-browser/

mahmoudimus2mo ago

Seconding Mullvad. I am paranoid and I think they're trustworthy

evilduck2mo ago· 2 in thread

Using any popular datacenter's IP range for a personal VPN is likely to be outright blocked.

Imustaskforhelp2mo ago

Also you only get 1 IP so its not really anonymous and you definitely would have a fingerprint.

thisisnow2mo ago

you just rotate it?

Imustaskforhelp2mo ago· 2 in thread

ProtonVPN with bitcoin which you get from a monero swap is a good idea for complete privacy if you want port forwarding.

MullvadVPN is also another great one.

There are others, but mostly its the 2-3 that I trust.

lxgr2mo ago

VPNs are structurally not great for privacy.

Gormo2mo ago

IIRC, Mullvad allows anonymous accounts, allows payment in cash and via other methods that don't link PII to the transaction, and claims not to log inbound connections.

lxgr2mo ago

gruez2mo ago

>Most of them don't, sell their home IP to buyers, sell their DNS history to others, etc. Worse, some of them could require invasive MITM cert stuff most users will just click yes through.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse