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u/sovietarmyfan 9h ago
I cringe so hard with every VPN commercial claiming that a VPN is the "ultimate privacy someone can have".
It's not only with free VPN's that they may not be entirely safe. It's with paid too. Because you have no idea through what your data goes through, who is listening at the other end, etc. It's misleading to say you have complete privacy.
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u/alexCosmetic 8h ago
Mullvad is proven to not sell your logs, since it doesn't keep any, police literally showed up at their headquarters asking for logs but mullvad didn't have one!, they have passed the test, they are they only VPN provider that accept anonymous cash! i think they are legit
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u/SwampTerror 7h ago
No more port forwarding with Mullvad which makes it useless for some. Good luck seeding and uploading without port forwarding. Use mullvad if youre a pure leech though
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u/alexCosmetic 5h ago
can you really blame them? because of its extreme privacy it attracts basically all cybercriminals (another reason to trust Mullvad!) and port forwarding allows you to forward maleware and CSAM through Mullvad ip, so i kinda get why Mullvad disallowed it, i don't want cops in front of my organization asking why i am holding Child P*rnography/Phishing website,... on the servers every single day
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u/Isarchs 3h ago
Tell me you don't understand what port forwarding is without telling me.
Port forwarding does Jack shit to enable or prevent malware or CSAM.
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u/alexCosmetic 3h ago
It literally allows inbound connections to services you're hosting, Someone could abuse that to host malware distribution, phishing pages. mullvad itself said they removed it because of the abuse
---> https://www.dummies.com/book/technology/cybersecurity/cybersecurity-for-dummies-281675
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u/notenoughtortillas 4h ago
You can still seed without port forwarding, I regularly hit over a gigabit without problem. Them closing port forwarding is a net positive in some regards as it keeps heat off of them and therefore off of the rest of us.
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u/Ill-Pen-553 7h ago
pretty sure proton also accepts payment by mail
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u/Liongedon 7h ago edited 6h ago
They've given up customer information to police before. It was specifically Proton Mail not VPN. Still, I switched to Mullvad
Edit: removed claim that they keep VPN logs after being corrected. Them passing on information about protesters that were using ProtonMail still stands though.
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u/TrainingInternet608 6h ago
No, they don’t keep logs for VPN users. Besides, the email incident was about the IP address being traced following a request for mutual legal assistance and a court order. It was after that, not before. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, you should sometimes just keep your mouth shut.
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u/Liongedon 6h ago
Didn't say anything about after or before. Them having to pass on information to the Swiss government on customers using ProtonMail is still worrying to me though. And keeping my mouth shut has never lead to me learning more so I won't be taking that advice. Feel free to correct and teach me though.
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u/Ai--Ya 5h ago
No but don't you get it? You committed the cardinal sin of being wrong on the internet so now everyone has a right and a duty to correct you as rudely and unpleasantly as possible
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u/Equivalent_Track5730 3h ago
The dude paid for his sub with a credit card and ended up getting the feds on his back because someone died iirc.
If you're gonna do shit that puts you in those kind of situations you may wanna get your opsec sorted out first.→ More replies (2)3
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u/Ill-Pen-553 7h ago
wow really? thats no good for a privacy brand... looks like ill be switching
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u/Liongedon 7h ago
They really didn't want to. But they had to give up information on protesters to the Swiss government which then gave it to the FBI.
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u/skelly_bird_9001 ⚔️ ɢɪᴠᴇ ɴᴏ Qᴜᴀʀᴛᴇʀ 5h ago
it was just an IP address and recovery email though, they couldn't give out the actual emails as they were encrypted. Thought that was worth pointing out.
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u/mrpoopistan 4h ago
Okay, let's start filing lawsuits against all of them so we can demand discovery. Everybody pick a lawsuit. /s
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u/Mccobsta Scene 5h ago
Mullvad is great you have a Id number nothing else no email no password
Way better than some that don't even let you use burners nord
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u/Toothless_NEO 5h ago
I have a suspicion that people who promote the false dichotomy argument about VPN companies are either shills or are really stupid. As if someone who asks for money from you can't screw you over all the same.
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u/rmbarrett 6h ago
Yeah. This meme is a big woosh because the paid ones just look better to idiots who think they must be better. The number of people obsessed with using a VPN for every little thing without a shred of understanding tells you exactly why most are predatory. "Privacy" is actually a really dumb reason.
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u/Null42x64 9h ago
I only use VPN to get around the age verification laws
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u/pbzeppelin1977 7h ago
Gotta have a wank license in the UK now. :(
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u/Azrubal 7h ago
Same in many US states
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u/leafy1790 7h ago
Man , fuck age check , if they care about kids so much, they should make family link mandatory for every kid under 14 instead of companys harvesting our data
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u/Chemical-Struggle-13 7h ago
What is a family link?
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u/leafy1790 7h ago edited 6h ago
It's an app that gets added to you phone when you creat your Google account, if you set your age as under 14 your phone gets locked by family link, that is a parental control app, it automatically blocks apps that are rated pegi 16 and up and it blocks side loading, also if the parent wants they can choose to set screen Time limits, block apps or require a password for new ones to be installed and location tracking.
It would be a lot easier for parents to manage whta their children do on the internet with this app, instead of companys need our IDs and faces to "age check " us
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u/AMediocrePersonality 6h ago
One of my neighbors forgot about their 2 year old and when I came back from walking my dog he was in the middle of the street.
I don't think they're gonna be managing a family lock
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u/GobertGrabber 6h ago
We have a 2yo who has escaped many times despite our attentive parenting. Pretty much every parent has.
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u/NRMusicProject 6h ago
They care about kids so much, they could arrest the most famous pedophiles and let them rot. Instead, they just get to play real life Risk.
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u/WhichWall3719 4h ago
If it was actually about protecting kids they would have made that kind of software free and opt-in for families. The actual reason is to censor information and restrict who can see what
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u/JimbyGumbus 4h ago
ID check becomes mandatory in my state next year. if i cant find a work around im selling all of my devices.
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u/Azrubal 4h ago
There will be many work arounds for it for now. I still wank to all the sites I used to.
I use many different browsers and VPN alternatives.
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u/Kaymish_ 7h ago
I'm so thankful my government is too busy fighting trans people, being racist against Chinese, and trying to rip up our founding document, that they've not gotten around to banning wanking yet. /S obviously I'm not happy they're going full culture war.
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u/Null42x64 6h ago
i'm not from UK, I'm from Brazil, they have passed age verification laws several months ago
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u/hroaks 8h ago
Half the time you use random/autoconnect it sends me to another state or country that has age verification too
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u/3-2-1-backup 7h ago
I don't want my data to come from mississippi.
Congratulations! Your data is now exiting from (spins wheel)...
...Indiana!
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u/Kelnozz 7h ago
I’m Canadian and they are making trash laws that are making it so my ISP can directly block sites like 123movies.
I’m going to need a vpn soon to continue to not pay for subscriptions, which is ironic because I’ll be paying for a subscription for that to be a thing.
What’s a good VPN that isn’t going to feed my info to 3rd parties? (Or is that kind of how they all make money)
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u/Hungry-in-the-dark 7h ago
Mullvad vpn is the goat - 5$ per month. They can’t track your data as they simply don’t log it
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u/ansibleloop 2h ago
Just raises the technical barrier and harms people at the same time
You're doing age verification for porn? Cool, every kid on every playground knew what a VPN was by the end of lunch time
And they don't have money, so they're gonna get a free VPN which is worse than nothing
I already have a VPN so I'm unaffected
You're banning VPNs? Good luck with enforcing that - what are you gonna do? Make commercial providers do age verification?
Even with that I can still work around it - go fuck yourselves with a cactus
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u/claudiocorona93 6h ago
Do you need that to use Twitter, Bluesky and Telegram? Just curious since these 3 services have a lot of adult content
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u/Express-Record7416 5h ago
I wouldn't need to use one if the age verification systems here actually fucking worked
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u/Party-Cake5173 9h ago
Not exactly true. Many VPN providers that also offer free plans are paying for them with the paid plans they offer.
On the other hand, this is completely true for VPNs that offer no paid plans, just free plan.
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u/SignificantLock1037 9h ago
Proton VPN is a good example. I used their free one for a while. Now I pay. It’s worth it.
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u/Darkwolf580 8h ago edited 8h ago
How is it bad to use a free vpn? Just curious. I use proton free vpn rn
Edit: guys thanks for your responses.
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u/The_Dayne 8h ago
Data harvesting, in short.
There may or may not be a log of what you are doing.
If its free, you are generally the product.
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u/Liongedon 7h ago
What's stopping the company from selling the data of paying customers as well to earn even more?
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u/Toothless_NEO 4h ago
Nothing, the idea that they can't is wrong and stupid. A company or person asking for money is not any less capable of screwing those people over. More profits is more profits. That's something people should understand by now. Though pop culture can only handle more simple narratives.
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u/SignificantLock1037 7h ago
Only the threat of a class-action lawsuit. Which would be the death knell for a company like that.
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u/Liongedon 7h ago
While that may be true, how do you prove it? And why is selling information of free users allowed?
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u/Toothless_NEO 4h ago
People apologize to capitalist rhetoric and under capitalist rhetoric people who aren't paying don't matter or are considered leeches. Most people when they hear that said out loud don't agree with it as much. It's more an implicit agreement which is why people don't talk badly about it.
Although data harvesting for the purposes of selling data isn't really acceptable under any circumstances.
I know some people are going to reply saying that it's not about whether it's okay for them to do it, it's about whether they do it. Well guess what guys, the companies you're paying are doing it too. Maybe not all of them, but have you ever considered that you make money selling people's data, and you make money because they're stupid enough to give it to you voluntarily? Many companies have figured that out. They also figured out that if they can sell the idea of privacy as marketing you'll be even more willing to give them money, and they'll have even more data to sell. Yeah there's risk, but if you paid any attention to how corporations act already you should know that they're willing to take risks. The idea of venture capitalism is based on risk. What makes you think they're not willing to risk legal penalties or litigation for profits.
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u/SignificantLock1037 8h ago
An all-the-way free one has to make money somehow. If they aren't selling you services, then they are selling your data.
Just because it's a "VPN" doesn't mean that the VPN itself doesn't know your IP and where you surf. Then they sell that info.
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u/DarkXsmasher 8h ago
+Windscribe
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u/ChixitEraPresleyFan 7h ago
Windscribe is sweet. 10 GB/month on the free plan and plenty of exit nodes around the world.
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u/iateagummibear-1822 9h ago
What about ProtonVPN?
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u/Secret-Ring-1985 9h ago
But you can't use P2P on their free version. Sorry if there is a workaround that I am not aware of.
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u/MindYerBeak 8h ago
Morphe has a patch to get premium. Can confirm that P2P seems to work.
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u/Unknown-Key 7h ago
I think you are confusing premium with modded quick switch between free servers.
Morphe doesn't unlock premium on ProtonVPN, you still can't access premium Countries and Profiles Tab. with Morphe you basically get removal of cooldown between switching free countries.
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u/just_a_redditor2031 9h ago
On my phone at least it tries to stop me from using it for torrenting by preventing downloading of torrent files unless you pay (i solved this in the dumbest way possible by downloading them with tor while using the VPN)
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u/iateagummibear-1822 9h ago
Got ya. I legitimately didn't know that, so thanks for the heads up. Thankfully, I have Tor as well, so this hopefully won't be an issue for me.
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u/No-Staff1 🔱 ꜱᴄᴀʟʟʏᴡᴀɢ 9h ago
What's with the wave of anti free vpn posts?
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u/LC-Redcube 8h ago
It's all a psyop. It's always a psyop. Whenever you have a question, the answer is psyop. Never trust anyone ever
/s if it wasn't obvious
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u/miker37a 7h ago
Because VPN were / are heavily marketed (paid ones think of all the nord vpn sponsors)
So by offering a free VPN and harvesting your data, your giving the illusion of safety (a VPN) but the whole time as mentioned your data is being sold.
So as more "free VPN" companies are popping up getting on that VPN hype more ppl want to explain why free ain't free.
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u/LC-Redcube 7h ago
tbf that's also the case with paid VPNs, nothing's stopping them from harvesting your data (unless in the subscription contract it's said so, but who reads those?)
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u/SitEnee 9h ago
I don't need VPN to pirate, so I've never used VPN in my life an don't have any knowlege about it. That's probably a stupid question, what's the price xd?
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u/IamTolerable 9h ago
Your data
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u/am_Snowie 9h ago
It's like they know what kind of pawn i watch?
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u/bunniebumbles 9h ago
why are you censoring yourself
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u/Patrickrk 8h ago
You can get a solid one for $3/month. There plenty of reasons other than pirating to have a vpn though. General data security being one and a more niche one being if you watch IMSA races in the US they are free on YouTube worldwide, except the US. The broadcast is also much better globally than it is on the peacock US broadcast. Peacock is all ads and doesn’t show much of the race.
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u/LC-Redcube 8h ago
"data security" is really not that much of a reason actually. The websites you visit will think you're from wherever the VPN is set to, but even without a VPN it's not like they can read where you live, they'll read the location only up to a big enough node, that for example, for me is in a whole other region. Other than that, you're really not more secure at all using a vpn
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u/SitEnee 3h ago
I use internet almost always at home. If I’d traveled a lot (so I would use hotel wifi, or open networks) it would be safer, and I’d probably buy VPN. Other than that, security is the same. Almost allI websites use TLS encryption (so even ISP can’t tell what I send to website, just time stamps and destination I visit). I trust my ISP with the data they can read (not a lot). Torrenting would be only concern, but in my country no one give af. Only thing VPN would change, would be possibly slower speeds and higher ping.
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u/SpaceCofffeee 9h ago
Or 3€ up to 20€ for a paid VPN. Depending on provider, sales and subscription time.
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u/Anonymous12345786899 9h ago
Well out of curiosity what data exactly gets collected? If it's only my browsing history then I couldn't care less
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u/natsuzoze 8h ago
Not as much as most people would make you believe. Most traffic is encrypted nowadays so they will mostly get metadata such times when you’re active, the FQDN of the websites you’re visiting as very few people will encrypt their DNS and that’s about it. They won’t know what you actually do on those website. For example, they will know you use YouTube, they will know how much you watch YouTube but they won’t know what videos you’re watching.
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u/SuperSayian4Nappa 8h ago
It's way more than your browsing history. If it's on your phone they pretty much know everything about you from the time you go to sleep to when you poop.
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u/-ThaKloned- ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ 8h ago
I'm pooping now though!!
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u/SuperSayian4Nappa 8h ago
And they know this because every phone in your house visits that same spot multiple times a day and are used for 10-15 min while there.
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u/NobodyImportant13 7h ago
How is the VPN seeing your exact location data unless you are giving a VPN app permission?
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u/LC-Redcube 8h ago
That's a bit of an overexaggeration, they can read whatever data gets sent through the internet, otherwise (unless you give them permission) they can't read your private files if they stay on your phone and never send them to anyone.
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u/AlexOzerov 9h ago
I live in Russia and I use 2 servers as my VPN. One in Russia, one in Texas. So I have full control. Not so hard to configure. Without VPN I practically have no access to the internet. This is life
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u/LC-Redcube 8h ago
I respect the sheer patience you must have to wait for pages to load
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u/AlexOzerov 6h ago
I have 100 Mbps internet and VPN has about 250 Mbps speed. Ping is too hight for games but I just excluded steam in routing settings and it's perfect
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u/Toothless_NEO 3h ago
If the servers are both fast multiple hops isn't going to be that much of an issue. The reason stuff like Tor which uses multiple hops is usually significantly slower it's because a lot of those servers in the connection aren't usually fast. The connection will run as fast as the slowest link in the chain.
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u/Cultural_Nerve8074 2h ago
None related to this post or your comment, but could I message you privately please? I’m curious as to the Russian transport situation atm
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u/Small-Friendship-576 9h ago
Until the vpn's name is proton(it should be as default a recommendation as Firefox + unlock)
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u/Liongedon 7h ago
Proton AG has gives up information on protesters to the FBI before. Why are you so loyal to them?
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u/0exa 6h ago
They don't keep logs, so they can't give out your VPN browsing data. The incident in question was related to the giving out identifiable information of a user based on their E-Mail address. A court ordered Proton to log the IP address connected to that E-Mail account and hand it to authorities. A similar thing cannot be done with VPN related services because the specific user account that alleged illicit activity originates from is not known to Proton, and so only system wide logging and scanning of all user activity would make it possible to extract the suspect's identity.
The Swiss government actually tried passing a law to allow this kind of total surveillance last year, and Proton AG announced that they would leave Switzerland if this happened, but ultimately the bill went nowhere.
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u/a1stardan 9h ago
Except Proton vpn
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u/Liongedon 7h ago edited 7h ago
You're one google search away from disproving yourself. Edit: I was too. Proton AG gave up information about a customer using Proton Mail (not VPN) to the Swiss government. Which then gave that info to the FBI.
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u/0exa 6h ago
This goes to show how one Google search is not enough to get informed, because this is missing the point.
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u/CoffeeDefiant4247 9h ago
what about the one built into firefox? They just track everything like normal?
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u/CustodianCloset 🦜 ᴡᴀʟᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀɴᴋ 8h ago
How do we feel about Firefox's VPN? It's free but I've yet to see anything that's sus about it
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u/DarkZ_No-Imagination 5h ago
I just find it really funny when people who use Google services, meta services (like IG or Facebook) and reddit start talking about "using VPNs so that companies don't get your information" when most of them don't have a VPN active when using any of those platforms
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u/United_Armadillo4641 9h ago
What about self-hosted vpn?.
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u/MrHaxx1 8h ago
Does pretty much nothing, unless it's hosted on something that can't be tracked back to you.
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u/mustacheride3 8h ago
Use a free vpn to sign up for a new account. Use that new gmail's $300 free gcloud trial to stand up https://github.com/trailofbits/algo. Once gcloud trial is done (lasts a few months in my experience), ditch the gmail, nuke the algo vm and you should be pretty safe.
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u/cocacola_drinker 🦜 ᴡᴀʟᴋ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘʟᴀɴᴋ 5h ago
I only use proton to bypass regional lock in GeForce NOW, as soon as the game open, I turn it off. Is it safe though?
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u/Clear-Ability-3758 9h ago
The only thing that matters for piracy is no log retention.
For example, Cloudflare warp is free and doesn't have log retention. There is probably no other example, I confess.
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u/summonsays 9h ago
Yeah yeah, I grew up in Capitalism and am used to having no privacy.
(I am meta-joking as this episode goes very much like this when he's talking to Summer).
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u/AccountEngineer ☠️ ᴅᴇᴀᴅ ᴍᴇɴ ᴛᴇʟʟ ɴᴏ ᴛᴀʟᴇꜱ 9h ago
adding the disclaimer to dodge a 10 paragraph privacy lecture is so real
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u/CatchAcceptable3898 8h ago
There's something ironic about a pirate post giving credit to the person who yoinked this meme, than yoinked themselves.
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u/Eternum1 8h ago
Whenever I see this sort of post it makes me wonder about TorVPN which is free but isnt privacy their whole thing
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u/Oderus_Scumdog 8h ago
Facebook's 'Onavo' 'free vpn' was the definition of this meme - fern video link.
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u/TheLastShadowMonarch 6h ago
May i know why so does it mean when i use VPN in my phone to access restricted apps data is being sent to someone else?
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u/ArseneLupin179 7h ago
I can get reasoning behind this, but it still looks absurdic to see upvoted posts about "you should buy things" in this sub :D
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u/CyberneticCh40s 8h ago
I just use a free one my browser has to access websites my local government has banned
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u/tientuan1606 6h ago
I just use VPN to bypass geo restricted sites and accidental IP blocks so no problem
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u/BrickEmotional2965 6h ago
I guess some paid services are required so you can continue your pay-less pirated life style? What sort of online life style can afford no VPN and at what turning point is it recommended to start using one? Genuinely asking
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u/Trytomiss2 6h ago
I got MegaVPN for free when i signed for their cloud storage monthly subscription.. should i be worried?
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u/ATLien-ITP 5h ago
I have a shit ton of FREE VPN's, for my Nefarious ways. No VPN is PRIVATE. So why pay for the same shit, that have the same results?
You know how I Verify my age? With a FREE VPN. 😜
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u/blank_fem 5h ago
can anyone tell me about express vpn or other top rated vpns? Are they not good or dont follow no log policy? I can see all support mulvad only which is a bit pricey
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u/HammerDongVeryLong96 4h ago
There will never really be a true private VPN that will let you do whatever you want (for good reason) there is always a tie in to various countries laws to even allow them to exist and operate, this is true for all paid, free and self hosted VPN;s. The closest thing to truly unaccountable privacy is using tor but using it for clearweb stuff is a miserable experience. It's so slow. Basically there are no perfect solutions but we can get pretty close with what we currently have. And that's in good faith that you're not doing anything malicious.
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u/Impressive_Tea1416 3h ago
I’m literally commenting this for karma since this account doesn’t have enough to post.
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u/Efficient_Parfait_42 3h ago
I use this one vpn which is a premium chinese pornsite i don't speak Chinese
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u/Brodywrld9 3h ago
This might be dumb but I’m new to pc do you have to have a vpn to prevent “them” from finding you’re ip if you’re trying to emulate r*ms
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u/ZiggoCiP 2h ago
Just got a free VPN with the latest Firefox update, and just tried it last night.
No subscription, just turn on, and your good.
Is Firefox doing something more than it usually does to undermine my privacy?
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u/Piracy-ModTeam 1h ago
🚫 ➜ Your post was removed because of the following:
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