Privacy

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A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.

Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.

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Don't use VPN services. (gist.github.com)

submitted 2 years ago by Amicchan@lemmy.ml to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Thank god I saw this. I vehemently dislike the idea of paying VPNs.

I forgot proxies existed for some reason; I used them in the past.

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[–] Amicchan@lemmy.ml 1 points 2 years ago (1 children)

No, it’s the only thing you think it’s useful for because you don’t realize how many other uses a VPN has. Tons of people play videogames like GTA: Online and use a VPN to avoid potentially being doxxed by some script kiddy with a mod menu.

Why not just use a proxy server?

This article IMO is clickbaity and just relies on the author being wilfully ignorant and… like… needlessly smug/hostile?

How is the article clickbait? (It goes against the status quo.) How is the author ignorant?

The reality is, if some regular person just wants to torrent stuff, or watch content on Netflix/Hulu, or play GTA without having to worry about some kid trying to dox/DDoS them, a VPN makes absolute sense.

What if the VPN service logs the activity? Then copyright holders can still interrogate you, just through your VPN instead of your ISP.

How do you confirm that the VPN service does not log your activity? It would be difficult to prove the lack of logging.

The person could have a higher attack vector than just using their IP; it'd make more sense to use a proxy than a VPN. (Virtual Private Network.)

[–] MerchantsOfMisery@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 years ago

Why not just use a proxy server?

Great question. I'll just tell my friends to use a proxy server instead of their VPN so they can go on Netflix/Hulu or torrent stuff.

Then when they roll their eyes and ask "what the hell is a proxy server?", I'll waste a bunch of time telling them what a proxy server is and how to set one up, only for 95% of them to ultimately say "ah that's okay I'll just use my VPN". The other 5% will try to set up a proxy server, understandably run into some issue, then go back to their VPN.

How is the article clickbait?

Because it's a painfully one sided critique of why using a VPN is useless, that makes near zero genuine effort to honestly explore the reasons why most people use a VPN instead of creating their own proxy server.

What if the VPN service logs the activity? Then copyright holders can still interrogate you, just through your VPN instead of your ISP.

Most VPNs aren't going to forward scary copyright holders' letters to their customers/users. Most ISPs will forward those scary letters to the users or worse, someone else who is paying the bill (i.e. a landlord). The letters may be meaningless at the end of the day but the reality is they work as a scare tactic.

How do you confirm that the VPN service does not log your activity? It would be difficult to prove the lack of logging.

Irrelevant, as this isn't about logging-- it's about not receiving threatening emails from copyright holders from your ISP.

Here I'll tell you what-- I get the feeling my counterpoints won't change your mind so you go tell your friends who use a VPN to access Netflix/Hulu/torrent sites, to stop using their VPN and use a proxy server instead. See how that goes and report back.