Ive seen a lot of posts by people looking for help in choosing a vpn. I found this on Reddit, and thought it might be of some help. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...Ow/htmlview?usp=sharing&pref=2&pli=1&sle=true Original Reddit thread... https://www.reddit.com/r/techsupport/comments/49h29o/a_little_bird_told_me_that_you_guys_might_like/
Thanks, I've been meaning to post that. It seems to reflect lots of work by multiple people. It's missing Cryptohippie and Insorg, however.
I don't use Reddit. Who's removing comments? This is the original home for that, I think: https://www.reddit.com/r/privacytoolsIO/
Strange... the comments on the page mirimir links to are still there https://www.reddit.com/r/privacytoolsIO/comments/43d4zs/you_guys_might_be_interested_in_this_a/ Updated spread sheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...uQPU4BVzbOigT0xebxTOw/edit?pref=2&pli=1#gid=0
The article/document has gross inaccuracies. I live in Singapore and Singapore is a staunch US ally and also other US allies. The freedom of speech here is very much among the lowest in the world. The mention of "fourteen eyes" countries is irrelevant when it comes to VPN. The key is that your base connection has to be anonymous.
I'm not sure there's any prospect for making your base connection anonymous, nor - as you suggest - can you rely on any of the providers. Trust should always be conditional, and be realistic about the threats. A more effective policy might be to chain these things deliberately through jurisdictions that are actively hostile to each other, and therefore less likely to cooperate. I only say less likely, because, no doubt, VPN providers are very high priority for all of the nation-state actors in terms of stealing their keys. So the other aspect to look for in a provider is attempting to get a feeling for how technically sophisticated they are about that protection.
That chart is quite a list, almost get a headache taking in all that information, I like AirVPN but it is based in a "fourteen eyes" country, iVPN looks good but appears to be in a "five eyes" territory, BlackVPN seems like the best bet from what I can tell.
I would suggest selecting a vpn that is really good with linux support and has a team that understands linux (not just some junk linux patch client approach). Then switch to linux on your computer. No matter how good the vpn provider is, and there are a few good ones out there, the weakest link can often be the OS. I feel more strongly than I am typing but I don't want to offend someone that believes Windows is a secure environment for those "needing" a vpn.
That list is incomplete. There are a few Russian services that get advertised on Russian hack forums not listed.
I just found this comparison chart linked in a recent Krebs on Security post. https://thatoneprivacysite.net/simple-vpn-comparison-chart/ Thoughts?
I haven't studied it carefully. But generally, I think that it's a mistake to rely too much on what VPN providers say. Also, the focus on Five Eyes is misguided, I think. Consider comments above from @redcell about Singapore. And I recall that IVPN disagreed about his take on Gibraltar vs the Five Eyes. A site like this that summarized evidence about VPN services would be very cool. I mean, shouldn't PIA get credit for demonstrating in court that it had no logs to produce? Plus testing results. But who would pay for it?
I have been looking at the Mullvad site an they look pretty good from the charts. $ 5.34 a month and can pay with cash if you want to.
Gibraltar is a Crown Protectorate = what the military and clandestine services say, goes. GCHQ has operations in Gibraltar as does every other British military\clandestine service branch. Governmental agencies operate at a level above common civil law -- so, it would be foolish and in error for anyone to assume that Britain would be blocked from the Gibraltar parliament from getting its hands on private user data if they so wished. Just like in the U.S. regarding protected territories, all any English government agency need do is cite "national security" and the laws that will be invoked will get the data - even when dealing with a Crown Protectorate with homeland self-determination.
I've been using NordVpn. They have some neat features. Biggest thing on the privacy front, is they don't keep logs so nobody can ask for them. Also they have something called DoubleVPN. Leaves your computer goes to one server for encryption, and from there to a 2nd server for additional encryption and finally out to the internet.
How fast is your browsing when you are using NordVPN? I tested it last week and couldn't find fast server. They have a lot of servers but there were all more or less slow to me.