Hypocrisy Plaguing Major VPN Providers

Discussion in 'privacy technology' started by Rafales, Nov 11, 2015.

  1. Rafales

    Rafales Registered Member

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  2. Palancar

    Palancar Registered Member

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    Pasting directly from the article it mentions 3 of our "in house" strongly recommended favorites. We have a few more and for some reason they were not mentioned, and let me add they were not mentioned in any bad way either. Don't know why the article skipped them but it did!

    paste:

    AirVPN.org

    Contains no external trackers of any kind
    Only offers OpenVPN protocol, with a huge variety of firewall penetrating connection methods
    SSL keys are in their sole possession
    Hosts its own email

    IVPN.net

    Contains no external trackers of any kind
    Operated by a team with exceptional technical expertise
    SSL keys are in their sole possession
    Hosts its own email

    Mullvad.net

    Contains no external trackers of any kind
    Truly anonymous number based accounts
    Sets no cookies (except your language preference)
    SSL keys are in their sole possession
    PROBLEM: Don’t host its own email (uses Google!)
     
  3. quietman

    quietman Registered Member

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    Thanks for the post Palancar .

    That is an excellent summary of a "top three pick "..... all of the key details , and none of the froth.

    Without even looking , I keep finding loads of negative stuff about VPNs recently .....

    http://blog.spotflux.com/debunking-the-myths-of-vpn-service-providers/
    https://www.goldenfrog.com/take-back-your-internet/articles/myths-about-vpn-logging-and-anonymity

    ..... murky waters !
     
  4. Gitmo East

    Gitmo East Registered Member

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    Glad to see Airvpn rightly at the top of the good list.
    Totally not suprised seeing PIA in the naughty list!!
     
  5. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Good stuff :thumb:

    Maybe I ought to stop recommending PIA :oops:

    But damn, they have so many servers, and are cheap enough to be throwaway. Maybe someone can recommend another for that niche.
     
  6. MisterB

    MisterB Registered Member

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    Most VPNs are marketing to users who are doing P2P and need protection from such entities as the RIAA and MPAA, not the NSA. There is no way a single VPN is going to give you that kind of protection. It just wouldn't be a viable business model among other things. The articles Palancar linked to are pretty dead on on the differences between privacy and anonymity which can often be at cross purposes. Having a VPN or two is good but you still need to use it sensibly in combination with other technologies like tracker blocking to get any degree of anonymity online.

    Rather than not recommend PIA, recommend it for what it is good for: Cheap VPN service that is reliable and good for P2P protection, censorship bypassing, and basic online privacy. For deeper privacy and anonymity there are better choices that cost more and you will not just be using one VPN to achieve that no matter how good.
     
  7. Palancar

    Palancar Registered Member

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    MisterB, that was well written and shows honest reflection! I pay for several high end providers because I want the best and even then I combine several together just like you mentioned. Lots of folks reading along this thread might not need what I use, or even want to think about such a setup. I am comfortable in a 5 hop world and my speeds are still pretty decent even then.

    The three letters - VPN - can be confusing. There is the misconception that any VPN is pretty much the same. That is a crucial mis-truth.
     
  8. imdb

    imdb Registered Member

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    @mirimir
    an ot question. do you know which of the trusted vpn service providers offer portable client software?
    tia
     
  9. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    @imdb

    No, I'd need to look.
     
  10. dogbite

    dogbite Registered Member

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    Torguard? Never tested myself, though.
     
  11. Tested Torguard some months ago. Signed up for their private email too. Not impressed.

    Torguard works but there are better options out there. They do have a portable software client which did work when I tried it.

    For the money I would go with mullvad, airvpn, prq, insorg, ivpn.net & nordvpn. But that's my opinion.
     
  12. dogbite

    dogbite Registered Member

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  13. caspian

    caspian Registered Member

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    You can't beat that price. If it's a decent VPN they'll probably start raising the price when they start getting some customers.
     
  14. subhrobhandari

    subhrobhandari Registered Member

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    I have been using Autistici VPN for sometime, and it's without any issues. Of course it is not a 24x7 VPN (using freedome for that purpose), but it is great for my occasional use. However did anyone ever compare Autistici/Riseup VPN to paid top players like AirVPN or Mullvad?
     
  15. passwordischeese

    passwordischeese Registered Member

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    I had a trial of VyprVpn. The service looked so good on the outside. The problem I had was this. The advertising states that if you are connected to a UK server for example, you will also be using UK DNS servers.

    The problem was on all tests I did, I had french DNS servers. I posted on the Vypr Forum about this, and strangely my post vanished. After complaining it came back.

    I was told that the "engineers" would take a look at the problem. But I never got any real answers. This raised my suspicions about the service, and I personally would never use it now.

    Cheers.
     
  16. david banner

    david banner Registered Member

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    And why should we trust goldenfrog who say vpns providers lie to their users when they are a vpn provider? How do we know they do not keep logs?
     
  17. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    I trust some VPN providers more than others, for sure. But it's always prudent to design for worst case. That's why I recommend nested VPN chains. And compartmentalization.
     
  18. inka

    inka Registered Member

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    (I'm just thinking aloud here) I'm not concerned about hiding from the law, just the would-be profilers, so I'm not put off by the prospect of a VPN provider retaining logs. Also, choosing to hail from an email account @myvpn.tld (or owned by, or otherwise known to be affiliated with my selected vpn provider) seems counterproductive.
     
  19. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    That's referring to the provider's support email address. Not email addresses provided to users.

    However, some VPN services do provide email addresses for users. As long as you only use it through the VPN, and not through Tor or another VPN, it's not problematic.
     
  20. Ponelli

    Ponelli Registered Member

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    Mirimir: Which three would you recommend vpn you are most desirable from the point of view of privacy
     
  21. david banner

    david banner Registered Member

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    In relation to golden frog piece. cyberghost say they rent 90% of servers but retain control of these through remote software. They own the other 10% of servers
     
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