Should Americans use foreign owned VPN services?

Would and American citizen using VPN from a company in a foreign nation be safe from Subpoena?

 

Ask Julian Assange.

 

haha


gee wiz. I just want to pay for VPN service and be as protected as possible. I figured using a company that operated under a different legal system and could refuse to hand over logs was the best idea. Am i wrong?

 

Not keeping logs is good. Designs that prevent useful logs from being kept are better. Operating in an uncooperative jurisdiction is good (as long as it's not more dangerous than your local jurisdiction). Designs that prevent coercion by any jurisdiction are better.

 

would you be able to name some businesses?

 

XeroBank makes such claims. Although I don't have the means to verify what they claim, I haven't seen any contrary evidence. Some do complain about poor customer service, but nobody AFAIK has complained that XeroBank snitched on them.

 

Which VPN services have been known to ‘snitch’ on their customers?

 

I don't know of any VPN providers that have snitched. It's well known that Hushmail provided investigators with email of customers who were illegally selling anabolic steroids, but they're not a VPN provider. Although I've had serious concerns about Anonymizer since its acquisition some years ago by Abraxas, a purported CIA company, I've seen no claims that customers have been compromised. There's been the privacy.li-driven FUD about Metropipe, mostly about poor customer service, but also hinting at snitching. However, having chatted with the owner, and also some colleagues, I'm confident that it's a trustworthy service.

 

First off, let's all be upfront here and tell us what you plan to use a VPN for?

I mean a subpoena, what are going to do?

Let's get real here, tell us what you are going to do and then maybe someone can give you a straight answer...

If all you're going to do is download pirated software, well, depends how much and if you're going to be a big distributor....

 

It's not about what I'm doing, it's about being as secure as I can be.

Does anyone know anything about the VPN company: http://www.swissvpn.net/

 

What about just setting up your own VPN, or are you trying to do anonymous stuff. If your just trying to communicate and sent data with a another trusted party, then I would say use any of the open source VPNS, I have used OpenVPN for years and never had an issue.

 

I am interested in all my internet activity being anonymous.

 

Do you really mean that, if I may ask? When you're on Wilders, for example, you're not anonymous -- you're MrGump. Although you may participate anonymously on some sites, most now require an email-verified account. Also, you probably access business websites as your IRL identity.

What you want, I suspect -- or at least, what I want -- is that each online identity remains unrelated to the rest. You probably also want all of your internet activity to be secure from snooping and attacks by intermediaries.

Is that an accurate assessment?

 

yes, I would like all of my internet activity to be secure from snooping and attacks by intermediaries while being sent. I'm not really concerned if logs are kept that say when I was connected and for how long. I just don't want any of the data I am sending to be kept by the VPN company I am sending it through.

feel me?

and I also figured that while I'm at it, I might as well send my traffic through a company that isn't subject to my nations judicial system. Some are curious why I feel that way and I guess I just want to be as safe as possible.

 

@MrGump

OK, I get that you want privacy and security. Do you care whether observers -- some combination of websites, ad servers, intermediaries and/or governments -- can determine who it is (you, I mean) who posts to Wilders as MrGump?

 

I guess you are talking about another type of anonymity like something you get from NoScript or something.

To be honest Im not sure how to answer your question. I mean, I don't care so much about cookies and ad tracking really. I also don't really care if the government knows I visit this website, in fact i don't care who knows i visit this website.

"Not keeping logs is good. Designs that prevent useful logs from being kept are better. Operating in an uncooperative jurisdiction is good (as long as it's not more dangerous than your local jurisdiction). Designs that prevent coercion by any jurisdiction are better." Basically something like this.

I just want to be able to send my information through a company that isn't bound by the laws of my country and preferably and larger European system of laws. I heard Switzerland was best because they are not a part of some large EU agreement where many nations share information of that nature. (you can tell I don't know much about it haha)

to that end, I am here asking for names of such VPN providers.

 

I use Mullvad and they are based in Sweden which is one of the worst European countries that already have privacy shredding laws. They were pretty straight with me about their countries laws. I would like them to be frank about their data retention. I love their service and have been very happy. We try to keep with the TNO/Trust No One philosophy but honestly you have to trust these people to keep your data safe.

 

OK, although I don't see why you need a VPN, if you're just talking about information going to public websites like Wilders. That's what I was getting at, BTW -- whether you really need one.

Anyway, I'm still with XeroBank. If it went away, I'd go with Cryptohippie. And, if that didn't work out, I'd try vpn.insorg.org (although they're a total unknown for me).