There's a lot of hype about Bitcoin being "anonymous", even from people who should know better. If you buy Bitcoins through places like Mt. Gox, which requires proof of identity, using PayPal, all of your purchases using those Bitcoins are linked to you. The Bitcoin blockchain, as its name suggests, includes the transaction history for every Bitcoin. There used to be services that sold Bitcoins for cash in the mail, but I think that they're all gone. I gather that one can make private deals to get Bitcoin for cash, but that requires considerable trust. Search Wilders for "Bitcoin" to read more about that. As far as I know, services like BitInstant, where you pay cash at a store or bank, are the now the most anonymous non-private options. Depending on your location and its laws, you may need to provide personal information (which can be fake) and/or ID (which is much harder to fake). In order to achieve "anonymity", you can use services like BitLaundry to randomize your Bitcoins with many others' Bitcoins. If you do that a few times, using Bitcoin clients connecting through VPNs and/or Tor, you can be fairly confident that your laundered Bitcoins can't be linked back to you. However, the corollary is that your original Bitcoins may be linked to lots of other stuff. It's rather analogous to running a Tor exit router
Just wanted to stop by and thank everyone for their input. I eventually decided to go with AirVPN. However, after reading mirimir's post, I'm rethinking whether I should go through the trouble of using bitcoins.
For VPNs that you connect directly to, I don't think that it makes much difference. They know your ISP-assigned IP address, and your ISP knows that you're using them. Using a single VPN, the threat is having your exit and entry traffic associated. If attackers accomplish that, with or without the VPN provider's collusion, being anonymous to the VPN provider won't protect you. They already know your ISP-assigned IP address, and can just ask your ISP. Being anonymous to providers of VPNs that you only access through other VPNs does protect you, however. If you are, attackers can't identify you without compromising both VPNs.
Fair enough Just make sure that you don't compromise channels that you use for stuff that you want to stay anonymous.
For me both BolehVPN and Private Internet Access (PIA) both have good speeds. I don't like the fact both BolehVPN and PIA sent me my username and password in clear text via email to me after I registered on their web site. You would think being VPN providers they would know something about online security.
How to run a VPN over another VPN when both are OpenVPN based? I tried to run VPN4ALL and then AirVPN on it, but without success..
Establishing two VPN connections in one machine won't route one through the other by default. You would need to create the routing manually. Unless you want to learn how to do that, it's easier to just run the second VPN in a VM.
Werd... I don't feel anonymous at all using them. I feel like I'm leaving a trail of transactions that can be followed. The only way I feel safe is either cash in hand/mail, or with a gift card obtained and used via a dummy email acct. with no personally identifiable info. With the Customer ID or Account #'s obtained not from your home. If you're trying to chain two and can only find one that offers a truly anonymous payment method, then connect directly to the one that doesn't, since they could find whatever info. they wanted on you anyhow if they made it a point to. I feel very comfortable with both of mine... that neither would snitch me out. The one I connect directly to just wouldn't out of principle alone. The second couldn't because they don't even have any info. about me even if they wanted to dime me out.
I'm probably one of those that "should know better" I look at it on a "practical anonymity" level: 1. Despite fun to talk about NSA world domination scenarios, I don't believe 'governments know all'. 2. Always connecting via Tor through VPN with the BTC client. 3. Having two wallets, and creating new addresses. 4. Use a laundry service. ...is pretty darn pseudo-anonymous, IMO. Cash is cool though, too. But there is even less recourse for 'lost funds', and you should drive far away for mailing, type the address, don't lick the envelope, wear gloves and a hairnet, avoid CCTV at the mailbox, etc... right? For other than "Dr. Evil", I'm cool with BTC. PD
Is this correct? I don't really know much about client certificates (what they do, how they work), but I was searching around and it seems like on Private Internet Access' support forums and website client certificates are mentioned here and there, which I assume means they're using them. I'm looking for a VPN service. AirVPN seems the best for the level of their commitment to privacy and encryption. But it really is impratical, between my laptop, home computer, and cell phone to not be able to use at least a couple simultaneous connections. And paying for two or three AirVPN accounts gets expensive. Private Internet Access on the other hand allows (I think three) simultaneous connections, with good prices, and seems pretty dedicated to privacy. I'm a little surprised that people on this forum don't consider Private Internet Access more (instead most consistently viewing AirVPN, BolehVPN, and Mullvad the best).
My remarks pertain only to their OpenVPN connections in Linux. They provide ca.crt, which allows your client to verify the authenticity of PIA servers that you connect to. But they don't provide client.crt (and client.key, to let you use it), which allows PIA servers to verify the authenticity of clients that try to connect. Their servers authenticate clients based only on username and password. That doesn't affect your privacy or security, because client.crt is typically the same for all clients of commercial VPN services. It just makes their servers more vulnerable to DOS attacks. That's because client.crt verification is simple yes/no, whereas username/password verification is more complicated, and requires more server resources.
@mirmir Thanks for the explanation of what the client certificates do. I would be using OpenVPN on Linux, if I went with Private Internet Access. But as I understand what you're saying, this issue would not affect my use of PIA (or security or privacy). It just means that PIA is open to DOS attacks from someone using Linux? Is that right? Out of curiosity, do you or have you used PIA or do you prefer another service?
Right. I don't believe that it would, unless an adversary were DOSing PIA as part of an effort to identify you. That's unlikely for most of us, I think. Not just Linux. It means that PIA is more vulnerable to DOS attacks generally. For VPN services that use client.crt (and client.key) servers won't even respond to connection requests that aren't properly signed. But it's not a huge roadblock. The attacker just needs to sign up for an account I've used PIA. They're fast, inexpensive and have lots of servers. The TorrentFreak reviews seem unbiased.
Thanks mirimir, that's very helpful. I suppose my only remaining reservation about PIA is that they're based in the U.S. All things being equal, I like the idea of a vpn service that's not subject to U.S. court orders. I have no reason to believe that this would ever be an issue for me. But just as a matter of principle, I'm not excited about the U.S. and all it's secret court orders, etc. That being said, the lack of simultaneous connections on AirVPN seems like a pain. And BolehVPN looks good, but I honestly don't know what to think about the Malaysian governement and legal jurisdiction (knowing next to nothing about Malaysia).
Going Forward will using a vpn even give you privacy. If the Governments of the world, can get Apple,Microsoft,Google,Facebook with there billions of dollars and tens of thousands Lawyers between them to record all activity and provide user information when asked for with or with out oversight and make it Illegal for them to tell anyone there doing this. How hard would it be for a government to put there foot on a vpn owners throat, they could tell them, you must log and provide a back door to your servers, you cant tell anyone or will throw you in jail. These Vpns are not rich company like the above mentioned, they have a payroll to meet, family to feeds. so if these billion dollar companys can cave, these vpns will roll over, who knows this could have happened by now, but i fear its coming. also the use of privacy technology is going to be scrutinized Maybe your better having your isp log what your doing, then your one of million customers, vs 1 in a thousand or so on a vpn that is logging. I think privacy is done with for the common user, unless your a real computer geek and have the knowledge how to make you as private as possible.
mike70sk, I appreciate your thoughts and it is certainly true that it is hard and will become harder to maintain much privacy online. That being said, I think the picture you paint oversimplifies things a bit. First, all of the companies you mention are U.S. companies, so the U.S. government has forced them to hand over information, but they are not subject to the court orders of other countries and likewise companies in other countries (like many of the VPN services mentioned in this thread) are not subject to U.S. court orders. So for those of us in the U.S. there is an advantage to using a VPN service outside the U.S. The U.S. government is not all powerful (as we are seeing right now with it's inability to get China and Russia to hand over Edward Snowden--somone the U.S. government is far more interested in than they ever will be with any of us--I hope). In addition, some countries really do have much more stringent privacy laws and a general culture of privacy, than the U.S., and these laws do make a difference. Relative levels of respect for privacy, even on the part of governments, is not universal the world over. Second, part of the concern is having one's information tracked for no reason in a large dragnet operation, such as has been recently revealed in the U.S., rather than because one has been individually targeted. If the NSA targets one of us, I'm sure they'll get what they want. But right now what we're seeing is the U.S. government collecting information on everyone for no reason. A VPN will defeat this sort of blanket surveillance and provide greater privacy for people who are not the traget of a government agency, but who just want their privacy. Third, the U.S. government has collected information from companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, etc., which are already collecting and maintaining databases on the activities of their users. The government did not force any of these companies to log activity they were not logging. And there is no law in the U.S. (and many other countries) that requires such logging. So unless the government is targeting a specific individual, they are not going to blanket force a company to log the activity of all of their users, for no reason. Hence another advantage of VPN that does not log its users' activities. Might such a VPN be forced to log the activity of a specific user? Yes. Are they going to be foced to log the activities of all users for no reason? Unlikely (at least for now). Fourth, I'm also concerned about privacy from all the marketing businesses and copyright trolls that want to track the online activity of individuals. There are also significant privacy concerns in this area. It's not just about governements. These companies have no power to force anyone to log anything or turn over logs of any sort. So a VPN is very effective from defeating this sort of tracking. In the end, is it prefect? Far from it. But you can do quite a bit to improve your privacy, as long as you do not become a specific target of an organization like the NSA.
I would strongly recommend avoiding ivpn.net at all costs. Malta is a police state just like Syria and Iran. I know this because I am Maltese and I know how authoritarian this country is even though it pretends to be a liberal democracy. Thursday, August 29, 2013, 00:01 by Ivan Camilleri Maltese authorities the top Facebook snoops http://www.timesofmalta.com/article...se-authorities-the-top-Facebook-snoops.483925 Wednesday, August 28, 2013, 17:33 Maltese authorities sought information on 97 Facebook user accounts in six months http://www.timesofmalta.com/article...7-facebook-user-accounts-in-six-months.483897
I would avoid iVPN if I lived in Malta. I would avoid Mullvad if I lived in Sweden, and indeed the Mullvad website warns against use by Swedes for visiting Swedish websites. But, for those of us who don't live in Malta, the relevant question is how readily Maltese authorities would cooperate with other governments in compromising a Maltese business. Can you shed any light on that?
Good free VPN easy to setup and easy to use I want to use a VPN. I have never used one before. I want to use it for safe internetuse. Safe online banking. Safe email. P2p torrents (legal and small scale) I prefer free, but most important is userfriendly. Easy to setup. Easy to use. Are these any good: Hotspot Shield, CyberGhost, VPNBook. Maybe Hotspot Shield is the most easy to use? I have a desktop running Windows 8 I have a laptop running Windows 7
