VPN: Payment and email info

Hi guys,

I just signed on with PIA (privateinternetaccess), and was wondering about a few things.

The company itself recommends that you register with their service using an email address that really isn't tied to you in any way, and they also recommend that you pay using unconventional methods, such as bitcoin or others.

My question is "why"? I know that doing things this way provides even more anonominity, but isn't the whole purpose of vpn's to provide this anyway?

The service claims to not log any user info so if the authorities came knocking, the only info they could provide would be the users registration info.

Why would that also need to be anonymous if there are no logs to provide? Why would providing your everyday email address or using your Visa card to pay, make any difference?

I'm really new to the whole vpn thing and it seems really interesting and I just thought it odd that a company would actually advise customers to not provide the normal registration information.

Thanks

 

Absolutely not, the actual purpose of a VPN is to ensure no-one else can read your traffic - In fact, depending on the setup of the VPN, it can provide exactly the opposite of anonymity ie ID-verification .

Because 'they' (insert random TLA) can link you to both your e-mail and VISA-card . However, they can also link you to your 'real' IP if you ever connect from it, so in reality there is no way to hide the fact that you use a VPN from 'them' .

So whether or not it's "over-kill paranoia" depends on your actual threat-model .

If you are just p2p'ing you will probably be fine even if you use your VISA,
if you are trying to steal nuclear launch-codes or other really serious criminal
actions - They will perhaps drone you ..

 

This is a recurring discussion on Wilders

Less is always better than more regarding information provided to VPN providers.

Using throw-away email (such as -https://anonbox.net/) and paying with Bitcoin matters much more when you're buying VPN service that you'll use through another VPN, or (much, much more so) through Tor.

 

Thanks guys.

I appreciate you taking the time to provide info.

At this point I'm only using the VPN while surfing and not much more.

So, unless they start cracking down on all VPN users, I should be alright.

Thanks