A Big Question about whether VPNs are actually a Bargain or Not.

L[Deactivated] on 20/04/2017 - 17:04

I was going to post this inside one of the VPN deals but I think it is better served in the forum and would not favour creating bias against the latest deal involving PIA.

If your VPN is going anywhere near the United States, there was recently a bill passed that allows communications providers to sell your internet history.

Lots of VPNs piggyback off a major cloud service provider which will undoubtedly keep logs. PIA might not keep logs, but the service provider they piggy back off is most definitely going to be doing so.

For example: NordVPN in Singapore uses Digitalocean, F-Secure's Freedome uses IBM's Softlayer cloud.

Digitalocean definitely has a metadata retention clause.

There are plenty more examples but too many to list. I think is it pretty obvious that almost all cloud providers retain metadata. It's valuable and they can also sell it for cold hard cash. Too many to list… It's very easy to find out yourself what you are connecting to just by using Google.

What are you actually paying for is not protection because the metadata will still show the VPN as the endpoint and anything you do at that endpoint will still come under scrutiny.

In essence what people are paying for when they torrent illegal content is for someone to ignore the DMCA notice. If your abuse is important enough then you're still going to get a knock from Interpol.

You can get this service much cheaper by renting a cheap VPS in Romania or other Eastern European State and going DIY.

So, are VPNs really a bargain should be challenged, especially when there are so many Gotchas?

Do Your Own Research About Your VPN Provider. Check if the server you are connecting to belongs to one of the giant VPS providers that retain metadata.

I would say currently VPNs are not really a deal at all because the metadata currently cannot be used for civil proceedings. However, if you go and use one, you might well be getting your data vaccumed up and sold; possibly triggering the thing that you are trying to avoid.

Internet

Comments

  • BensonP on 20/04/2017 - 18:15
    +9

    I'd say 28,000 drive away is a fair price.

    I'd get the dealership to throw in tint or floor mats.

    Good luck!

    BensonP on 20/04/2017 - 18:15 (Collapsed - Offtopic. Show)
    • ronnknee on 20/04/2017 - 18:19
      +2

      Do you mean to post here?

      • Savas on 20/04/2017 - 18:25

        Yeah was thinking $28,000 is a lot to pay for a VPN

      • BensonP on 20/04/2017 - 18:49
        +9

        Nah just saw a huge block of text and couldn't be bothered reading.

        Just assumed it was either a neighbour dispute or 'How much should I pay for this car?' thread.

        I just went for it

  • mskeggs on 20/04/2017 - 18:30
    +2

    The security question has many facets.
    People use VPNs for reasons other than torrenting, e,g. public hotspot security, using an employer network with a BYOD, avoiding the specific AU gov metadata retention policy and others.
    While your issues are relevant to some users, they aren't to others.
    And there are many VPN providers not US based, although using a US end point would obviously expose some info.

    So I think saying they are a waste is a pretty broad brush.

  • Diji1 on 20/04/2017 - 19:00
    +1

    You're completely missing that if the VPN is the endpoint how do they know who they're logging. Their logs will consist of a large body of requests from many computers none of which are known.

    This is hilarious: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/04/19/nsa_fbi_spy_on_us_f…

    Setting up your own private VPN is an option and presumably more secure than using a VPN provider unless you act like an idiot (acting like an idiot is something criminals do all the time when using VPNs) just because A VPN provider is a big fat target however it is not for the faint hearted or technically illiterate.

    Acting like an idiot means every single thing you do on a VPN must not be connected to the off-VPN connections. So you will need to make a new email/accounts etc for EVERYTHING you do which is not an insignificant burden - unless you are happy with some compromises on security. Most people are going to be screwed by social networking in any case.

    It will also almost certainly cost more unless you can show reliable hosting that's fast enough and allows enough transfers for 5 bucks a month or whatever.

  • AlienC on 20/04/2017 - 21:08
    +1

    So what's your solution then if you want to torrent movies and games and music and etc? Buy a Romanian based vpn? I still don't actually know. I am actually becoming more legit now paying for games / paying for movies / paying for Netflix etc and Google play music spotify etc but there are still some things I cannot get or don't know where to get other than torrents and upload sites.

    I guess the biggest one being some old or obscure random foreign movies and some old discontinued tv series; one example I can think of off the to of my head is Jericho from a few years back, no idea where to buy it or get it legally online instead maybe of buying a DVD and DVD player and thus TV as I have moved completely digitally I steam or watch everything now on my tablet including free to air tv god bless technology.

    Also some of my activities require a good vpn and preferably one with a hot swappable up address for constant up spoofing for some random gaming and negating private tracking.

    • katekate1 on 19/05/2017 - 18:01

      Exactly VPN is not just for security but to unblock different region sites and to provide protection.

      If you look it from a perspective, it can provide you many ways to buy cheap access and things from different sources.

  • katekate1 on 19/05/2017 - 17:58

    Lets put it in simple way. VPN providers different country/region/cities servers for you to connect.

    So you are signing up to any VPN make sure you know about EYE 14 countries, where data is provided to government. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement)

    So, it is not for sure if these VPN are keeping logs. But the idea behind it is that they do.

    But for the advantage site, VPN does protect you from malicious errors, these viruses can not attack directly to you. So its a good bargain.

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