I’m thinking about paying for a VPN, I currently don’t use one.

I’d like to use Mullvad but they don’t seem to have regional prices, while Proton does.

I wonder if Proton is still a reliable option, Proton is 60% cheaper in my country, probably because regional pricing (but I didn’t check if it’s really the case).

If anyone has any other suggestion I’d like to hear it.

  • Ardens@lemmy.ml
    5·
    18 hours ago

    It’s kind of sad, that people still believe that VPN is a safe option. Sure, it ads a layer, but anyone who wants to know who you are, can find out by your fingerprints, your accounts, anything you put out there. So if you do anything but light surfing, then you are not anonymous with VPN.

    • utopiah@lemmy.ml
      23·
      18 hours ago

      people still believe that VPN is a safe option

      What does that sentence even mean without context?

      Safe against whom? I’m pretty convinced a VPN is safe against :

      • your boss or manager if you somehow browse on your corporate network
      • your flatmates or family member if you browse at home and do not necessary trust them or whomever setup the router
      • your school
      • the manager of the cafe you are using WiFi on

      I’m pretty convinced might be safe against larger scale surveillance :

      • your ISP if it is not doing deep packet inspection (and that’s pretty much per country basis AFAICT)

      I’m pretty convinced might NOT be safe against professional individual surveillance :

      • state level professionals using exploits and actually knowing your name, not your nickname
      • your VPN provider or the cloud provider you rely on to install the backend side of Wireguard or OpenVPN

      So… no I don’t think anyone can make your VPN pointless. Clearly the random person sitting next to me in a cafe can not. Only few people with the technical expertise or power can do that. None of that matters though if you already volunteer your information elsewhere publicly on private platforms like Instagram or YouTube though.

      • Ardens@lemmy.ml
        1·
        16 hours ago

        You certainly are “pretty much”… :-)

        So, what do you do, since you don’t trust your family? Seems pretty much suspect there… or pretty much paranoid.

        You are not safe against any of those you mention. Don’t you know what VPN does, and does not?

        You are pretty much NOT safe against large scale surveillance.

        Thanks for backing me up, with the last thing you wrote. And then please go read up on what VPN actually does, and does not.

          • Ardens@lemmy.ml
            1·
            8 hours ago

            I always keep my secrets. :-)

            I have also linked to a couple of articles that touch on what I’m talking about…

            • Eager Eagle@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              7 hours ago

              You were given a list of scenarios above that list where vpns are useful. It seems you’re the one who don’t know what you’re talking about.

              • Ardens@lemmy.ml
                1·
                7 hours ago

                I was given a list where someone thought it would be useful… Now go read up on VPN, and you’ll see why that list was a “pretty much” wrong. ;-)

    • Sarothazrom@lemmy.worldEnglish
      8·
      18 hours ago

      Under no circumstance does that mean it is not worth getting one. Particularly dependent on where one lives.

        • Kushan@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          14 hours ago

          Yes locks on your door are pointless because if someone wants to break into your house they’re going to do it once way or another, especially if you leave the window open

          This is a dumb take.

          • Ardens@lemmy.ml
            1·
            8 hours ago

            You are right, your take is really dumb. So why do you share it?

            A dumb take is, to pay for something you might get nothing from. But hey, you do you… VPN-providers are happy for people like you.

            • Kushan@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              6 hours ago

              A dumb take is, to pay for something you might get nothing from

              And which VPN provider is it you’re getting “nothing” from? There seems to be a budding market for VPN’s out there, lots of people are paying for them and continue to do so, why do you think that is? Because the whole world is stupid and it’s a pointless waste of money? Or because they are actually in fact getting some kind of use from them?

              VPN’s have a myriad of uses, you’re focusing on some ambiguous nation-state attacker tracking you down for whatever reason. Meanwhile, quite a lot of users would just like to watch porn without having to submit ID. I’d say they’re getting plenty of use out of their VPN for that.

    • CodenameDarlen@lemmy.worldOP
      2·
      15 hours ago

      Facebook got my precise location just using my IP, I decided to create a fake account to use FB market place, they warned me about an “unknown login”, it’s the first time I’ve seen this, usually websites only know approximate location, but this time just by knowing my IP they hit exactly the small town where I live, instead of near towns which is the normal. I suspect they had my IP from other devices allowing location in the same network (same wifi), then they could safely associate that IP with my exact location even tho I didn’t enable any GPS any time.