Have a look at gullo.me, their entry level vps was just $2 or something.

Edit: https://hosting.gullo.me/pricing (apparently the cheapest is $3.5 - annually)

That article is a wild mix of paranoia and conspiracy theories.

Never expected to read about burning witches, Kill Bill, covid, and government control in one setting.

I guess the author has some good intentions, but the way he presents his stuff makes him seen like a crazy person.

And most of the cons aren’t inherently negative.

Most countries don’t have opt out options.

Wait, aren’t you allowed to receive your salary in cash? As long as your employer deducts your income tax and social security contributions accordingly, there is nothing illegal about this procedure. It’s uncommon for sure, but not impossible.

And that’s the reason why I don’t use it, I need specific websites that access my local time, and apparently whitelisting is not a thing.

Wow, that’s quite something. Hopefully a temporary thing due to spam issues or so…

I’m using a VPN almost permanently, never had any issues there.

Are you sure it’s lemmy.world and not cloudflare or something?

I can’t see the option on my free account either, despite installing the most recent update earlier today.

My webhost allows passwords of all length and complexities in the password set field, but will strip $ and & on the login mask on their main website, like in the top right corner.

A failed login will automatically bring you to a dedicated login.xxx.yyy subdomain and prompt a password reset, but if you use the login mask there instead, the exact same password works.

Use Instander instead. It’s a clone that removes quite a few of the data harvesting and shows no ads either.

Hm. Since covid, even my local bakery started taking cards. Even most corner shops for late night beers do. Kebab is usually still impossible, but that seems like the final frontier.

Yep, the one issue with shadowsocks is that you can only install it on end devices, not on a router. That’s the big benefit of Astrill. But anyway, my days in China are numbered, so I’m soon not going to need that anymore.

What was the reason for you to switch from Mullvad in the first place?

I’m using a combination of Astrill (paid) and Proton (free, as a backup) since they are the only ones that reliably work in China, but once I’m out of here and my subscriptions expire, I’ll be on Mullvad again.

No, nothing. Just configure ublock and sponsorblock to work in private windows.

Use it in the private mode of some privacy respecting Firefox variant and done.

I’ll find one for you later, just heading to the office. But from working as a financial auditor in the past, I know that the AML provision used to be 10k EUR for transfers abroad, and was later increased to 12.5k EUR.

So you don’t have an answer, that’s what I thought.

Anti-money laundering provisions in the EU have been adjusted several times though, so there’s a precedent.

It’s impossible to define the amount in relative terms such as “average EU monthly salary +25%”, because that would simply make it impractical in everyday use when the amount changes every month.

Ok then please tell me how that affects your privacy, and what level of control it gives someone?

I’m a huge privacy advocate, but on this issue I’m with the regulators. 3k EUR is plenty. More than the harmonized monthly average salary of the EU, in fact, which sits at below 2,200 EUR (source).

So people who value their privacy that much can easily receive their salary in cash and take care about their daily expenses without compromising anything.

For the odd purchase beyond that, the integrity of our society prevails. Money laundering and tax evasion are a major concerns everywhere in the world. Your advocacy pro-privacy actively harms honest taxpayers and governing bodies.