Yes, my understanding is that your ISP can see every DNS query you make when you do not use a VPN. That is my primary use case for using a VPN. I'd be shocked if ISPs like ATT/Comcast in the USA are not logging all internet traffic of their customers indefinitely and perhaps (but hopefully not) also selling the data to the highest bidder.
Do y'all use a VPN? If yes, which ones do you recommend?
treenutz68 Wasn't there an article that the NSA had a room in the main AT&T office somewhere like 10 years ago even, 99.9% sure of that (probably wrong on year, but have been reading on this stuff for ~ 20 years)? Should use one so they don't sell your metadata alone to make money off of you. You already pay for internet, they have no right making money on your habits also. Granted, they can still see what you are doing with a court order, but that's been the case for awhile for a lot of these VPN's.
- Edited
LyonSyonII VPNs can be pretty expensive, and I was wondering if it was the norm to use one, as the privacy benefits it provides are small.
It all depends on your theat model I would say. VPNs with no-log policies offer two privacy benefits, 1) your ISP cannot see or log what sites you are visiting, nor block your access to sites, which is great if your ISP is known to look into what sites people visit to find misconduct or block sites entirely, and 2) neither websites you visit nor peers you connect to can see or log your real unique IP address but will only see a shared one, which is great if you worry an attacker will get access to server logs to doxx all visitors or members of the site, or will trick you into doing a WebRTC call with them or downloading a file from them to doxx you.
Any VPN provider with a no-log policy is a good choice. The ones mentioned in this thread is the most reputable ones, and I use one of those myself, but to be fair, all legitimate no-log VPN providers offer the above two privacy benefits just the same, even the free ones like RiseUp and ProtonVPN free-tier.
But if you do not see yourself being at risk of being doxxed in any sense, and live in a decently free country with a largely unfiltered ISP, the benefits of using a VPN is more limited.
matchboxbananasynergy
Thank you.
I didn’t know what it meant.
9 days later
Everyone recommends Mullvad but I see them as sketchy. They do not offer multi hop on mobile which is a major need for anyone who wants some higher opsec. This is really bad that they dont have this. I don't trust them.
[deleted]
- Edited
I don't use a VPN, instead I use a private DNS , currently zero.Dns0.eu ,there's also quad9.
Using VPN and private DNS can alllow private DNS leaks
They just added multi-hop to the iOS app and it will probably come for Android soon. You can do it today by generating a Wireguard profile on their website and using it with a generic Wireguard app.
Windscribe, hands-down. They're open-source and use Freemium pricing, so it's completely free if you use up to 10 GB per month (or 11 GB if you don't mind using a referral link - https://windscribe.com/yo/v40g2xlr)
Their speeds are faster than Proton, even at the free tiers, and also permit Netflix/streaming and tormenting/p2p, they frequently have big discounts and giveaways for pro plans, and some pro plans start at $1/mo. They're my absolute favorite VPN and I'm always shocked they're not more well known.
[deleted]
I like Mullvad. One thing you should realize though is that using a VPN can also make for some annoyances like being blocked from some sites or not being able to participate or post on some platforms.
- Edited
The user who posted this got deleted but can someone elaborate.
Without making a stance on any of this and trying to be netural and informational about the subject:
They advocate for far-left leaning things.
I'm not saying its right or wrong, just stating the fact. If anyone wants to research this outside of the forum, go ahead but lets not talk about this matter here.
[deleted]
Thank you for the information. I've been concerned about a few other things with them anyways and been pretty happy with Tuta and mullvad instead tbh
000000 i heared that proton sold out a usetbbecauae he skipped school.
It is best if claims about entities having taken some action are accompanied by some specific support, such as citing a source.
Otherwise I could write something like "I heard that discussion forum users whose usernames are just a sequence of zeroes are generally crypto thieves".
My problem with Proton is that they are trying to hold as much central power in the "privacy community" as possible. They are also making it harder to avoid them because they are buying up other privacy companies. They also do everything but they are not the best at anything because they don't have a central focus. I take issue with the mindset that gainig users is more important than improving the existing services they offer.
000000 Are you be referring to this article perhaps?
https://protonmail.com/blog/climate-activist-arrest/
They handed over their customer's data which was not much, just the IP number, in this case it was enough to track him down though. I wonder if it's permittable for email servers to delete their logs like they do with vpn servers.