Question VPN transparency ?

[Deadpoolio25]

Disclaimer: I'm not very smart and so my knowledge of this subject is basically nothing, and I apologize if this is the wrong section.

There is something that has been bothering me for a few years: how can we know that VPN companies aren't lying to us? I constantly see ads for VPN companies talking about identity privacy and getting around geo-blocking, so why haven't the corporations invested in data harvesting and geo-blocking cracked down on VPNs? How can we know that the VPN companies aren't all secretly selling our information to these other corporations? It all just seems way too good to be true, there has to be some kind of catch, right? I struggle to believe that VPN companies are somehow the one good kind of company in a sea of liars and thieves who wear gold-plated business suits. Again, I apologize for being stupid.

 

[LordVile]

Disclaimer: I'm not very smart and so my knowledge of this subject is basically nothing, and I apologize if this is the wrong section. But there is something that has been bothering me for a few years: how can we know that VPN companies aren't lying to us? I constantly see ads for VPN companies talking about identity privacy and getting around geo-blocking, so why haven't the corporations invested in data harvesting and geo-blocking cracked down on VPNs? How can we know that the VPN companies aren't all secretly selling our information to these other corporations? It all just seems way too good to be true, there has to be some kind of catch, right? I struggle to believe that VPN companies are somehow the one good kind of company in a sea of liars and thieves who wear gold-plated business suits. Again, I apologize for being stupid.

A lot have 3rd party audits on their security and logging behaviours to validate claims

 

[Elliah246]

Disclaimer: I'm not very smart and so my knowledge of this subject is basically nothing, and I apologize if this is the wrong section. But there is something that has been bothering me for a few years: how can we know that VPN companies aren't lying to us? I constantly see ads for VPN companies talking about identity privacy and getting around geo-blocking, so why haven't the corporations invested in data harvesting and geo-blocking cracked down on VPNs? How can we know that the VPN companies aren't all secretly selling our information to these other corporations? It all just seems way too good to be true, there has to be some kind of catch, right? I struggle to believe that VPN companies are somehow the one good kind of company in a sea of liars and thieves who wear gold-plated business suits. Again, I apologize for being stupid.

The vast majority of VPNs are scams, they collect your data and sell it to advertisers and governments.
On this website https://reports.exodus-privacy.eu.org/en/ enter the app name of the vpn you want to check, if it uses ANY trackers, don't use it.
Another thing you can do is use ublockorigin to show if the vpn website uses any shady services like google or facebook to track you on their site.

VPNs known to be trustworthy are mullvadvpn and ivpn, if you want to know more check out the hated one on youtube.

 

[cruisetung]

Most people don't need VPN, everything has been encrypted when you browse.

A lot of people use VPN solely for the purpose of downloading illegal stuff

What you need is ad blocker (I use Ghostery) and a sense whether to trust a site.

VPN does help if you need to work remotely, but you can setup your own.

 

[bill001g]

Amazon and netflix do on some vpn do detect and prevent you from using the vpn. Netflix I think still works on the largest vpn nord. They have to know all the IP blocks nord owns but they do not block it for some reason but block other vpn.

A company like netflix really has no incentive to block anyone since it is a paid service and the more customers they have the more money they make. The only reason they need to give a appearance of blocking stuff it to keep the movie companies happy that want to be paid multiple times for the same content in different countries. Netflix really doesn't care if someone in brazil buys USA netflix but the movie companies do.

The VPN company itself can not harvest much data. They really don't see any more than your ISP can see. All the data itself is encrypted via HTTPS. You should also be using encrypted DNS so they can't see which sites you might use. The IP addresses themselves also mean very little since everything is now cloud and virtual so many sites share ip blocks in cloud data centers.
Companies like google and facebook are much much more intrusive since they run on your machine before the encryption takes place and stuff cookies in everything.

There are cases of so called "free" vpn services that have done bad stuff. Some got caught mining bitcoins. These all require you load their vpn software on your machine. It is always better too run the VPN on a seperate device like your router or to use open source vpn clients and then configure them to use the vpn service. That way there is no software running on your machine you do not know about.

 

[Elliah246]

Most people don't need VPN, everything has been encrypted when you browse.

A lot of people use VPN solely for the purpose of downloading illegal stuff

What you need is ad blocker (I use Ghostery) and a sense whether to trust a site.

VPN does help if you need to work remotely, but you can setup your own.

That's a complete lie.
Nearly all internet service providers around the globe track their customers internet activity.
To prevent that you will have to use a vpn at all times.
And adblocker alone won't prevent profiling.
Ublockorigin is known to be the most superior adblock available.

 

[Elliah246]

Amazon and netflix do on some vpn do detect and prevent you from using the vpn. Netflix I think still works on the largest vpn nord. They have to know all the IP blocks nord owns but they do not block it for some reason but block other vpn.

A company like netflix really has no incentive to block anyone since it is a paid service and the more customers they have the more money they make. The only reason they need to give a appearance of blocking stuff it to keep the movie companies happy that want to be paid multiple times for the same content in different countries. Netflix really doesn't care if someone in brazil buys USA netflix but the movie companies do.

The VPN company itself can not harvest much data. They really don't see any more than your ISP can see. All the data itself is encrypted via HTTPS. You should also be using encrypted DNS so they can't see which sites you might use. The IP addresses themselves also mean very little since everything is now cloud and virtual so many sites share ip blocks in cloud data centers.
Companies like google and facebook are much much more intrusive since they run on your machine before the encryption takes place and stuff cookies in everything.

There are cases of so called "free" vpn services that have done bad stuff. Some got caught mining bitcoins. These all require you load their vpn software on your machine. It is always better too run the VPN on a seperate device like your router or to use open source vpn clients and then configure them to use the vpn service. That way there is no software running on your machine you do not know about.

Imagine paying netflix or amazon monthly overpriced fees to watch modern hollywood garbage, ofcourse people buy vpns and watch their moves and tv shows on internet websites instead.

 

[Elliah246]

Disclaimer: I'm not very smart and so my knowledge of this subject is basically nothing, and I apologize if this is the wrong section. But there is something that has been bothering me for a few years: how can we know that VPN companies aren't lying to us? I constantly see ads for VPN companies talking about identity privacy and getting around geo-blocking, so why haven't the corporations invested in data harvesting and geo-blocking cracked down on VPNs? How can we know that the VPN companies aren't all secretly selling our information to these other corporations? It all just seems way too good to be true, there has to be some kind of catch, right? I struggle to believe that VPN companies are somehow the one good kind of company in a sea of liars and thieves who wear gold-plated business suits. Again, I apologize for being stupid.

This might interest you.
https://kumu.io/Windscribe/vpn-relationships#vpn-company-relationships/ivpn

 

[cruisetung]

I don't know who is telling the lies here. 😕

 

[Math Geek]

a lot of confusion stems from a lack of understanding overall how the internet itself works. how you type "facebook.com" into your browser and end up at 69.63.176.13, how traffic is routed and who can see what and when.

it can be complicated but it is all based on how the post office works to send mail around. there is literally no way to completely hide your ip address at any time around the web. you can't send a letter and expect a response if they don't know where to send it. you can use a VPN which is like having a PO Box. your mail is sent and received from the PO Box company, and they pack it and send it to your house for you. however, they know what you are sending and receiving since they are packing and unpacking it.

your home internet company is for sure 100% collecting this data on you, so the VPN changes who gets it from your ISP to the VPN company. obviously if the VPN does nothing with it, then it is a good thing and you have some sort of privacy. however, if they decide to sell it, then you've accomplished nothing.

once the VPN sends you traffic onto the web, then it is still open to the normal tracking of everything you do on the web. so on that end you did nothing. again only masking where the traffic comes from, but not what you do once you leave the VPN and head out onto the web.

this is where things like UBlock comes into play. it helps stop the tracking around the web. a second layer of keeping your traffic private. encrypted DNS also helps mask your traffic from your ISP and others. your browser itself has a large effect. some like Chrome are designed as data collecting hubs, while others do what they can to protect your privacy.

the overall way the internet works is being molded by the same people collecting and profiting from your data. so it is hard to gain much privacy around the web. but with some knowledge you can at least have a certain amount of privacy.

 

[Cookielover]

Imagine paying netflix or amazon monthly overpriced fees to watch modern hollywood garbage, ofcourse people buy vpns and watch their moves and tv shows on internet websites instead.

Lame "argument" going on 25+ years.
Music and shows not good enough to pay for. Of course you stiill want to watch it but just don't want to pay for it. If ur going to pirate stuff because you don't want to pay for it at least have the cajones to at least admit that your a pirate. Stop trying to act like a martyr or your fighting the studios since you just dont want to pay.

a lot of confusion stems from a lack of understanding overall how the internet itself works. how you type "facebook.com" into your browser and end up at 69.63.176.13, how traffic is routed and who can see what and when.

it can be complicated but it is all based on how the post office works to send mail around. there is literally no way to completely hide your ip address at any time around the web. you can't send a letter and expect a response if they don't know where to send it. you can use a VPN which is like having a PO Box. your mail is sent and received from the PO Box company, and they pack it and send it to your house for you. however, they know what you are sending and receiving since they are packing and unpacking it.

your home internet company is for sure 100% collecting this data on you, so the VPN changes who gets it from your ISP to the VPN company. obviously if the VPN does nothing with it, then it is a good thing and you have some sort of privacy. however, if they decide to sell it, then you've accomplished nothing.

once the VPN sends you traffic onto the web, then it is still open to the normal tracking of everything you do on the web. so on that end you did nothing. again only masking where the traffic comes from, but not what you do once you leave the VPN and head out onto the web.

this is where things like UBlock comes into play. it helps stop the tracking around the web. a second layer of keeping your traffic private. encrypted DNS also helps mask your traffic from your ISP and others. your browser itself has a large effect. some like Chrome are designed as data collecting hubs, while others do what they can to protect your privacy.

the overall way the internet works is being molded by the same people collecting and profiting from your data. so it is hard to gain much privacy around the web. but with some knowledge you can at least have a certain amount of privacy.

Ublock still dont hide your detailed tracking info. You need a good VPN if you don't want to be tracked or have your info sold or bought. Ublock is nothing but a small bandaid.

https://protonvpn.com/blog/how-does-a-vpn-work/

 

[Math Geek]

as i said, no single thing does the job fully. each piece only helps in one area. takes the whole lot to plug as many holes as possible. just a VPN leaves lots of room for data mining, as does just UBlock, as does just a privacy focused browser, or encrypted DNS........

telling yourself (or others) that a VPN is a magical solution to total anonymity on the web is just outright not true. you are still tracked, the cookies and other methods to follow you around the web are not stopped by a VPN at all. you might change where they think you are located, but everything else in your profile stays the same.

true many VPN's advertise themselves as somehow guaranteeing your privacy, but this is just false. all they do is change where it appears you are located. nothing more, nothing less. everything you do on the web stays the same no matter if you do it from Atlanta or Dubai. so all the juicy data stays the same, for them to sell.