God I hate vpn ads

@dushman This post is sponsored by NordVPN.

@inference
Military grade encryption

@dushman Makes it impossible for hackers to see the websites you visit (because HTTPS has never existed).

@inference
Also when it comes to data collection you just shift your trust from your ISP to the VPN company

@dushman I trust my ISP more than a VPN company I saw in an ad. It doesn't matter if their server software is open source or proprietary; you can't see if they're actually running that code or not, without access to their servers, which you aren't getting unless you work there.

VPNs are overrated.

@inference
If you live in a country like Russia or China, ISP is the least trustworthy entity. VPN company is at least in some developed country's jurisdiction and has zero obvious incentive to do DPI of all your traffic and report your actions directly to the KGB. They might not even know who you are. I can't say for Nord as I hate them, but for other reasons. With Proton you can pay in cash or these Beethoven thingies.
VPNs are still good in certain cases.
@dushman

@m0xee @inference
If I had to I'd use mullvad or set up my own on a vps that doesn't require personal info

@dushman
Mullvad's also good, one of the best!
I chose Proton because I was using their free plan and when they had a sale I just went with them. They have some unique features like this one: https://protonvpn.com/blog/stealth-vpn-protocol/
I haven't inspected it properly yet, but it doesn't look like one of the "military grade" claims 😅
I do live in Russia, here most popular VPN services are blocked, but this Stealth protocol seems to work. Wireguard TCP also seems to work, WG UDP and OpenVPN are filtered.
@inference

@m0xee @inference
Here's an example

https://techcrunch.com/2021/09/06/protonmail-logged-ip-address-of-french-activist-after-order-by-swiss-authorities/

@dushman @inference @m0xee to be fair, most any will have to follow a court order, use an actual anonymization network and pseudonymous email if thats your concern, no companies are gonna ignore the law so blatantly

@may @inference @m0xee
It's more about their marketing claims being misleading

@dushman @inference @m0xee i would argue its not a stretch to assume they mean by default, considering court orders are court orders ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@may @inference @m0xee
Also this bit is pretty misleading as well. Means nothing as soon as you send an email to a different domain. Only applies if you and your recipient are using pgp.