So I’m pretty recent to the high seas but I’ve seen a few posts now about “stop relying on your VPN” and “people that think VPNs will protect them are naive” and so on.

So since I believe knowledge is our greatest weapon/tool/super-power, can we get some answers regarding what exactly the doomsayers are getting at? ELI5 why VPNs wouldn’t protect your anonymity.

Is it about logging? The country your end-point is in? Something more technical?

Ultimately I’d like to be fully armed in order to keep making the best choices for my fledgling ship as it navigates the vast, stormy seas.

  • CausticFlamesEnglish
    45·
    2 years ago

    The thing with VPN’s is that you’re only shifting the trust from your ISP to your VPN provider. That provider can still see pretty much everything you’re doing and your real IP, if they wanted to. To add to this, plenty of VPN companies have been found logging when they said they didn’t. I would say either set up traffic for I2P, or simply go with an actually no logs VPN company like Mullvad, who’s been battle tested and doesn’t log, and you’ll be fine.

    People also say that because it’s important to understand what a VPN is and does as well. It wasn’t originally meant to be any sort of anonymity tool, the technology exists to make it seem as if your traffic is coming from somewhere else - which allows for things like remote work on a local network.

    • myersguy@lemmy.simpl.websiteEnglish
      151·
      2 years ago

      Important to note that Mullvad has stopped allowing port forwarding, if that is important to your VPN needs. I’m giving ProtonVPN a try now (though they don’t make Linux usage as friendly as I’d like)

    • HelixDab@kbin.social
      51·
      2 years ago

      I would say either set up traffic for I2P

      Any ideas on how to do this? I’ve tried using i2p–in Firefox–and can’t seem to make it work. Sites that are supposedly up won’t load. I’ve followed all the tutorials that I’ve found, and it doesn’t seem to be doing what’s expected. And no, I can’t give any details at this second, because I’m away from my home computer, and it’s been a few months since I tried.

        • HelixDab@kbin.social
          1·
          1 year ago

          I’ve got the extension up and running, but that doesn’t seem to do the trick. I reset my proxy settings every time I try to connect (I can’t connect to the internet normally if I use i2p proxy settings, and can’t connect to i2P if I don’t); i don’t recall off the top of my head if FoxyProxy worked correctly for me or not.

          I will check out the thread on wizanons.de and see if that helps at all.

    • CmdrShepard@lemmy.oneEnglish
      31·
      2 years ago

      Skip Mullvad. They’re removing port forwarding at the end of the month. I’ve been with them for years and unfortunately have to switch providers yet again.

        • CmdrShepard@lemmy.oneEnglish
          2·
          2 years ago

          I am going to switch to AirVPN after some limited googling based on price, popularity, and port forwarding (the three 'P’s). I dunno a whole lot about them but my main priority is just hiding my IP from movie studios and port forwarding. I don’t need my traffic locked down like Fort Knox.

      • justinalanbass@kbin.social
        11·
        2 years ago

        Eh don’t bother. You weren’t as anonymous as you thought using port forwarding if you’re doing anything bad enough to warrant NSA attention. Most users probably are not. Mullvad is just being honest about their limitations here.

        • CmdrShepard@lemmy.one
          3·
          2 years ago

          I doubt the NSA will come after me for sharing some movie files, so I’m not really worried about that. Port forwarding is essential though as you won’t be able to seed any files to 99.9% of leechers, which is an issue with private trackers and goes against the concept of p2p sharing in general.

          Mullvad is removing port forwarding because a few bad apples spoiled the bunch by using their service for highly illegal things and its bringing too much attention to the company, as they described in their press release. They aren’t removing it because they can’t keep things anonymous (which is why they removed the automatic monthly subscription some time ago).