this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2025
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EXPOSING The Billion Dollar SECRET VPN Companies Are Hiding (www.youtube.com)
submitted 5 days ago by dumnezero@piefed.social to c/buyeuropean@feddit.uk
34 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

If you're using a VPN to stay safe, this will anger you.
You were told a VPN would shield you. Protect your data. Keep you anonymous. But what if the tool you downloaded for privacy was literally designed to watch you?

This video uncovers the full story behind the most dangerous VPN ever madeโ€”used by Facebook to spy on teenagersโ€”and how todayโ€™s most trusted VPNs are following the same exact blueprint.

If youโ€™ve ever felt unsure about who to trust online, this video will give you the receipts, the checklist, and the countermeasures you actually need.

Inside this video, youโ€™ll learn:
โ€ข How Facebook turned a โ€œprivacy appโ€ into a surveillance weapon
โ€ข The Israeli cyber intel unit behind Onavo and why it matters
โ€ข What Project Ghostbusters did to break HTTPS encryption
โ€ข Why 20+ top VPNs are secretly owned by spyware vendors
โ€ข The real story behind ExpressVPN, Kape Technologies, and fake โ€œindependentโ€ review sites
โ€ข The 7-point checklist every VPN must pass to be trusted
โ€ข Better tools to protect yourself: DoH, hardened Firefox, Tor, browser isolation, and more

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[โ€“] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Surprisingly good video with thorough details and good advice. I say surprising because ive seen more than a few talking-head style youtube tech presenters that are all fluff surrounding what's ultimately an ad, and no valuable content.

I wanted to add that i think AirVPN is worth adding to her list of good providers. Her list was: ProtonVPN, Mullvad, IVPN.

  • no free/unpaid user tier
  • no logs
  • client agnostic (works with openVPN and Wireguard protocols)
  • their provided client (EddieVPN) is completely open source
  • client has kill switch (blocks any traffic external to vpn to prevent leaks, no traffic if client disconnects)
  • account can be completely anonymous (accepts Monero, Bitcoin, etc. Email account not even required)

One red flag in that they do not independently audit the no logs claim, the reasoning seems that they downplay the value of it and say the cost-benefit is not there for them. A server audit is never truly independent (the VPN provider is the playing client of the auditor). They do however pay for independent pen tests and bug bounties.

So according to her checklist of red flags and requirements of a good VPN AirVPN has one red flag and meets all other requirements - this is the same level of qualification (or better) than the other VPN providers she did advocate for. Eg: ProtonVPN does allow free users, that's a red flag on her criteria.

I would also say that VPNs are not a monolith and that they have niches. If you just want to download torrents and not risk a corporation emailing you a summons, AirVPN is a great choice. If you're a political dissident or reporter aiming for guarantees of privacy then ProtonVPN is a great choice.

[โ€“] kuhli@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I have some issues with proton but I feel like the free tier thing doesn't really apply to them since they provide other services and use it as a loss leader to get people onto their ecosystem. Their business model is fundamentality different from other "free" vpns because their trying to build essentially an alternative to the Google suite

Their absolutely atrocious record with what they claim to be open source apps is a much bigger issue imo

[โ€“] pulsewidth@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

Agree on that it may be an exception for Proton with your reasoning.

I've heard this before about Proton's issues with releasing source code in timely manner or at all but didn't know much about it so I just looked up more info; it seems at least their VPN client does have all the source code publicly available though (for each OS it's available on). Whereas they do have holes elsewhere in unprovided code for various Proton service clients.