this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
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Mildly Interesting
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VPN's are the new essential subscription service for online content. Back in the olden times, we had to pay for minutes of using internet and long distance phone calls, today we have to pay for privacy and access to content we're "not allowed" to see. And what you're allowed to see or not is a strange, politically motivated list that is always changing.
Back in the olden days people scoffed at China fencing off the web, shutting down access to sites and whatnot. Now politicians in plenty of western countries actively talk about it like a good thing.
On top of that, the big visible VPN companies are all owned by the same one or two companies, and while they boast loudly about keeping you safe, they do fuck all for privacy. You're just paying to give your data away. There's a scarce few good private VPNs, but they also don't tend to advertise much.
Well don't leave us hanging, which one's the best?
Personally I use Mullvad. They're a Swedish company and I'm located in Sweden. They had their servers taken by the authorities, who in turn were unable to recover anything of use. That's the best kind of audit you could get, and speaks volumes more than say, Apple self-proclaiming that their stuff is private with their source being "trust me bro."
That said, I don't think you should trust a random gay dude on the internet; my judgement is based on an event that happened here, I've no idea if their infrastructure looks the same everywhere. Look into how the companies operate, who they partner up with, who owns them, etc. and make that judgement for yourself.
I've been using NordVPN linux cli and I'm actually quite happy with it, good speed and server availability. Also tried Mullvad and is 5* also
Proton is my favorite (most servers to choose from)
Runner up is Mullvad and IVPN
I've been using Private Internet Access for probably 10+ yrs.
they say they don't keep logs, and I believe years back they even went to court for it.
and for a 3 yr plan it's like 3 bucks a month.
when I was living in the US yrs ago I was even using prepaid Visa cards to pay (almost) truly anonymously. one step removed and all that.
they also have the latest protocols, complete configurability on almost all devices, and split tunneling and port forwarding and the likes.
and no, I am not a spokesperson for them.. just a happy customer.
if they have since sold out, please enlighten me. but I'm now in a country with less to worry about.
They uh...they sold out. Like a while ago.
https://www.hackread.com/private-internet-access-pia-vpn-sold-israel-privacy-concerns/
Who knows, maybe Kape is trustworthy, but the fact that they have roots in advertisement and have bought out, at this stage, 4 different VPN companies... no thanks.
Mullvad or Proton are both easy recommendations