The truth about VPNs? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 2 years ago by jordank1977@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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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.

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[-] CausticFlames@sopuli.xyz 0 points 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.

[-] HelixDab@kbin.social 0 points 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.

[-] jeff@federated.fun 1 points 2 years ago

@HelixDab @jordank1977 @CausticFlames you should look into lokinet. i initially made it for the sole purpose of torrenting linux isos and linux iso accessories. it can do internal bitorrent just fine if your client follows the bittorrent spec religiously.