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> VPN This is a political problem. Technology like a VPN or alternative DNS is little more than a placebo. With the ISP as a permanent MitM, modern deep-packet
by pdkl95 10y ago
> VPN
This is a political problem. Technology like a VPN or alternative DNS is little more than a placebo. With the ISP as a permanent MitM, modern deep-packet inspection, etc, you are probably still leaking a lot of information.
Worse, you're only moving the problem to a different location. Even if you were able to hide your traffic from your local ISP, your VPN host or DNS service becomes your ISP de facto. Also, if any of your online accounts can be tied back to you on their own, you might not get a choice in the matter; the server's ISP can also sell information. What about TLS? Unfortunately far too many websites are only encrypted to CloudFlare.
However, the real reason that VPNs/etc are not a solution is that privacy shouldn't be limited to people with a technical background. Those of us that do understand the technology have a duty to help the people without that knowledge and experience.
- williamle8300 10y agoTell people to use the Opera browser. It has VPN built-in.
- icebraining 10y agoSo you trust the company involved in the WoSign debacle with your data?
- r00fus 10y agoThe question isn't about absolute trust. It's about who you trust more with your privacy. So yeah, I think I'd trust almost anyone more than my ISP now because they have an incentive to profit off my lack of privacy.
- edraferi 10y ago> Worse, you're only moving the problem to a different location I agree that's true from a technical perspective. However, the VPN provider has an economic incentive to compete on privacy. I would much rather just trust my local ISP, but at least I have a choice in VPN providers. > privacy shouldn't be limited to people with a technical background Absolutely. That's why I want this as a product that Just Works instead of my own hacked-up implementation.
- EGreg 10y agoNot just that, but being able to choose your VPN+ISP is better than being able to "choose" your ISP.
- spudlyo 10y agoExcellent point. In the US you likely only have a small number of ISPs you can choose from, but there are huge number of VPN/PaaS/HaaS providers out there that you can route your traffic through. Surely some will compete on privacy.
- galacticpony 10y ago> Those of us that do understand the technology have a duty to help the people without that knowledge and experience. No, we don't. The fact that the "common people" don't value privacy enough led to this whole situation. Those that do value privacy, can pay for it with their money (or their time to learn).
- Proof 10y agoI agree with this! I think, should people value their privacy and want to use VPNs then we can teach them about such matters but merely us trying to convince them should not be our problem.
- Rudism 10y agoI think the problem is not that most people don't value privacy, it's that most are unaware of the privacy issues that affect them, or have been misled to believe that the cost of having the websites and services that they rely on (facebook, gmail, etc.) is necessarily tied to giving up privacy.
- galacticpony 10y agoThis isn't a new problem. We "know" the common people don't care because all attempts at scandalizing this in the media, for years, have not found much resonance.
- pseudalopex 10y agoIf people didn't care about privacy, companies wouldn't be so opposed to regulations requiring them to get consent before selling personal information. Advertisers wouldn't disguise targeting to avoid creeping people out. Uber wouldn't have deleted a blog post mapping one-night stands. Republicans wouldn't have had any reason to spin this bill as being about which agency should have authority. People do more to protect their privacy when they know it's being violated, understand the impact, and believe they can do something about it.
- 10y ago