> Isn’t the best choice for the privacy conscious to set up a VPN on a machine they themselves have physical control over? perhaps I am missing something, but

> Isn’t the best choice for the privacy conscious to set up a VPN on a machine they themselves have physical control over? perhaps I am missing something, but it seems like having physical control over the machine breaks several important use cases for VPNs. if I understand correctly, the privacy that you get from a VPN comes from encrypting the traffic itself, hiding your actual IP, and mixing your traffic with other clients using the same exit point. although it is a matter of record that you are a subscriber, no intercepted traffic can actually be traced back to the IP you own (assuming your provider doesn't keep logs, of course). I don't really see how these qualities could be retained by operating your own VPN server. unless you are doing some black ops shit, your identity would have to be connected to the VPN server itself, so the fact that it masks your computers IP doesn't matter. plus you probably don't have many other people using your server, so you lose that plausible deniability. I would be quite glad to be corrected, as I certainly don't love trusting my provider when they say they don't keep logs.