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So what's the alternative? Trust my ISP not to do the same? No thanks, I'll take my chances that my well-regarded and relatively cheap VPN service has both less

So what's the alternative? Trust my ISP not to do the same? No thanks, I'll take my chances that my well-regarded and relatively cheap VPN service has both less resources to handle massive data storage for as long term, and is no less incentivized to turn huge profits or protect themselves by spilling everything to the government, even if both would under extreme duress. For what I pay, the VPN is a worthwhile little extra protection, not to mention the extra portable security when I have no choice but to use public wifi.

yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago
If you're reading HN, one alternative is spin up your own VPN on AWS/Gcloud/DigitalOcean/etc. It's not hard, and there are some scripts / ansible playbooks to automate the process.
- lr4444lr 9y ago
  Yes, but with all due respect, this misses the point: If my concern is privacy, consider the business incentives to each party for divulging info about me to a government agency or marketer. The cloud services you describe receive revenue from thousands of different companies with various business needs and concerns. Little ol' me won't be a blip on the radar revenue-wise, even if it's a big news story in the internet privacy world. For the VPN on the other hand, a sizable - maybe the lion's share - of their customer base has the same priority as me. If it gets out in public that the VPN caved either to pressures of the state or corporate greed on my data, they'd just as easily do so to anyone else, and customers would flee en masse.
- cm2187 9y ago
  The movie studio will send a DMCA to AWS who will pass it on to you, then what? Helps with ISP snooping yes, though I expect it to be more expensive (VM and bandwidth in clouds isn’t cheap).
  - hyperpower 9y ago
    What do you consider expensive? You can easily get a VM with 1TB bandwidth for $5 a month.
    - cm2187 9y ago
      I had AWS and Azure in mind.
- antihero 9y ago
  Is there a good guide/link to these scripts/Docker container/whatever that allows people to set up OpenVPN with a secure non-leaky configuration that reliably forwards all their traffic?

yjftsjthsd-h 9y ago

If you're reading HN, one alternative is spin up your own VPN on AWS/Gcloud/DigitalOcean/etc. It's not hard, and there are some scripts / ansible playbooks to automate the process.

lr4444lr 9y ago
Yes, but with all due respect, this misses the point: If my concern is privacy, consider the business incentives to each party for divulging info about me to a government agency or marketer. The cloud services you describe receive revenue from thousands of different companies with various business needs and concerns. Little ol' me won't be a blip on the radar revenue-wise, even if it's a big news story in the internet privacy world. For the VPN on the other hand, a sizable - maybe the lion's share - of their customer base has the same priority as me. If it gets out in public that the VPN caved either to pressures of the state or corporate greed on my data, they'd just as easily do so to anyone else, and customers would flee en masse.
cm2187 9y ago
The movie studio will send a DMCA to AWS who will pass it on to you, then what? Helps with ISP snooping yes, though I expect it to be more expensive (VM and bandwidth in clouds isn’t cheap).
- hyperpower 9y ago
  What do you consider expensive? You can easily get a VM with 1TB bandwidth for $5 a month.
  - cm2187 9y ago
    I had AWS and Azure in mind.
antihero 9y ago
Is there a good guide/link to these scripts/Docker container/whatever that allows people to set up OpenVPN with a secure non-leaky configuration that reliably forwards all their traffic?