4 ms·

when considering different VPN services based on privacy criteria, this site is helpful: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-comparison-chart/ https://thatonepr

when considering different VPN services based on privacy criteria, this site is helpful: https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-comparison-chart/ https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-comparison-chart/ for example, i can see the ProtonVPN is hosted in Switzerland, and that Switzerland cooperates with Five-Eyes countries (according to Privacy International) by sharing intelligence information regarding citizens of Five-Eyes countries (including the US). this is a relatively mild concern, compared to VPNs hosted in one of the Fourteen-Eyes countries. i can also see they use AES-256 for all data encryption. good. however, their terms of service and marketing material contain conflicting language regarding what information is logged, and details are not provided about how long logs are kept and whether these logs are personally identifiable. (running a truly "no logs" VPN service isn't really possible.) at the network level, they appear to follow open standards and everything is implemented in a predictable manner. bandwidth looks good, but speeds and pricing are sub-par. i've used ProtonVPN. i appreciate that they expose the details necessary to configure VPN using the built-in OS-level or router-level configuration screens, rather than requiring that you use their custom app. ultimately, the low speed (compared to similarly-priced VPN services) is what turned me away. it is neither the most privacy-conscious, nor most capable, nor highest value solution in the VPN market and i'm surprised to see this offering come through Mozilla. it's a weird endorsement.

brokensegue 8y ago
the proton team has an office in SF negating the advantages of being overseas
notamerican 8y ago
That being said, you don't need to provide your real identity to sign up; in fact, you're encouraged not to. So, it's a lot harder to identify a particular user. Switzerland has _extremely_ good banking privacy laws so they can't be required to disclose credit card details, so that's an identifying link not available to Five-Eyes. Plus, you can pay in BTC. I'm not sure about what's required for a company in Switzerland to be compelled to share information with Five-Eyes but I expect they would have to be ordered to by the Federal government; a hard feat given how privacy friendly they are, and how the Cantonal government of Geneva have additional privacy laws.

brokensegue 8y ago

the proton team has an office in SF negating the advantages of being overseas

notamerican 8y ago

That being said, you don't need to provide your real identity to sign up; in fact, you're encouraged not to. So, it's a lot harder to identify a particular user. Switzerland has _extremely_ good banking privacy laws so they can't be required to disclose credit card details, so that's an identifying link not available to Five-Eyes. Plus, you can pay in BTC. I'm not sure about what's required for a company in Switzerland to be compelled to share information with Five-Eyes but I expect they would have to be ordered to by the Federal government; a hard feat given how privacy friendly they are, and how the Cantonal government of Geneva have additional privacy laws.