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I can't imagine how a free VPN could be worse than an actual government-sponsored man-in-the-middle attack, particularly since VPNs don't force you to install t

I can't imagine how a free VPN could be worse than an actual government-sponsored man-in-the-middle attack, particularly since VPNs don't force you to install their own CA certificate (and therefore can't intercept HTTPS connections).

ignoramous 7y ago
Agree, but: Most free VPNs are run by state-owned actors, may also in fact be honey-pots, which are now dripping with meta-data for literally everything you do on the Internet. Whilst that is not strictly worse than MiTMd HTTPS, it is still a step in the wrong direction.
- stevenhubertron 7y ago
  Not saying you are wrong, but I would love a source for this statement.
  - ignoramous 7y ago
    I guess you mean source for state-owned VPNs? My other comment has this ref: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18525041 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18525041 And Lantern, a P2P VPN popular with the Chinese is backed by CIA (so is Tor): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20373425 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20373425
    - adventured 7y ago
      > Most free VPNs are run by state-owned actors That's a dramatic statement however and you didn't support it at all with your links. Can you back up the claim that most free VPNs are state-owned? That is what the reply was likely asking for.
      - barneygale 7y ago
        https://www.top10vpn.com/free-vpn-app-investigation/ https://www.top10vpn.com/free-vpn-app-investigation/
    - ironlenny 7y ago
      I'm not quite sure what you're insinuating about Tor. Tor is an opensource project govern by a non-profit. If you're worried about things like backdoors, that's why it was opensourced in the first place. I'm not sure how you're connecting the CIA with Tor. I wouldn't be surprised if the CIA uses Tor. I know the State Department does.
      - mankeysee 7y ago
        Tor is open source but nobody knows who runs the nodes
        ironlenny 7y ago
        It's a distributed anonymous network. It wouldn't be very useful if we knew who was running the nodes.
        mankeysee 7y ago
        Of course. I am saying mentioning its open source says nothing about whether some of the nodes are CIA operated, etc
        ironlenny 7y ago
        You're saying nothing. You're just begging the question. If you actually have something to say why don't you say it. Edit: Bad people run Tor nodes. That's accounted for in it's design. If that's you're only criticism; go home.

ignoramous 7y ago

Agree, but: Most free VPNs are run by state-owned actors, may also in fact be honey-pots, which are now dripping with meta-data for literally everything you do on the Internet. Whilst that is not strictly worse than MiTMd HTTPS, it is still a step in the wrong direction.

stevenhubertron 7y ago
Not saying you are wrong, but I would love a source for this statement.
- ignoramous 7y ago
  I guess you mean source for state-owned VPNs? My other comment has this ref: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18525041 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18525041 And Lantern, a P2P VPN popular with the Chinese is backed by CIA (so is Tor): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20373425 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20373425
  - adventured 7y ago
    > Most free VPNs are run by state-owned actors That's a dramatic statement however and you didn't support it at all with your links. Can you back up the claim that most free VPNs are state-owned? That is what the reply was likely asking for.
    - barneygale 7y ago
      https://www.top10vpn.com/free-vpn-app-investigation/ https://www.top10vpn.com/free-vpn-app-investigation/
  - ironlenny 7y ago
    I'm not quite sure what you're insinuating about Tor. Tor is an opensource project govern by a non-profit. If you're worried about things like backdoors, that's why it was opensourced in the first place. I'm not sure how you're connecting the CIA with Tor. I wouldn't be surprised if the CIA uses Tor. I know the State Department does.
    - mankeysee 7y ago
      Tor is open source but nobody knows who runs the nodes
      - ironlenny 7y ago
        It's a distributed anonymous network. It wouldn't be very useful if we knew who was running the nodes.
        mankeysee 7y ago
        Of course. I am saying mentioning its open source says nothing about whether some of the nodes are CIA operated, etc
        ironlenny 7y ago
        You're saying nothing. You're just begging the question. If you actually have something to say why don't you say it. Edit: Bad people run Tor nodes. That's accounted for in it's design. If that's you're only criticism; go home.