4 ms·

But then you get no privacy benefits of VPNs: pretty much all cloud providers will be to tell to law enforcement, given an IP address, who and when rented it fr

by pheug 7y ago

But then you get no privacy benefits of VPNs: pretty much all cloud providers will be to tell to law enforcement, given an IP address, who and when rented it from them. And since you're not, I suppose, reselling your traffic to other users, the liability for problematic traffic will land on you.

mirimir 7y ago
Exactly.
Youden 7y ago
You have no way of verifying that a VPN lacks that capability. If you want anonymity, use Tor.
- mirimir 7y ago
  True, you don't. And yes, Tor provides far more anonymity than any VPN service ever could. However, some Tor relays are malicious. And we have no way of verifying which ones are or aren't, except by trusting the Tor Project. It's true that there's lots more independent oversight, however. But that CMU exploit of the "relay early" bug is a red flag. Because the Tor Project didn't detect the malicious relays for at least weeks. Anyway, I use nested VPN chains to access the Tor network. So if I get pwned through a malicious entry guard, at least they'll only learn the final VPN exit address.
- pheug 7y ago
  Correct. It's even more complicated than just trusting a "no logs" policy. You have to also trust that noone with hardware access (rogue VPN company employees, datacenter people, law enforcement and intelligence services) intercepts your traffic or messes with the servers, and that the servers themselves don't get hacked due to some vulnerabilities. Recall how NordVPN recently got hacked because datacenter operator left vulnerable remote management software exposed. Tor might have its vulnerabilities as well, like all software. Not to forget that pretty much anyone can run an entry guard today and at least associate your IP with usage of Tor..
sdan 7y ago
That's why I made a random google account and am using those sweet $300 in initial credits
- pheug 7y ago
  But don't you have to provide to them a cc card "just in case"? That's pretty strong link to your identity. Also the bandwidth rates all big cloud providers are charging are just extortionate

by pheug 7y ago

mirimir 7y ago

Exactly.

Youden 7y ago

You have no way of verifying that a VPN lacks that capability. If you want anonymity, use Tor.

mirimir 7y ago
True, you don't. And yes, Tor provides far more anonymity than any VPN service ever could. However, some Tor relays are malicious. And we have no way of verifying which ones are or aren't, except by trusting the Tor Project. It's true that there's lots more independent oversight, however. But that CMU exploit of the "relay early" bug is a red flag. Because the Tor Project didn't detect the malicious relays for at least weeks. Anyway, I use nested VPN chains to access the Tor network. So if I get pwned through a malicious entry guard, at least they'll only learn the final VPN exit address.
pheug 7y ago
Correct. It's even more complicated than just trusting a "no logs" policy. You have to also trust that noone with hardware access (rogue VPN company employees, datacenter people, law enforcement and intelligence services) intercepts your traffic or messes with the servers, and that the servers themselves don't get hacked due to some vulnerabilities. Recall how NordVPN recently got hacked because datacenter operator left vulnerable remote management software exposed. Tor might have its vulnerabilities as well, like all software. Not to forget that pretty much anyone can run an entry guard today and at least associate your IP with usage of Tor..

sdan 7y ago

That's why I made a random google account and am using those sweet $300 in initial credits

pheug 7y ago
But don't you have to provide to them a cc card "just in case"? That's pretty strong link to your identity. Also the bandwidth rates all big cloud providers are charging are just extortionate