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1) people believing long-outdated guidance about not using open WiFi networks without a VPN 2) protecting your browsing traffic from being observed by your ISP
by tgsovlerkhgsel 6y ago
1) people believing long-outdated guidance about not using open WiFi networks without a VPN
2) protecting your browsing traffic from being observed by your ISP (where you may not have much choice), at the risk of it being observed by the VPN company (which you trust).
3) Torrenting without having to worry about fines, nastygrams and other annoyances
4) Bypassing geoblocking
1 + 2 is what the VPNs advertise, but I think 3 + 4 are what people actually use them for.
- lliamander 6y agoWait,, what's wrong about 1?
- cube2222 6y agoAlmost everything is over https now, and with it, the wifi network security doesn't matter much.
- Aldipower 6y agoWifi isn't only browsing the web..
- kevindong 6y agoBut web browsing is the vast majority of network usage now. The only big exception I can think of that don't go through standard HTTP/HTTPS rails is email. And even then desktop email clients are pretty rare now and they're pretty universally encrypted now.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 6y agoNo, but HTTPS isn't only browsing the web either. Very little that the average person will do on the go doesn't use TLS (or other effective encryption) in some form.
- LiberatedLlama 6y ago> 1) Open wifi networks still exist. When last I was at my public library (a year ago... covid) they still had an open wifi network for public use. I think for them it's a matter of principle, since it means nobody has to ask permission to use it.
- rafram 6y agoBut HTTPS has become (nearly) universal. There's little risk of someone on your network snooping on your traffic, because it's just not possible anymore.
- lr4444lr 6y agoWhat's wrong about (1)? Https or not, there are still MitM attacks, and the URLs you are accessing are still trackable. As to why I'd trust my VPN more than my ISP, who's CEO has got more to lose once word gets out that his company cooperated with authorities to turn over my logs?
- jonahhorowitz 6y agoThis is maybe a nit-pick, but https prevents tracking of URLs - they can still see what hosts you're connecting to, but they don't get the full URL string.
- tgsovlerkhgsel 6y agoMore or less everything your computer does online is protected through HTTPS or similar protocols, with proper certificate checking to protect against MitM attacks. By now, enough time has passed to get most incompetent vendors who had auto updaters doing insufficient checking to fix their software. As someone else pointed out, URLs are not trackable, host names are, but the advice often comes in the form of "don't do sensitive stuff like online banking from untrusted networks". Since especially this has had HTTPS for 10+ years now, this advice is far outdated.
- swader999 6y agoAll your clicks getting tracked and sold and resold to the point anyone can know more about you than your wife does.
- reificator 6y ago> 4) Bypassing geoblocking > 1 + 2 is what the VPNs advertise, but I think 3 + 4 are what people actually use them for. I don't know, I've seen two different "household" gaming Youtube channels advertise VPNs with a focus on geoblocking. I was kind of shocked at how brazen it was.
- tw04 6y ago>1) people believing long-outdated guidance about not using open WiFi networks without a VPN Long-outdated? It's more important today than it was 10 years ago. That public wifi you're on is tracking your every move and correlating your devices back to you if you happened to purchase anything in the store with a credit card.
- laurent92 6y agoWhat every move? Wifi APs can only see the domain names/IP, everything else is under HTTPS.