6 ms·
> All they do is let you get onto the public, untrusted, internet through a different on-ramp. There is no point to them. Not true, at all. There are several g
by autoexec 4y ago
> All they do is let you get onto the public, untrusted, internet through a different on-ramp. There is no point to them.
Not true, at all. There are several good reasons to use VPNs to get a different on-ramp to the otherwise untrusted internet.
- Avoid ISP tracking: Your ISP should see only traffic to and from the VPN.
- Access content intended for those in other regions: Many sites and services only show certain content to people who enter the internet from specific places.
- Limit the amount of activity linked by trackers: Visiting certain sites only from different IPs/browsers will help keep logs of that traffic isolated from the logs of your other browsing.
- Allows you to connect to sites and services that cannot connect back to you once you've disconnected: A lot of people, even those with dynamic IPs, keep their address for months or years at a time. VPNs provide a great way to cycle through IPs.
VPNs don't solve every problem, but they're a powerful tool to keep in your tookbox.
There are many many very valuable uses for VPNs some that offer privacy/security benefits and some that are just plain useful. It's wild to hear anyone say that "There is no point to them."
- Shared404 4y agoThank you for saving me the typing. No it's not gonna make you an invisible unhackable ghost, but at least I don't have to worry about my ISP screwing me over.
- dTal 4y agoWhy are you worried about your ISP tracking you but not the VPN company? In effect you've simply added another ISP on top.
- a1369209993 4y agoMost people can switch VPN companies more easily than they can switch ISPs.
- Shared404 4y agoThis is the case for me. I _know_ that my ISP is untrustworthy, I've read the ToS.It's also bundled with my apartment and I can't switch. What I can switch however is what VPS company I use, or what commercial VPN I connect to. Plus, the harm from being banned by a VPN is a lot lower than an ISP, as low as the chances of either are.
- raverbashing 4y agoYou just replaced ISP tracking with VPN tracking And your "VPN in YouTube ads" surely does that
- peeters 4y agoMost people who use VPNs for privacy will readily admit that their use is based on relative trust. They know that ISPs are notorious for harvesting and granting access to browsing data, and they trust that their reputable VPN provider of choice is truthful about their logging and internal data handling policies.
- jurip 4y agoThere are levels to trustworthiness. I mostly trust my ISP enough to not bother with VPN at home, but when I'm traveling I'll take my VPN provider over a hotel WiFi any day.
- dahfizz 4y ago> You just replaced ISP tracking with VPN tracking. Yeah, that's the point. People have infinitely more choices for VPN providers than for ISPs. The VPN provider could be in another country. You can even run your own VPN on hosted infra.
- raverbashing 4y ago> You can even run your own VPN on hosted infra True. But we know very few people do that
- tsimionescu 4y agoSo now you trust the infra hoster AND their own ISP.
- dahfizz 4y agoYou will always have to trust someone. Having more options when choosing who you trust is a good thing. Does that make sense to you?
- hnzix 4y agoWouldn't a VPN also prevent traffic sniffing if you're connected via a public wi-fi point?
- astrange 4y agoIt would, but that’s already generally impossible thanks to everything being on HTTPS (including DNS).
- _0w8t 4y agoHTTPS typically still have the site domain in clear due to SNI.
- agileAlligator 4y ago> HTTPS typically still have the site domain in clear due to SNI. Can you eli5 that please?
- astrange 4y agohttps://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ssl/what-is-encrypted-sni/ https://www.cloudflare.com/learning/ssl/what-is-encrypted-sn...
- _0w8t 4y agoTo support multiple sites per IP the browser has to send DNS name of the site to the web server. Moreover, since certificates that the server uses for encryption depends on the site name, the name cannot be encrypted within HTTPS. So the browser sends the name in clear when initiating the connection. This is called SNI, server-name-identification. It is possible to encrypt SNI, but most sites do not support that as the setup is non-trivial and error-prone.
- agileAlligator 4y agoHuh So HTTPS doesn't really stop tracking, it only prevents people from snooping on what data you are sending to and receiving from the website