If so, can you explain the value aside from changing location for streaming?

  • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    6 days ago

    Just my use cases:

    • Piracy
    • I don’t need my ISP knowing everything I do regardless of legality.
    • I don’t need dickhead network admins knowing everything I do on their network, regardless of legality.
    • I don’t need every website knowing my identity regardless of legality.
    • newpipe always takin’ 'bout some goddamn “sign in to confirm u no bot” and hell no I’m just gonna reroll my location and oh look that worked.
  • NastyNative@mander.xyz
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    6 days ago

    Everything you do in the internet is being shared with data brokers who then sell your info and you dont get a cut!

    • calcopiritus@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      6 days ago

      Yes, privacy should be the default. However, there is a limit for what is practical.

      A VPN adds latency to your connection. It adds an additional failure point. If you don’t need it, why use it? Most people don’t need privacy at that level.

      Additionally VPNs are not free.

      For the ones that claim to be free, you have to remember that if you’re not paying, you are the product.

      What privacy do VPNs provide to the average user when not doing anything illegal? Absolutely zero. You might claim “but VPNs hide my traffic from my ISP!” And it is true, but in doing so you expose it to the VPN provider. In the end, unless you operate your own network, you will have to tell someone where you are going. Using a VPN is just kicking the can.

      Of course if your ISP is known for doing shady stuff and there is a VPN that you fully trust, it may be worth it.

      But I swear the VPN industry has wiped people’s minds with millions of ads so they’re not thinking anymore.

  • Apytele@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 days ago

    Who do you trust more, the neighbor who closes their blinds or the neighbor running around house to house trying to look in everyone’s windows?

  • shaggyb@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    13
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    7 days ago

    It’s completely legal for me to watch 70s pornography while drinking hard liquor and painting pentagrams on my walls and sacrificing small animals to Baal.

    I’m not going to videotape it and show my grandmother.

  • BranBucket@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    7
    ·
    7 days ago

    Some things should be private. Some things should be secret. Not because there’s anything wrong with them, but simply because they’re yours and you want to keep them that way.

  • JojoWakaki@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    6 days ago

    I am all up for privacy and I have tried to follow a lot of procedures for it but I have never used VPN (except TOR, which technically is not a VPN).

    I actually appreciate the concept of VPN but I think how it is marketed is a bit over exaggeration. VPN is useful when you want to do something securely without the fear of being tracked, access things that are blocked by a tyrannical government, or if you want to watch shows in your region that is not available without VPN (one of the advertisement that VPN providers use). However, I do raise one of my eyebrow a bit on the scale of advertisement VPN put up. E.g. you cannot have not heard about Nord and Surfshark vpn (owned by the same company). I don’t want to complain about their service as they seem to be one of the best ones out there, and customers seem to be satisfied. But I am perplexed how aggressive their advertisement is. Also they make dubious claims in their ads that ASA (UK) had to step in. They also had their servers breached and exposes some private keys as well as some usernaems and passwords.

    The same way I am perplexed about the level of advertisement of OperaGx “the gaming browser” and Honey.

    I do trust ‘free vpn’ less that vpns.

    • Daefsdeda@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      6 days ago

      From what Ive heard, vpn’s are just incredibly profitable. But yeah, anything advertised that aggressively is an immediate red flag for me.

  • Bazoogle@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    6 days ago

    Would you be fine with a corporation/government putting a camera in everyones house? It’s fine, since you’re not doing anything illegal, so there is really no problem. And think of how many crimes could be stopped. VPN is more about privacy than getting away with anything illegal. ISP’s collect all users browsing data and sells it off to the highest bidder. They sit between you and the services you want, so they see it all. With a VPN they know how much traffic there is, but they just know it is going through a VPN and nothing more

  • imetators@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    6 days ago

    It is not about illegal. It is more of “under the radar”.

    • Say, you want to watch a video on youtube but it is geolocked? Start your VPN and BAM! It is not locked anymore.

    • Want to tip your toes in selfhosting and Arr stack but government is grabbing torrent users by the balls? VPN will cover your back.

    • Do not like your ISP to log your traffic to sell to marketers? Make them lose their minds not knowing what you do by routing traffic through VPN.

    • Hate ads on Youtube? Change to Mongolia and you wont have ads on youtube anymore (uBO is actually better for that).

    • Government wants your ID to visit adult content sites? VPN is on the case!

    Also, as a side effect you are less likely to get hacked if you use VPN since all your activity comes from an IP address that is not associated with your device.

  • jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    7 days ago

    Back in the days before cell phones, when landlines were ubiquitous, people in more rural areas had what they called “party lines.” It was a single telephone line shared between multiple houses. You knew which house an incoming call was for based on the ring pattern. Your neighbors could also pick up the receiver, very quietly, and listen in on your phone calls if they wanted too.

    Party lines are long gone but Internet communications have their own ways of being “listened in on.” A lot of traffic transmitted over the Internet is encrypted; with TLS for instance. But, some of it isn’t. If you use traditional DNS – UDP over port 53 – everyone in between you and the DNS server can see which websites you’re visiting.

    I’m not concerned about my privacy because I have something to hide. I’m concerned about it because my personal business is my business. Not anyone else’s.

  • timestatic@feddit.org
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    6 days ago

    Might be useful for self-hosting when you’re away from home and don’t want to open your ports up to public internet traffic. Also whistle blowing is kind of in public interest. And circumventing regional censorship. Depending on the country the latter two might not be fully legal but it’s best if it stays this way. Hiding yourself from prying eyes of ISPS google and so on is also fully legal and important as you can be geolocated often to a few hundred meters without it.

  • Tomas@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    6 days ago

    I would recommend using it only in the programs that actually need it, but it will be useless, for example, for banks, stores like Amazon, and so on, if you’ve already given them all your location information. A VPN is useful for browsing the internet, messaging with family, exchanging crypto, and on social networks where you don’t share personal information. For now, we can create a separate identity while we still have the opportunity