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Top-level
 VPNs are a booming business, advertising everywhere, claiming that they can protect your privacy and security online. Don't believe their claims. VPNs are bad for privacy. In this explainer, we dive into why we're skeptical of VPN providers and their claims, and why you should be as well. https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/30/we-are-skeptical-of-vpn-providers-and-you-should-be-too/ 13 comments
Most people don't need a VPN, so we look at the best privacy tools that can meaningfully help protect your privacy online, and why. There's no one-size-fits-all solution, but reducing the digital trail you leave behind online as you browse the web is really important. Some of these have immediate effect! https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/30/vpn-providers-do-not-protect-your-privacy-online-here-is-what-can/ If you use the right VPNs (Mullvad, IVPN, and ProtonVPN) - it does in fact and indeed provide online privacy.  @zackwhittaker Great article. I'd like to add a few points: -Privacy-first service providers like Proton. -As of MacOS Sequoia quite a bit in networking and DNS is either broken or changed. iCloud Private Relay now overrides any DNS system setting or proxy and defaults to Cloudflare, a company many security professionals find problematic. -NextDNS has been a neat value-add for me so far. (COI: none other than Proton and NextDNS customer)  @zackwhittaker ISPs have stated their intent to sell customers' access info to "partners". Even if they are only IP addresses, those are easy to reverse-lookup. Advice: Most people should be looking for a VPN that honors the "P for private" part of the acronym. But do avoid any VPN or other service offered by parent company Kape inc.  @tasket @zackwhittaker I am unclear why the content producers releasing the "you don't need a VPN" seem to consistently downplay the use cases where they are potentially effective. Not all of those use cases are satisfied by running your own, either. @Victorsigmoid @zackwhittaker Yeah, to put it bluntly, they are rather attached to their #adtech partners.  I heart Tailscale for this. I've got a machine at home and a few in AWS and I can VPN out from anywhere I want. @zackwhittaker  @zackwhittaker The clearest way I can put this: VPNs don't remove the trust you put in your ISP, they replace it. They move that trust to themselves. Which *might* be useful, but is no panacea. |
Gregory's Server
It's true that VPNs can still be helpful in a handful of situations, like avoiding content streaming geoblocks, and remotely accessing another computer located elsewhere.
Even then, the best VPN is one that you've set up and control yourself. TechCrunch's @romaindillet has written a how-to guide on setting up your own encrypted VPN server in 15 minutes. It's really easy to get started!
https://techcrunch.com/2024/09/30/how-to-make-your-own-encrypted-vpn-server-in-15-minutes/