The only use I see of these VPN's are for pretending you're in a different country.
Like if you're in the UK and want to visit some spicy websites without sending them a picture of your face.
Comment on Exposing the billion dollar secret most VPN companies don't want you to know
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 5 days ago
I don’t understand the purpose of these services. I don’t use VPN to access someone else’s network. I use it to access my own. They’re doing the exact opposite of what you’d want.
Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 5 days ago
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 days ago
Or simply for hiding your IP when torrenting. Bouncing things off of your home network is fine for hiding your activity when using public WiFi… But it won’t do a goddamned thing to protect you when you’re torrenting at home. Plenty of people have ISPs and/or governments that care a lot about what they torrent, so using a VPN is a very easy way to avoid those bright red “we’re going to shut off your service if you keep torrenting. Also, we gave your IP to the authorities and you’re being sued” letters.
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 days ago
You’re in Germany. If you do something illegal like downloading a movie and the police gets your IP during it, they can request your ISP to reveal your identity.
If you use a VPN, your IP is the IP of the VPN company, and they’ll say “we have no idea which of our users did that request, they all use the same IP”.
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 5 days ago
Aren’t VPN:s subject to exactly the same laws as ISP:s? My ISP only records precisely as much as the law requires and throws it away as soon as permitted.
Azzu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 days ago
Yep but your VPN wouldn’t be in Germany obviously, but in a country with less strict laws on which information have to be kept.
tias@discuss.tchncs.de 4 days ago
To do business in the EU, surely they still must follow EU regulations even if they’re seated in another country. Just like with the cookie warnings that the entire world has had to adapt to.
real_squids@sopuli.xyz 4 days ago
It’s almost like a way to sell a proxy service to a new audience, so many people only use it for geoblocking and think it’s all there is to it, kinda sad
thermal_shock@lemmy.world 4 days ago
It’s to hide your location, access more grey areas your ISP may not like.
AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@sh.itjust.works 5 days ago
You use a vpn to (hopefully) keep some privacy. To bypass geoblocks, to not let a state spy on you, to access webpages that are blocked in your country, to screw an ISP that is throttling your connection…:
In general, there are lots of use cases for a trusted vpn that are not illegal. The problem with many vpn’s is that they offer “privacy” when they are spying on you.
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Any commercial entity will allow the state to spy users.
Using somebody else’s vpn is only useful for getting geoblocked content. If you want actual protection from the government you need it running on your own hardware and configured with a dead man’s switch.
thermal_shock@lemmy.world 4 days ago
Not true. I’ve been pirating for almost a decade from my VPN. One time it crashed and keep seeding, I got 108 notices from ISP.
Fixed the issue by binding my nic to the app, never had issues again.
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 4 days ago
I’m honestly shocked that you get the sort of individual here in Lemmy that doesn’t understand the difference between a commercial company; and DHS, DoJ, JTAC, DGSI, etc.
Please read my comment again and tell me why you think torrenting might make you an enemy of the state. God damnit it’s hard keeping lemmings on topic.
HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 days ago
Wrong.
pcmag.com/…/mullvad-vpn-hit-with-search-warrant-i…
CallMeAnAI@lemmy.world 4 days ago
And I’m sure the government hasn’t complelled them to do anything in the background.