Came across this controversial link where someone says that a VPS would be more secure than a VPN provider. From my understanding:
-Wouldn’t the VPS provider just see everything instead of a VPN provider? -Wouldn’t fingerprinting be straightforward, even if you use a hardened browser, since you have a single IP traceable directly to only one user?
ytcombinator doesn’t seem to take it seriously but I’m curious to hear what you all think about it.
The VPN service fad is full of a LOT of great marketing campaigns, but it really isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. VPNs are incredibly useful for certain use cases, but for individual privacy and security it’s very ‘meh’.
There are a lot of methods for tracking locations other than your public IP, and so long as you’re using personally identifiable accounts it doesn’t really matter if your IP lists you in Panama. Unless you’re using the VPN to bypass firewall restrictions on your local network, access remote resources, or establish a site-to-site connection between locations, the only thing that’s really accomplished is shifting the burden of trust from the ISP to the VPN provider.
My advice, spend the money on ice cream instead. If you need to lookup something anonymously, use vanilla Tor and don’t sign into any accounts that could be traced back to you while on the Tor network.
**edit: spelling
I just don’t want to be tracked and profiled, especially for ads. I only sign into accounts with personal information for absolute necessities and browse websites without accounts. Plus my ISP openly tracks and sells history to third parties. It’s not viable for me to use tor for daily usage.
Yeah, this trust shift argument doesn’t work the way people think it does. A VPN does just shift trust from your ISP… and your ISP is known to sell your data. And you’re paying the VPN provider not to do that. And most of them are audited. And they’ll stop making money if people find out they’re selling the data.