This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Never use VPN add-ons for your browser. Unless you get them along with your paid VPN. You should run your entire network through the VPN, not just a browser.
Do you not run into issues doing this? I'm constantly having to split my VPN or disable my VPN for certain logins to work, such as banks, government sites and shit.
Most people don't need to run everything though a VPN. That just slows everything down. You would normally only use them to access resources on a private LAN such as when working from home or accessing your self hosted services when away from home.
That's a completely different VPN than what the rest the comments are talking about
Seperate browser for Clearnet /KYC
For example "mullvad-exclude trivalent"
I actually go further and have seperate VMs with different networks (VPN1, VPN2, whonix, i2p, or clearnet
That way split tunneling feature Is not needed and I can have 2 mullvad clients on lockdownmode connected at once
For some games and websites I have to turn it off yeah. Or at least switch the server to one that isn't blocked.
It's a shame that websites are allowed to track and block VPNs.
Unfortunately that means disabling my entire network VPN anytime I need to bypass a VPN block. And also makes switching between different servers significantly more complicated.
it’s FreeVPN.One
Hey, you know when people in the UK were saying that the online safety act would drive teenagers to use dodgy vpns? This is what we meant.
God that ai image the article uses is such shit
The dingy color scheme gives it away immediately. AI thinks comics should look dingy. Are all LLMs trained on comics printed on old newspaper or something?
It's similar to something we'd do on purpose in the mid 2010's, deep frying, when people made satirical MLG compilations they would throw memes in as many filters as possible, making a piss yellow slowly cover the meme the more filters you used.
pay an illustrator, ai slophorse.
good thing they got rid of adblockers to make users safer tho
Sure THIS will protect the children!
/s
First mistake: using Chrome.
Malicious extensions are also found in Firefox, and every other modern browser is Chromium.
Except for all of the WebKit ones
How the fuck else do you think a for profit company is offering free tech?
Stopped reading as soon as I saw an AI image for the article.
There are things on the internet that are free and fine to use. VPNs are not one of them. They have ongoing hosting and bandwidth costs. They are not eating those costs without recouping them somehow.
VPNs are wild to me. "Hey! Pay some company to promise not to watch you so you can pretend to be private and not have some company watching you."
better than having a company that is directly known as watching you and sending all of it to your government
some companies have built a strong reputation
Generally speaking, if you're paying for a VPN, then you should be paying for a provider that is no log. Free VPNs, you get what you pay for, which is nothing. So you don't really get any security with that.
How do we know the "no log" VPNs don't log our activity?
Also any recommendations? I can't find one that says they don't log and refuse to cooperate with 14eyes.
I'd say a police raid to the offices of Mullvad with the police returning empty handed is a pretty good guarantee
ProtonVPN is no log and so is Mullvad I think. Basically it's mostly reputation, some also pay for outside audits of their systems so they can more effectively boast.
No log vpns probably do cooperate with authorities, but the fact that they are no log means they don't provide anything. They get a warrant for logs and identification, they comply and send a letter "we have no logs, or way to trace the identity of a user".
Best you got is recurring audits
Many VPN companies post audits, and build up reputations. Not that I'd recommend it specificlly (since I only use it for a lifetime subscription I bought in a sale), but FastestVPN advertises the former.
...I guess it depends what you're doing, too. If you're, like, a government whistleblower, you might want to look into Mullad layered with something else instead of a more traditional commercial provider.
I've watched this go down long enough in enough industries to know better than to believe their claim of not logging.
You're being watched. Hell, your data's probably being handed over to cops without your knowledge.
What about Firefox? Looks like it exists for more than just chrome. I know because I literally used it this week for the first time ever due to being on vacation in a state that wants my photo to view porn... I couldn't believe this shit actually exists now.
People won't plug their phone into a USB socket in an airport lounge, but they will install software that sends 100% of their web traffic to a third party and has unfettered device permissions.
But you have to understand that it's still preferable to a wanking license.
So Microsoft Recall but by a third party?
There's no such thing as free vpn. Any idiot who falls for this quite frankly deserves it.
use either Mullvad (yes, I know, the GUI sucks) or set up your own VPN.
the mullvad cli is very quick and easy. it's a lot faster than what it was. OR set up your own wireguard VPN on your server, again very easy to set up.
What about proton?
Those two are for pretty different use cases, no? First is for general internet access - for semi-anonymity or to skip Geo blocks. Second is when you want to access specific services you host yourself.
Not unexpected
You can't trust extensions these days. Granted if you are using a "free" vpn, you are the product.
I guess the P in VPN stands for "Public."
