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'There is no universe in which Proton VPN compromises its no-logs policy' — Proton joins the backlash against Canada's surveillance bill (www.techradar.com)
submitted 5 months ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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[–] 17 points 5 months ago (8 children)

I worked for a VPN company a decade ago that advertised no logging. It was all BS. They absolutely logged. Maybe they only kept the logs for something like 48 hours, but I'm pretty sure all VPNs have some kind of logging going on. Anyway, a VPN by itself does not give you any privacy. Websites have a billion ways to fingerprint you, and they don't even need cookies to do it.

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  • [–] 18 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    privacy implies vpn (or some mix-net), but not the opposite... so if you want privacy, you need a vpn, but a vpn by itself doesn't give you privacy

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  • [–] 7 points 5 months ago (1 child)

    It's a small step out of many. And there's enough steps now that an average person is pretty much never going to have it, unfortunately. But there is more and less exposed. There's untraceable, and there's traceable with more effort than anyone will likely bother. Considering countries like russia have tried and failed to block VPNs, they're certainly worth something.

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  • [–] 12 points 5 months ago

    I'd argue that VPNs remain one of the highest return-on-investment (time and money) steps towards online security, as many gaps as they do have in the big picture.

    It's not going to make you untraceable. But it'll make you difficult enough to trace that nobody's gonna put forth the effort to target you specifically unless you've attracted like, nation-state attention. (Targeting you as a member of some demographic a la advertisers, yeah not much effect).

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago

    VPNs are to protect you against your ISP, that is about it. I guess sailing the high seas also since fingerprinting doesn't apply as much. Also getting around authoritarian government blocks.

    It is a small piece of the puzzle.

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  • [–] 3 points 5 months ago (3 children)

    Pretty sure even a VPN does nothing if you're on a cellphone as well isn't it?

    Like all cellphones carry a unique identifier, that's how, say, reddit can keep you banned even if you start a new account under new email and a vpn.

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  • [–] 6 points 5 months ago (2 children)

    I don't think Reddit would have that. They likely just use your browser fingerprint. Check this out: https://amiunique.org/fingerprint

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  • [–] 1 point 5 months ago

    Well I'm not sure how else they keep you banned. I was fine on my desktop under a new account and email but even with a VPN and fresh accounts it banned me, sometimes within seconds on my cell phone. Got a new phone like a year later and could get an account (obv)

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