In the wake of the Proton controversy, I've been looking towards alternatives towards their services. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find a good alternative to ProtonVPN. I'm looking for the following in a VPN service:

  • Port forwarding support
  • Open source
  • Android app and Firefox extension available
  • Relatively cheap, around $3-4 month (okay with annual pricing)

The only options I found were Private Internet Access and Windscribe, but I found issues with them. If I'm cutting ties with Proton based on ideals I disagree with, I should be rejecting alternatives on the same basis.

Based on what I saw in the PIA subreddit, Private Internet Access seems to have some issues with service reliability and concerns about its ownership having ties to Israel, implying Zionist affiliation. Windscribe seems to have better service, but they have had a questionable social media history: edgy marketing including an AI-generated Hitler and a controversy where, according to them, they joked about a guy being mentally ill but their post easily looked like they were saying trans people are mentally ill.

Is there an option I missed? Should I try one of these options despite their faults? I'd like to know your thoughts.

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[–] 1 point 3 hours ago (2 children)

Yes, that's my idea, in this case surf and CF need to collude.

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  • [–] 1 point 3 hours ago (1 child)

    So it's the same thing then. You now have to trust that SURF is not selling data to Google. I've never heard of SURF before, they haven't built a reputation in the privacy community, what reason is there to trust them.

    And since you're using Oracle as a VPN for your web traffic, Oracle still knows all the websites you're visiting. Oracle may not see your DNS requests, but they still see the IP addresses that your web traffic is going to. It isn't hard to do WHOIS or reverse DNS lookup to figure out what websites those are.

    To be honest it sounds like you aren't that clear on how these technologies work and how they compare to VPNs and Tor. It definitely sounds like you haven't actually set up ODoH before, and yet you are recommending it. Maybe refrain from giving advice to others until you have more experience.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago

    Oracle doesn't know what website I'm visiting. They know the IP

    Let's say you see that I connected to the IP 168.107.12.213

    What does that tell you? I honestly couldn't find much other than it's in Korea. Can't even find the address of the website that's using it. What can you tell me about this IP?

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