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Looking for a good alternative to ProtonVPN (feddit.online)
submitted 1 week ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.world
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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 7 hours ago (1 child)

Yeah, but it doesn't say anything if I used a Google IP. I could be doing anything. Am I searching for something? Talking to AI? Remember that the VPS doesn't see any address or data, only IP.

Furthermore, some sites work better with WARP than my IP address so some of the connections are outgoing to engage.cloudflareclient.com:2408 (warp will see my VPS address so it doesn't give CF any more info than going to a CF-hosted site)

If I really cared about the privacy of the IPs of the sites, I could route everything through WARP. Then the VPS really doesn't know anything and CF only knows some VPS requested the data.

I often change the Oracle VPS IP with a shell script. It's pointing to a subdomain, so the only way to get the address of the subdomain is to get the cert. I can configure nginx to block all requests without SNI so I don't serve the cert to people snooping.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago

    Remember that the VPS doesn't see any address or data, only IP.

    this is just DoH + HTTPS. You can use DoH and HTTPS with proxy or VPN, and your ISP would only see IP and not domain names or data.

    Furthermore, some sites work better with WARP

    Not relevant to this discussion, which has been about privacy from the beginning

    If I really cared about the privacy of the IPs of the sites, I could route everything through WARP

    WARP is just cloudflare's VPN. So, just like any other VPN, you would have to trust Cloudflare. Note that all your traffic to WARP would be tied to your Cloudflare account. Doesn't matter if you use a VPS as the first hop.

    I often change the Oracle VPS IP with a shell script.

    The issue from the beginning is that Oracle could simply be selling your data, which includes every VPS IP change. Oracle is not a privacy business, and really shouldn't be trusted

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