this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2024
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Privacy
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A VPN is something that, was created to let you remotelly access another network.
Say for example that you want to connect to your LAN from a coffee shop. That's why they were created in the first place.
Now, they were popularized as something else.
The benefits of the nowadays VPNs are mainly privacy and piracy related.
The reasons most people use a VPN are essentially:
Hide your traffic from your ISP. (By doing so, you are allowing your VPN provider to see everything you do while connected. Just like your ISP would, if you weren't)
Hide your real IP behing one of your VPN's server. (Usefull for torrenting and keeping anonymity)
Bypass geolocation restrictions. (e.g Watching U.S Netflix from Europe)
Do note that, if ypu are going to route your traffic through a VPN, you are giving your provider access to your online activities.
Choose your provider wisely!
Choose a VPN with a strict no logs policy, RAM only servers and strong privacy policies. (Open Source if you can).
Reputable names in the VPN world are Mullvad and Proton VPN.
Avoid the traps of budget VPN or highly advertised ones!
Piracy is actually not the reason to use a VPN, pirates use a VPN to be anonyme and not to pirate content.
Similar as you would not say a hammer is a tool that can be used to hit something and not a hammer is used by construction wormers and burglars.
Agree to disagree.
It is a main reason to use a VPN, that's for sure.
It is not the only one, but any pirate in countries like Germany that does not use a VPN is cooked.
But other solutions work also. And all of those provide anonymity and are not a VPN. For example I2P, TOR and Seedboxes in other countries may even be paid anonymously.
Pirates use anonymity in order to avoid being detected, and those tools provide anonymity.