People should take this list with a serious health warning. Firstly, a lot of this is just 'internet sleuth'ing and innuendo. Plenty of companies want to operate multiple services to be able to use different marketing and differentiation strategies. Secondly, the fact that the site is funded by affiliate links to a coupole of the big VPN services should really ring alarm bells. I trust we all learned from the Mattress review debacles? [1]
Thirdly, the companies who are funding this site through affiliate links, despite not being investigated in this article are arguably more worth of some serious suspicion. For example: NordVPN, one of their "Top VPN providers" is run by the same guy who runs a Lithuanian data harvesting company[2], but don't worry, lots of websites who make money from affiliate links to NordVPN (Sign up Now! 75% off when you use the code "SCAM" at checkout!)
Now, maybe I'm being cynical - but I suspect if NordVPN weren't lining the pockets of all these referral websites their reviews of NordVPN would involve a lot more of the faux concern they show about other VPN companies in this hit piece, rather than the credulous write-ups about how it's totally not a problem that this shifty Panamanian company has suspicious links to data harvesters.
I know someone making tens of thousands a month from shilling VPNs. They have site where they "review" and "rate" VPNs.
The reality is that the customers of those products barely understand them and are buying into the BS of "stay anonymous" and "be private online". It's an easy market, especially considering you don't even need to develop the VPN software, just run instances on some cloud/VPS provider and do a ton of marketing.
The person doing the shilling is marketing himself as a "privacy & crypto expert" and having a masters degree in cybersecurity, reality is dude barely graduated high school. He actually works for a friend of his who runs a whole variety of these sites and is about to clear $10M+ this year alone.
What I've learned from this is that if you Google for some popular product, the first 5 pages are going to be SEO-optimized shilling sites. Just skip to page 10.
I watch a bunch of tech related YouTube channels and the amount of NordVPN shilling is outrageous. Some fine folks making good content telling their audience that "your ISP is seeing everything you do but if you use a VPN you are safe, it's totally not like the VPN provider is then able to do exactly what the ISP could before!"
Even worse the VPN provider is usually operating from some country with much less regulation regarding privacy. If it were revealed that some ISP here in Germany is sniffing traffic and selling your data, shit would hit the fan, but if your trusty VPN provider from whoknowswhere does this, good luck going after them.
Yes I can confirm VPNPRO is most likely owned by NordVPN. The site itself wrote a hit piece trying to defame me (falsely claiming I work for one of there competitors). Ironically, lots of Nord shills also think I am the CEO of PIA or something. This article lines up perfectly with Nord's "MO" of casting blame around at other companies to deflect themselves from the bad PR.
Now NordVPN is trying to remove my reviews on my Youtube: https://youtu.be/gZdQx9iv_1U, and they've been caught blackmailing another VPN provider.
The site always rushes to NordVPN's defense when any bad news is going on, and there are several shills on Reddit trying to spread this article around.
The article you cited, to support your claim that NordVPN is owned by a data harvesting company, says the opposite. It says that Tesornet only provided general business consulting to Nord, and that Nord users have nothing to worry about.
It seems there are a lot of back and forth allegations about this topic on the internet. I don't know the truth. That article doesn't really demonstrate anything, though, and your tone seems unhelpful.
As a general rule of thumb, adjectives are often a crutch for weak arguments.
>"Shifty panamanian company"
But they explicitly chose to locate in Panama because it is exempt from 5 Eyes government data spying. That seems the opposite of shifty.
> "Suspicious links to data harvesters"
Have you ever used Google or Facebook? Run a service on GCP? If you run a service on GCP I could say you have "suspicious links to data harvesters." This seems like a scare tactic, lacking substance.
This is why I self host algo vpn. I seriously doubt my hosting provider would jeopardize their business by snooping on/messing with a vpn given the breach of trust would cause large customers to ditch them.
> For example: NordVPN, one of their "Top VPN providers" is run by the same guy who runs a Lithuanian data harvesting company [2]
Did you even read the article you linked? Nowhere in that article it says that NordVPN is ran by the same guy as data harvesting company. Also the same article you linked says in the end: "However, after thoroughly investigating this recent “scandal”, we still feel confident that NordVPN is still one of the safest VPNs around. It’s quite possible that its rapid growth and increasing popularity are part of the reason it’s being attacked by other VPN providers."
I am a bit confused -- are you saying that the article in your second reference is one of those "credulous write-ups" that we should be wary of or are you using it as a genuine reference?
This post is almost surely funded by affiliate commissions paid by ExpressVPN, NordVPN, and Astrill VPN, all of which are listed as "Top VPN providers" before the article even begins. Therefore, there are some serious omissions[1] in this list.
None of these are seriously privacy-centric VPNs. I was very pleased to not see any of my old favorites (AirVPN, IVPN, Mullvad and PIA).
Although it's not easy to find them on their site, I believe that the https://cure53.de/ vulnerability assessments are more interesting. Google "vpn site:cure53.de".
Yep, IVPN user here. Couldn't be happier. Have used 3 other VPNs over the years, IVPN's privacy, features, speed, and corporate policies are the best I've found.
Just a satisfied user. Its 2x what I used to pay, but IMO it's worth it. I don't think it's /always/ true "you get what you pay for", but sometimes it really is.
Glad I chose one of the better ones, their mission list, that they have a status page, that their servers are named after stars and my subjective opinion, that "AirVPN" is actually a bad name (a transparent privacy tunnel?), all pointed me towards believing there are actual nerds behind that one, and in this topic, I consider that very important...
A lot of people I know are using free VPNs to circumvent the state censorship. It has nothing to do with privacy, only with the fact that when you search for something, about 20-80% of links end with "connection timed out" (depends on what you're looking for, obviously). Most of those sites don't have any "ungood" information and are basically just collateral damage.
> Nearly as disturbing as the number of people who tell me they use free VPNs.
This is absolutely not an apples to apples comparison, but why is it outrageous to believe there couldn't be a free VPN that focuses on privacy when there are search engines like Duckduckgo and browsers like Firefox that are completely free and are pro-privacy? I haven't done the research, so consider it a rhetorical question.
Yes, a more secure and practical alternative to "VPN services" is the Tor network, which externalizes the cost of infrastructure to volunteers and thus reduces the risk inherent with centralized control. While Tor is also not without risk, I really wish more privacy oriented services and software had decentralization as a core tenet of their design.
Or those who think they can use unlimited bandwidth on 5 devices and have all of it decrypted on the other end for just $3 a month, with no string attached.
Tinfoil hats aside, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the NSA and other intelligence agencies around the world operated VPN service providers as a way to spy on users.
If the Snowden affair showed anything, it's that the tinfoil hat wearers were right all along - you'd have been ridiculed if you'd suggested just about anything from the Snowden files.
The point is not to make a choice but to be informed about how the industry is somehow tied together in interesting ways. I would also add that many of these VPN services turn your machine into a drone where you knowingly or unknowingly enter into a contract so that they can sell your bandwidth to paying customers to provide them with randomized IP pools so that they can scrape amazon and alibaba.
ExpressVPN are on a podcast advertising spree, so I thought I’d give them a look. I tried to pay using Bitcoin and got a generic “There was an error” error.
And when I say generic, I mean ‘I recognise the Semantic UI React default error block’ generic.
I used their live chat support. “Is this normal,” I asked. “No,” I was told.
I tried again a day later. Same.
I tried them on Twitter. Nothing.
So, it seems that ExpressVPN have a good marketing budget and little else. I shan’t be bothering to try again.
Podcasts/Youtubers attract the shadiest of sponsors. If an amateur content producer is pushing something its almost always a subpar product paid for by an obscene marketing budget.
(They also have no discretion-- no problems at all shilling Bang energy drinks to an audience of children...)
> So, it seems that ExpressVPN have a good marketing budget and little else.
you don't happen to work for any one of the competition do you? anyhow I have been very happy with them, their servers tend to be pretty fast. So add that positive anecdote to his negative anecdote, how useless.
My research into VPNs led me to a strange thing: VPN Gate [0]. It is community run VPN servers, by University of Tsukuba, Japan (6953 Public VPN Relay Servers) with free public access, Username: 'vpn', Password: 'vpn'. Still trying to grasp what it is :)
Private Internet Access (PIA) doesn't seem to be mentioned in the article nor HN posts.
I think that must be good then. I've been a happy PIA customer for about 5 years. They probably arn't the fastest (I get aprox 3.5mbit/sec on them) but so far none of the mud slung against them sticks.
There's a lot of shady shit in the VPN industry, so glad they are above it.
I made bad experience with NordVPN based on reliability but they gave my my money back after 3 months with no questions asked.
Astrill is good but pricey. Astill will work in countries that try to block VPNs. CON: Astrill leaks DNS like a mother...er. I can get it under controll with ufw
ufw default deny outgoing && ufw allow out on tun0 && ufw allow out on tun0 to [IP of your DNS] port 53
You may want to use Softether instead of OpenVPN or the provided client of your VPN. I am only awar of two VPNs that provide Softether access:
I use a vpn for certain traffic, but I treat it more of just one more layer of BS someone has to jump through to see what I’m doing and so maybe they’ll pick an easier someone to watch. I don’t have to run faster than the bear...
[+] [-] Traster|6 years ago|reply
Thirdly, the companies who are funding this site through affiliate links, despite not being investigated in this article are arguably more worth of some serious suspicion. For example: NordVPN, one of their "Top VPN providers" is run by the same guy who runs a Lithuanian data harvesting company[2], but don't worry, lots of websites who make money from affiliate links to NordVPN (Sign up Now! 75% off when you use the code "SCAM" at checkout!)
Now, maybe I'm being cynical - but I suspect if NordVPN weren't lining the pockets of all these referral websites their reviews of NordVPN would involve a lot more of the faux concern they show about other VPN companies in this hit piece, rather than the credulous write-ups about how it's totally not a problem that this shifty Panamanian company has suspicious links to data harvesters.
[1]:https://www.fastcompany.com/3065928/sleepopolis-casper-blogg...
[2]:https://www.vpnmentor.com/blog/is-nordvpn-operated-by-tesone...
[+] [-] emerongi|6 years ago|reply
The reality is that the customers of those products barely understand them and are buying into the BS of "stay anonymous" and "be private online". It's an easy market, especially considering you don't even need to develop the VPN software, just run instances on some cloud/VPS provider and do a ton of marketing.
The person doing the shilling is marketing himself as a "privacy & crypto expert" and having a masters degree in cybersecurity, reality is dude barely graduated high school. He actually works for a friend of his who runs a whole variety of these sites and is about to clear $10M+ this year alone.
What I've learned from this is that if you Google for some popular product, the first 5 pages are going to be SEO-optimized shilling sites. Just skip to page 10.
[+] [-] iforgotpassword|6 years ago|reply
Even worse the VPN provider is usually operating from some country with much less regulation regarding privacy. If it were revealed that some ISP here in Germany is sniffing traffic and selling your data, shit would hit the fan, but if your trusty VPN provider from whoknowswhere does this, good luck going after them.
[+] [-] Tomspark|6 years ago|reply
Now NordVPN is trying to remove my reviews on my Youtube: https://youtu.be/gZdQx9iv_1U, and they've been caught blackmailing another VPN provider.
The site always rushes to NordVPN's defense when any bad news is going on, and there are several shills on Reddit trying to spread this article around.
[+] [-] mushufasa|6 years ago|reply
It seems there are a lot of back and forth allegations about this topic on the internet. I don't know the truth. That article doesn't really demonstrate anything, though, and your tone seems unhelpful.
As a general rule of thumb, adjectives are often a crutch for weak arguments.
>"Shifty panamanian company"
But they explicitly chose to locate in Panama because it is exempt from 5 Eyes government data spying. That seems the opposite of shifty.
> "Suspicious links to data harvesters"
Have you ever used Google or Facebook? Run a service on GCP? If you run a service on GCP I could say you have "suspicious links to data harvesters." This seems like a scare tactic, lacking substance.
[+] [-] dontbenebby|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] homero|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] usaphp|6 years ago|reply
Did you even read the article you linked? Nowhere in that article it says that NordVPN is ran by the same guy as data harvesting company. Also the same article you linked says in the end: "However, after thoroughly investigating this recent “scandal”, we still feel confident that NordVPN is still one of the safest VPNs around. It’s quite possible that its rapid growth and increasing popularity are part of the reason it’s being attacked by other VPN providers."
[+] [-] petargyurov|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dmix|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] krn|6 years ago|reply
[1] https://i0.wp.com/vpnscam.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/201...
[+] [-] mirimir|6 years ago|reply
Although it's not easy to find them on their site, I believe that the https://cure53.de/ vulnerability assessments are more interesting. Google "vpn site:cure53.de".
[+] [-] dpacmittal|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thr0w__4w4y|6 years ago|reply
Just a satisfied user. Its 2x what I used to pay, but IMO it's worth it. I don't think it's /always/ true "you get what you pay for", but sometimes it really is.
[+] [-] klingonopera|6 years ago|reply
Glad I chose one of the better ones, their mission list, that they have a status page, that their servers are named after stars and my subjective opinion, that "AirVPN" is actually a bad name (a transparent privacy tunnel?), all pointed me towards believing there are actual nerds behind that one, and in this topic, I consider that very important...
[+] [-] duxup|6 years ago|reply
It is a bit mind boggling that folks are concerned about something and use a VPN...but choose a free one...
[+] [-] kspp|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tmh88j|6 years ago|reply
This is absolutely not an apples to apples comparison, but why is it outrageous to believe there couldn't be a free VPN that focuses on privacy when there are search engines like Duckduckgo and browsers like Firefox that are completely free and are pro-privacy? I haven't done the research, so consider it a rhetorical question.
[+] [-] secfirstmd|6 years ago|reply
https://www.psiphon3.com
Tor is obviously another option but I don't strictly speaking categorise that as a VPN.
[+] [-] oil25|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tootahe45|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nullabillity|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rootw0rm|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bhouston|6 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] GordonS|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] swinglock|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mtgx|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anxman|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] badrabbit|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] guaka|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nurettin|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jen729w|6 years ago|reply
And when I say generic, I mean ‘I recognise the Semantic UI React default error block’ generic.
I used their live chat support. “Is this normal,” I asked. “No,” I was told.
I tried again a day later. Same.
I tried them on Twitter. Nothing.
So, it seems that ExpressVPN have a good marketing budget and little else. I shan’t be bothering to try again.
[+] [-] jstarfish|6 years ago|reply
(They also have no discretion-- no problems at all shilling Bang energy drinks to an audience of children...)
[+] [-] ru999gol|6 years ago|reply
you don't happen to work for any one of the competition do you? anyhow I have been very happy with them, their servers tend to be pretty fast. So add that positive anecdote to his negative anecdote, how useless.
[+] [-] Renaud|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oceankid|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] auslander|6 years ago|reply
[0] https://www.vpngate.net/en/
[+] [-] novaleaf|6 years ago|reply
I think that must be good then. I've been a happy PIA customer for about 5 years. They probably arn't the fastest (I get aprox 3.5mbit/sec on them) but so far none of the mud slung against them sticks.
There's a lot of shady shit in the VPN industry, so glad they are above it.
[+] [-] _nalply|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joyjoyjoy|6 years ago|reply
https://thatoneprivacysite.net/vpn-comparison-chart/
I made bad experience with NordVPN based on reliability but they gave my my money back after 3 months with no questions asked.
Astrill is good but pricey. Astill will work in countries that try to block VPNs. CON: Astrill leaks DNS like a mother...er. I can get it under controll with ufw
ufw default deny outgoing && ufw allow out on tun0 && ufw allow out on tun0 to [IP of your DNS] port 53
You may want to use Softether instead of OpenVPN or the provided client of your VPN. I am only awar of two VPNs that provide Softether access:
https://www.rapidvpn.com/setup-vpn-softether-ubuntu
https://proxy.sh/panel/knowledgebase/1893/Securely-connect-t...
[+] [-] INTPenis|6 years ago|reply
This should say 97 VPN services instead. Just nitpicking but it did made me look twice.
This type of development is not unusual. Web hosting companies have been buying each other up since the 90s.
[+] [-] MindTooth|6 years ago|reply
[1]: https://torrentfreak.com/which-vpn-services-keep-you-anonymo...
[+] [-] spassbold23|6 years ago|reply
Projects like mysterium.network, sentinel.co, privatix.io,...
[+] [-] JustSomeNobody|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dfee|6 years ago|reply
The best I’ve been able to do was use Mozilla as a proxy (because I trust ‘em), and thus bought ProtonVPN (which admittedly has been imperfect).
[+] [-] peterwwillis|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nathan-io|6 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|6 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] kerng|6 years ago|reply