Re: [gentoo-user] About to have fiber internet and need VPN info

[Adam Carter]

>
> And you'll need to always keep in mind that a VPN is a low-level
> protection. It's enough for protecting yourself against spammers, script
> kiddies or
> similar but it can't keep you private in the face of any high-level
> threats. Don't place too much trust in VPNs.
>

I'm not an expert, but AFAIK VPNs don't offer any particular benefit with
regards to spam or script kiddies.

A VPN will;
- Hide your internet activity from your ISP
- Make your internet activity available to your VPN provider
- Make your internet activity available to your VPN provider's ISP

Without a VPN, your ISP could sell the details used to sign up for the
account (eg. name, phone number, email address) along with your internet
activity. With a VPN, the VPN provider could sell similar information,
however, there is typically an explicit claim that they won't do this,
whereas your ISP has probably buried information on what they do with your
information and metadata in Terms and Conditions documents. Your VPN
provider's ISP will be able to monitor your internet activity but it will
be mixed with the activity of the VPN provider's other customers, and they
won't have any of your sign up information.

I've heard some VPNs let you pay pseudo anonymously with crypto currency
(albeit with a cryptographically verifiable public ledger!), to prevent
direct matching of internet activity to an identity.