privacy

My mullvad expires in 15 hours. Convince me that I need a VPN. I'm constantly having to prove I'm not a bot and I get blocked from a lot of sites...

https://warpcast.com/silentjohn.eth/0x53a529a0

I haven't used a VPN really since this post. What is the benefit of a VPN in 2025 when you take fingerprinting and social media use into consideration?  I feel like even with a VPN (and the inconveniences), it doesn't offer much privacy

I haven't used a VPN really since this post. What is the benefit of a VPN in 2025 when you take fingerprinting and social media use into consideration?  I feel like even with a VPN (and the inconveniences), it doesn't offer much privacy

https://warpcast.com/silentjohn/0xcde69f97

Apple blocks cross-app tracking (unless you opt out), and cycles IP addresses (you have to opt in). VPN on top of that is still encrypting your data from your ISP to some extent but without tracker blocking and fingerprint blocking you are limited. I use brave as my default which has both on, but safari supports those as well. 

I agree though it feels pretty futile. If I were heading to a protest or doing real journalism, I wouldn’t carry this phone on me that’s for sure.

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I definitely trust the VPNs more than ISPs. But you need to be careful which one you choose. Mullvad is considered the most trustworthy. But Proton is good too. They had one scandal but it didn’t involve decryption or data deanonymization. The user had used their specific proton email for something and interpol subpoenaed Proton to know who owned that account. I think they’re working on ways around needing to comply with that kind of thing even but either way that’s unrelated to VPNs

Regarding encryption, aren't you just trading ISP risk vs VPN risk? I guess the question becomes, who do you trust more? I guess I do trust something like Mullvad more than my ISP, since their entire business is privacy