VPNs for online privacy and other uses?

[Bleaney]

It seems that out internet providers are free to sell our data (or internet history) to whoever wants to buy it. That could be the government and related agencies, it could be advertisers wanting to sell us things.

Simply switching your main home page or internet search engine from Google to DuckGoGo can make a difference, as Duck's privacy practices are a lot better than Google's.

Furthermore, depending on which You Tube videos you watch, many say that a good Virtual Private Network will protect you from some of the widespread data mining that goes on. Maybe the jury is still out on this as there are plenty of other videos saying VPNs don't help, (I've not watched many of these anti VPN videos as the conspiracy theorist in me thinks that some of these people saying this could have been paid off to make those videos)

I started a free trial of a VPN a couple of months ago, and found it totally worth using simply for the pleasure of being able to watch You Tube with no adverts alone. I can now just hook my computer up to my TV, stick something interesting on YouTube and be able to sit back and relax in comfort, without having to wait for long ads for the video to even start, and after that have to move every 90 seconds to click an advert away. That is bloody annoying every 90 seconds when you've just got comfortable. (My cordless mouse doesn't work too great just a few feet away from my pc so I have to move slightly nearer for it to work.) Or if you're listening to You Tube whilst wanting to do other things like washing the dishes - it's not really feasible with all those adverts.

The VPN also allows me to use torrent sites again. Which I couldn't do for a few years after they all started getting blocked, apart from an excellent torrent site for audiobooks, which weirdly has never been blocked by my ISPs. Maybe it's flying under the radar.

I've also switched to using a more private email provider for certain things.

These are all small things we can do when using the clearnet.

I've forked out for an annual subscription of a VPN, it wasn't much money, and it seems worth it to me. Works out cheaper than YouTube's Premium membership, which you pay them to watch with no adverts.

But is there anyone here that has good knowledge about this stuff? Do good VPNs help with individuals privacy or not? (I gather that some VPNs are better than others, they are not all the same. Some can help, some may mine and sell your data even more than not having a VPN at all?)

 

[Forever Changes]

For adverts on youtube I just have adblockplus in my browser which stops all ads - it's brilliant and free, except I'm not sure if it works if you watch youtube on TV or tablets. Adblockplus also blocks ads on other sites, although some sites detect that you are using an adblocker and make you turn it off before you can browse the site.

For torrenting I used to use piratebay with µ-torrent, but that doesn't seem to work any more - I think piratebay got taken down too many times and they kept changing the domain name. Which torrent sites do you use?

I haven't used a VPN but it's something I've often considered for privacy sake

 

[Bleaney]

I use https://solidtorrents.to/

There's a lot of stuff on there, I think it searches the other torrent sites. Pirate Bay has probably been blocked by your ISP. My ISPs blocked it a long time ago. It's not been taken down; it is still accessible through a VPN.

 

[Forever Changes]

I use https://solidtorrents.to/

There's a lot of stuff on there, I think it searches the other torrent sites. Pirate Bay has probably been blocked by your ISP. My ISPs blocked it a long time ago. It's not been taken down; it is still accessible through a VPN.

Thanks. Do you use µ-torrent or a different torrent client?.

Which VPN did you end up buying?

 

[Bleaney]

I have PMd you.

 

[Ismene2]

What's that Bleaney - if you watch youtube through a VPN you don't see adverts? So if you watched youtube through TOR would you see any then? Presumably TOR strips your identity away too?

 

[Bleaney]

What's that Bleaney - if you watch youtube through a VPN you don't see adverts?

Correct. You can get free trials, limited to 10 gb of streaming per month to see how you like the service.

So if you watched youtube through TOR would you see any then? Presumably TOR strips your identity away too?

Tor would hide your identity, but not sure what effect that would have on the adverts.

 

[Tranced]

A good think about vpn's is that if you're in the uk, you don't get the spotify things that are required by spotify premium (ads, can't stream on data).

A few caveats that I would love expained:
To use torrents you're meant to set up a proxy. How?!
I believe that the firefox/chrome proxies might also effect them working
There are things like webrtc which can cause leaks

 

[Bleaney]

A good think about vpn's is that if you're in the uk, you don't get the spotify things that are required by spotify premium (ads, can't stream on data).

A few caveats that I would love expained:
To use torrents you're meant to set up a proxy. How?!
I believe that the firefox/chrome proxies might also effect them working
There are things like webrtc which can cause leaks

"*************** helps you mask your physical location, circumvent censorship, and block ads and trackers on websites you use every day

************** is a VPN desktop application and proxy browser extension that work together to block ads, trackers, restore access to blocked content and help you safeguard your privacy online. Free plan provides 10 GB of data per month (if you confirm your email address), and the Pro plan has unlimited data and access to servers in over 112 cities in 69 countries.

Still not convinced? Perhaps this elegant list of features will convince you otherwise.

Browse Privately
-------------------------
Governments block content based on your location. Corporations track and sell your personal data. Add ********** to your browser and take back control of your privacy."

It does have it's problems and limitations, but I'd rather use and trust it, rather than my ISPs who automatically block content and sell my data. I don't know a great deal more than that at this stage I've only watched a handful of YOu TUbe vids and read a couple of write ups online, including the wikipedia page about the VPN. That is not all positive. This is why I was asking if there is anyone here that know about this subject.

 

[Tranced]

This is why I was asking if there is anyone here that know about this subject.

Same. There are some really critical things that I would like explained regarding the vpn's. Like why/since when do you have to add the vpn as a proxy for torrents? How? I thought all traffic went through. Why not torrents?

TLS & the proxie in chrome - how to disable the TLS properly? What happens if you don't? Etc.

 

[Bleaney]

I would like explained regarding the vpn's. Like why/since when do you have to add the vpn as a proxy for torrents? How? I thought all traffic went through. Why not torrents?

Well I can answer that bit.

ISPs starting blocking torrent services in the UK roughly ten years ago on copyright grounds. Presumably the music, film, TV studios, and film and TV subscription streaming services, audiobook publishers, and paysite porn industries (The film and music industries were probably the biggest hitters with the most money behind them, followed by subscription streaming more recently) pressured the ISPs into this. Possibly via government or legal means, I'm not sure of the exact details of what happened or the exact series of events, I just know the main gist of what happened.

The internet was like a wild west free for all when I first got on it back in the early noughties. Anything went! It was interesting times! And I was a relatively late adopter.

More and more laws and legislation and restrictions have gradually been introduced over the years to try to catch up with the new frontier of the new technology.

Somehow ISPs recognise and block torrent sites. VPNs get round this.

I have no idea what TLS is.

@Jackal - seems to be a bit of a techie. Maybe he might want to add something if he sees this.

 

[Tranced]

Well I can answer that bit.

ISPs starting blocking torrent services in the UK roughly ten years ago on copyright grounds. Presumably the music, film, TV studios, and film and TV subscription streaming services, audiobook publishers, and paysite porn industries (The film and music industries were probably the biggest hitters with the most money behind them, followed by subscription streaming more recently) pressured the ISPs into this. Possibly via government or legal means, I'm not sure of the exact details of what happened or the exact series of events, I just know the main gist of what happened.

The internet was like a wild west free for all when I first got on it back in the early noughties. Anything went! It was interesting times! And I was a relatively late adopter.

More and more laws and legislation and restrictions have gradually been introduced over the years to try to catch up with the new frontier of the new technology.

Somehow ISPs recognise and block torrent sites. VPNs get round this.

I have no idea what TLS is.

@Jackal - seems to be a bit of a techie. Maybe he might want to add something if he sees this.

You can still torrent in the UK. A lawyer brought a load of legal cases and ended up in prison himself for illegally fining a large swarth of torrenters. Its completely legal.

I dont mean VPN's help, I mean you need to proxxy the VPN or the VPN will somehow not work entirely for the torrent. I dont get why a leak.

 

[Neoistheone2022]

Just my 2 pence.
I use IPVanish for VPN

 

[LoginNotSecure]

Search pirateproxy for mirrors of piratebay you can access without a vpn. I also use Adblock to stop YouTube adverts.

I’d love to know if anyone knows of any Facebook plugins, extensions, apps etc that will block facebooks adverts, sponsored ads, recommended posts etc. They're prolific and it doesn’t matter how many you block, ten more pop up in it’s place.

Ah, the days of Napster, limewire, sub7, backorifice, wardriving, windows netsend spamming, msn messenger, newsgroups, dial up modems. The nostalgia, simpler times.

 

[Bleaney]

Ah, the days of Napster, limewire, sub7, backorifice, wardriving, windows netsend spamming, msn messenger, newsgroups, dial up modems. The nostalgia, simpler times.

And Aol, waiting 2 minutes to download a picture,Yahoo messenger and chat rooms, Craigslist.

How bad a lot of it was, but all new and exciting at the same time.

 

[LoginNotSecure]

And Aol, waiting 2 minutes to download a picture,Yahoo messenger and chat rooms, Craigslist.

How bad a lot of it was, but all new and exciting at the same time.

ICQ messenger, mIRC, nzb files, hoping that whatever porn you downloaded wasn’t a man getting fucked by a horse, or worse, a virus. Golden days

 

[Neoistheone2022]

Search pirateproxy for mirrors of piratebay you can access without a vpn. I also use Adblock to stop YouTube adverts.

I’d love to know if anyone knows of any Facebook plugins, extensions, apps etc that will block facebooks adverts, sponsored ads, recommended posts etc. They're prolific and it doesn’t matter how many you block, ten more pop up in it’s place.

Ah, the days of Napster, limewire, sub7, backorifice, wardriving, windows netsend spamming, msn messenger, newsgroups, dial up modems. The nostalgia, simpler times.

Oh mate i remeber.. thoze the dayz bro

 

[Forever Changes]

Search pirateproxy for mirrors of piratebay you can access without a vpn. I also use Adblock to stop YouTube adverts.

I’d love to know if anyone knows of any Facebook plugins, extensions, apps etc that will block facebooks adverts, sponsored ads, recommended posts etc. They're prolific and it doesn’t matter how many you block, ten more pop up in it’s place.

Ah, the days of Napster, limewire, sub7, backorifice, wardriving, windows netsend spamming, msn messenger, newsgroups, dial up modems. The nostalgia, simpler times.

Yep adblock's ace - I haven't seen a single ad on youtube for many years.

Whenever I look at Facebook (rarely these days) my feed seems to be nothing but ads interspersed with the usual self-obsessed posts from ancient friends who I haven't spoken to in years. I'm sure when it fist began FB had no, or mininal ads.

Thanks for the Piratebay heads up - I used to use that all the time, but lately none of the 'alternatives' seemed to work, and neither did u torrent, so I more or less gave up on it

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

I've never seen an ad on YouTube after since I installed AdBlocker. VPN's are great for setting your location to a different place so that one can get media or other material that might be blocked in one's present location by servers like YouTube, btw.

 

[Forever Changes]

I've never seen an ad on YouTube after since I installed AdBlocker. VPN's are great for setting your location to a different place so that one can get media or other material that might be blocked in one's present location by servers like YouTube, btw.

Which VPN do you use - is it a free one?

Also, I wonder, do people use VPNs when posting on Bluelight?