@@McDADDyK Say, you want to download a movie off of a torrent site. It's not the VPN that comes after you - it's the ISP giving out your information to the copyright holders that comes after you.
@@shinhijikata3255 Even this won't last forever. Instead of going after ISPs the copyright owners will start going after VPN companies which will then lead them back to your ISP. At least where I live in the US the government has always been willing to create laws to help copyright owners go after infringers.
@@shinhijikata3255 So you've all been brainwashed and fallen for fearmongering by copywrite holders. If you had said you wanted to watch something that's region locked I would've understood. You might be young so might not know but VERY and I mean VERY few people have ever been chased up for illegally downloading stuff. Even then the people who did were then distributing it at a mass scale. There's a few documentaries on people who were sued millions for illegally downloading. The odds are less astronomically low. You downloading a movie or 1k of people doing it meanings nothing to these companies now that they have monthly subscriptions to everything. This isn't the 90s anymore guys.
First impression of this channel . I like your voice. You're not yelling , desperately trying to convince the viewer , " That I got answers to your problem."
Man, im not tech savvy in the slightest, but the way you present the infomation is amazing. Understood something i thought was extremly difficult to fathom. Thank's for the time & effort you put in to your content. Peace.
I've never thought that a Vpn provides any privacy or anonymity in any real sense. It's is only a way to access servers from the vpn in different global locations. Honestly I think the vpn craze is just another version of "let's get peoples money on vague promises and misunderstood tech."
Data encryption isn't misunderstood tech. This dumbass has links to two of the worst offenders for data breach VPNs in his vid description. Banking institutions that hold billions of dollars in client money don't use un-encrypted internet traffic to do business, why should you let your ISP data mine all your internet traffic? VPNs with no data logs is just that, the server is installed on RAM disk, and has no backup, if the server gets seized there is 0 chance of data breach, because the entire OS is contained on RAM, all data pertaining to the encrypted traffic going in/out of the server is gone.
@@JosephArata All VPN's are garbage, end of story. You understand what makes the vpn strong is also what makes it weak. I can force you to have micro stutters by flooding your router and it posts your real IP before it reports the VPN address as you reconnect to the internet. You won't even lose connection to your video game, and i'll have every thing i need to use your PC
"Independent" audits are like "independent" fact-checkers. Someone paying them to do so, and if the company don't get "expected" results then, that was your last "independent" job.
Yes and no. If there is no international certification or regulator requiring said independent audits in order to identify whether you meet certain criteria or not - there is no need to conduct such audits. And you would not, as a vpn company, as you don’t need to in order to conduct business.
I work in Food Industry, and it doesn't look like that. First: no matter how often they ensure you otherwise, the auditors HAVE TO FIND A NON-CONFORMITY. THey are going to look, until they find something is not right. Second: you are not their employer. The auditing company is, and it cares more about image of trustworthiness, than about one customer. If you have only minor non-conformities, you gonna pass, but you truly don't meet the criteria. They won't hesitate to not certifiy you. But, indeed, there is a big problem with knowing the exact date of audit. Unannounced audits do exist, in case of which you just get 4 - 6 month window, when the Auditors are giong to appear, but you can be sure, that if the company went for unannounced audits, they are going to put this information everywhere.
@@Ocato92 i also worked in the food industry and a: the auditor always find mistakes and b: money solves everything. In our case, we have rats, lots of rats and the british brc was a just toss some money
@@Ocato92 uhhhh… just ‘cause it doesn’t look like that in your one industry doesn’t mean that it doesn’t look like that. In food safety, the government pays the auditors and what the government wants them to find is safety violations, so they do. So actually, it literally does look like that. It’s just who is paying for the audit. If a VPN is paying for the audit, you’d better believe the auditing company won’t find any violations. If the government is auditing restaurants, you’d better believe they’ll find violations. At least in the government case the restaurants can lobby to have the auditors back off a bit. Or go to the public so that the voters tell the government to tell the auditors to back off a bit. The TL;DR is unless the government is paying for the audit, there’s no way to have a meaningful conversation about audit accuracy, they won’t be accurate, they will be hopelessly corrupt. Even if the government does pay for it, the temptation to corruption is very high.
I have a bunch of people I need to send this video to. I've tried explaining this to them so many times. They're adamant that they need a VPN service to protect their privacy from all the tracking companies out there and prevent financial information from being stolen. One was absolutely convinced she needed a VPN to prevent credit card and bank account data from being stolen. Trying to explain that the data for her compromised credit card was stolen from a vendor with a data breach and NOT her internet connection was like bashing my head against the wall.
A very well put together argument that doesn't just boil down to "it's useless to use," or something like that. A VPN service _can_ have its uses, but not in the way all the random sponsored RU-vidrs are claiming it to be.
Wow finally! Someone actually made a video about false advertising VPNs. I was cringing the whole time when some youtubers say something like "are you sick of your ISP knowing all about your network traffic?". Yeah... I'm sick of it so I need to make a 3rd party VPN know all about my traffic 🙃
A good VPN doesn't store your browsing information. The privacy policy that this RU-vidr read also didn't mention it. Of course, they have to keep your session information and app diagnostic data but does it really matter if they do?
Excellent video. I've been contacted by VPN Sponsor multiple times... However, I can never promote or review VPNs knowing the truth... My biggest gripe is the advertising of "hide your IP or identity" promo. Other youtubers advertise this as if it's 100% true that no logs are recorded; which is a bit irresponsible. Anyway, great job on making this video.
Plus, it's foolish to think, even without the VPN disclosing logs, that you're anonymous. Sure, your IP can't be traced directly back to you, but there are many other ways companies track your online behavior. Unless you're only browsing a single site at a time, and clearing cookies before you open a new site, your cookies are betraying you. And that's just to start.
Apparently authorities investigating a murder of a ambassador broke through TOR and traced their suspect to a expressvpn server. The authorities seized the server, but it did them no good because there were no logs.
Yup, that’s true, and ExpressVPN is very proud of this. I’m not saying that every VPN logs data that can be used against you, I’m simply pointing out that until those FBI requests come through, you’ll never know for sure. You’re putting all your trust in a centralized entity.
Express and PIA both have had real cases and encounters with court orders or authorities where they have proven to not log or to keep whatever they log about you secure. These are the only two I know. It does not imply others do not live up to what they promise in their privacy policies, it's simply inconclusive without testing.
@@AllThingsSecured I'm sure they are proud, but I've never seen a expressvpn commercial or sales pitch involving the investigation. My guess is that they are afraid of making a murderer the face of their company and/or claims of milking someones death to sell subscriptions.
Be real, anyone who cares so much about "privacy" wouldnt be on the internet or a computer to start with, they'd be living in a hole in the ground in the middle of the woods drinking rainwater or rivers, eating plants and lost hikers
Interesting theory. I think there’s definitely a line you can easily cross into paranoia, but it’s also responsible to be aware of what happens to your data.
I don't agree but it reminds of a line in a CIA movie where a retired agent tells the other guys that this 'Micro Chip' thing or the 'secret code' are usually not saved on anything digital but on paper or something that can be destroyed without traceable evidence because the digital world will always leve a footprint.
I work in IT, and I've definitely had people ask me why I don't use a VPN, and this video sums it up pretty well. A VPN isn't a privacy tool, and unless you run your own VPN it never will be. It's good for seeing geo-locked content, but that's it, and even today a lot of websites are able to recognise when you're using a VPN and not deliver you the content
It's good for getting around ISP enforcement as well if that's an issue for you. My old ISP detected ANY use for torrent as potentially illegal activity, so I do all my (very minimal) torrent needs over a VPN these days despite moving to a less stupid ISP.
And i'm an IT and say the complete opposite. VPNs are extremely useful for a lot of things. It blocks throttling from your ISP. It block ISPs from seeing what you do, i know people who received legal binding letters just for torrenting. It enables you to access websites that are blocked in your country. It gives you more security, when i was in a trip with friends, everyone who used the airbnb's wifi had their credit card info taken, except me because i had a vpn. It also adds a layer of anonymity online. A vpn alone isn't enough, but still a required to ensure anonymity.
@@DanishTroll87 I call BS on the credit card information thing. If you're in IT you should know absolutely 100% that your credit card details will be passed over a connection encrypted. What's more likely is that your friends withdraw from an ATM with a skimmer fitted to it. Or put their card info into a phishing website
@@SinisterPixel AFAIK banking apps don't have their own connection. And if you're an IT, then you should know you can still access a person's phone even if encrypted; especially if they are using YOUR connection.
vpns are the honey pot for countries monitoring traffic, they are the most information rich sources among those feeling it increases safety/anonymity. THEE HONEY POT!
If you try hard to hide your activity, you'll just make yourself a more interesting target to the people you want to hide from. It's like going out in the street with a gas mask in order to not being identified. Sure, people won't see your face, but the authorities will be suspicious and want to know what's up.
@Virus sploit No there are not, are you stupid? We're talking totalitarian countries like N. Korea and other dictatorships in Africa, SEA and Venezuela. They need to use Tor and triple their protection else they literally get sent to jail and executed for reporting their countries tyranny.
Can we at least agree that we're not looking for true "no-log" or absolute anonymity, but a good commercial VPN, not used by itself but also combined with other privacy practices such as using privacy-focused browsers/search engines, tracker/cookie/script blocking extensions, manually opting out of the data collection of services, etc. does provide increased anonymity&privacy by decompartmentalizing and obfuscating than not having any protection at all?
* Any ‘public’ VPN is open to the same forms of abuse and intrusion. Only if you host *both* ends of the VPN (e.g. at a foreign relative’s house) can it be secure - until it leaves their property and goes onto ‘their’ public internet.
The audit you are refering to is an ISAE300 control report. Such a report, provided that it is a type 2 report, has tested the efficiency over a period of time, typically one year, not at a moment in time.
I stick with Nord. I know it isn’t possible to be totally anonymous online, I just want to be walled off from creeps & thieves when on networks that aren’t mine or don’t know what their settings or who else is on them are. Plus some public WiFi networks block entertainment streaming services and the VPN gets around that.
I do gardening work to finance my college fees and most of what we do is make company grounds (parking lots, flower beds etc) look nice for independent audits. Now, I know what the place looks like 364 days of the year, as I have seen the "before picture", so I can say with certainty that audits don't mean anything. Cleaning up once for a good look is cheaper than maintaining it.
I will routinely turn on network logging/tracing. I don’t look for data packets, but routing information as my job involves debugging connectivity issues. I also use VPN to avoid geolocation censorship.
For two years I was paying for a European-based VPN, with lots of options. Then I decided to stop being a good torrenter (@1.4 share ratio), and become a leech - dumping my VPN, and disconnecting from torrents as soon as they finished downloading. Three years later, I'm still downloading torrents sometimes, and disconnecting - and my ISP has never sent me a single warning about it. So, the only downside to no VPN is that I can't access region-locked stuff. Which is what torrents are for. :)
I have a VPN and everything I search for shows up on Face Book trying to get me to buy it. For instance. I was looking for saddle bags. When I went to face book the ads were full of saddle bags. Save your money.
Thanks for taking the time to explain this in a clear and concise manner. My anti-virus provider is hopping on the bandwagon of pushing VPN as another security measure. However, after doing some research, I realized that I don’t need it and their added service is not one of the better providers if I should need this service. You confirmed what I always understood the function of VPN’s which you have explained very well in your other videos. I would recommend to everyone to look at your other videos which covers all the essential aspects of VPN’s and why one is necessary and when they are not.
I see using a VPN like going to places by a bus, rather than your car. People can still track you, or notice you at a seedy bar, but they won't notice your car outside, and can't track you via your car's gps. If you use something like TOR, that would be like not bringing your phone, and wearing a disguise; very incognito, but still possible to see through.
you also stick out since not many people are wearing disguises. and the guy you left your phone with might rat you out. tor is honestly worse than nothing.
Lol people are silly to think they’re hidden. Same goes for phones they didn’t design these phones for our leisure they were designed to keep an eye on us.
I always tell people unless you're using a VPN, TOR, an internet connection you usually don't use + a specialised device for said anonymous purposes - you're probably trackable lol
VPN services are definitely useful, but yeah, their "total privacy" marketing angle always rubbed me the wrong way. If you're on the internet, you're not anonymous, period. And you don't really need to be, either. The main dangers and inconveniences you're exposed to are a) your ISP being ordered to give out your information because some legal firm wants to slap your wrist for torrenting (do people still do that?) copyrighted material (VPNs kinda-sorta help, but aren't a perfect protection here) b) not being able to access region locked content (VPNs may help here) c) a service you left your personal information with being compromised (VPNs decidedly do not help here) d) you falling for a scam (same) So, yeah, you can run as many layers of redirects as you want, if you send that Nigerian prince your bank information or use the same password everywhere, you're not a tiny bit safer. Of course, if you're the next big thing in South American drug operations or kill people for a living, some government agency might be interested in you (and even then, a VPN won't cut it) - but barring that, no one is going to care about your traffic, only about your data. And chances are that's already floating around somewhere.
This is what you need you understand as a privacy conscientious person. There is no such thing as privacy on the internet or on any smart device or any type of technology for that fact. Everything you do with technology in today's world is monitored and your info is stored somewhere and sold to someone somewhere. That's the end all be all about privacy. There is none
Here is the privacy policy of the internet: You don't have any. It's really that simple. There are ways to obfuscate, but that is it. I mean, the fact is, you have an IP address for a reason....you are passing information about yourself in order to just use the internet - even if the VPN were truly "no log" - you are not fully anonymous. Good video.
The VPN company has to know who you are. That's inevitable. The question is always whether they'll give that information out. Unless you're doing something criminal, they probably won't. It's in your VPN's best interest not to care what you're doing unless they have to.
You are right, many people don't know these things at all. I also use VPN service for geo reason, and the route is legal in my country. When I share my VPN service with my good friends, I will also told them the things in your video.
It is a lot better than this video implies. As long as you know its limitations but it does: 1) Prevent web sites you visit from seeing your IP address (use incognito mode to hide cookies) 2) Prevent your ISP from seeing the web sites you visit 3) Zero logging of VP IP to ISP IP address, to even the VPN cannot resolve historic mappings
I use SkyBlueVPN for iphone here is their policy 1. Personal Information: We do NOT collect any Personal Information about you. “Personal Information” means personally identifiable information, such as your name, email address, physical address, calendar entries, contact entries, files, photos, etc. 2. Non-Personal Information: We collect non-personal information about your use of our Apps and aggregated information regarding the usages of the Apps. “Non-Personal Information” means information that is of an anonymous nature, such as the type of mobile device you use, your mobile devices unique device ID, the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the list of system applications and currently installed applications, and information about the way you use the Application. 3. Location Services: We do NOT request, collect, or access your location information. Your Privacy We do NOT store or retain any personal information that can be used to identify you (the end user), unless specifically stated in the application (for example, an e-mail address used for account registration). No data specific to the end user will be shared or sold to third parties. We have no interest in housing and storing users personal information or data. We do not track your browsing history.
I use ExpressVPN and I'm okay with the minimal data they log as it's nothing personally identifiable. Obviously there has to be some sort of saved info for the service to work, but so long as the info that is saved isn't incriminating (just in case I find myself looking at something illegal that I didn't intend), I'm fine with it.
Finally some with credit explains it. From the start, it made no sense. If I am worth money, of course a VPN company will cash out on me if they can. Business 101.
People think there safe behind a vpn, but however your Web browser could be leaking your real ip from a setting called Web rtc, unless you have the Web rtc turned off your still sending out your real ip.
There are ways to determine how many connects an account holder has active without logging data. Popular memcaches like redis, persistent storage databases, etc can all accomplish that goal without maintaining logs. That said, I agree that VPN services are grossly over advertising the level of privacy they provide. Most tracking happens at the application layer, not the network layer. VPN will protect you from telcos and other network service providers who might monitor your traffic, but that's a relatively low level of value unless you're in a country that blocks certain apps/services or you don't want your telco to know what you're doing. The thing is most privacy violations occur by the company providing the service you're ultimately connecting to, and they mostly do little to protect your privacy.
Noop, that is not right at all. Switzerland will cooperate even better with official demands come from country authorities like U.S.A. It all depends on who is asking for info and why.
@@ghlscitel6714 You are bothering yourself too much. When it comes to security, there is not much a difference between countries, specially those who have common internets. I didn't mean to put Switzerland down but just commenting on a fact. There are national agreements between counties for security and data transformation. Nothing would override these cooperation when there is a need. Switzerland plays exactly the same rule as any other country would do if not even better. That's all.
A VPN tunnel is just that: A tunnel. Sure, no one can see what's passing through it, but the data can be intercepted at the other end using your identifiable data.
It's not their fault? These RU-vidrs are just peddling these VPN providers to get paid. They are falsely claiming what the VPN can do. We should be able to sue these RU-vidrs as well.
If a VPN was truly private and you were untraceable, it would be abused by criminals to no end... And im sure it is to some degree right now. That being said, it can be used in combination with other things to increase your anonimity
Hi Josh!It's not that anyone can do anything illegal on the internet and you need a VPN service to do it.Most people want complete anonymity, and that's understandable in today's world.After watching your video, I was left with the question "Have I wasted my money buying a VPN service?". The answer is YES.But then what do I do?No VPN or TOR browser because there is no way to be secure?But then is full anonymity really only available with a home server?Or even with that?
A VPN is an encryption safety net, so I wouldn’t say it was a full waste of money. That said, the idea of being completely anonymous online is pie in the sky. Your goal is not to become invisible. Your goal should be to minimize risk in the areas of which you’re most vulnerable. And that’s different for every person.
THANK YOU for posting this. I always remind people using VPNs for "Privacy": all your data is being funneled through a single point. There is absolutely nothing less secure than a bottleneck.
People seem to think a VPN is some fancy secure protocol. All it does is route your data through another company instead of your ISP with the same protocols, it is not more secure, you are just trusting a smaller more unknown company instead, it makes no sense from a security perspective. In fact the VPN probably has even worse security.
Good discussion. Promoters of VPN services are the ones who aggravate me by saying you're completely anonymous when that is clearly not true. As you point out the service knows who and where you are the instant you log on to their service. I use a VPN, as others said here, to change my location to access sites I can't otherwise open. If I really want to be anonymous from casual tracking, not the NSA, FBI or others who can hunt you down if they want to, I use the Tor browser.
I watched your content once and instantly got hooked on it, because of your easy to understand delivery and good pace. Nice! Keep up the good work mate :)
What you have to do is called application and product and services isolation. Get a computer that’s affiliated with Google and only use Google services and products on that device when you get a Apple products only use Apple services on that Apple device so if you intend on using different services do not use one device isolate your companies and services and applications on certain devices. That way these companies are only getting data and information that they already have from their own company.
The internet was never designed for privacy. That's something people need to admit. If your privacy is important to you, do not use the internet. I don't know if you can still do that today though. Using Tor and VPN would actually incite interest from Homeland Security Agency. Government cyber agencies pay close attention to internet users who use VPN and Tor sites.
Also while some data is logged for the service to function, it not made available to governments and 3rd parties. There is a level of protection. For example it hides what content you downloaded, even if there are any logs it not passed on to authorities and it not kept for long, to make it impossible for governments to force Express Vpn, they operate outside the country and they would delete any logs anyway. As its not in there best interest to betray their customers.
@@AllThingsSecured -I just use it so they don't know if I'm downloading a movie. If what port I am at is not recorded, then they can't say I was the one downloading a movie. Twice I forgot to sign into my VPN first and got emails saying that I was caught downloading something. I've never had that email when I was doing it through a VPN. How can they know it was me if hundreds of people are using that router to surf the net and it is not being recorded which port was me?
Added onto which, if a particular government legally required them to monitor connections or provide details of who'd visited a certain site during a specified time period (often, given such requirements are bundled into anti terror legislation, without informing anyone what they're doing), they'd have to comply or face legal action.
I bought VPNexpress, Nord, 1dot1.1.1, tried every notorious brands as I could. The problem was It worsened my connection on playing game, not faster but super slower.
Honestly not sure why so many people didn't realize VPNs use something with your location... They literally bypass region locking... that has to do with your "location".
The interesting question to ask a VPN is how far they are prepared to go to protect your privacy. If their policy is to destroy all data if raided, then it is a privacy-tool.
Take it from me, and I work for a 5 Eyes Government agency, not one commercial VPN is secure from 1) Government surveillance or 2) protects your privacy. Don't waste your money.
A VPN is 100% a privacy tool, I would say that you are certainly more private with a VPN than with your ISP. We know for a fact ISP's have logs on *everything* & they work with the police, & third party private companies for copyright infringement. Also by using a VPN you can protect google & other big data companies from ip tracking you if you are say moving around from place to place. A VPN is a privacy tool, but we must be aware of the limits of that tools capabilities.
