Why I no longer use a VPN (most of the time) and nor should you

Do ISP's monitor or sell or pass on your data? Yes.

Do VPN's? Depends on the VPN. Find one that doesn't and can back that up with 3rd party audits and legal encounters.

So can a good VPN protect your privacy? No, not by themselves. A VPN is part of an overall toolkit to be as private as you personally would like to be. It can help protect your privacy, that's all.

It's really that simple.

3rd party audits and legal encounters

The problem I have with this is that audits or court cases do not prove that the server is only using that same exact code at the instant you are using it... changes to software are constantly made all the time, and they could all invalidate previous audits or presumptions of privacy or security.
- That's true, there's always going to have to be some trust, but a provider that takes the time and expense to invest in a privacy audit or defend their clients by not logging and establishing that in court certainly indicates they're worth having that trust in.

A) as others have pointed out this is a rather shit video

B) I fucking hate the "and nor should you" trend. Fuck off with what I should or shouldn't do, just give me the facts and I'll decide for myself.

What was the reason?

VPNs are centralized entities that can monitor traffic in bulk
- My ISP, who I pay $100/mo for internet, tells me straight up that it monetizes my browsing data. I pay $5 a month to a VPN that 'promises' it doesn't do that. Safer bet is the VPN. Even if they (VPN) sell my data, I prefer to spite the ISP anyway.
- I see. Sure. There's a risk of course.
  But VPN companies are not legally obligated to collect and save your Internet usage data like your ISP is.
  So select a provider that doesn't, like Mullvad.

many ISPs over here offer a ~5-10% discount on monthly bills if you agree to have your traffic analysed for marketing purposes. the last time I signed a contract I had to explicitly opt out of that. the ISP providing internet to all of my landlord's flats offers a similar deal when signing a contract, and 1. I'm willing to bet that my landlord has opted in, and 2. I have no way of opting out of that for my flat. I think I'll stick with a VPN for the foreseeable future.

With a VPN you are just shifting the attack surface
- from the ISP likely to analyze my traffic to a VPN provider who didn't provide any data after being raided by the police because they didn't store any

(The NSA think they're slick)

Firstly, using a VPN ultimately consists in trusting the company providing the VPN service that it won't be fucking around with your privacy. Considering that all your traffic goes through it, that's a lot of trust to place in one company. And I generally don't trust any tech company to resist the lure of selling your data for profit for very long in 2024 - even those that profess to be privacy-friendly.

Secondly, modern corporate surveillance doesn't rely on IP addresses anymore. So if you think a VPN protects your privacy, it really doesn't. All it does is tell Google et al. which VPN provider you're a customer of - i.e. you're giving them even more data that they don't need to have.

That's why I don't even bother with a VPN. I only use one to evade geo-blocking every once in a while.

using a VPN ultimately consists in trusting the company providing the VPN service that it won't be fucking around with your privacy. Considering that all your traffic goes through it, that's a lot of trust to place in one company.

Is that any different than the trust we place in our ISPs?

I agree with you. I fully expect my ISP/VPN provider to sell my traffic data, but I don't see the value in paying a VPN do to it.
- Is that any different than the trust we place in our ISPs?
  
  It's not. Your ISP is probably selling your data, and your VPN may or may not do that too. Just assume everybody sells your data.
  
  The difference is, when you leave home and you connect to a wifi, you start using another ISP. If you then lose the wifi and connect using 4G, you're using yet another ISP. If you use a VPN, you funnel all your traffic to a single provider all the time. In other words, instead of distributing the risk over several potentially bad actors, you concentrate it on a single one.
  
  Like I said, that's a lot more trust that I'm willing to place in a single company that only essentially pinky-swears won't put me under surveillance.

, said the glowing figure confidently, while blinking hard and rubbing his nose

Nice try NSA

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/pp-INfssWBo

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

Why I no longer use a VPN (most of the time) and nor should you - YouTube