A simple metaphor for VPNs is that you're paranoid about someone keeping track of what you buy at the supermarket, so now you pay someone to buy stuff for you in order to "protect your privacy" If you think about it for a sec you get the issuehttps://twitter.com/zackwhittaker/status/1309485850779152390?s=20 …
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Like, it may or may not have been true there was someone keeping track of your purchases before But now there DEFINITELY is -- the rando you just hired to go to the market for you And moreover, said rando KNOWS FOR A FACT THAT YOU ARE WORRIED ABOUT THIS
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Like holy shit this is basic shit You know the easiest way blackmailers find people to blackmail? They go advertising themselves as altruistic do-gooders whose job it is to protect you from being blackmailed
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The metaphor covers all the problems with this honestly Like, all you're doing is paying the guy to buy your shopping list for you The store *still knows what the purchases are*, they *have to*, you're buying it from them
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So if an evil government takes over and demands Kroeger hand over the list of everyone who's bought gouda cheese to the feds... The list still exists All they have to do is tell them "Oh it's that guy who buys gouda in bulk, he's probably buying for everyone in the nieghborhood"
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So now they just have to arrest the one guy, and get his customer list Now you're putting all your trust in him to somehow be immune to arrest or unwilling to cooperate So how much do you trust this guy? Like do you even know who he is? He's just someone who sponsored a podcast
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Ironically, if everyone just bought their own gouda from the store it would probably be a lot harder to hunt them all down one by one, poring over all of the store's records of everyone who ever went there
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When everyone worried about prosecution bundles themselves up onto one VPN's customer list, they make themselves a big fat juicy target for anyone willing to go after them It's the whole maxim that "80% of keeping a secret is not acting like you have a secret"
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Replying to @arthur_affect
That's why all the vpn services go to such pains to advertise that they don't keep logs for anything.
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Replying to @BrentonPoke
Yup Which is why it's great that all VPNs are run by such scrupulously honest people under such tight legal regulation, and they haven't been caught blatantly lying about this and completely fucking over their customers in the pasthttps://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2020/07/20/7-vpns-that-leaked-their-logs-the-logs-that-didnt-exist/ …
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This is the whole general problem of trust, of course The law is supposed to be a tool we use to enable trust among strangers -- if a business cheats you and fucks you over, you're supposed to be able to call regulators on them, sue them in court
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BrentonPoke
But that makes everything much, much harder when the whole point is the law *isn't* on your side, when the whole idea of the business is supposed to be protecting you from the government itself Who are you gonna call to complain when they dime you out
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Replying to @arthur_affect @BrentonPoke
The whole thing on The Wire about Stringer Bell's doomed initiative to turn the drug trade into a more professional, responsible white-collar business "Are you taking notes on a fucking CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY"
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