this post was submitted on 18 Mar 2026
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So they know it's you all the traffic comes from?
Exactly. No thanks. Nothing is ever "free".
If something is free then you are the product
How does that sqaure away with FOSS?
You are [building] the product?
You are either going to donate, or spread word to others, who will pick it up and donate themselves.
Money still gets made, its just less opportunistic and predatory, and more a reward from those who can afford, to fund for those who cant.
They also know it's you when you don't use it. I'm not sure how is it worse? Seems like a handy way to go around geoblocks.
People's conception of what VPN actually does is skewed by shady ads. Now they hear VPN and assume it's suppose to be this unbreakable anonymizer that somehow also secures you from some unspecified dangers.
A VPN to me is a way to prevent my ISP from seeing I torrent and to go around geoblocks. It's not a privacy tool at all. So yeah, I'm evaluating them from that angle.
every fucking youtuber is sponsored with those ads i hate this timeline
its better than betterhelp i guess
Uhm, what? Maybe my ISP knows, but they are regulated (at least here). But VPN is a virtual direct-line to another server.
Another server that belongs to the same company as your browser, so they have an access to both ends of the direct line. If you don't trust Mozilla to be thrustworthy vpn server (which is good, shouldn't trust anyone), bad news, they already have an access to your whole traffic because they own your browser
But unlike the VPN server, the browser is on my end and i can make sure it doesn't rat me out. Coincidentally, my policies.json over the years was almost the same as Waterfox'.