I actually work in cyber security and I was really happy Tom Scott released that video. VPN companies are some of the scummiest companies out there, and their rampant sponsorships on YouTube were shameless misinformation and fear mongering in order to scare you into giving all your internet traffic to them. Seeing so many sellout tech YouTubers take their sponsorships despite knowing better COUGH NetworkChuck, was one of my biggest pet peeves.
There are seemingly legit VPN companies out there, and there are some legitimate use cases for them, but what Tom is addressing are the shady ones that lie to you about what they’re for and how they help you for their own monetary and in some cases data mining benefit. In most cases you do not need a VPN, and it doesn’t do anything to protect you from “internet criminals”, or provide extra “security” and it only “protects” your privacy by shifting the for-profit company that gets to see all the websites you visit.
I too would like to know why you think a VPN is needed “on today’s web”, I would bet money it came directly out of one of theirs ads scripts.
Since we’re throwing creds out…I’m a sysadmin who had cyber security training in college, training and classes throughout my 20-year career, and I have and had multiple cyber security certs. No, I do not get my info from these shills, I do my own research when I’m interested in a product.
My main reason for use is privacy because I refuse to be a corpo product. When I’m away from home, I use my own Wireguard VPN back into my private network, where all of my traffic is filtered. I also have Proton VPN for when I think I need it. I didn’t subscribe to Proton for the VPN though. I did it for Protonmail because I was sick of how shitty gmail became. I will dump Protonmail if/when they become shitty too. They were meant to be temporary until I have the time to set up my own mail server among the myriad of other home lab projects that I have in mind.
I use a VPN for my job as well, and it isn’t to protect company products (we don’t make a product). It’s to keep prying eyes out.
Yeah, you don’t NEED a VPN always on, but you should have one available to use for specific things. However, the regular person doesn’t understand the inner workings of these companies, tech in general, and how their data is being used to make them the product without paying them for their data. They use corporate and legalize lingo in their privacy policies so that no regular person understands what they are signing up for. Or there is so much in the policy that no one will bother to read it.
I’m sorry, but when my wife and kid’s phones are showing them ads for things we talked about 5 minutes ago, they appear horrified by it. Then they move along like nothing happened. That’s the typical user. Complain, but then do nothing about it even though they are fully capable. Then you see how corps are utilizing your location, cookies, and browsing history to also change prices on you on the fly, just because of where you live or how you shop. I will continue to not be spied on 24/7 by corporations and my government.
I don’t remember if I saw that video from Tom Scott or not, but I imagine his argument was along the lines of, “if you aren’t doing anything nefarious or you don’t live in a nation state that censors you, then you have nothing to worry about”.
Yes, there are scummy VPN companies, just like there are scummy companies in any other industry. Yes, I see all of these YouTubers out here shilling for VPN companies, but I also see them shilling for food subscriptions, clothing subscriptions, and web browsers, among other things. YouTube, in general, has become predatory for ads both in and outside videos.
When I’m away from home, I use my own Wireguard VPN back into my private network, where all of my traffic is filtered.
That’s your own VPN, not a commercial VPN service and you’re using that for what I would assume is DNS filtering. Thats entirely unrelated to what a commercial VPN service does and what Tom Scott’s video is about. And that’s not even a benefit of your VPN, your VPN is just a tool you’re using for remote access to your DNS filter/server which is what’s actually providing you that service. I could do the same exact thing with a recursive DNS server and Pihole using DOH without a VPN at all.
I use a VPN for my job as well, and it isn’t to protect company products (we don’t make a product). It’s to keep prying eyes out.
That is again an entirely different use case and product than what a commercial VPN service is offering. That’s not even for privacy, it’s for secure remote access to your company network.
I’m sorry, but when my wife and kid’s phones are showing them ads for things we talked about 5 minutes ago, they appear horrified by it. Then they move along like nothing happened. That’s the typical user.
That’s not a problem a VPN service solves.
I will continue to not be spied on 24/7 by corporations and my government.
With a VPN service like ProtonVPN, all you’re doing is changing the corporation that can see which sites you visit from your ISP, to Proton. It isn’t inherently any more private or secure, you’re just choosing which corporation you allow the ability to spy on you.
I don’t remember if I saw that video from Tom Scott or not, but I imagine his argument was along the lines of, “if you aren’t doing anything nefarious or you don’t live in a nation state that censors you, then you have nothing to worry about”.
No, his argument was that outside of spoofing your location, and hiding which sites you visit from your ISP specifically, VPN services don’t provide the average consumer with any additional benefit over what you get for free by default due to the wonderful inventions of TLS, and HSTS. The point is that VPN service companies use scare tactics to get you to purchase a product you don’t need to solve problems you don’t have. NetworkChuck made a whole sponsored video about how somebody can man-in-the-middle you at a coffee shop to steal your credit card information to demonstrate the effectiveness of a VPN service and the attack he demonstrated was literally impossible. He created a fake, non-real world scenario straight out of 2003 to deceive the less tech literate public in order to shill a VPN service.
Tom Scott provided a fantastic public service by educating people on what a VPN actually DOES and what it DOESN’T DO. So people can actually make a decision as to whether they need one due to the facts, not misinformation and false advertisement. You on the other hand still can’t seem to articulate what exactly you think a VPN services does for you and how it does it. You have a lot of buzzwords and vague statements about “being spied on”, and never actually said why you think commercial VPN products should be used by the average user “On todays web”.
I actually work in cyber security and I was really happy Tom Scott released that video. VPN companies are some of the scummiest companies out there, and their rampant sponsorships on YouTube were shameless misinformation and fear mongering in order to scare you into giving all your internet traffic to them. Seeing so many sellout tech YouTubers take their sponsorships despite knowing better COUGH NetworkChuck, was one of my biggest pet peeves.
There are seemingly legit VPN companies out there, and there are some legitimate use cases for them, but what Tom is addressing are the shady ones that lie to you about what they’re for and how they help you for their own monetary and in some cases data mining benefit. In most cases you do not need a VPN, and it doesn’t do anything to protect you from “internet criminals”, or provide extra “security” and it only “protects” your privacy by shifting the for-profit company that gets to see all the websites you visit.
I too would like to know why you think a VPN is needed “on today’s web”, I would bet money it came directly out of one of theirs ads scripts.
I doubt either one of you will ever hear from them. I guess they haven’t even watched the video to begin with.
I do watch Tom Scott, I’m sorry that I don’t live on YouTube all day every day and remember every video that I do or don’t watch.
Since we’re throwing creds out…I’m a sysadmin who had cyber security training in college, training and classes throughout my 20-year career, and I have and had multiple cyber security certs. No, I do not get my info from these shills, I do my own research when I’m interested in a product.
My main reason for use is privacy because I refuse to be a corpo product. When I’m away from home, I use my own Wireguard VPN back into my private network, where all of my traffic is filtered. I also have Proton VPN for when I think I need it. I didn’t subscribe to Proton for the VPN though. I did it for Protonmail because I was sick of how shitty gmail became. I will dump Protonmail if/when they become shitty too. They were meant to be temporary until I have the time to set up my own mail server among the myriad of other home lab projects that I have in mind.
I use a VPN for my job as well, and it isn’t to protect company products (we don’t make a product). It’s to keep prying eyes out.
Yeah, you don’t NEED a VPN always on, but you should have one available to use for specific things. However, the regular person doesn’t understand the inner workings of these companies, tech in general, and how their data is being used to make them the product without paying them for their data. They use corporate and legalize lingo in their privacy policies so that no regular person understands what they are signing up for. Or there is so much in the policy that no one will bother to read it.
I’m sorry, but when my wife and kid’s phones are showing them ads for things we talked about 5 minutes ago, they appear horrified by it. Then they move along like nothing happened. That’s the typical user. Complain, but then do nothing about it even though they are fully capable. Then you see how corps are utilizing your location, cookies, and browsing history to also change prices on you on the fly, just because of where you live or how you shop. I will continue to not be spied on 24/7 by corporations and my government.
I don’t remember if I saw that video from Tom Scott or not, but I imagine his argument was along the lines of, “if you aren’t doing anything nefarious or you don’t live in a nation state that censors you, then you have nothing to worry about”.
Yes, there are scummy VPN companies, just like there are scummy companies in any other industry. Yes, I see all of these YouTubers out here shilling for VPN companies, but I also see them shilling for food subscriptions, clothing subscriptions, and web browsers, among other things. YouTube, in general, has become predatory for ads both in and outside videos.
That’s your own VPN, not a commercial VPN service and you’re using that for what I would assume is DNS filtering. Thats entirely unrelated to what a commercial VPN service does and what Tom Scott’s video is about. And that’s not even a benefit of your VPN, your VPN is just a tool you’re using for remote access to your DNS filter/server which is what’s actually providing you that service. I could do the same exact thing with a recursive DNS server and Pihole using DOH without a VPN at all.
That is again an entirely different use case and product than what a commercial VPN service is offering. That’s not even for privacy, it’s for secure remote access to your company network.
That’s not a problem a VPN service solves.
With a VPN service like ProtonVPN, all you’re doing is changing the corporation that can see which sites you visit from your ISP, to Proton. It isn’t inherently any more private or secure, you’re just choosing which corporation you allow the ability to spy on you.
No, his argument was that outside of spoofing your location, and hiding which sites you visit from your ISP specifically, VPN services don’t provide the average consumer with any additional benefit over what you get for free by default due to the wonderful inventions of TLS, and HSTS. The point is that VPN service companies use scare tactics to get you to purchase a product you don’t need to solve problems you don’t have. NetworkChuck made a whole sponsored video about how somebody can man-in-the-middle you at a coffee shop to steal your credit card information to demonstrate the effectiveness of a VPN service and the attack he demonstrated was literally impossible. He created a fake, non-real world scenario straight out of 2003 to deceive the less tech literate public in order to shill a VPN service.
Tom Scott provided a fantastic public service by educating people on what a VPN actually DOES and what it DOESN’T DO. So people can actually make a decision as to whether they need one due to the facts, not misinformation and false advertisement. You on the other hand still can’t seem to articulate what exactly you think a VPN services does for you and how it does it. You have a lot of buzzwords and vague statements about “being spied on”, and never actually said why you think commercial VPN products should be used by the average user “On todays web”.